Philippine Science High School - Application Criteria and Requirements

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PSHS Batch 2010 - Nov 7, 2009 Exam Results are out!

Congratulations to the passers of the November 7, 2009 National Competitive Exams for the Philippine Science High School Batch 2010!

Click here and search for the new scholar's name: PSHS

Highschool Life Meme - Pisay '99

For the non-Filipino speakers, please pardon me.

This is a meme I got from some high school batchmates, several of them have answered the survey and posted it on their Facebook. I do have an FB account, but I prefer to put this on here! :D

As a brief background - Pisay is a nickname for the Philippine Science High School - the premier high school in the Philippines.

If you want to take the PSHS Competitive Entrace Exams or have a son/daughter/niece/nephew/neighbor or anyone who want to take it - Click HERE for some details.

Here goes:

PSHS Entrance Exams will be on Nov 7 (for SY 2010-2011)

I got a note in my email that sent back memories of sharpened Mongols #2, mind numbing fear and excitement, eyeglasses, Zesto snacks and hundreds upon hundreds of nerds all in one place.

Yep, the Philippine Science High School (PSHS or Pisay) is now accepting applications for Scholars for SY 2010-2011. PSHS Admission Exams will be on November 7, 2009.

On their website, it says: "The one-time screening is composed of scholastic aptitude test (SAT) which is designed to measure Scientific Ability, Quantitative Ability, Abstract Reasoning and Verbal Aptitude."

I reminisce...

Pisay the Movie

I almost got lost on my way to watch Pisay. My friend Julz Oliveros (not related to Maximo) sent me an SMS saying the showing will be at Cinema 4 of The Block, and that The Block would be "in" SM North EDSA. I had, in my head, planned to just park in the open parking in front of SM North even though it was drizzling a bit. It was the only parking area I could remember...

When I turned right from North Ave, I was dumbfounded! There's a whole new building where the parking lot used to be! Anyhow, I drove (slowly) around the other cars who seem to be as lost as I was, and finally found the Parking Entrance to the SM Annex.

On to the movie then! Pisay is a heartwarming tale of a group of high school students, coming from different backgrounds, but all brilliant, all studying at the Philippine Science High School. What I liked most about the movie was its effective nostalgia. It may be that the movie was set in the 80's (when I was but a wee little baby), but it's theme's captured the essence of being in Pisay. But it's greatest asset may also well be it's worst flaw: It may tend to alienate non-Pisay people. I felt the audience deserved a tad bit more development of the characters. It becomes difficult to sympathize with characters you hardly know.

I loved that the kids acted very naturally, although there were some awkward moments, some dead air, it was forgivable. Dr. Casas was very effective (reminding all of us or a certain Pisay professor we will all sorely miss). The other adult actors, however, (I'm not sure if this was intentional) spoke in a "theater" voice, like a sing-song, Batibot style. I found it unnatural, even highlighted by the fact that the child actors were very natural with theirs ("Egis erp!")

The storyline was flawless. I found it strummed a different chord at every chapter. The freshman year told of a budding relationship ripped apart by a teacher, the sophomore year told of a small town boy kicked-out of Pisay for failing Geometry (and moving on to become #1 in the school he moved to!), the third year featured a girl who had move to The Netherlands because she and her parents were wanted by the government, and finally, the senior year which featured a morally ambiguous research project, a theater loving science school senior, and a terminally ill genius.

I was flooded with memories while I was watching the movie. I was especially moved by the first scene where they found out he got in Pisay. I remember we hadn't received a letter from PSHS yet so my dad decided to go visit Pisay himself to check if I had passed. When he got home, he calmly whispered to me that I had passed, and that was when I started going crazy. Haha! Good times.

Pisay

This year is the 8th year anniversary of my graduation from Pisay. I still remember my 5th year anniversary in 2004. I was really excited to go back and see how things have changed since I left. But not a lot of my batchmates shared this sentiment. A lot of them said they didn't want to go because they had nothing to show for the 5 years since they graduated. I was, at the time, still in school, not nearly finished with my Mechanical Engineering in UP, but I wanted to go. So I went.

I have only a few memories of Pisay, and I wanted to go back and try to see what else I could dig up from my subconscious. I suppose high school went by too fast for me...

I arrived in Pisay a small unknown kid from a small unknown private school in Pasig. The year was 1995 and I was the first and only kid from my elementary school to pass the entrance exams. High school was a challenge for me, especially the first year. I had to deal with commuting to Quezon City everyday (from just walking to school), the lessons (Algebra! waahh!) which everybody seemed to already know about except me, my not so popular status with my classmates, and of course dealing with the pressure to excel... "You're the cream of the cream of the crop!"

But it wasn't bad the whole time. I did make a lot of really good friends, some of which I have until today. And I did get to put in my resume that I graduated from Pisay. Haha!

I'm thinking of going to this year's Alumni Homecoming. I know that not a lot of my batchmates will be there, it not being our 5th or 10th year and all, but I still just want to visit anyway. What the heck.

Aureaus Solito, award winning Director of "Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros" and Pisay alumnus, made a movie about Pisay during the Martial Law era. It will be part of the Cinemalaya Festival. Here's the trailer:



Am I excited to watch it? Hell yeah. Hope I can, if not in CCP, then on DVD or something. Haha. Seeing the school uniforms in the trailer was enough to convince me that I needed to see this movie. :p