The Unlearning Curve: Guiding Students from Rote Rules to Critical Reading for TKA 2025
The introduction of the Tes Kemampuan Akademik (TKA) in 2025 marked a pivotal moment in Indonesian secondary education, fundamentally changing the landscape of English preparation for SMA and SMK students. As a guide, my role immediately transformed from dispensing grammar formulas to cultivating true critical literacy. The TKA's focus on Level B1 proficiency---demanding complex textual analysis, inference, and evaluation---challenged a generation accustomed to the structure and safety of rote learning and multiple-choice questions focused purely on grammatical correctness. The most striking realization I encountered was that many of my seemingly proficient students were trapped in a "grammar cage," knowing the rules of the language perfectly, yet unable to navigate the "comprehension field" required by the new, demanding assessment.
My initial classes were eye-opening. Students could flawlessly identify a present perfect tense, but they faltered when asked to infer the author's tone or distinguish between fact and opinion in an analytical exposition text of 300 words. The TKA English module, with its emphasis on texts drawn from vocational and academic contexts---far removed from simple daily conversation---required a complete pedagogical overhaul. The shift was away from memorizing lists of descriptive adjectives and toward mastering complex skills like reading to predict consequences or assessing the validity of an argument within a long text.
To break this habit, I introduced "contextual reading sprints." We stopped drilling passive voice structures in isolation and instead analyzed five different text types (narrative, procedure, analytical) each session, prioritizing the TKA competencies: Inferential Understanding and Evaluation/Appreciation. For my SMK students, this meant analyzing vocational texts, such as standard operating procedures or business proposals, linking their English practice directly to their future careers. For SMA students, it meant deconstructing complex academic research abstracts to identify the main thesis and potential implications.
The breakthrough moment came with an ambitious students named Rasyad ( SMK student) and Fadhiel ( SMA student ), who previously relied heavily on translating every word. When presented with a challenging TKA-style prompt asking them to predict the consequences of a proposed government policy described in a text, he stopped reaching for his dictionary. Instead, he utilized the critical thinking strategies we had practiced---identifying the logical sequence, recognizing the author's bias, and connecting the explicit evidence to an implied outcome. His resulting inference was correct, a victory less about his English vocabulary and more about his newfound academic maturity. This experience underscored the true value of the TKA preparation: it is not merely about testing English language knowledge, but about elevating our students' readiness for the complex reading and critical thinking demands of higher education and the modern workforce.
Mastering the TKA's Complex Question Formats: The Strategy of Statement Validation
The transition to the Tes Kemampuan Akademik (TKA) 2025 forced a necessary shift away from isolated grammar study toward holistic comprehension. Yet, the greatest strategic challenge for both me and my SMA/SMK students lay in conquering the Pilihan Ganda Kompleks (PGK) format. These questions---whether requiring the selection of multiple correct answers (MCMA) or validating claims in a True/False matrix---demanded a level of sustained accuracy and textual engagement that traditional single-choice questions never did. Students quickly learned that one error in four options meant zero credit.
