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 :)
