A Well-Planned Preparation for National Exam is Necessary
this is my mid test essay for Writing 4. It took about 1 month to finish because I had to do some observations to the school which I mentioned.
National exam for High School level was held on Monday, 18th of April to Thursday, 21st of April 2011, and has been used as the sole determinant of graduation. However, this year the government starts to apply the combination of national exam result and report card as determinant of graduation. So schools all over the country try to give the best preparation for their students who will face the national examination hoping their students will be motivated to study, thus they can prepare themselves accordingly. National exam is implemented by all High Schools inIndonesia. There are 6 subjects for each course which will be tested, they are Indonesian, English and Mathematics which are the main subjects for all programs (Science, Social, Language Programs); Chemistry, Physics, and Biology for students for Science program; Economy, Sociology and Geography for students in Social program. Although national examination got refusal from students, it still held with different mechanism on each year and because national exam has been used as the sole determinant of graduation that’s why it becomes the frightening thing for students and the more students didn’t pass the exam, the more ashamed the school would be in particular, and the region (regency and province) in general, cited from http://ujiannasional.org.
Standard point which already set by BSNP (Badan Standarisasi Nasional Pendidikan) still same with last year, 5.50 for High School level and it has different graduation ‘formula’ from last year. It is (0.6 × the National Exam score) + (0.4 × the score of School Exam), cited from http://id.wikipedia.org. School calculated from the average score of school exams and semester report card result from 3 to 5 semester for each subject in the national exam. With this new formula, the plan will set the marks of each subject at least 4.00. Integration of national exam marks and the marks the school exam is expected to be some incentive to see the importance of all the process of learning from grade 1 to grade 3. Last year, the national test scores was used as the sole determinant of graduation. National exam was held after the school exams, but this year, students took school exam first and then the national exam to follow. While the authority for students to pass or not to pass the school exams is on the school’s hand. The US score is the average mark of school exams and the semester report cards from 3rd to 5th semester of every subject that is not tested in the national exam. Meanwhile, the national exam schedule which had been planned will be held in May 2011 turned into in April 2011. The supplementary exam for those who have not attended the main national exam held a week later. In addition, for national exam 2011 there will not be any re-exam for students who do not pass it. Therefore, students who do not graduate have to take exams again in the next year. National examination results are used as one of the considerations for mapping the quality and / or educational unit, the basic entry level college selection, the determination of graduation students of the program and / or education units as well as development and provision of assistance to the educational unit in an effort to improve the quality of education, cited from Law of the Republic of Indonesia No. 20 of 2003, Article 68. The writer has carried out some observations on English subject in SMA Negeri 1 Pandeglang, located at Jalan Raya Serang Pandeglang about the national exam at the school. They held tutoring started from January or three months before the national exam to a week before the date of the exam, besides holding tutoring, the school also held a try out. Try out was organized by the Department of Education, then the next Try Out was organized by the school which was held twice. In addition to try out held by the Department of Education and by the school, there are also some try out held by institutions of non formal education such as Bimbingan Belajar (Intensive Course) Nurul Fikri.
However, despites the tutoring as a learning process, the results of two try outs show bad mark with average 51.60 which means that it failed to pass the 5.50 standard of national exam. In Science program there are 3 classes. Average marks for XII IA 1 are 57 on the first and the second try out. XII IA 2 is 59.70 on the first try out, 61.60 for the second try out. XII IA 3 is 62.20 on the first try out, and 63.20 on the second try out; in Social program there are 4 classes. Average marks for XII IS 1 is 42.15 on the first try out, 40 on the second try out. XII IS 2 is 43.15 on the first try out, 46.20 on the second try out. XII IS 3 is 42.55 on the first try out, 40.60 on the second try out. XII IS 4 is 39.80 on the first try out, and 52 on the second try out. The total average score for Science programs is 60 and for Social programs is 43.25. The result based on programs shows that only students from Science program who are able to pass the standard; while students from Social program are not able to pass the standard.
Why is this so happened? Some teachers said that one reason why the score is poor is that students lack of motivation. This could be seen from the number of students attended the tutoring which gradually decreased as time passed and approaching the ‘D’ day of the examination. This means almost all students attended the first session of the tutoring, and the last session was left with many empty seats. Another reason is that students most likely thought that they would get some ‘help’ in the last minutes. Such ‘help’ is in the form of answer keys of the subject tested which is in fact unreliable and it is not clear who made it and who gave them, because they would receive them via sms. As a result, students didn’t study seriously and no real hard study existed.
The last reason is that students felt exhausted. Some students felt sleepy, Some other felt hungry too. These because the tutoring session held in the afternoon at 2 PM, only one hour left for Dzuhur prayer and lunch. Morning class started from 7.15 AM to 1 PM. Some students didn’t even had chances to eat their lunch.
From the reasons listed above, it is obvious that a well-planned preparation for national exam is a must if the national exam standard point is to achieve. This plan should include increasing students’ motivation internally and externally such as high spirit shown by the teachers teaching tutoring session, providing more helps for students in order to lessen students dependency on the key answers such as giving them religious teaching about good and bad values, confidence, and so on. The plan also should consider the tutoring time. Give students more time to rest after morning classes or schools can extend the morning class until 3 o’clock PM. Last but not least, schools should lessen the students’ pressure by maximizing the regular morning class by tightening the attendance of both students and teachers in the classroom, so that there would be no time wasting; and the tutoring sessions only for drilling problems of school subjects.
References:
———–.2006. Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 20 Tahun 2003: SISDIKNAS 2006. Bandung: Fokusmedia.
Asmani, Jamal Ma’mur.2009. Jurus-jurus Belajar Efektif untuk SMP dan SMA. Yogyakarta: Diva Press.
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pearlred26
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