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Greater Jakarta undergraduates take test for Science Olympics
The air was tense in three classrooms in the University of Indonesia's mathematics and natural sciences faculty, as undergraduate students attempted to solve problems on pink question sheets
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The air was tense in three classrooms in the University of Indonesia's mathematics and natural sciences faculty, as undergraduate students attempted to solve problems on pink question sheets.
Foreheads were wrinkled and eyes were glued to pages filled with numbers and formulas. Students concentrated as lecturers and volunteers overseeing the test watched their every move.
The silence in the room was broken with the sound of a bell two hours later, signaling the end of the preliminary tests for the first National Natural Science Olympics for Universities in Indonesia (OSNPTI).
More than 400 students from different universities across Greater Jakarta sat the preliminary tests for the Olympics on Monday.
"The test went so-so, the first 20 questions were quite easy but the last 20 were hard," said Agustinus, a third year student from President University, Cikarang, who took the physics test.
Most of the students said they were participating in the Olympics to gain experience, and that winning the competition was not their main aim.
"I've been competing in events like these since high school. Now I want to know what it's like at a university level," said Nazib, a first year student from University of Indonesia.
The Olympics are part of PT Pertamina's corporate social responsibility program, and are being conducted in cooperation with UI. The Olympics are also supported by the Directorate General of Higher Education.
The Olympics are divided into two phases: a regional preliminary phase and a final phase.
The regional phase sees more than 4,000 participants from 55 public and 69 private universities, in 30 provinces, sit a preliminary test in either mathematics, physics or chemistry.
The results of the preliminary tests will be announced next Monday. The Olympics committee will then select the best 99 students from these three fields. The final phase will be held at the University of Indonesia, from Dec. 5-9.
The Olympics use international standards, and each test question is worth a different number of points, based on its level of complexity. This is designed to minimize the chance of students getting the same total score.
More than 1,500 students took the preliminary math test, 1,450 took chemistry, and some 1,100 took physics. (fmb)
