ANBK & School Exam Laptop Rental: Specs and Unit Count

Renting laptops for ANBK (Indonesia's national computer-based assessment) and other school exams is cheapest — and lowest-risk — when you rent only the shortfall between your existing computer lab and the seats you actually need per session, not the entire participant quota from scratch. On Arental's CBT exam laptop rental page, the standard tier is Rp 50,000 per unit per day, already including exam-mode configuration (locked ChromeOS or a Windows lockdown browser), a connection to the school's proctor server, and a signed handover certificate (BAST). This guide focuses on the most common scale in the field: a single public or private school with a sample quota of 30–45 students, not a multi-venue project like combined PPDB admissions or CPNS civil-service testing.

What Is ANBK, and Why Do Schools Keep Running Short on Units?

ANBK replaced the old national exam (UN) starting in 2021 and is mandatory for grade-5 primary students, grade-8 junior-high students, and grade-11 senior-high/vocational students. It typically runs over two days: day one covers the AKM (Minimum Competency Assessment) literacy and numeracy tests for students, day two covers the character survey and learning-environment survey. Unlike the old UN, which every student had to sit, ANBK uses a sampling scheme — schools with large enrolments send only a representative subset of students, while smaller schools can run a full census of every student.

The practical problem is simple: the sample quota is usually larger than the number of lab computers a school actually owns. A public school with 20 lab computers, for example, might have to fit a junior-high sample quota of 45 students into a limited window — meaning it either adds units from outside or splits into more sessions (which drags the exam schedule out over more days). This is where short-term laptop rental fits in: closing the gap between the units you already have and the seats you need per session, without buying hardware that would sit idle for the other eleven months of the year.

How Many Units Do You Actually Need?

The most common mistake school exam committees make is renting the full participant quota as if every seat needed to be filled at once, when the exam actually runs across multiple sessions. The formula is the same one used for large-scale CBT projects — just with much smaller numbers:

Seats per session = participant quota ÷ number of sessions you plan to run per day.

As a general illustration of typical sample quotas per level (not a fixed official figure — the annual quota is set by the Ministry of Education and can change by school year; smaller schools can run a full census instead of sampling):

One important distinction: the "backup" quota set alongside the sample quota (usually a handful of extra students) is a student backup pool — used if a main participant is absent, not extra laptop units. Spare laptop hardware is a separate matter, and that's between you and your rental vendor, not something the ANBK quota dictates.

Chromebook or Windows Laptop for ANBK?

This question rarely gets discussed, yet it has a direct impact on price and setup speed. The ANBK client application runs in a browser, so technically it works on both ChromeOS and Windows — the choice comes down to operations, not compatibility:

The practical trade-off: Chromebooks are quicker to prepare and tougher for students who aren't yet used to handling a laptop, but if your school also runs other applications outside ANBK (a desktop-based digital report-card app, say), a Windows unit is more flexible since it isn't confined to the web/Android ecosystem.

Safe Spec for ANBK Clients

Because ANBK is web-based and doesn't require heavy graphics rendering, the minimum spec sits well below what an office productivity laptop needs:

One thing that's often overlooked: ANBK units aren't connected directly to the public internet the way an ordinary online test would be. The architecture most schools use is semi-online — the questions are downloaded in advance to a local proctor server (usually a school- or district-owned laptop or PC acting as the ANBK VM), then participant units connect to that server over the school's LAN/WiFi, with answers pushed to the central server after the session once connectivity is available. In practice, the units you rent don't need a stable internet connection throughout the exam — just a stable connection to the school's local network. Our technicians check the school's LAN/WiFi and test the connection to the proctor server before any unit is considered ready.

How Much Does ANBK Laptop Rental Cost? Two Real-World Scenarios

Arental's per-unit, per-day price already includes exam-mode configuration, the connection to the proctor server, and technical support during the exam window. The simulation below uses the standard-tier rate of Rp 50,000/unit/day. Here's a simulation for a junior high school with a sample quota of 45 students, 2 sessions per day, over a 2-day exam window (day 1 AKM, day 2 surveys):

Scenario A — School with no computer lab of its own (full rental):

Scenario B — School with an existing 20-unit lab (topping up):

The difference is stark: the topping-up scenario costs only a fifth of the full-rental scenario, because you're only paying for the real shortfall — not the entire quota. This is also why we always ask how many lab units a school already owns before sending a quotation, instead of assuming a full rental by default. For public schools or government-linked institutions that need formal bookkeeping, every transaction is supported by an official invoice and Article 23 withholding tax handled per the school treasurer's requirements.

Preparation Timeline for a Single School — Much Leaner Than a Multi-Venue Project

Because the scale is one venue and a small volume, an ANBK school project doesn't need the D-21 multi-venue workflow that institutional CBT projects run. A more realistic timeline for a single school looks like this:

• D-10 to D-7 — Confirm the unit shortfall. The school calculates the gap between its existing lab units and the seats needed per session, then tells us how many units to rent plus which type of proctor server is in use.
• D-6 to D-4 — Imaging and connectivity testing. Additional units are configured (ChromeOS exam mode or Windows lockdown) at our Kebon Jeruk warehouse, then boot-tested against a dummy ANBK client before shipping.
• D-3 to D-1 — Delivery and local network testing. Units are set up in the exam room, connected to the school's LAN/WiFi, and tested against the local proctor server. IT teachers/exam operators get a short briefing on boot and basic troubleshooting.
• Exam day (2-day window) — Technical hotline. An on-site spare is ready for any problem unit; the replacement SLA is under 2 hours in Greater Jakarta and within 1×24 hours on business days outside Greater Jakarta.
• D+1 — Collection and BAST. Units are collected, physically inspected, and a handover certificate (BAST) is signed as the record of transfer for the school's files.

That D-10 window comfortably covers a topping-up need of 5–10 units. If your school opts for a full rental (Scenario A), or if there's a related event running alongside ANBK — a parent briefing or a teacher workshop, say — the coordination pattern looks more like event-organizer laptop rental, which covers logistics for multiple activities in a single venue.

What If Your School Needs a Lab Outside ANBK Season Too?

If your need isn't just a 2-day exam once a year but also a regular computer lab for IT classes, internal semester exams, or teacher training throughout the school year, day-rate rental clearly isn't the right pricing format. For that per-semester need, Arental's education & campus laptop rental offers 1–36 month contracts with unit refreshes aligned to the academic calendar — a different contract from the daily ANBK package, but one that can be combined: a school lab rented monthly for everyday needs, topped up with day-rate units when ANBK season arrives, so capacity doesn't sit idle outside exam season. For a mid-length need — a few days to a week, say a preparation or simulation period before the actual exam day — weekly laptop rental is also available as an option between day-rate and monthly.

Frequently Asked Questions

What's the difference between renting for ANBK and renting for CBT in general?

Scale. A school's ANBK is usually a single venue with a quota of 30–45 students, while a CBT project like combined PPDB admissions or CPNS testing can run 100–500 units across multiple venues at once. The ANBK proctor server is also usually owned by the school or district itself (the semi-online architecture), so the units you rent are just clients connecting over the local network — not a direct connection to the central server.

Can I use a Chromebook for ANBK, or does it have to be a Windows laptop?

Either works — the ANBK client application runs in a browser. A Chromebook such as the Acer Chromebook Spin 511 has a built-in locked exam mode and is tougher for primary/junior-high students, while a Windows laptop is more flexible if the school also runs other desktop applications outside ANBK.

How many days before ANBK should I start ordering additional units?

For a topping-up need of 5–10 units, D-10 to D-7 is enough. For a full rental at 40+ units, or if you need special lockdown configuration, order earlier — ideally as soon as the exam schedule is released by the district Education Office.

Do the rented units connect directly to the school's proctor server?

Yes, our technicians connect the units to the school's LAN/WiFi and test the connection to the local proctor server before exam day — it isn't a configuration we hand off to school staff unsupervised.

What happens if a unit breaks or hangs mid-session during ANBK?

The unit is swapped from an on-site spare with a replacement SLA under 2 hours in Greater Jakarta and within 1×24 hours on business days outside Greater Jakarta — so the exam session doesn't need to be rescheduled over one problem unit.

Already have your ANBK schedule and need to work out how many units to add? Send us a WhatsApp message with three details: school level, how many lab units you already own, and the exam dates. Our team will help calculate the unit shortfall, recommend Chromebook or Windows, and send a quotation within 1 working day.