What is SNMPTN?

Answer 1

SNMPTN (Seleksi Nasional Masuk Perguruan Tinggi Negeri)is a university entrance exam in Indonesia that functions as a mean of admission into Indonesian public universities since 2006. SNMPTN is administered by the Directory High General of Education in Indonesia, under the supervision by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture (Unlike the Indonesian National Examinations for High School and Middle School students as well as the National Standardized School Final Examination for Elementary students, which are both administered and overseen solely by the Ministry of Education and Culture). Students graduating High School in the year the test takes place as well as the students who already graduated up until two years before are eligible to sit in for the test. SNMPTN is mainly a written test, all multiple choice with 5 options in each question. For each question only one answer is allowed. Each right answer is awarded a raw mark of +4, a wrong answer is penalized a raw mark (-1), an unanswered question gains a raw mark of zero and a question where more than one option is opted is also penalized a mark. The marks are converted into percentage uniform marks where the total percentage uniform mark of the whole test adds up to 100%. SNMPTN consists of 2 main or core sections and 1-2 extended sections (which are elective depending on the test group). The first part of the core section is something called a academic potential test which evaluates a student intellectual potential much like an IQ test, however the results (like all parts of the test is given in percentage form converted from the raw marks awarded for each question). There are 75 questions in this section and a maximum percentage uniform mark of 30%. The second part of the core section is the Basic abilities test which is divided to 3 subject tests, where key subjects consisting of mainstream mathematics, Bahasa Indonesia and English are evaluated. The subject tests in the Basic Abilities Test section consists of 15 questions each and each subject test has a maximum uniform mark of 10%. Thus in this section, there is a total of 45 questions and a total uniform percentage mark of 30%. The extended sections aredependent on the test group and the course of study a student is applying to.The written exam itself is divided into 3 groups; Natural Science, Social Science and Combined Science. Each group is Elective and a student is only allowed to choose one. Natural Science are for students who is applying for natural science courses that includes but are not limited to courses such as medicine, engineering and pure sciences. The extended section of the Natural Science group consists of 4 subject tests; Science Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. The subject test in this section has 15 questions each with a percentage uniform mark of 10%. Thus there is a total of 60 questions an a total percentage uniform mark of 40%. Social Science are for students who is applying for social science courses such as Law, Accounting and Education (including arts and linguistics). The extended section of the Social Science group consists of 4 subject tests; Geography, History, Economics and Sociology. The subject test in this section has 15 questions each with a percentage uniform mark of 10%. Thus there is a total of 60 questions an a total percentage uniform mark of 40%. In the Combined Science group is meant for student who is applying for a natural science and social science course of study in which both extended sections (Natural and Social Science) are required to be taken. However only one (depending on the course of study that a student is admitted in) is accounted for. For example a student is applying for Dentistry (a natural science course) and international relations (a social science course). Therefore only the natural science extended section is considered for the dentistry course and only the social science extended section is considered for the international relations course. Students in the Natural Science and Social Science test group are allowed to choose a maximum of 2 courses of study and students in the combined science group are allowed to choose a maximum of 3 courses of study with at least one of them being a natural science course and another one being a social science course. A student also could choose only one course of study where they can choose a course of study in any university they choose (not restricted by the region of the test location). In a case where students chooses to apply to more than one course of study, then at least one of the course of study that the student chose must be located in the same region as the test location where the student sat in for the written test. Some courses of study require a practical assessment such as sports and arts. The practical assessment is usually done in the universities that offers the course of study. The written test itself is conducted mostly in educational institutions (public and private, ranging from primary to tertiary institutions) and due to the large amount of test takers, it is also conducted in public venues such as the city hall, government offices and even cram schools. The test is usually conducted in mid June (approximately two months after the high school national examinations). The core section is usually held on a Tuesday, with the extended section is held on the following Wednesday. The practicalassessment takes place in the same week, after the written tests that is. Attendance is mandatory, as there will be no make up tests for students who fail to show up for the test. If a student is unable to attend the examination in normal conditions due to a medical condition, than he/she is required to inform thecommittee in order to arrange a test meant for special conditions before a stipulated date. The fee for the examinationis Rp. 150.000 for the Natural Science and Social Science test group and Rp. 175.000 for the combined science test group. Since 2011, there are two different streams of SNMPTN, the written test stream and the invitation stream. The invitation stream is where a student does not have to undergo any form of written examination in order to get admitted, rather admission is considered based on their school grades, academic achievements and National Exam grade. In order to get 'invited' a student must possess a required amount of academic achievement, that is a student's rank based on their report card grades in school. This stream is relatively new theIndonesian education system and unique among other countries. Many Indonesians are unfamiliar and still adjusting to the new stream and many Indonesians also considers this new stream to be startling and absurd which is due a doubt within the public and academic society in Indonesia of malpractice in the implementation of this stream as school grades is issued by the school and could be manipulated easily (which benefits the school to gain higher accreditation should it's students get admitted into public universities, especially top ones). It is even more shocking when the Ministry of Education and Culture abolished the written test stream of SNMPTN in 2013, therefore effectively enacting the invitation stream as the solely existing means of entry to public universities through SNMPTN. The written stream is replaced with SBMPTN (Seleksi Masuk Bersama Masuk Perguruan Tinggi Negeri), which issimilar to the SNMPTN written test stream. The same rule applies as the SNMPTN written test. The only main difference is that it is administered by a private sector. SBMPTN also allow students taking the Natural Science and Social Science test group to choose a maximum of three instead of two courses of study. SBMPTN is also relatively expensive to that of the SNMPTN written test steam as the examination fee for the test (regardless of the test group) is Rp. 200.000. The number of places reserved for student in public universities admitted through SBMPTN is also significantly lower from the number of places reserved for students admitted from the SNMPTN written test stream in previous years.