GPAT (https://sabuhaynimay.wordpress.

com/2014/03/15/so-you-wanna-take-up-mba-in-up-
diliman/)

As usual, remember the following:

1. There is a time allotment for each exam (except for the reading comprehension, where there is a
time allotment for EACH article and their corresponding questions, more on this later).
2. That being said, do not take too long to answer one item. Skip it first!
3. The test, like any other UP admission test, is right-minus-one-fourth-wrong (I think), so unless
you were able to eliminate two choices, I would suggest leaving the item blank.
4. There are other helpful reminders which will be explained to you before you take the test! Hehe.
Great! Let’s move on!

English. Synonyms, antonyms, analogies. Words I’ve never heard of before. Choices that all look correct.
There’s also a part where there’s a sentence whose words are scrambled and you have to unscramble them
and answer with the word being asked for (first word, last word, etc.).

Logical Reasoning. Each item would usually come with one or two (or more?) statements. And then,
they ask you which of the following choices would make a lot of sense (or something like that) be a valid
conclusion (I forgot the correct word) or would always be true. Remember that whatever you know to be
true is not always true, unless it was in one of the statements. For instance, if it says that snakes are
mammals, snakes are FREAKING MAMMALS. Hehe. Or at least, that’s how I understood it and I
passed the exam (with flying colors, said my interviewer).

Math. Know your algebra (find x and y, formulas which answer “How many liters of 50% alcohol should
you add to 1 liter of water to get 20% alcohol” and “A goes North and B goes East at blah blah speeds
respectively. After 10 hours, how far apart are they?”) and geometry (areas, Pythagorean theorem, areas
of frames (meaning you subtract the smaller area from another). Yeah, there must have been something
about minimums/maximums (parabolic equations?) (negative b plus or minus the square-root of b-
squared minus four a c all over something, unfortunately, I forgot what the “something” was). There are
items where you should know how to find the roots of an equation (x-squared minus 4 is equal to x plus 2
times x minus 2). Basically, algebra and geometry. Hehe.

Abstract Reasoning. Sometimes this part uses a bit of math (addition, multiplication, hehe).

Reading Comprehension. This is my hatest part, and the one I thought I would find the hardest. I hate
reading. Hehe. Anyway, for each article and preceding questions, you are only given around 6-15
minutes. You are not allowed to go back to the article after you’ve finished reading it (the questions are
printed upside-down). Take careful time in reading the article, but be mindful of the time left (the proctor
would write it on the board). I would probably allot half of the time given to reading the article. Read
carefully, and try to memorize some of the “data” presented in the article. Sometimes, it’s not enough that
you understand the article (although, that would be a lot of help) since some questions ask for numbers
(according to the article, what percentage of coral reefs are blah blah).

After you finish the GPAT, the proctor will collect your papers and will ask you to check the website for
the results! YAY! You can go home now and check the website in a month.
Eto yun mga naalala ko. Narinig ko lang ah At least 60% grade mo for all part ng exam para pumasa. SO
dapat 60/100 ka logic including right minus ¼ wrong. Pero pag di ka pumasa pero malapit naman grade
mo, iinterviehin ka pa. Mga iniinterview din yung mga malayo yun course nung undergrad. AKo hndi na
ininterview since finance naman field ko.

LOGIC (5 parts – 100 items)

I. Analogies (15 items)

1. Mistletoe : trees ; ___ :Dogs
A
B
C
D
Nakalimutan ko choices

II. Logical reasoning? (15 items)

1. Butterflies are pretty

2. Michelle is pretty

Answer : Michelle is a butterfly.

Medyo challenging yun choices, confusing pero parang ganyan yun tanong.

III. Hanapin mo kung ano nagsasatisfy dun sa sentence (15 items)

There’s a saying that if you eat the last piece of food you will never get married

A. Ever since she was a kid, Mrs __ always eats the last piece.
B. Mr. ___ never eats the last piece, he died a bachelor.
C. Ms. ___ always eats the last piece, she died a bachelorette
D. ___ never eats the last piece, she is now married.

Answer ko A kasi kahit na lagi siya kumakain ng last piece. Kinasal naman siya kasi Mrs na. Tricky di ba? .

IV. Arranging of words then sasabihin mo last word (15 items)

1. is Janessa name my

Ans : Janessa. Kasi pag inarrange mo”My name is Janessa.” Pero di ganyan ka simple yun sentence ah.
Nalimutan ko lang kasi.

V Abstract reasoning (30 items)

Dito ako bumawi kasi favorite part ko abstract reasoning ng exam. Madali lang naman.

Math (50 items)

Kaya mo na to. Most of the questions algebra. May isang tanong lang about minimum / maximum
parabola (Nanghula ako kasi nakalimutan ko na haha)

. Tapos may super konting geometry.

May isang tanong din about i^ negative exponent.

May 3 questions din na stat pero basic lang. Probabilities. Dice ata.

May konting tanong din about investments. Basta formula lang dun F = P(1+i)^n

F = future value, P = present, I = interest rate, t = yrs. Pag quarterly (i/4), semi annually (i/2), monthly
(i/12)

Yun n = mt so pag quarterly 4(t), monthly = 12(t), semi annually = 2(t), so pag annually exponent niya
kung ilan mismo yung yrs.

Sinasabi ko lang kasi di ko maalala kung may compound interest pero sa proficiency exam meron.
Compound interest yan. Yung simple interest F = P(1+i)^t lang talaga

Yan lang naalala ko.

Reading comprehension (50 items)

Pinakamaikli 2 pages na article pero halos 3-5 pages per article tapos 5-8 mins lang yun time per article
depende sa haba including diyan pag answer. Bawal mo na balikan yun article once nagstart ka na mag-
answer. Madali lang yun tanong swear. Nasa article lang din kaya bawal balikan so I think dapat galling
ka magmemorize ng mga important facts or basta maintindhan mo lang yun article and mabilis magbasa
ka dapat. Ginawa ko half the time magbasa and half the time sagot. Nabasa ko sa mga nagtake before.
Ganun daw usually strategy. Although lumapas ako ng konti sa pagbasa kaya binilisan ko na lang
sumagot.

Di naman sila nagpapalit ng style ng exam kasi yun mga nagtake ilang yrs before ganyan din style. Iniiba
lang ata numbers pero same style.
One month after yun result ng GPAT, then 2 weeks lang after ng results 1 st proficiency exam na. Ok lang
kahit di ka pasado sa first take ng proficiency exam kasi pwede iretake yun mga binagsak mong subject.
Pang check lang siya ng proficiency in Math / Accounting talaga.

1. Accounting (50 items)

2. Calculus (10 items multiple choice)
3. Algebra (12 items- Word Poblems. Solving siya. Not multiple choice)
4. Math of Investments ( 8 items – multiple choice)
5. Statistics ( 10 items – Not multiple choice)

8 out of 10 nasa stat reviewer. Walang reviewer for math of investments so memorize mo lang formula
ng simple interest, compound interest, annuities, perpetuity.

PROFICIENCY TESTS

https://sabuhaynimay.wordpress.com/2014/03/15/so-you-wanna-take-up-mba-in-up-diliman/
4/7/2014 UPDATE: I have taken the first proficiency tests

I took the proficiency test last April 5. The exam was from 8:00AM to 12:00NN, and I was at
CBA before 8:00AM. The room assignments were not posted in the website when they released
the names of who shall be taking them, so be sure to check your name at the bulletin board in the
lobby. Just bring pencils, an eraser, a valid ID and a jacket (for good measure, Room 301 never
ceased to be cool since my undergrad days…).

Make sure to read whatever’s on the board in your testing room, and take note of the number
they assign to you—you should be looking for this number when the results are out (that’s what
Ms. Ida said).

There are 5 subjects that will be covered by the proficiency tests. I will try to give an overview of
their coverage.

1. Financial Accounting

OH MY GOSH. It has 50 items (I think!). If you were able to grab a copy of the reviewers, make
sure to check the Accounting quiz. That’s exactly how the questions went. Of course, being so
lazy, I never actually reviewed the quiz! Hehe. So you could figure out how defeated I was when
I saw the exam.

It’s a multiple choice type of exam that covers the following:

a) Balance sheet (do know the equation AND what composes current assets and current
liabilities; for shareholder’s equity, know the different kinds of stocks and how to compute
income/retained earnings WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?! :( Basically what increases this or
that)
b) Income statement (do know how you arrive at net income, pretty much that)
c) Statement of cash flows (what are the three types of “activities” that generate cash flow? Make
sure you know when one generates an inflow or outflow)
d) Indications of financial ratios
e) Common-size financial statements
f) Auditor’s opinion (I don’t even know this)
g) Retained earnings (WHAAAT)

It’s very technical, you need to truly understand the basics of Financial Accounting to be able to
answer questions (I never really understood accounting except for A = L + E).

2. Algebra

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. (What the hell did I just type?) Just a bunch of word problems of
high school algebra such as:

a) Find the number whose tens digit when multiplied by the ones digit is 10 more than the
original number.
b) John can finish a job in 3 days. Jane can finish a job in 1 day. If John worked for two days,
and Jane joined him, how long before they finish the job?

At some point, they try to apply it to accounting:

c) John is to start a construction business. He bought a truck for 50,000. He immediately got two
orders. Total materials for the two orders cost 60,000. If he paid a worker 1,000 per day, and a
worker can finish one job in three days, how much should he charge for each job to break even?

3. Statistics

This one was peanuts. Questions are a mix of probabilities (cards, coins and dice), z-tests
(normal distributions), measures of central tendencies. You must know how to use a z-score
table, AND how to look for the z-score (and solving for the X) given the probability. Sample
questions.

a) You flip a coin three times. What is the probability of getting only one heads? (I forgot how to
solve this, so I listed down all the possible outcomes and just counted my probabilities from
there.)
b) John’s height is 180 cm. If the average height in his city is 160 cm and the standard deviation
is 2, what is the probability that people in his city is taller than him?

Or it could be the inverse:

c) If the average height in John’s city is 160 cm and the standard deviation is 2, and John is taller
than 95% of the people living in his city, what is his height?

Sometimes, it gets harder because they give you a problem on normal distribution with two tails!
d) Give the central range of height (in the previous problem) where 96% of people fall. (Or
something like that, forgot the wording, but you get my drift.)

4. Calculus

I hate calculus. But only because they had one item with none of the answers in the choices
being correct. You should review for derivatives, second derivatives, relative extrema, etc. Also,
at the end, there are questions about economic applications: solving for maximizing revenue
(using marginal revenue) or minimizing cost (marginal cost). Of course, “marginal” just means
you have to derive. I think.

5. Math of Finance

I hate finance. Probably as much as I hate accounting. Do review the following:

a) Simple interest, which is simply the Principal times (1 + rate)^number of periods.

b) Compound interest, which I don’t know what the formula is, sadly…
c) Annuity
d) Perpetuity (please don’t ask… I have no idea myself!)

And… That’s pretty much what I remember. I hope I don’t have to take any workshop, but of
course, if I fail any of the exams, I don’t want to risk not getting into the program.

Hopefully, I get in. One way or another.