Findings and Analysis

Theme 1: Different Educational Backgrounds

Educational background is related to any prior schooling that the

respondent successfully completed. It refers to all of the education that the

respondents have undergone and accomplished.

Respondents from different colleges were selected purposively by the

researchers. Based on the transcript of the interview, there are three themes

that emerged: Schools and universities, strands and academic tracks and

different college entrance tests

Students most commonly pursue their careers courses, as they can lead

to a variety of paths in different fields in college.

Schools and Universities

There are different schools or universities the respondents can choose

from for their college career. These are the colleges and universities that they

currently attending for college with their chosen courses. To respondents’

transcripts:

“Ahh ay… nag-aaral na ko sa ng BS Marine Transportation 2nd year sa Manuel L.

S. Enverga University Foundation”

(I'm currently studying as BS Marine Transportation 2nd year at the Manuel L. S.

Enverga University Foundation)

“2nd year college na ko ng BS Nursing sa Southern Luzon State University

ngayon e”

(I am a 2nd year college student as BS Nursing at Southern Luzon State

University)

“I’m currently attending the University of the Philippines Los Baños.”

And other respondent was attended two schools in college. To wit:

“Ako sa enverga at tsaka sa cefi kasi ako’y sa enverga nagfirst year, bumalik

lang ako ng cefi ngayong second year”

(In my first-year in college I was in Enverga, I just returned CEFI this second year)

Strands and Academic Track

The senior high school program is further broken down into learning

strands and career tracks. According to Enderun (n.d) the learning strands in

senior high school refer to the different areas of expertise under the program

while the career tracks refer to the general categories that each different field

of study belongs to.

 In addition, this senior high school track aims to prepare students for

more advanced university courses. There are currently four career tracks

composed of Academic, TVL/TVE, Arts and Design, and Sports. The learning

strands, meanwhile, are STEM and HUMSS.

Majority of the Non-STEM students that the researchers interviewed

were in Humanities and Social Science Strand. Based on the result of the

transcript they took mathematics and science for grade 11 only as their subjects

in Senior High School. The participants reiterated the following:

“HUMSS. Nung Grade 11 lang po kami may math at science”

(Humanities and Social Sciences. We only had math and science in grade

11)

“I was… I took humanities and social sciences. Ah meron, may involve na

math and science”

(I took Humanities and Social Sciences. There is math and science

involved)

“Ano sya, humss din, under ng academic track. Ah nung senior high, may math

siya pag humss kasi kunwari grade 11 lang kasi pag sa humss e, yung statistics
 at tsaka yung general mathematics, tas sa science syempre yung mga physical

science, ano pa nga yung isa, biological science”

(Also, the HUMSS is under the academic track. In senior high, there is math in

grade 11 Humss, the statistics and the basics of general mathematics, the

science and of course the physical sciences, what else, biological science)

Different College Entrance Tests

Each and every student has the potential to do great in examinations

but this potential has to be transformed into strategic thinking for performing

well in entrance exams. According to Tutoroncloud (2015) entrance exams are

considered to be a “Gateway to Heaven” and an easy ladder to the path of

success by students who understand concepts and do not study for the sake of

exams.

They took various college entrance tests in different colleges and

universities.

Umexam ako sa LPU CET, MSEUF CET at NYK/TDG Maritime Academy. Nakapasa

ako sa LPU at MSEUF.

 (I took an exam in LPU CET, MSEUF CET and NYK/TDG Maritime Academy but I

only passed the LPU and MSEUF)

“The entrance exams that I took are the MSEUF, UPCAT and SLSU CET. I only

passed the SLSU Entrance Exam and MSEUF exam.”

Some respondents passed all the entrance exams they took.

UPCAT, PUPCET, entrance exam in SLSU and LSPU. Naipasa naman po lahat

(UPCAT, PUPCET, entrance exam in SLSU and LSPU. I passed it all)

“Uh, I took the UPCAT and then the USTET. I passed both.”

Theme 2: Nature of College Entrance Tests

An entrance test is an examination that many educational institutions

use to select students for admission, these exams administered at any level of

difficulty from primary to higher education. Based on the transcript of the

interview, there are five themes that emerged: subjects that are common in

CETs, different difficulty level of CETs, different difficulty level of subjects, effect

of time and the coverage of school lessons.

Common subjects in CETs

 The college entrance exam will test the knowledge of students in

general subjects expect the likes of different subject areas—whether it be

Language Proficiency, Reading Comprehension, Math, Science and Abstract

Reasoning in the preferred exam.

“Hmm… ano Math, English, Reading comprehension, Science at Abstract

reasoning’’

(The subjects are Math, English, Reading comprehension, Science and Abstract

reasoning)

For the respondents, these are the subjects that are commonly taken in

college entrance test. According to Review Master (n.d) the mathematics

subtest is composed of questions from the following topics with basic and

intermediate algebra, geometry, statistics, and in some cases, a bit of

trigonometry. For science subtest is composed of earth science and basic

astronomy, biology, basic chemistry, and basic physics. The language proficiency

subtest covers topics on vocabulary, synonyms and antonyms, spelling, correct

usage and grammar only and reading comprehension subtest includes questions

under context clues, getting the main idea, inferences, drawing conclusion,

figures of speech.
Different difficulty level of CETs

Students with background about college entrance exams are good ones

to ask because they already experienced taking CETs in different colleges. The

respondents describe the different levels of difficulty in various colleges in

taking college entrance exam.

The participants claimed the hardest and the easiest entrance exams that they

took up for college.

“NYK/TDG dahil masyadong mabilis ang oras. LPU ang madali sakin kasi shading

lang ang type ng exam”

(NYK / TDG the time is too fast. The LPU is easy because the exam type is just

shading)

“LSPU-CET naman 'yung pinakang madali kasi may part doon na magdo-

drawing ka lang ng maraming asterisk symbol”

(LSPU-CET is the easiest part because there is a part where you just draw a lot of

asterisk symbols)

The struggle of the respondents to answer quickly because of the time but when

in terms of the type of test it was easy for them to answer the questions.
 “UPCAT dahil masyadong madami at masyadong matagal. SLSU dahil maunti

lang at walang math nung nagexam kami dun.”

(UPCAT was too much and too long. SLSU had a few tests and no math in our

exam.)

“UPCAT ang pinakangmahirap kasi sobrang complex ng mga tanong lalo na sa

math”

(UPCAT is the hardest because the math questions are so complex)

For them, UPCAT was hard because the test was too long and the complexity of

math questions are complicated to answer while the entrance exam of SLSU had

a few tests with no math.

“Uhm, magkaiba kasi e, magkaiba kasi pagdating sa oras kasi sa enverga may…

mahaba ang exam, mahaba din naman yung oras so keri lang. yung sa calayan,

ah time-pressured kasi, kunyari 5 minutes, 10 minutes ganon, pero enjoy sya

kasi nakakatuwa, ay nasagutan ko, ganun, pero lahat naman ay mahirap ganun,

pero keri keri lang, kaya nyo yan.”

(It’s different when it comes to time, because the time and exam in Enverga was

long. While the Calayan was time-pressured because there is allotted 5 minutes
 or 10 minutes but then I enjoyed it because I answered it, but honestly

everything else was difficult)

The researchers identified the difference between the time duration of two

different colleges have an impact to the test takers.

Different difficulty level of subjects

In terms of the subjects the language proficiency was easiest for them

because familiarity of words and coherent of sentences. Some respondents

reiterated:

“The language proficiency kasi naiintindihan ko bawat sentence”

(The language proficiency because I understand every sentence)

“Language proficiency kasi marami akong alam sa vocabulary”

(Language proficiency because I know a lot about vocabulary)

And the hardest subject based on the transcript was Mathematics. To

wit:

“Personally, the hardest field that I um, saw in the exam would be the

Mathematics. I’m not particularly that good in I but I’m also not that bad but still
 the Mathematics portion weeded out quite a lot of people that I know. It was

comparatively hard compared to the other subjects.”

Effect of Time

Entrance Exams tests the student’s subject knowledge with multiple

choice questions are framed very intelligently and the students are expected to

answer them in the given time frame. The respondents have a hard time dealing

with the time pressure.

Some other reasons that students experience difficulties preparing for

exams are related to constraints on time. To wit:

“Dahil kapag mabilis ang oras kinakabahan na ko at nabloblock out na

ko kapag nagsasagot”

(Because when the time is fast I get nervous and I get locked out when I

answer)

“Sa bilis ng time mas naprepressure ako sa pagsasagot at minsan

nagdudlot ng kawalan na ng isasagot”

(Because of the time I became more and more frustrated and pressured

with the response and sometimes lost the ability to answer)

 “Time pressure. Sobrang haba kasi nung mga paragraphs para sa

reading comprehension kaya kailangang bilisan talaga magbasa.”

(Time pressured because these paragraphs are too long for reading

comprehension so I need to read really fast.)

On the other hand the response of other participants in terms of time in

answering the entrance exam has no effect to them and didn’t bother them as

they taking the exams early.

“It really did not affect, uh because I finished both exams a bit earlier than most.

I had quite a lot of free time to be honest.”

“Not to brag about it but the time didn’t bother me”

Coverage of school lessons

The coverage of the CET’s measure what the students learned in primary to

higher levels to be prepared in college. Including Elementary, Junior high school,

SHS and College

“Its range is from everything in between. Even elem”

It covers the student’s learnings in Junior High School is important in answering

entrance exams.
 “Junior high school experience is already a big, is actually a major part of the

answering the CET’s.”

Other participant stated that the coverage is both from Junior High School and

Senior high school:

“Its range is from everything in between.”

“Meron tulad ng science, simpleng math solving tulad ng jhs at sa shs English”

(There is science, simple math solving like jhs and shs English)

Based on the transcript of interview one of the respondents claimed that there

is an advanced lesson in entrance exams

“Pero 'yung iba ay parang pangcollege na talaga.”

(But the other test seems like a college lesson)