THE FACULTY of Arts and Letters (AB) missed all mathematics-focused questions and finished ninth among 15 colleges in UST during the Pautakan 2024, the country’s longest-running intercollegiate quiz tilt.
AB failed to qualify for the final round after accumulating only 60 points in the team category of the competition on Monday, April 15, at the Medicine Auditorium.
Thomasians faced questions on general information and current events, history, humanities, mathematics, science and technology, and UST history.
The seven-member AB team secured two correct answers each for the easy (10 points), average (20 points) and difficult (30 points) levels during the eliminations.
Artlets team coach Erinn Mariel Perez, also a legal management instructor, noted time constraints and difficulties in gathering review materials for the group’s preparation.
“AB used to have continuity in the team. Meaning, we had a very established team [wherein] there was a succession plan. However, of course, the pandemic disrupted those plans and now we’re starting from scratch,” Perez told The Flame.
“Things were very rushed for us when it [came] to preparations,” she added.
This year’s Pautakan marks the Varsitarian’s first on-site edition in five years, the last being in 2019 before the pandemic.
The AB Pautakan team consisted of behavioral science freshman Heaven Jade Talandron, first-year economics students Kent Davis Talag, Ashley Ramones and Sean Prince Acuña, legal management junior and team captain John Travis de Luna, journalism student Nicole Aleksei Rivamonte and philosophy senior Ricky Dalisay III.
Rivamonte, representing the faculty in the individual category, landed in the 11th spot after obtaining 55 points.
The Faculty of Engineering, the contest’s perennial champion, emerged as the champion in both individual and group categories this year.
The Ruaño-based faculty amassed 145 points in the group category, followed by first runner-up Faculty of Medicine and Surgery (140 points) and second runner-up UST AMV-College of Accountancy (100 points).
James Abris of the Faculty of Engineering was hailed the winner in the individual category with 100 points, followed by Augustine John Abat of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery (90 points) and Vinci Julian Henson of the Faculty of Pharmacy (80 points).
Despite missing the Pautakan title since 2009, the Faculty of Arts and Letters triumphed in the Varsitarian’s Paunahan, the virtual edition of Pautakan for individual participants, in 2021. F – Bianca Ysabel Abrencillo and Arabella Peñaranda
