As a developing country with a strong tradition in objective tests, Indonesia's education has shifted from centralised management to a more school-based system. This change was evident in students' examinations, which transitioned from paper-based tests to online formats. This study aimed to explore how Indonesian senior high school students experienced the school examination (SE) when it was first introduced online in 2021. Twenty-seven students, who were taking my Language Assessment class in their second year, voluntarily expressed their opinions on the online test by completing Microsoft Word documents and emailing their reflections. The students' responses were coded using the NVivo 15 software programme to identify common themes. It was found that cheating on the examination occurred both in the national examination (NE), as experienced by students at the junior high school level, and in the school examination (SE). Test content specifications served as another pivotal concern, either in objective or subjective tests. On the one hand, the participants thought that the teachers who created the test items in the SE were, in a way, unprofessional, as the questions could be easily found on the internet. On the other hand, the students stated that the NE was more difficult than the SE due to the test format, which was multiple-choice questions. Problems with the online tests, such as secured internet connection, strategies for answering test items, and students' perceptions of the use of smartphones in examinations, were also discussed from a sociocultural perspective.