The recently concluded national exams for junior and high school students have seemingly failed to jack up the number of students looking for a quick boost of confidence by attending tutoring or exam trial classes at several educational institutes across the city.

Endy Arista, a marketing official at Primagama, an educational institute that gives special exam preparation courses, said the number of students applying for the special courses had declined in the last few years, due partly to the extra hours made by the schools prior to the national exams.

"Most schools already give their students extra hours to study. As a result, the students are too tired to attend another class," Endy said at the one of the institute's branches in Cawang, East Jakarta.

Currently, about fifty students are taking the special courses at Primagama's Cawang branch.

Sapari, head of marketing at Ganesha Operation, another educational institute along the lines of Primagama, said his firm's attempt to develop special classes to help prepare students for the national exams were in vain.

"Few students applied for the *special national exams* class," he said at Ganesha's branch in Tebet, South Jakarta,

The Tebet branch currently serves around 200 ninth-graders.

Some students still apply for additional courses at the institutes, despite their already demanding school hours, as they seek other avenues to master the subjects taught with mediocrity at their schools.

"The schools' teaching methods are mostly tedious and dull," Endy said.

"So the students take courses here for a livelier learning atmosphere."

He added students often asked the institute's teachers for special advice sessions outside the scheduled course hours.

Sapari said private tutoring was among the primary attractions at the institute.

"We give the students a break every 30 minutes, energizing them with jokes or games, so as not to overburden them," he added.

Students in their final year often make the most out of try-outs, or test simulations, to gauge their understanding.

"Our students' try-out results this year are quite satisfying, but we also had to give extra training sessions to some who were weak in certain subjects to ensure they would be ready for the exams," Sapari said.

Sugino, a promotions official at the West Jakarta branch of Nurul Fikri, said students' results at the branch were "not bad".

"They would almost certainly pass the national exams," he said.

Nurul Fikri boasts around 280 ninth-graders.

"Some of the students prefer to attend our classes rather than the extra hours at school, so we sent letters of recommendation to their schools, explaining they were taking their extra hours here," Sugino said.

He too saw no marked increase in enrollment when the exams drew near.

"However, the students became more disciplined in attending classes," he said.

On average, students spend around four-and-a-half to nine hours a week attending courses at these educational institutes, with extra hours as the exams approached. (dis)

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