A TOTAL of 10,510 aspiring Thomasians trooped to UST on Oct. 22 for the first batch of the UST Entrance Test (USTET) at the Sampaloc campus.
The number of USTET 2024 takers was more than triple the number of applicants recorded in the first batch of exams in the previous application year.
Of the total, 7,185 were applicants for undergraduate programs, including 665 who applied for the Learning-Enhanced Accelerated Program for Medicine (LEAPMed), while 3,325 were Senior High School (SHS) applicants.
Some applicants interviewed by the Varsitarian said that they lacked time to prepare for the USTET since it coincided with their exams.
“I really lacked time to prepare for the exams, and I wasn’t able to review much,” said Angeline Ramos, an accountancy applicant. “[Because] right now, we just finished with our exams and midterms.”
Psychology applicant Pearl Viterbo shared the same sentiments, saying she only spent two weeks preparing for the entrance test.
“I prepared for almost two weeks, and some of those [days], since it coincided with our exams this upcoming week, I ran short of time [to review],” Viterbo told the Varsitarian.
Civil engineering applicant Amanda Malaluan said she was “thankful” to have taken the USTET despite a lack of preparation.
“I took the USTET only to try because I still wasn’t sure,” she said. “My preparation was short because it was a hassle to juggle it with schoolwork.”
The applicants said they found the math and science portions of the USTET difficult.
Unlike the previous year’s USTET, when applicants had to line up outside the campus, examinees were allowed to enter the campus immediately and queue outside their designated buildings.
Building gates opened at 5 a.m. for the morning session and 12:30 p.m. for the afternoon session.
Security personnel closed the building gates at 7:15 a.m. for the morning batch and 2:15 p.m. for the afternoon batch of examinees.
Late applicants took the USTET at the Tan Yan Kee Student Center.
USTET 2024 will be administered on five more Sundays at the Sampaloc campus: Nov. 19 (College and LEAPMed), Nov. 26 (LEAPMed, SHS, Junior High School, and Education High School), Dec. 10 (College), Jan. 21, 2024 (Thomasian college applicants), and Feb. 4, 2024 (JHS and EHS).
The entrance test for SHS applicants at UST-Angelicum in Quezon City will be on Dec. 10.
USTET results are expected to be released in April 2024. With reports from Ernest Martin G. Tuazon
