FK UII Students Win Gold Medals in the 2022 MIPA National Olympiad

MALANG CITY (fk.uii.ac.id) – Ahmad Alvin Noor Muchtar, Faculty of Medicine student Universitas Islam Indonesia class of 2020 won a brilliant achievement by winning a gold medal in the Biology branch in the final round of the 2022 National Higher Education Mathematics Natural Science Olympiad (ONMIPA-PT) organized by the National Achievement Center (Puspresnas), Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia, 20-21 September 2022 at Brawijaya University Malang.

ONMIPA-PT 2022 is the largest national competition in Indonesia which is attended by participants from 87 tertiary institutions from all regions of Indonesia who have passed the selection and are entitled to take part in the final stages of ONMIPA-PT. With the gold medal presented by Alvin, the UII contingent managed to rank 1 for private universities and rank 5 for universities throughout Indonesia in the final standings. An achievement that we are very proud of, of course, and further strengthens the reputation of FK UII and UII as one of the best FKs and universities in Indonesia with "UNGUL" accreditation.
At ONMIPA-PT 2022 there are four scientific branches that are contested, namely: Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. To get to the main stage, each participant in each branch must go through a very rigorous selection process, starting from the university's internal level, regional selection at the provincial level, to national selection to determine the top 65 best from regional selection throughout Indonesia. It was these 65 participants who competed in the final round and fought for champions in each branch, which consisted of: gold medalists, silver medalists, bronze medalists and honorable mentions.

The 2022 ONMIPA-PT area selection will be held online on 28-29 July 2022, while the 2022 ONMIPA-PT will be held on 20-21 September 2022 offline.
"At the university level, the internal selection from UII is quite strict because the participants in the selection for the Biology branch are the most among the other branches. The regional selection question is in the form of multiple choice questions with 200 question numbers," Alvin explained.
Meanwhile, the main round of ONMIPA-PT 2022 consists of four sessions in two days. On the first day the material tested included Cell Biology, Genetics and Molecular Biotechnology, Physiology and Metabolism. While on the second day the exam materials consisted of Developmental, Reproductive and Behavioral Biology, Biodiversity, and Ecology.

Interestingly, all of the Olympic questions consist of essay questions so that understanding and skills in explaining are greatly tested here. Each session consists of 6 questions that have 3 branches, so that a total of 18 questions must be completed in 90 minutes by direct writing. Each question has a value of 5 points which will be accumulated later.
“I did my preparation for university level selection by studying independently armed with material that I had mastered from high school. When qualifying for the regional level, UII provides quite intensive guidance with the Olympic coaching institute. When preparing for the national level, intensive guidance was carried out for 16 days, with a duration of 2 hours per day. Total mentoring and preparation takes about 2-3 months. In addition, mental and health preparation is also quite important so that we can focus on competing," explained Alvin, who is an alumnus of Islamic Modern Islamic Boarding Schools and MA Assalaam Sukoharjo.

For Alvin, ONMIPA-PT 2022 is not just a competition. More than that, Biology is the field of science that he likes the most. "My love for Biology is also what keeps my enthusiasm up, it's like when we like something it will definitely be fought for no matter how difficult it is, so that the feeling of joy will also make fatigue feel lighter," said Alvin.

When asked why he liked Biology so much, the son of Mr. Muchtar Machjudin and Mrs. Umi Hanifah from Ponorogo answered briefly: "Biology taught me to do tadabbur," he said.
In order to stay focused and calm during the race, in addition to increasing worship, good deeds, and asking for prayers from family, friends and others, Alvin also shared specific tips which were quite effective in supporting his performance.

“Learn according to capacity, don't do too much until you stay up all night because it's actually not effective. Apart from that, I also eat in moderation because too much of it makes it difficult to focus," concluded Alvin who also serves as the Coordinator of the Primary Research Project at the UII Student Laboratory (LABMA). (dsh)