Right on Friday, May 17, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) as the official agency responsible for organizing international tests has announced the test results of the Toefl IBT International Exam for the May period. The surprising thing is that a high school student from Indonesia by the name of Muhammad Suraz Harfansyah managed to achieve the highest score by exceeding the score of 100 on the Toefl IBT International Exam with two segments getting perfect scores from the four segments tested during the test, namely Reading and Listening. “Actually, I was quite surprised by the announcement, because I thought that getting that score was quite impossible and I didn’t really expect it. I can only be grateful and say thank God,” said Suraz.
Citing official statistics data from the Educational Testing Service (ETS) regarding the Test and Score Data Summary 2022, the average score achieved by test takers with Indonesian mother tongue is only 85. Thus, the achievement achieved by Suraz today is very great and meaningful for Indonesia. This can prove that Indonesia’s education system is no less competitive than other countries. Not only that, but his mentor who used to be an overseas scholarship winner is also very proud. “I am not surprised or astonished by my mentee, because even though he has only been studying for 1 month, he is a fast learner so he quickly mastered the material. I am sure that God willing, he can be accepted for a scholarship at any overseas campus,” said Suraz’s mentor.
Suraz himself took the international test with the aim of applying for undergraduate programs at overseas universities that he dreamed of, one of which was an Ivy League university. The Ivy League itself is eight universities that were once named the best universities in the world last century, but the Ivy League nickname is still very popular today so many students still struggle so hard to be accepted at one of the Ivy League universities.
Raft upstream, swim to the shore. Hurt first, have fun later. It seems that the proverb is a suitable sentence for Suraz. Suraz prepared for his exams very carefully. He organized his study schedule very purposefully from morning to evening, even often he delayed his sleep to learn more about the material that was tested later so that he could be better prepared when taking the exam. On the day of the exam, Suraz left with his father in the morning to Jakarta, precisely in the Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK) area to take the exam. He prayed and took the exam seriously. As a result, his wait was rewarded when he managed to get a very high score on the exam. “My family and I were really looking forward to the results and when I heard the announcement of the exam results, my family and I checked it and were really happy and excited when we saw that the score was really high above 100,” said Suraz.
With Suraz’s very high grades, he no longer has to worry about his university applications as he is now qualified to apply to any university in the world. He even received many emails with official invitations from leading universities abroad to study at their universities. However, Suraz is still thinking carefully about which university he will attend. In addition, he also intends to open an English tutoring center in the near future that specializes in Academic English such as Toefl IBT, Toefl PBT, IELTS, and other similar tests. “I’m thinking of sharing my knowledge like my mentor, so maybe in the future I will create a YouTube channel about education or open a private mentoring class and become a mentor,” said Suraz.