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and humanities field.
“This year’s system is better, especially for those taking both exams. Doing both exams on the same day, instead of in two phases, will be so tiring. One exam can take more than 3 hours, what about two exams on the same day?” she told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
The SBMPTN is her only chance to get into a state university, as she can no longer avail herself of two other options that only applied for the class of 2020.
Those two options were SNMPTN, which bases its decision on academic records during high school and accounts for a minimum of 20 percent of all seats at state universities, and the independently administered university entrance test, that accounts for a maximum of 30 percent.
The SBMPTN, accounting for a minimum of 40 percent, meanwhile, can be joined by those graduating in the previous two classes.
“I’m getting worried, because I believe students graduating next year will work harder, so the competition will be tougher, slimming my chances to get into a state university,” Billa said.
Securing a seat in a state university is indeed far from easy. Competition is tough as Indonesia has a relatively small number of state universities compared to the millions of senior high school students graduating each year, who flock to them given their affordable cost and higher quality compared to private counterparts.
In 2019, 781,088 high school graduates took the UTBK, 714,652 of whom proceeded to apply for state universities after obtaining their scores. Only 23 percent of them, or 168,742 test-takers, were accepted by 85 state universities in the country.
Only 92,331 students were pre-admitted into state universities through the SNMPTN out of 478,608 applicants this year.
There have been numerous changes in state university admission rules in the past decades. The UTBK was, in fact, only started this year. A new agency, the Institution for University Entrance Exams (LTMPT), was tasked with permanently overseeing state university admission starting in 2019.
LTMPT chairman Ravik Karsidi said changes in the 2020 UTBK were based on evaluation and research from this year’s exams.
“We have compared test results from the first and the second phase of the UTBK. There wasn’t any significant difference between the two and not much difference in the acceptance rate,” he told the Post on Saturday.
He gave assurances that, despite the reduced number of sessions, the quota would accommodate all applicants, who were expected to reach 1.2 million test-takers next year.
The deputy secretary-general of the Indonesian State University Rectors Assembly (MRPTNI), Syafsir Akhlus, said that, aside from the insignificant difference in test results, another reason for abolishing the second phase was to lessen pressure on the test-takers.
The change, however, appears to have the exact opposite effect on 17-year- old senior high school student Irfan Hafidz Rahman, who is expecting to get into the Dental Medicine School of Airlangga University in Surabaya