Learn Hardcore Malay: Untuk ujian besar, saya dan teman merancang beberapa strategi belajar bersama. - For the big test, my friend and I plan several study strategies together.

So ujian (exam) comes first, then besar (big / major).
Putting besar first (besar ujian) is not grammatical in standard Malay for this meaning.

In Untuk ujian besar, what does untuk really mean here? Could I use bagi, pada, or kepada instead?

Here untuk means “for / in preparation for / with regard to.”

Untuk ujian besar ≈ For the big exam / In preparation for the big exam

Rough comparison:

untuk – “for (the purpose of)” → very natural here.
bagi ujian besar – also possible, more formal or written style.
pada ujian besar – means “in/at the big exam”; it describes location/time, not purpose.
kepada ujian besar – not used in this context.

So, to express “for the exam (as preparation),” untuk ujian besar is the most natural choice.

Why is it saya dan teman and not teman dan saya? Does the order matter?

Grammatically, both orders are possible:

saya dan teman
teman dan saya

Malay doesn’t have a strict rule like English sometimes does (“my friend and I”). However, people very commonly put saya first when listing themselves with others:

saya dan Ali
saya dan keluarga saya

So saya dan teman is natural. Swapping the order doesn’t change the meaning, it just sounds slightly less typical in everyday speech.

If the meaning is “my friend and I”, shouldn’t it be saya dan teman saya instead of saya dan teman?

To say “my friend and I” clearly, the most explicit and natural version is:

saya dan teman saya (or in Malaysia: saya dan kawan saya)

saya dan teman literally is just “I and (a/the) friend”. In real conversations, people sometimes drop saya after teman when the context is clear, especially in Indonesian usage. But in careful or textbook Malay, adding saya makes the relationship explicit and avoids ambiguity:

saya dan teman saya merancang… = my friend and I planned…

So yes, saya dan teman saya is safer and more standard if you want to say “my friend and I.”

What exactly does teman mean? Is it like “friend”, or does it sound romantic? What about kawan and rakan?

teman basically means friend / companion, but nuance depends on region:

In Indonesian, teman is the common everyday word for “friend”.
In Malaysian Malay, kawan is more common for “friend” in casual speech, and teman can sound a bit more literary or can be used in romantic expressions (teman lelaki, teman wanita = boyfriend, girlfriend).

Other common words:

kawan – friend (very common, informal/neutral, especially in Malaysia)
rakan – colleague / associate / friend (more formal, often in official or written contexts)

So:

In Indonesia, saya dan teman is fine for “my friend and I” (if context is clear).
In Malaysia, many learners are taught saya dan kawan saya for “my friend and I.”

What is the base form of merancang, and how does this verb form work?

The base (root) word is rancang = “plan / design / scheme”.

Malay (and Indonesian) often add the prefix meN- to form an active verb:

meN- + rancang → merancang = “to plan / to design”

This is the ordinary active verb used when someone is doing the planning:

Kami merancang perjalanan kami. = We planned our trip.
Dia merancang projek itu. = He/She planned that project.

So merancang here is just the normal active verb “to plan” (not a special tense).

In English I might say “plan to study together”. Why is it merancang beberapa strategi belajar bersama and not merancang untuk belajar bersama?

There are two slightly different structures:

merancang beberapa strategi belajar bersama
= “planned several strategies (for) studying together”
Here strategi belajar bersama is a noun phrase:
- strategi = strategies
- belajar = studying
- bersama = together
So you are planning strategies, not directly planning to study.
merancang untuk belajar bersama
= “planned to study together”
Here untuk belajar bersama is a verb complement (“to study together”).

Both are grammatically correct, but they don’t focus on the same thing:

Original sentence: focus on devising a few specific study strategies.
merancang untuk belajar bersama: focus on the decision/intention to study together (without emphasising specific strategies).

What does beberapa mean exactly, and how is it used?

beberapa means “some” / “several” / “a few” (more than one, but not many). It’s placed before the noun:

beberapa strategi = a few / several strategies
beberapa orang = several people
beberapa hari = a few days

Important points:

It already implies plurality, so you don’t add any plural ending (Malay doesn’t mark plurals like English anyway).
You normally don’t reduplicate the noun after beberapa:
beberapa strategi, not beberapa strategi-strategi in ordinary speech.

In strategi belajar bersama, is bersama describing the strategies or the studying?

In normal reading, bersama goes most naturally with belajar:

belajar bersama = study together

So strategi belajar bersama is understood as:

“strategies (for) studying together”

If you want to make the structure extra clear, you can also say:

beberapa strategi untuk belajar bersama
= several strategies to study together

That version makes the “together” part unmistakably attached to belajar.

Where is the past tense in merancang? How do we know it means “planned” and not “plan / are planning”?

Malay (and Indonesian) don’t usually mark tense on the verb. The same form merancang can mean:

plan / are planning (present)
planned (past)
will plan (future)

Time is shown by:

time words: semalam (yesterday), nanti (later), etc.
context.

If you really want to mark past, you can add words like sudah or telah:

sudah merancang / telah merancang = have already planned / had planned

But even without them, the meaning is usually clear from context, just like in the given sentence.

Could I replace saya dan teman with kami? And what’s the difference between kami and kita?

Yes, once the people are clear from context, you could say:

Kami merancang beberapa strategi belajar bersama.
= We planned several strategies to study together.

kami vs kita:

kami = we (but NOT you) → excludes the person you’re talking to.
kita = we (including you) → includes the listener.

So if you and your friend (not the listener) did the planning, kami is correct.
If you’re speaking to someone who was also part of the group, you use kita:

Kita merancang beberapa strategi belajar bersama.
= You and I (and maybe others) planned…

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Are there more formal or more casual ways to say it?

The sentence is neutral and fits both spoken and written contexts.

More formal, especially in Malaysia, might be:

Untuk peperiksaan penting, saya dan rakan saya merancang beberapa strategi belajar bersama.

More casual, especially among friends:

Untuk ujian besar, aku dan kawan aku plan beberapa strategi belajar sama-sama.
(with aku, kawan, English loan plan, and sama-sama instead of bersama)

So you can adjust pronouns (saya/aku), vocabulary (kawan/teman/rakan), and some word choices to match formality.

Does this sentence sound more Indonesian or Malaysian?

It’s perfectly understandable in both, but the exact wording leans a bit more Indonesian because of:

teman (very common for “friend” in Indonesian; Malaysians more often say kawan in casual speech)
ujian besar (both Malaysians and Indonesians understand this; Malaysians might also say peperiksaan besar/penting in more formal school contexts)

A version that feels more “Malaysian Malay” in a school context might be:

Untuk peperiksaan besar, saya dan kawan saya merancang beberapa strategi belajar bersama.

But your original sentence is fine as general “standard Malay/Indonesian” and will be understood across both countries.