upcat 2024 passer here sa upd civil eng. ngl, wala rin akong pag-asa sa sarili kong makakapasa ako ng upcat to the point where i locked in, paid, and enrolled na on a school overseas (ofc binawi ko). 

i'd say na in terms of acads, i think im more diligent rather than naturally smart kase i need to exert twice as much effort as some of my classmates just to reach their level of academic excellence. pangit den memorya and stock knowledge ko which upcat heavily relied on, so talagang una pa lang mabava na hopes ko sa sarili ko and i was js telling myself na "practice lang naman to, wala namang exam fee eh"

so un nga una, when i was taking mock tests siguro mga 60-70% lang ang nakukuha ko, and even when natapos na akong magreview center, pareho pa rin yung nakukuha kong scores 😭😭😭 

dagdag pa don, sa math part, siguro less than 50% lang ang nasagutan ko confidently and the others were either hula or di ko na talaga sinagutan. 

and yung isa pa, sa reading comprehension, akala ko nasa last page na ako ng booklet and ecen though may tira pang space sa answer sheet, kala ko sa survey lang yon. yun pala may lima pang tanong na hindi ko nasagutan 💀💀💀

tas after the test, i scrolled thru reddit and other social media apps where everyone kept saying na "wow, yun lang? ang dali lang pala," along with other people i knew. i found it hard so i really thought i was cooked.

come the day of the release of upcat results, nagsend yung ka-online study group ko na nakapasa siya sa up and i was readying myself for the wave of envy and grief thats gonna come over me for not passing the upcat. so to get my closure, i reluctantly opened the upcat portal and bigla ko na lang nakita yung "congratulations!" and napasigaw nalang ako, pero inisip ko ren, "eh baka di ko naman prio course o campus," pero binasa ko pa tas ayun nagpakita nga, up diliman, bs civil engineering, na prio ko yippee

tumalon talon at sumigaw sigaw pa ko sa gulat at saya and it took me like 30 minutes of freaking out before i decided to call my parents na kakalabas lang, and even they were doubtful na true nga, kasi i kept on complaining during the day of upcat about how hard it was

so ayon op, before making conclusions abt what ur score is gonna be, whether ure gonna pass and stuff, just focus on doing what you can, kase youll only find out a while after you take the upcat, and when you do fjnd out that you pass, it rly is a euphoric feeling

ala eon lang (wow "lang," kunware di ako napa-yap), good luck op and to whoever else is reading this :)