College Entrance Exam Review Philippines: five exams, one body of preparation
College entrance exam review in the Philippines runs as one campaign here, because most Grade 12 learners sit three or four tests in a season that opens with UPCAT in August and runs through DCAT sittings into December. Shared subjects are taught once, and each exam keeps its own timed practice.
What is
College entrance review
One-to-one preparation for the university admission tests a Grade 12 learner takes. The subject knowledge underneath them overlaps heavily, so the review is planned as a single arc with the individual exam dates marked on it, which keeps the cost down and the learner fresh for every paper.
Key Points
In the AY 2027-2028 cycle UPCAT sat on 1 and 2 August, ACET from 19 September and DCAT at De La Salle's Manila campus on 8 November, while UST announces its own USTET batches
PUPCET, PLMAT and MAE sit alongside them in the same season
The underlying subjects overlap; the timing and the stamina are what differ
Each university publishes its own requirements; send those and the plan is built on them
The hourly rate stays the same across every exam on the shortlist, and each extra test adds its own hours to the plan
Two ways to run the review
Chosen on what a Grade 12 week can absorb
- Duration: 60-90 minutes
Online
Usually the workable option through a season this long. No travel, so an evening slot survives the months when school requirements pile up, and intensity can rise before a date without anyone rearranging their week.
- Sessions that cost no travel time
- Intensity raised near a date, dropped after it
- Works wherever the shortlist is
- Duration: 90-120 minutes
At your home
Good for a full mock paper at a table, pencil down for the hours it actually takes, with a timer running and no tab to switch to. A tutor sitting across from that paper watches where the minutes went, which the final score will not show.
- Full papers under something like real conditions
- Time use observed alongside the score
- A fixed anchor in a chaotic final year
How we run the season
One steady plan, with every paper on it
One plan for every university
The subject ground beneath these papers overlaps heavily. One plan teaches it once, so the hours go into timed practice for each paper and the learner arrives at every date fresh.
Built from what the universities published
Each institution sets its own requirements. The plan starts from what every school on your shortlist has published for applicants, the same method our Senior High entrance review follows.
Timed papers from the start
By August, a learner should have already sat two or three mock papers under a running clock, so the real UPCAT does not feel unfamiliar in format. Pacing practice is usually where review recovers the most points.
Hours held steady in the crowded weeks
When ACET and DCAT land a few weeks apart between September and November, and UST's USTET batches run on the dates UST announces, the instinct is to cram in more hours. A learner short on sleep answers slower, so this plan holds hours steady and protects the sleep.
The preparation, delivered in full
Admission is decided by each university's own criteria, seat count and applicant pool that year. What gets delivered here is the preparation: every paper on the shortlist covered, the timing rehearsed, a learner who walks in ready, and a free replacement tutor any time you ask.
The arrangement ends with the last exam
The plan ends on the last paper on your shortlist, whether that is DCAT's online sitting on 11 December or an earlier date, and every session before it is aimed at a named paper.
The season, and what each part of it demands
The same learner needs different things in April and in November
Before the applications
Grade 11 into early Grade 12
Nothing is imminent and everything is possible, which makes this the calmest and most economical place to do the work. Application windows close well before the exams themselves (UPCAT's closed in March for an August test), so the administrative deadlines arrive before anyone feels ready.
Subjects
- Mathematics
- Science
- Reading comprehension
- Language proficiency
Focus Areas
- Close real subject gaps while there is room
- Track the application deadlines alongside the exam dates
- Ordinary weekly rhythm, no urgency
August
UPCAT opens the season
The first date, and for many learners the first full-length timed exam they have ever taken. This one teaches them how the day feels, and that carries straight into every paper that follows.
Subjects
- Full timed papers
- Pacing and question triage
- Weakest subject, drilled
- Exam-day routine
Focus Areas
- Finish the paper: time costs more points than difficulty
- Review errors without dwelling on them
- Treat it as the first of several attempts
September to November
ACET and DCAT weeks apart, USTET on UST's batches
The crowded stretch. ACET arrives in September, De La Salle's Manila campus sitting in November, and UST's batches on the dates it announces, all while school requirements continue. The plan holds the review hours steady through it, so the learner reaches each paper rested and prepared.
Subjects
- Shared subject ground
- Stamina across back-to-back dates
- Recovery between papers
- Holding school grades steady
Focus Areas
- One review serving every paper
- Protecting sleep as a preparation tactic
- School work kept moving alongside review
December
The last sittings close it
By December, a candidate sitting DCAT at the Laguna campus or online has usually sat two or three earlier exams and knows the results, or is still waiting to hear. What decides these late papers is mostly energy and focus, and the plan is paced to both.
Subjects
- Targeted repair from earlier papers
- Timing, refined
- Confidence after mixed results
- A defined finish
Focus Areas
- Work on what the earlier papers exposed
- Sharpening what is already learned
- The review ends when this does
What the review works on
Weighted by what each university published
UPCAT, ACET, USTET, DCAT, PUPCET, PLMAT and MAE are seven separate exams from seven separate schools, none identical to another. Once your shortlist is set, the plan draws only on the requirements and coverage that school has actually published for its own applicants.
| Module & Description | Topics Covered |
|---|---|
Mathematics The subject that most often decides an entrance score, and the one where gaps run deepest because they were laid years earlier. |
|
Science Reasoning from evidence, which is how entrance papers tend to ask. Breadth matters more here than depth in one strand. |
|
Reading comprehension A learner can understand every sentence in a passage and still lose the last question to time. Entrance papers pick unfamiliar topics on purpose, testing speed as much as comprehension. |
|
Language proficiency Grammar, usage and vocabulary in the register these papers use. Quick points for a prepared learner and quiet losses for an unprepared one. |
|
Pacing and triage Every learner meets a question worth skipping. Spotting it inside five seconds, and moving on, is what leaves time to double check the easy ones at the end. |
|
Surviving the season Five months, several dates, and Grade 12 continuing underneath it. Sleep, recovery between papers and steady school grades all count as preparation. |
|
| Total: 6 modules · 24 topics | |
Where this is available
Online Tutoring
Online, wherever in the Philippines a video call holds upPractical across a five-month arc, since intensity can rise before a date and fall after it without anyone rearranging travel. It also works when the shortlist spans several cities.
- Intensity matched to the calendar
- Shared workspace for showing working
- Holds through a storm week
Timezone: Philippine Standard Time (UTC+8)
In-Person Tutoring
At home, across the five-month seasonHome visits carry entrance review through the whole season at your own table, full papers and all. Write in with your address, and the college entrance tutor nearest you is matched.
Who this is for
Including one case where a single-exam page serves you better
A Grade 12 learner taking three or more
The reason this page exists. One arc with several dates on it covers every university on the list, which costs less and keeps the learner fresher than a course per school.
A learner with one clear first choice
If everything rests on a single university, the named page for that exam is the more focused read. This one is about managing several.
A learner whose school runs no review
Plenty of schools run none, and a learner preparing alone is usually strong on content and new to exam conditions, with no full timed paper behind them yet.
A learner who has not applied anywhere yet
Application deadlines land months before the exams themselves, on their own separate schedules. A learner with nothing filed yet has one job before any session is booked: get that filed. We walk you through that first, so every review hour after it counts toward a confirmed seat.
What review across the season costs
Priced by the hour, with a separate rate for a home visit in Metro Manila, a home visit in the provinces, and a session run online. The rate is the same whichever exam on the shortlist that hour goes toward.
From
₱600 / hour
| Home visit, Metro Manila | ₱800 / hour |
| Online | ₱600 / hour |
| Home visit, provincial areas | ₱600 / hour |
Per hour, one tutor with one learner. Home visits run at least 1.5 hours. Packages: 12 hours at 5% off, 24 hours at 10% off. A 20-hour entrance exam plan is available.
The total moves with how many exams you are sitting and how many months of the season still need covering, so an applicant aiming at one September date and one running from August through December land on different totals from the same hourly rate. The exact scope is put in writing before the first session is booked.
What Grade 12 applicants ask
Usually in roughly this order
- How many entrance exams should I sit?
- That decision is yours, and the most useful input we give is about cost and fatigue. Each additional test adds an application, a fee, a date and a day of exhaustion; it does not add much preparation, because the subject ground overlaps. Most applicants take three or four. What we would push back on is taking just one and treating it as the only route.
- Do I need separate review for each exam?
- One plan does it. The underlying subjects (mathematics, science, reading and language) overlap substantially, and what genuinely differs between the dates is timing, format detail and how tired you are by the time you arrive. One plan with the dates marked on it costs less and works better than four courses running in parallel.
- What about PUPCET, PLMAT or MAE?
- They sit in the same season and the same preparation serves them. Their papers are planned from what each institution has published. Send us what they say and it goes into the same arc.
- How much does it cost?
- The hourly rate is posted above, and it holds regardless of which exam in your shortlist a session goes toward. What moves the total is how many tests you are sitting and how many months of the season still need coverage. A learner preparing for one September exam books a shorter plan than one running from August through December. The exact scope is put in writing before you agree to anything.
- When does the season actually start?
- Before the exams, with the applications. For AY 2027-2028 entry, UPCAT applications closed on 30 March 2026 for an August test, Ateneo's ACET window closed on 17 August for a September test, and De La Salle's DCAT window runs from 15 July to 30 September 2026 for a November sitting. The administrative deadlines arrive first and are the ones most often missed, so the first useful step is a list of every application window on your shortlist, made at the start of the plan.
- Can you guarantee a passing score?
- Who gets admitted is decided by the university itself, weighing its own criteria, its seat count for that year and who else applied. Review decides how ready a learner walks in on exam day, and that is where every hour of it goes. If you need a different tutor for the run-up, we replace them free of charge.
- My school grades are slipping because of review. What should I do?
- Protect the report card and rebuild the review around it. Grade 12 grades still count at some universities alongside the entrance score, so the tutor moves the entrance practice onto the lighter days of the school week and keeps every school deadline first. One timed paper a week on a free afternoon keeps the exam skills sharp while the GPA recovers.
Send the shortlist and every date on it
Send the shortlist of universities, the exam each one requires, and every deadline that sits ahead of the exam dates. Someone here works out how many hours a season like that actually needs, writes back with the total against the hourly rate above, and introduces the tutor who would run it.
- One plan across the whole season
- Application deadlines checked first
- Timed papers from early on
- Hourly rate posted, total scoped to your shortlist