UNAIR Entrance Exam Guide for the Independent Admission Track

Universitas Airlangga's independent admission (Seleksi Mandiri, or SMUA) runs through four routes: the Written Exam route (called Mandiri Reguler in 2025), the UTBK Plus route, the Achievement route and the Partnership (Kemitraan) route. Each calls for different preparation, so the route is worth settling before any study timetable is drawn up. Applicants who leave the decision open often spend their first weeks on material that never appears in the route they end up taking.

On the Written Exam route, admission rests on a computer-based test that UNAIR runs on its Surabaya campus. It contains the TPA and a subject test (TKA) for the chosen study programme, and no UTBK score is required. The Partnership route uses the same tests and also requires an official recommendation from a UNAIR partner. The UTBK Plus route uses the current year's UTBK-SNBT score and adds a UNAIR subject test on top. The Achievement route is built on a portfolio, school report grades and academic or non-academic achievements, has no written test, and is open to SNBP applicants who chose UNAIR but were not admitted.

For tutoring, that split translates into fairly clear priorities. Written Exam and Partnership candidates divide their hours between the three TPA areas and one subject block. UTBK Plus candidates concentrate on the subject test for their stream, since general reasoning is largely covered by the UTBK score already. Achievement candidates organise their documents well ahead, and many keep the written exam in view as a backup plan. Route rules can change from year to year, so the current terms on ppmb.unair.ac.id are always the final word before registering.

Verbal TPA items come in four shapes: synonyms, antonyms, analogies and short reading passages, all in Indonesian. Synonyms and antonyms test vocabulary head-on, so a wide word bank pays off quickly. Analogies ask for something else, a feel for the kind of relationship between two words, and this is where many candidates drop marks by grabbing the option that merely sounds close.

The most reliable way to train analogies is to name the relationship before looking at the options. Doctor and stethoscope are a user and a tool; heat and expansion are a cause and an effect; wheel and car are a part and a whole. Once the link is put into one sentence, say "a doctor uses a stethoscope to work", each option is tested with the same sentence, and the ones that sound odd drop out on their own. Sorting analogy questions in a notebook by relationship type makes the patterns quick to spot.

Vocabulary grows through review cards that come back every few days, fed by words from missed questions and from everyday reading on mixed topics such as science news, economics or culture. Short passages are practised by reading the question first and then locating the sentence in the text that supports the answer. Verbal skill is settling in when the relationship in an analogy can be named within seconds and every reading answer can be traced to its source sentence.

The logical area holds two families of questions. The first is the syllogism: two or more premises followed by a question about which conclusion is valid. The second is the analytical puzzle, for example arranging a seating order, a duty rota or the positions of several people from a list of conditions. Both demand orderly thinking, and this area takes the longest to build, so it is best started early in the preparation.

Syllogisms turn on the quantity words all, some and none. Take two statements: every UNAIR medicine applicant sits the independent test, and a few of the people sitting that test come from outside East Java. Nothing here proves that any medicine applicant comes from outside East Java, yet tempting conclusions of exactly that shape are planted among the options. A helpful habit is to draw a simple circle for each group and then test a conclusion by hunting for one situation that would break it. If such a situation exists, the conclusion is invalid.

Analytical puzzles are practised by turning the conditions into a grid or a row of positions before answering anything. The most restrictive condition, such as "B sits at the far left", goes down first, and the rest are added one at a time. Conditional rules like "if C is in the middle, D is not next to C" are noted separately and only applied once their trigger is met. Practice begins with three or four conditions and works up to five or six.

The logical area is under control when a learner can explain why a conclusion fails by pointing to a single counterexample, and when the position grid is finished before the options are even read.

Applicants to UNAIR's social science and humanities programmes, for instance in Law, Economics and Business, Social and Political Sciences, Humanities or Psychology, prepare for the social studies subject test. Its two supporting subjects are set by the chosen programme, usually from Geography with population, climate and regional studies; Indonesian and world History, including the contemporary period; Sociology with social structure and social change; and Economics with micro, macro, market mechanisms and basic accounting.

Each subject has a practice method that suits it. History is easier to hold through timelines the learner writes out by hand, since the order of events and their causes are frequent questions. Sociology works well with concept and example pairs: each term, such as social mobility or acculturation, is matched with one real event. Geography calls for a habit of reading maps, charts and population data, for example working out population density or interpreting a population pyramid.

Economics is often the soft spot for social studies candidates because it includes calculation: elasticity, market equilibrium and simple accounting journals. This is where the fast arithmetic from the TPA numerical area earns its keep again. Learners who feel more at home with memorising content should give economics calculation questions a regular slot from the start, so that this part brings no surprises in a mock.

Readiness for the social studies TKA shows when a history timeline can be retold without notes and economics calculations get done at the same pace as recall questions.

A mock score tells a learner where they stand; an error log tells them what to fix. Research by Hattie and Timperley (2007) placed specific feedback among the strongest influences on learning, and an error log is a form of feedback anyone can build after each practice set.

Every wrong answer is logged with its type, and there are four. A concept gap means the material has not been understood yet, such as not knowing how to read a second-level series. A misread means the question was taken the wrong way, like skipping the word "not" in the stem. A careless slip means the method was right but the arithmetic went astray. Running out of time means the question was within reach but never got attempted. Each type needs its own remedy: concept gaps need the topic relearned, misreads need a habit of underlining key words, slips need a short checking step, and time trouble needs pacing practice.

Logged questions are redone a few days later without looking at the worked solution, to confirm the correct method has stuck. At the end of each week the log is reviewed for repeating patterns. If one type dominates, say misreads on logic items, the following week's practice is aimed there. This is often where a tutor helps most, because patterns in someone's mistakes can be easier for a second person to see.