#ngampus

8 Juni 2015

Saya suka senin

Seperti permulaan Juni

Seperti pertengahan musim. 

Seperti ini

Diselimuti hawa baik

Smoga diberkahi,

Senin ini.

Oke tin,

Day - 1. Terlalu nano-nano. Harus doa terus dilanjut tidur meskipun kayanya agak susah... Semangat besok yang mau sidang ✊

Selamat, kamu sudah sejauh ini. Ayo Dif 1/3 lagi, pasti bisa!

Ps.

The first story I’m going to share is about how I ended up here… in graduate school and learning about power electronics.

Company Employee Phase

I graduated from bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering, subdepartment Electronics, in 2014. My dream was to be a chip designer. Somehow I landed a job as an embedded system engineer for power devices. Luckily I like almost every topic about electrical engineering. I’m not extremely good at them, but I like them enough to enjoy studying them.

Two years into working, I still had some hopes in pursuing further studies on physical electronics or nanorobotics. However, I lacked the courage and confidence to apply for scholarships, contact the professors, etc. Entering the third year of working, I thought that perhaps I didn’t need master degree. I believed it was okay for me to settle with the job I had (still have) and not think about going to school abroad, or getting into another company, etc.

The sad truth was: my career wasn’t going well. I’m not going into detail about that, but suffice to say that I was forced to think of a way of moving up in life without the job in the equation.

So, a bit randomly, last October (marked 3,5 years I’ve worked at that company) I contacted a senior at uni about chances to study under his supervisor. This illustrious supervisor is known for being strict and annoying, but the students that passed his supervision are usually top notch (I’ve known a few of them).

Turned out the supervisor was looking for someone to help with his research (or something). He told me to take the entrance exam for the earliest admission period if possible (and it was possible to apply for January admission), and that he would cover my tuition fee and pay me for part-timing at the lab doing odd jobs.

Amazing, huh?

I breeze through the story and emotional struggle I had regarding the non-ideality of my professional career, so it might sound like I’m extremely lucky and have it easy. Actually, yeah, I think I’m very lucky. But, it wasn’t easy. This super lucky opportunity came because I failed at my job. That failure was actually a blessing in disguise. It was heartbreaking, and I still bemoan it even now. But, I’m trying to feel more positive about it. That painful experience is what led me to the life I’m living now, after all.

So… here I am… student once again XD

Taking the Tests

There are four tests you have to go through in order to be admitted at ITB:

1. English proficiency test. But, if you still have a valid English proficiency certificate, you can just use that… if you have over:

5.0 (or was it 5.5?) for IELTS, or

475 for TOEFL PBT/ITP, or

around 70 (forgot)  for TOEFL iBT,

or 77 for ELPT (equals to about 475 score in TOEFL PBT/ITP).

Pretty low, right? Maybe because we use English mostly to read books and papers.

2. Academic potential test, or we all call it TPA. The test is being organized by Bappenas. The minimum score is 450… I guess… or was it 475?

3. Written test at the department you’re applying.

4. Interview at the department/subdepartment you’re applying.

For English proficiency test, I took ELPT which was being held by, and at, ITB. This test’s result is only usable for registering at ITB. I took this test because it was the cheapest XDDD (IDR75k, valid for 2 years). I got 146!!! They said it’s equal to 610 in PBT/ITP. Yay.

The academic prowess test was super exhausting. It ran for three hours, with 250 questions. I think I truly answered only about half of the questions, and just picked the answers randomly for the remaining questions in the last 5 minutes of the test. But, amazingly enough, I got 681 XDDD Some tips for this test are: if you don’t know, or don’t have enough time to think about the answer, just choose a random choice. It’s multiple choice, no penalty for wrong answers, so basically you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain lol. And… immediately fill out the circle of your answer of choice, and don’t just put a dot on it to mark it as your early guess. You’ll get tired filling out the circles all at once that way. Besides, there are 250 questions for 180 minutes. You have less than 1 minute time for one question. There will be no time to revisit that question. And, if you’re daring enough, fill out your answer while you read the next question XD

Most people say that the writing test and the interview are not determining factor of whether you’re accepted or not. That they are only formalities. But, a friend told me that an applicant in her department didn’t get accepted because of the written test. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to be prepared and study before the test.

Okay… so… on top of writing a journal post a day in my diary throughout 2018 (there have been no-journal days actually, and it’s just the first two weeks of the new year daaamnnn… but it’s okay, I’m gonna try not to skip any more days. Fingers crossed!), I’ve decided to make Ngampus Series stories on my tumblr!!! #applausePlease

Gawd it’s been so long since I wrote a contentful (is that a word?) post on tumblr. I hope this Ngampus Series will make up for it.

Q#1. Why suddenly wanting to make a series?

Because of two things:

1. I need to always write. And what is easier to write than my own life story? Someone said somewhere: writing is sharing (I think it’s in a motivational book I borrowed from a friend, Journey to the True You or something… I forgot >.<). Writing is not about telling people your ideas. It is about sharing. It is about contributing what you know to the people around you. Least of all, writing is not about earning money (though I seriously hope I can live off of writing someday lol… but you get the picture).

2. I have recently started a new phase of life LOL… or more accurately: restarted a phase of life. What is that? Go straight to the next point!!! XDDD

Q#2. Why Ngampus series?

Because… now I’m officially a graduate school student ^^’a Plus… I’m a bit inspired by other people who put blog posts about their adventure applying to graduate schools, taking the tests, taking the classes, and all that.

Q#3. Will it be regular?

No. Lol… I’ll just post when there’s interesting thing happening, or if I need to recap some episodes of a graduate student’s life that is mine.

Perpustakaan membuat saya pening.

Dengungan AC, buku-buku yang bertumpuk, gumaman rendah mahasiswa yang berdiskusi, tugas yang entah bagaimana tak kunjung berakhir; walau diakhir pekan sekalipun, dan kamu.

Kamu yang menyindir saya, kenapa repot-repot pergi ke perpustakaan kalau mencari buku pun hanya tinggal sekali tekan, dan tentu saja tak perlu beranjak dari sofa nyaman di kos-an.

saya bungkam, diam-diam menyetujui pendapatmu. Tapi, saya gengsi tentu saja, untuk mengatakannya dengan terang. Salahkan dosen yang meminta referensi karya sastra lama; yang bahkan di jaringan sedunia tak bisa saya temukan salinannya, saya temuka berdebu di ujung rak nomor dua puluh dua.

Saya sendiri yang mulai frustasi karena pertanyaan nomor empat tak kunjung terjawab, sejenak melirikmu, yang memandang malas melampaui kaca jendela dan menggumamkan lagu entah apa.

Ketika akhirnya saya mendesah, kamu hanya menoleh kepala. Sudah selesai, tanyamu bahkan tanpa basa-basi, dan sekali lagi saya bungkam.

Kamu mendecih, membereskan bukumu yang berserak di meja, beranjak dan menarik diri. Dengan hanya sebaris kata saya duluan yang membuat saya tercekat, kamu bahkan tidak mau repot-repot menoleh ke belakang.