Hitam Manis Junior High School Girl

It was Monday morning, the time for the students to start their day with school activities like usual; go to school, get lessons from their teachers, involve in discussions with their friends, talk in the canteen while having food and drinks, and so on. But that day, three girls, with junior high school uniforms, were not at their school, but in a small food stall waiting for their rujak (a kind of fruit salad with pungent dressing), which was still made by a middle age woman, the owner of the food stall. I greeted them because I was curious they were not at school in the school hours.

We started the conversation and then I knew the name of the girls were Pinky, Ayu and Tri. They were the grade three students of Junior High School or SMP 1 Singaraja, and it could be said the alumnus of that school since they had had their National Final Examination and now they were still waiting for the result of it. They were from their school to return the school books in the library. Then, I understood the reason why they were not at school, not because they escaped from the boring classes, but they were in the transition period, from junior high school to be the senior high school students.

I remembered the time I was at their age, felt free from studying hard for the examination, and at the same time, be afraid of the result of that final examination and the result of the entrance test in the favorite senior high school in this city as well. The three girls stated the same feeling when I asked them. They were afraid of the result of their final examination since in this year, the standard score was higher than last year, and they would be so ashamed and psychology depressed if they were fail for that. It did not matter what their score was, if they were accepted in Senior High School or SMA N 1 Singaraja. Pinky, the girl who had long hair, said they and almost 80% of SMPN 1 Singaraja students and other students from other schools in Buleleng and out of Buleleng, had registered and had the entrance test in SMA N 1 Singaraja. The test included Mathematics, Bahasa Indonesia, English, and science.

The science test included physics and biology. The score of those subjects were used to determine which students that should be accepted and which should be not, after those scores were listed. Besides, the students were given further Mathematics test, that was considered more difficult that the previous one, to determine in which class the student would be placed after accepted in that school.

The black sweet girl (hitam manis) sat between the two girls, named Ayu, said they were also attended the entrance test in SMA N 4 Singaraja. SMA N 4 Singaraja now became the second international standard school in Singaraja after SMA N 1 Singaraja.  Although that was the first time for this school conducted the entrance test for the new students, the participants were almost 1000 students from Buleleng and other part of Bali. It was really tiring day for the students who attended the test. The test was done in one day, from 8 am to 4 pm. Mathematics, Bahasa Indonesia, English, Science (physics and biology) and social (geography, commerce and history) tests were scheduled in one day. At the break time, they bought a meal in the canteen for their lunch because the committee did not provide food and drinks for the students.

The result of the entrance tests, both in SMA N 1 and SMA N 4 Singaraja will be announced on June 18, 2007. And the result of The National Final Examination will be announced on 23 June 2007. The three girls were nervous but they were sure they could pass the tests well because they had prepared them well.