A Journey to UGM

 

Do you see the logo above? It’s the UGM logo So what?  You may say Come next month, it’ll be on MY varsity jacket

You might be wondering how,  

just a homeschooler,

got into a public university

Well, actually, I’m just the -nth homeschooler

To the Unknown, whom I met on the tennis court,

Who said:

that it’s impossible for homeschoolers to achieve anything,

much less, entering a public university

I am sure you are now wrecking your brain,

trying to discover how the impossible was achieved

Do not fret, 

explanations provided below

Let’s rewind time
Back to my childhood

It was thought that I would pursue my university studies overseas
Therefore most of my education was based on an international curriculum

Turning point: It turns out that Indonesia’s local universities
possess excellent education and networks nowadays

In addition to that, there’s fierce competition to enter one
I love some competition!

The top 3 local universities became my latest academic goal!

As Bahasa Indonesia will be the main language used
I switched to the national curriculum in the 11th grade
It was difficult at first!

The switch from English to Bahasa is not easy
There is a language barrier

Scientific languages are especially tricky and difficult to understand

In addition to that, the order of topics vary between curriculums 

Which meant that I haven’t learned some of them

The advantage of homeschooling could also be its disadvantage

Homeschooling allows students to learn at their own pace

While some do take tests, some others don’t
Now, I was the latter

So I could take as much time as I needed until I entirely understand the topic

and was able to finish the practise questions and evaluations correctly
However, an exam is the opposite

I must speed up my pace to finish the tasks within the time limit

To help me with this adjustment, I used Zenius

Zenius is a type of MOOC or a Massive Open Online Course
In simpler words: a website that has various online courses
If you have followed my blog since its early days
you would know that I have enrolled in several MOOCs,

such as Coursera, Edx, Futurelearn, etc.
In these MOOCs, I learned specific subjects, such as archaeology and paleontology
But Zenius is different
It’s an online paid educational platform that teaches most academic subjects from all grades.
It also has worksheets; thousands of them
from Primary 1 worksheets to matriculation tryouts

I was also sent to a learning center

that provides academic enrichment for school students,
but they also have a programme for matriculation preparations

As I was only in the 11th grade, attendance was only 2x a week

End-of-year exam tryouts were held once every 3 months

The environment was also competitive as our tryout results are ranked
Bonus: some new friends!

My classmates and I don’t usually take photos and videos of each other

But on this particular day, some of them said “let’s make a tiktok!”

Several others said, “okay!”

Tiktok isn’t really my style, so I declined
But I recorded behind the scenes!
I still laugh whenever I watch the videos

Little did we know,

that it was the last day of offline classes
Towards the end of the 11th grade, 

The PANDEMIC CAME

and everything became online

Then came 12th grade

The pandemic continued on

All the studying were still done online

For 12th graders, lessons increased to 3x a week

While the new academic materials took up one semester,

the other semester was used for reviewing past K-12 materials

If you think about it, online tutoring is just like a MOOC

But unlike other MOOCs, like Coursera and Edx

which I greatly enjoyed,
online tutoring wasn’t much fun

This was probably because I couldn’t selectively choose the subjects that I like

In addition to that, I lost the competitive environment

However, I still thank my stars to this day

that I don’t have to commute
to the course every day

The last few months of my 12th grade’s life
were filled with drills for matriculation exams

Everything got brutal
Full Spartan mode on!
3x went up to 6x a week

Tryouts that were once held every 3 months,

became once a month

From previously having no homeworks,
we now received homeworks from all the subjects

to be submitted the next day

The questions were also really difficult :’(

It took me hours to finish one

During those last few months of preparations

Ambitious mode was on!
I declared to myself that I shall master all of my lessons!
However, I struggled

I wasn’t the most disciplined student back then

I skipped out on a lot of enrichment practise questions

I didn’t  fully understand the concept being taught

This resulted in my brain getting overwhelmed by my own ambitions

The materials and questions were harder and more complicated than expected

In addition to that, there were so many subjects to study at one time

So I move to Plan B!
In this plan, I only studied the subjects that I’ll really need in my major:
Biology, chemistry, and math.

My original plan was to study those 3 vigorously and learn just a little of physics
I think this is quite a good move, as
many suggest only mastering a few lessons per week

After trying it for some time

there's a significant improvement in my biology and chemistry

Especially chemistry!
I’m finally able to finish plenty of questions

Regarding maths….

My skills didn’t improve much

Tryout questions are much much harder than the practise ones!

So in the end, I kind of ditched it ahaha

Oh and about physics
I didn’t manage my time that well,

so the existence of a subject called physics was ignored

Oh but hang on, Donna, you haven’t told us your major
Ahh… you’ll find that out later

Perhaps you could try to guess it first :)

Towards the day of the examinations
I only studied during my tutoring hours
For the rest of the day
I just memorized some facts and equations from my notebook

By the time my exams came around
I wasn’t ready
But I don’t think I’ll ever be
I’m not that bad though
I mean, even though I’m not ready for the exam,
at least I made sure I registered correctly for it.

There are several ways to enroll in local universities

I decided to go through the nation-wide matriculation exam

The exams are held from the middle of April to early May
in universities and schools all over Indonesia

The test is an online one, so it’s done in computer labs

First, I registered for the exams
I must put in the location where I want to have my exam
I chose UNJ, as it’s the closest
After the registrations, they will assign a date and our exam venue
I didn’t get my preferred choice,
But I got a public high school near the university
A few days before the exam, I went to check out the area
The school was tucked between warungs in a narrow street
so one must park further away and walk to the area

Then finally came the day of the examinations
My carefree personality that I had attained until H-1 
Slowly turned into a nervous one as I got closer to the examination room
Well children, that’s what will happen if you’re not ready
But I did expect everything to go smoothly
To sit nicely in the waiting room and let my mind relax
The universe didn’t seem to be on my side though

There was a notice in the school
It says that all students must be tested for Covid prior to entering
For those who haven’t had their test, there’s a free one in UNJ
Well, it wasn’t there last time!
Or I didn’t see it
It’s a good thing my father drove me to the exam venue
so off we went to UNJ
with very little time left

My mom was irritated

There’s only 30 minutes left towards the exam!

and a test will take at least 10 minutes

There’s also the time needed to get to UNJ

My parents were racing against time

as we rushed past cars and motorbikes

With the help of online maps,

we managed to find it quickly

Too bad, we couldn’t find the entrance!

So down I got out of the car with my mom. 

We walked around the university’s fence
asking for the entrance.

Several people pointed out the way

But we still couldn’t find it!

Then we saw an opening among the fences

It’s actually an entrance for motorbikes, but we entered anyway

A security guard asked us about our business

We’re going to the Covid tests for the matriculation exams!
It’s only 15 minutes away!

Oh of course

Please turn to the left, then right, then etc etc

Thank you, sir!

After quite a long walk,

more of a half-run actually,

I noticed

that I wasn’t nervous anymore!
Instead, it was replaced with a rush of adrenaline

A feeling of winning a race
Yes, that’s what I felt

My mother, on the other hand,

was panicking and started to get irritated with all these hassle

Well, that’s understandable

She hasn’t run these past 10 years and she’s over 50 :)

When we finally reached the test area, 

I completed all my registrations

and finally found myself in the test area

The test is an antigen test

In my humble opinion, I think that

it’s a horrid test

It was super painful!

I hope I never need an antigen test again in my life!

I was then asked to wait for around 10 minutes to get the result

I thought about how I’m pretty doomed for the exams

I’ll never make it in time

But luck’s on my side!

The antigen test results came out in 5 minutes

When I went to take the results, the person asked:

“May I see your ID card?”

Ahaha….haha....

It’s downstairs, I said

“Let me fetch it!”

“Okay”, she said

In reality, my card was tucked away in my backpack, in my dad’s car

I called my dad to come over

In a few minutes, the car swung around the corner,

and my dad appeared with the backpack!

Hurrah for daddy!

He got out of the car and ran with my bag

Oops

My bag was unzipped and all the contents fell out :)

Books, documents, sanitizers, all were on the floor

No worries, we tidied it up immediately

It’s a good thing my ID card was still there

I dashed into the test room and showed my ID card

Then yes! I got my results

My dad zoomed the car into the school

At long last, I found myself in the waiting room

I somehow managed to arrive with plenty of time left

Just because of the locals' general habit of being late

I spent the remaining time reading good luck messages from my friends

As this exam took place in the middle of a pandemic,

every student was asked to put on plastic gloves

Which was extremely annoying

They’re slippery! 

How am I supposed to write all my workings for math, chems, and physics?

But a rule is a rule
Not negotiable

Finally, we’re called into the exam room,

And I finally saw the exams that I’ve been studying for these past months

This online exam would be held for 3 hours and 15 minutes,
with no breaks in between

Nervous? No

Intimidated? Yes

First of all, in my opinion

the positioning of the computer was uncomfortable

The monitor was too close to my eyes

Second of all, this seemingly harmless online exam

shall determine my future

Well, then maybe not so harmless after all

The exam has two parts, which are called TPS and TKA

TPS tests our cognitive abilities, while TKA tests our academic skills

For TKA, those who chose Social Studies would be tested on

Geography, History, Sociology, and Economics

For those who chose Science (like me) would be tested on

Refer back to the top if you do not remember

The order of the exam subjects are as below:
TPS, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology
For each subject, students only have to answer 15 questions!
Sounds simple right?
Eh, not so fast
When you click “Start”, a timer will start
We got only around 1½ minutes for each question
When time's up, the questions will immediately disappear

Next subject!
and the cycle continues

When the supervisors said “You may start”
The race is on!

I was focused! 

I started tackling the first question that popped into the monitor

The well-oiled gears in my brain turned with great speed!

As if a greatly powered motor is moving them 

I read the questions with careful eyes,

and thought over all the options
as quick as I could!

Then my hands started to get sweaty inside the plastic gloves

Slowly but surely,

I took off the right hand gloves.

Phew, it’s free!
No one noticed yet, so it’s safe.

When I glanced around,

I saw that many did the same thing

and no one was caught!

A few hours later….

There was a voice behind me

“Please put on your gloves”

“Okay”

Long story short, it didn’t work
So it’s off again! :)

What a nuisance!

Aside from that small bump,

I’m happy to report that everything went smoothly

Even though I had to guess a lot of the answers

I guessed luck comes into play too

Time went on so quickly 

By the time the last timer went off

Donna is free!!

Not so fast though

We had to wait for our supervisor’s signal to leave

Examinees had to go out in groups of five to avoid a crowd

I happened to be near the supervisor

So I was picked to go first with 4 others

Yayy!!

Donna is finally free….!!!!

I felt like I’m at the top of the world!
I rambled all night long to my friends about the exam
I fully rested the next day, just enjoying life to the fullest
However, this isn't the end of my studies 

As all roads lead to Rome
The one above is called UTBK
Another one is university’s individual exams
Many students register for this just in case they aren’t accepted through UTBK As they can be expensive I only enrolled in the ones I'm interested in: UI and UGM Studying for individual exams are also included in my tutoring’s special programme        It wasn’t as brutal as the preparations for UTBK, but it was still quite difficult 

The UTBK results would be posted on June 14th at 15:00  On that day, time passed excruciatingly slow While our heart pounded abnormally fast Turning to friends for support and comfort  did not yield good results The level of tension hit the roof instead “Ahhh I’m so scared!” “Me too!” “I tried to sleep to make the hours go faster, but it didn’t work.” We excelled at being cheerleaders We’re pros at encouraging each others’ fears Hahaha

I’m terrified
I started thinking of my backup plan, just in case I’m not accepted through SBMPTN
My tutoring company has a program for those who want to repeat the SBMPTN
Should I join that? Or should I just study on my own?
I already have the notes and worksheets, anyway
Or should I just start working on other things? Like individual projects?
Open a small business? Work part-time?
University isn’t always the way to success right?
and so on, and on and on and on until…...

It's finally 15:00
I was too nervous in checking out my scores
There are several ways we can check our results
First, through the official UTBK site
There are also mirror webs
I’m shaking
I decided to use the mirror web, as I’m sure the official one is super crowded
I was so nervous I accidently inserted the wrong data in confirming my identity And even the mirror web crashed :) After waiting for a few minutes.. In agony… The web is finally okay! And I finally inserted the correct data! Drum rolls please….

Yayyyyy!!!

I felt so proud
Of my hard work (aka overcoming procrastination and laziness)
And because my father graduated from that university too :)
I’m glad I didn’t disappoint
All thoughts of gap years and other stuff disappeared as I
leapt from my chair
swung from a swing
then hurt my legs :) 

It was a really exciting day....
Ah I can even still feel the excitement while writing this!
Sincere thank yous were sent immediately to all my teachers for all their help
I also celebrated with others who got accepted
However, it was also a sorrowful day
There are friends who aren't accepted
I felt guilty when I asked them about their results....  to the point that I stopped asking UI's individual matriculation exam is held a few days after UTBK announcements I was pretty lazy about it  because I've already been accepted into UGM My mom encouraged me though because they have already paid for it Like an annoying teenager,  I moped around and complained everyday about it Long story short, I didn't get in Oh well, that’s a bummer I still thank my mom though  for pushing me to do it Coz hey, at least I didn't waste my chance

Now we have come to the end of my "journey" to UGM
Phew! I'm glad that everything is over now
People have said that studying for UTBK  is difficult and challenging I agree with this However, challenging is a subjective term For me, it isn't really about the subjects Yes the subjects can be difficult,  but they’re not impossible Not if I work on them

My real enemy here is just my inner voice
that stems from my desire to enjoy life
Being lazy is nice
Just relax

Well, now that the Queen of Procrastination
is finally accepted into a prestigious university
She’s actively working hard to escape the pandora box
As luck cannot always be by her side
Luck has to accompany many others too!
P.s I’m writing this when I already have classes from UGM.
Good to say, I’m much much better at handling procrastination now :)