The Australian Education Assessment Services test wasn’t just an exam. It was the gatekeeper to her future. Pass it, and she’d join her brother in Melbourne. Fail, and she’d be stuck in their cramped Jakarta apartment for another year.

The sample question was deceptively simple: a paragraph about the migratory patterns of the Arctic tern, followed by a single sentence: “The author’s tone can best be described as…”

Elara smiled. Question 17 had been the one about tectonic plates. She’d gotten it wrong. But she’d written down the professor’s pronunciation of “dah-tah” in her notebook for next time.

She exhaled. One down. Forty-four to go.