From Saturday (May 11) to Monday (May 13), the Politeknik Statistika STIS (Polstat STIS) held Phase I of the New Student Admissions Selection (SPMB) for the 2019/2020 Academic Year simultaneously in all provinces across Indonesia. DKI Jakarta Province was no exception, with the selection taking place at the Otista 64C Campus. Similar to the previous year, the 2019 SPMB utilized a Computer-Based Test (CBT). With 15,856 participants from across Indonesia, Phase I of the 2019 SPMB proceeded smoothly.

What differentiates this year's selection of prospective students from state universities under the auspices of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) is that high school (SMA/MA) graduates majoring in social sciences are allowed to register. The equivalency of the mathematics curriculum in the science and social science majors was the basis for this change. Furthermore, the vocational Polstat STIS program should also be open to high school graduates with a social sciences background.

Furthermore, the 2019 SPMB also opens opportunities for high school (SMA)/Islamic high school (SMK) graduates throughout Indonesia, except for provinces in Java and Bali, to enroll in the Diploma III (DIII) study program. The increasing need for Sub-district Statistics Coordinators (KSK) has resulted in a substantial quota (150) for this study program. "We want to meet the KSK quota, which is currently still very low. Relying solely on candidates from certain regions is certainly not enough," said the Principal Secretary of the Statistics Indonesia (BPS RI), Dr. Adi Lumaksono, M.A., while monitoring the first day of the 2019 SPMB phase I.

The subject tested in the first phase of the selection process is mathematics. Next, participants who pass this phase will undergo a series of rigorous tests, including the Basic Competency Test (SKD), a Psychometric Test, and a Health and Fitness Test. "The SPMB Polstat STIS test series has been tailored to BPS's need for resources who are not only intelligent but also possess character and are ready to dedicate themselves to BPS," added Dr. Adi Lumaksono, M.A.

This year, improvements were made to the Computer-Based Entrance Exam (UMBK) application, network architecture, and server, as explained by Dwy Bagus Cahyono, SST, MT, the coordinator of the Phase I technical team for the DKI Jakarta region. The UMBK application has been optimized to address the bottleneck encountered last year when participants logged in simultaneously. In terms of implementing the network architecture and servers, last year's UMBK used two servers to run the UMBK in the Jakarta area, separated between the computer lab and the auditorium. This year, only one server with Intel Xeon specifications and 8GB of RAM is required. The challenge faced is displaying test results at the end of the session. If it is assumed that all 225 participants in one session are present and want to access the test results simultaneously, the server or system's performance will be heavy in loading the test results. Therefore, a solution that can be implemented is for participants to take turns viewing the test results. By doing this alternating system for about one minute for each sector, it can lighten the server's load on loading the test results. Furthermore, regarding the technical implementation of this second year of CBT, the Director of Polstat STIS, Dr. Erni Tri Astuti, M. Math, explained that this year's CBT innovation is that test results from the regions can be monitored directly by the central government. However, due to limited server capacity, the server was down on the first day. "Thankfully, the team was able to overcome this problem on the second and third days by resetting it between sessions. In the future, we want to develop a system similar to the SKD CAT (Computer Assisted Basic Ability Selection Test), so that when participants finish the test, parents outside the room can see their scores," she said.

From the participants' perspective, some admitted they didn't experience much difficulty while taking the test but were slightly disappointed when they saw their scores at the end of the session. Some participants also said some of the material was more difficult than the practice questions they had prepared. "Actually, studying wasn't that difficult, but it turned out that many of the questions didn't match their predictions, so when the results came out, well, that was that," said one participant who had taken the exam.

Later, participants who pass the Stage I selection will be announced on May 18, 2019 on the official SPMB Polstat STIS website.