The selection exam is designed to be as difficult as possible, the scales can filter out eligible participants, that’s why it’s difficult, a lot, and the time for inviting is really tight! So you could say, it’s almost certain that you won’t have the chance to do all your leg problems, you work on the problem at normal speeds such as when doing daily tests or school UTS. The problem is, many students are accustomed to evaluation exams (for example: daily tests) which have a relatively long time to do all the questions.
Now, the habit of being somewhat ‘relaxed’ on such evaluation exams can have a fatal impact on the timing of the selection exam. Not infrequently, many students are shocked during the selection exam because there are only 10 minutes left for the exam, but he only worked on half of the total! Well, because there needs to be a special strategy in the execution of selection exams such as SBMPTN and Independent Exams.
Okay, what about the specific strategy? Patience, I will soon discuss one by one below. But actually I need to emphasize that in fact what I have discussed here does not represent the Zenius view as a whole, but based on my personal opinion. This means that this tip might suit you, but there could also be some who are more comfortable with other styles. In the end, the way to do things really is up to you how comfortable you are with them. Here I am only giving input, who knows this tip from me is suitable and useful for you. Okay, let’s just start the discussion:
TIP 1: Do the easy questions / topics that you already master, with Cipta possible!
Make it clear from the start that your goal in the exam is to get as many scores as possible! This does sound trivial, but it’s actually a very important principle for every exam. With a mindset like this from the start in your mind, your every action and decision on the exam will be more effective and targeted according to your goals.
One strategy that is usually attached to this principle is: You don’t really need to work on the questions in sequence from numbers 1, 2, 3, etc … With this principle, usually the first step I do first is skimming the whole question first and then I signed the questions that I thought I could do immediately FAST and TRUE! I continue to work on the easy questions or I already understand the concept very quickly from the start.
In the past, this strategy also really helped me in increasing my confidence throughout the duration of the exam. Remember, in an influential exam it’s not just a matter of the brain, it’s also a matter of mentality! Can you imagine for yourself, your brother in the exam turns out to be 3-4 initial numbers, you don’t find the answer, you may even panic and the questions that are actually easy you can’t even do because your brain is already panicking. But your brother in the first few minutes you start off with a good start, you will become more confident and may become calmer when working on more difficult questions.
TIP 2: Your brother is stuck working on the problem, don’t bother, just leave it first!
Back to the original principle, that your goal is to gain as many points as possible! Kakamu in the context of SBMPTN, questions that are easy, difficult, long, short…. all of them have EQUAL VALUE, namely (+4) in the SBMPTN exam. So, your feet are stuck, don’t bother yourself too much because you’re curious, just skip it! There are many other questions that are easier and have the same value as the difficult questions. Your brother is really curious, later you can rework your brother, there is still time left.
For example, in the past, I had a friend who failed the exam just because of pride and prestige issues. (Really, I can’t do this kind of thing?) He has the principle of “never leaving questions to which the answer has not been met”. So basically he considered the difficult exam questions to be a challenge, then he continued to work on the questions for a long time even though it turned out to be the wrong questions & there was no answer. Ironic, right? One thing you need to remember, distinguish the context between “study” and “test”. Your brother is right when studying, maybe you really like to juggle questions out of curiosity and feel challenged… and that’s a great attitude, his name is also studying. But what is called a test is no longer the time for you to study, it is the time for you to gain as many points as possible. In the end, no one knows you managed to work on a difficult or easy question, the assessment team only looks at your final score.
Remember, the time given by the committee to work on the selection exam (SBMPTN, SIMAK UI, UTUL, UMB) is really tight! There are questions that are relatively easy, difficult, and not infrequently there are questions that have typos, wrong questions, or questions that don’t have an answer. So, you have to be smart in using your time to get the highest score possible by prioritizing the questions you can as quickly as possible. Do not let questions that are actually easy to do, instead they are missed / don’t even have to do it just because the time has rushed out and used to do questions that have no answers.
TIPS 3: Make a target time for processing & a target number of questions that must be done for each exam section.
In the exam, the format can be various, there is a combination of PG with essays. There is also PG all but a combination of several subjects. But in principle, you need to set a target time for working on each section’s questions so that you are aware of the tight time and have to work on all sections. To facilitate the discussion, I will take the example of the 2018 TKPA SBMPTN exam with the composition of questions and duration of the exam as below:
In the TKPA exam, there are a total of 90 question numbers with 105 minutes available. It means that your feet are hit flat, each number (as if) can be worked out for 70 seconds. You can probably do 70 seconds for each number for verbal TPA question types, sequence patterns, or picture patterns… But can you do 1 question = 70 seconds for analytical kamugika question types, Indonesian and English reading texts ?? My guess is that it will take you a relatively little time because you are required to read long text materials before answering the questions.
So, right now, or not, your brother immediately went ahead to work on the problem without a strategy? It could be that you didn’t have the chance to work on Indonesian and English at all because you spent too much time talking about TPA. One thing that you need to understand in an exam that includes several subjects such as the SBMPTN is: Don’t let you have no chance to work on 1 subject section at all! Why? In the context of the PTN selection examination, of course the top national PTNs have standards so that students have basic abilities in every subject. Now your brother you don’t have to fill in (for example) English lessons at all … that means you just give a signal to the PTN you are going to that you don’t speak English at all! On the other hand, of course the top national universities have standards so that students can speak English quite well. In other words, in addition to working on problems quickly, you also have to think about the portion of each section per subject, so that it is as balanced as possible.
Now, a suggestion from me, you make a portion of the time to work on each question so that it is balanced, for example, the accumulation of time for working on questions per TKPA exam subject is like this:
TPA (45 questions) = 40 minutes | minimum target = 40 questions
Matdas (15 questions) = 20 minutes | minimum target = 10 questions
Indonesian (15 questions) = 15 minutes | minimum target = 8 questions
English (15 questions) = 15 minutes | minimum target = 8 questions
Time left to repeat questions that you missed or are not sure the correct answer = 15 minutes
I need to emphasize that the target I illustrated above needs to be adjusted to your abilities and also the target of the course you are pursuing. It could be that my illustration target above is too low for you who are eyeing the top national PTN majors where the competition level is very tight. For those of you who are determined to enter your favorite department, make sure the target for each question is as high as possible.
For those of you who are not chasing your favorite department, by dividing the target time and the number of questions like this … Maybe you can’t answer all the questions because the timing is deliberately made so that it is really tight. But at least you can use all your abilities evenly and effectively on all the questions that you can certainly do. Try to make it a habit for you to be disciplined in dividing the portion of the working time from the time you try out independently from now on, so on the D-Day of SBMPTN, you are used to being disciplined in using your time optimally.
Regardless of the target time and the number of questions you make, you must make sure to be disciplined in dividing your time. Your brother is right when working on the TPA, you have touched the 40th minute but haven’t worked on the questions according to the target, you still have to move on to the next maths question section so you can work on all sections evenly with a balanced portion of time and effort. So, how to practice discipline like this or not you have to be diligent in Try Out independently. Previously, I briefly discussed the importance of Try Out and how to design an independent TO. For those of you who haven’t had the chance to read, I really recommend reading the article after you read this article.
TIP 4: Try to have a little spare time to get back to the questions that were skipped / never worked on.
Chances are you can already guess my point in tip number 4. Well, the point is that after you have managed to work on the questions according to the target in each section fairly evenly, try to keep yourself a little time to repeat the questions that you didn’t have or you missed. You can also use this last time for other things that are no less important, such as double-checking the completeness of the information in the answer sheet, making sure the exam participant number is correct, writing the correct name according to the exam card, rounding in the PBT worksheets is neat, etc.
Especially for running tips number 4, I usually have my own tricks for making certain symbols / signs during the exam to make it easier for me to use this spare time more effectively. What do you mean? That is, as long as I work on exam questions … I usually leave a mark in the form of a symbol on every question I work on. The symbol I use is like this, you are free to copy or make your own symbol:
Star symbol (☆): questions that I think are easy & can be worked on quickly.
Triangle symbol (△): a question that I guess I know how to do but it took a long time to solve.
Circle symbol (o): a question that I consider difficult and really don’t know how to do it.
Box symbol (□): strange question, possibly mistyped question / no answer.
So the way it works is this, as long as I work on the problem and find the answer right away (I’m sure my answer is correct), I will immediately give an asterisk (☆) on the edge of the problem. As soon as I found a question that was about to take a long time to work on, I passed by but I gave a triangle sign (△), as soon as I encountered a question that was difficult, foreign, and most likely I would not be able to work on it, I passed it because I continued to mark a circle ( o). Finally, when I found a question that I thought was a bit strange, typed the question, or didn’t have the answer even though the question was easy, I put a box (□).
Now, you give a symbol to each question number like this. Lo, so you can activate your spare time during the injury time of the exam in a more directed way. My brother usually still has time left, the first time I focus on the question marked with a triangle (△) first, then your brother still has time to enter the circle (o) and square (□). Oh yes, by giving a sign like this … I also usually have a prediction of my final score because I can already estimate how many numbers I PEDE, the answer is definitely correct, how many numbers are still in doubt, and how many numbers are definitely wrong because I left blank .
Apart from that, once again I want to emphasize that tips number 4 might suit you, maybe not. For those of you who feel this method is complicated, you don’t need to follow it, just do the way that you think is comfortable and make you more confident in working out the problem. For those of you who are curious about following my method, you can practice a lot through the Independent Try Out so that you get used to this method.
TIPS 5: Technique for filling out PBT worksheets so you don’t waste time.
Okay, tip number 5 is especially for those of you who take the PBT exam. So for those of you who plan to take the CBT exam later, you can skip this part. So for those of you who plan to take the PBT exam, usually one of the annoying obstacles is: the process of writing down the answers on the LKS answer sheet tends to take a lot of time.
Yes, this is indeed one of the trivial problems that can be annoying, especially when your brother is used to you every time you find a straightforward answer. What’s more, your brother realized that later your brother our answer was wrong, then you have to delete the answer, the LJK gets dirty or can even tear. Not to mention that your brother is a child of OCD (perfectionist), who likes to rub it is not clear that your bullets are not perfect, you may not even focus on the problem but become annoyed with LJK because you want the bulletin to repeat your previous answer which is dirty because of hand rubbing or the bulletin is not neat … Wow messy waste of time!
Okay, for your problem in bullying the LJK, here’s a tip from me: every time you find an answer that you think is correct (no matter how sure your answer is), don’t immediately get your full LJK bulletin! You just sign it in the choice using thin ureks that are easy to remove but can still be seen. So you don’t waste time on answer newsletters and you can just jump on through other numbers. From my previous experience, this will further speed up the process for you to work on the problem.
Then the time is running out (approximately the last 10 minutes). Lo, give yourself about 1 minute to complete all the answers that you signed. Well, it’s your brother who wants to use this technique, you have to make sure you don’t forget it either. Don’t let yourself be busy answering questions, then not realizing that the time is running out and your LJK is forcibly taken by the supervisor even though you haven’t got an answer to the full bulletin. In this way, I personally experience significant benefits, for example:
Every time I come across an answer, I don’t need to focus on rounding up the answer until it’s neat many times. Just give it a thin stroke and then go straight to the next question without wasting time.
Your brother has an answer that I want to correct, I can delete the temporary answer without making the LJK dirty or risking it being crumpled / torn.
By taking the time to blacken the answers at the end of the exam time, I will avoid the risk of the LJK’s answers fading due to accidental hand rubbing or other unwanted things.
TIP 6: For exams that give minus marks on wrong answers, don’t just shoot!
This is the last tip from me, especially for the form of exams that give a minus (-1) score on the wrong answer, usually the SBMPTN exam and the Independent Examination of several universities which aim to filter out a large number of participants.
Maybe there are some of you who believe in the same thing as luck, hockey, or whatever it is called. It’s your right, so it’s up to your brother to try your luck by shooting answers on exams. But I personally don’t feel comfortable when you hang my future with luck. In addition, statistically, your chance to shoot and the answer is correct is relatively small.
So let me give you advice, in my opinion, your brother doesn’t know the answer, don’t just shoot … just leave the answer blank. Focus on the same questions you can answer and be sure the answers are correct. Your brother has a problem that you can’t work on or are hesitant about, it’s better to leave it than to destroy the point that you have worked so hard to save from the correct answers that you got before.