The first story I’m going to share is about how I ended up here… in graduate school and learning about power electronics.
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.
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
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.
The interview: I think it’s up to the interviewer’s preferences, but in my case, there were nine applicants and only one interviewer, so we all did the interview together. The interviewer gave us a list of things to mention during our introduction, and if he deemed it necessary to ask, he’d ask more. And the interview was in English. And I got first turn. What the luck XD (actually I was so relieved to be first, because then I didn’t have to anxiously wait for my turn while hearing other people’s selling points—which could be detrimental to my laughable confidence).
