Learn Hardcore Malay: Pada musim peperiksaan, saya biasanya belajar di perpustakaan setiap malam. - During the exam season, I usually study in the library every night.

Pada musim peperiksaan ≈ “during exam season”.
Pada is the standard preposition used with:
- time expressions: pada pukul tiga (at three o’clock), pada hari Isnin (on Monday)
- periods/seasons: pada musim panas (in summer)

Alternatives:

Di musim peperiksaan
- You do hear this, especially in speech.
- It’s understandable and not “wrong”, but pada is more standard for time, while di is core meaning “in/at (a place)”.
- Some speakers feel di musim… is slightly more informal or stylistic.
Musim peperiksaan, saya biasanya… (no preposition)
- You can drop pada in very casual speech, treating musim peperiksaan almost like an English topic:
  - Musim peperiksaan, saya stress. (“Exam season, I’m stressed.”)
- In neutral/standard written Malay, you normally keep pada.

So the original Pada musim peperiksaan is the most natural, neutral-standard way to say “during exam season.”

Can "biasanya" go in a different position, like at the end or after the verb? How flexible is it?

Biasanya means “usually” and is an adverb of frequency. The common positions are:

Before the verb (most common & very natural)
- Saya *biasanya belajar di perpustakaan…*
- This is the pattern in your sentence: subject + biasanya + verb.
At the beginning of the sentence
- *Biasanya, saya belajar di perpustakaan setiap malam.*
- This adds a bit of emphasis to “usually”, similar to English “Usually, I study…”.
- Very natural too.
After the subject and short time phrase
- Pada musim peperiksaan, saya *biasanya belajar di perpustakaan…*
- Also fine; this is exactly what your sentence does.

Where it sounds unnatural:

After the main verb:
- Saya belajar biasanya di perpustakaan… ❌ sounds off in Malay.
At the very end:
- Saya belajar di perpustakaan setiap malam biasanya. ❌ odd and clumsy.

So, put biasanya near the beginning of the clause, usually after the subject, and before the main verb phrase.

Why doesn’t the verb "belajar" change form to show present tense like “am studying / study”?

Malay verbs do not change form for:

tense (past / present / future)
person (I / you / he / she / they)

The verb belajar covers all of these:

Saya *belajar di perpustakaan.*
- “I study at the library.”
- “I am studying at the library.”
- “I will study at the library.” (depending on context)

Tense or aspect is shown by:

Context: Pada musim peperiksaan suggests a habitual pattern.
Time words: semalam (yesterday), esok (tomorrow), sekarang (now).
Aspect markers (optional):
- sedang belajar (in the process of studying – “am/was studying”)
- telah / sudah belajar (have studied / already studied)
- akan belajar (will study)

In your sentence, biasanya + setiap malam make it clear this is a habitual action, so plain belajar is perfect.

Why is it "di perpustakaan" and not "ke perpustakaan"?

The choice depends on whether you focus on being in a place or moving towards it:

di = in/at → static location
- belajar di perpustakaan = “study in/at the library”
ke = to/towards → movement
- pergi ke perpustakaan = “go to the library”

Your sentence describes where you study, not the act of going there, so di perpustakaan is correct.

Compare:

Pada musim peperiksaan, saya biasanya *pergi ke perpustakaan setiap malam.
“During exam season, I usually *go to the library every night.”
Pada musim peperiksaan, saya biasanya *belajar di perpustakaan setiap malam.
“During exam season, I usually *study in the library every night.”

Different verbs → different prepositions.

Could it be "di dalam perpustakaan" instead of "di perpustakaan"? Is there a difference?

You can say di dalam perpustakaan, but there’s a nuance:

di perpustakaan
- Default, natural: “at the library / in the library”
- Already understood as being inside that location.
di dalam perpustakaan
- Literally “inside the library”
- Adds emphasis to the inside-ness, used when you want to contrast inside vs outside:
  - Di luar bising, jadi saya belajar *di dalam perpustakaan.
    “Outside is noisy, so I study *inside the library.”

In neutral sentences like yours, di perpustakaan is simpler and more idiomatic.

Why is "setiap malam" at the end? Can I move it earlier, like "setiap malam saya biasanya belajar…"?

Malay word order is fairly flexible, but there’s a default rhythm:

time (broad) → subject → adverb of frequency → verb → place → time (specific/repeating)

Your sentence follows this:

Pada musim peperiksaan (broad time)
saya (subject)
biasanya (frequency)
belajar (verb)
di perpustakaan (place)
setiap malam (repeating time: “every night”)

Other positions:

Fronted “setiap malam”
- *Setiap malam, pada musim peperiksaan, saya biasanya belajar di perpustakaan.*
- Grammatical, but quite marked / heavy in normal conversation.
After the subject
- Pada musim peperiksaan, *setiap malam saya biasanya belajar di perpustakaan.*
- Understandable, but sounds a bit awkward; not the most natural flow.
Between verb and place
- …saya biasanya belajar setiap malam di perpustakaan.
- Also possible and still natural to many speakers.

The given order is smooth and typical; it feels like English “During exam season, I usually study at the library every night.”

What exactly does "musim peperiksaan" mean? Is "musim" only for weather seasons?

Musim literally means “season”, and it can refer to:

weather seasons: musim panas (summer), musim hujan (rainy season)
figurative “seasons” or periods:
- musim durian (durian season)
- musim pilihan raya (election season)
- musim perayaan (festive season)

So musim peperiksaan is:

Literally: “exam season”
Idiomatically: the period of time when exams take place, or when everyone is busy with exams.

It sounds natural and is common in schools and universities.

Could I drop the pronoun "saya" and just say "Pada musim peperiksaan, biasanya belajar di perpustakaan setiap malam"?

In standard / careful Malay, you generally keep the subject pronoun:

Saya biasanya belajar… is the normal form.

Dropping saya:

Pada musim peperiksaan, biasanya belajar di perpustakaan setiap malam.
- Grammatically understandable, but feels incomplete or vague in standard Malay, because we don’t know who is doing the action.
- In very informal spoken Malay, people will sometimes drop subjects if they’re obvious from context, but even then, they’d more likely say:
  - Musim exam, *aku biasanya study kat library tiap malam.* (colloquial style, note the other changes too)

So for correct, clear Malay—especially in writing or in class—keep “saya” in this sentence.

Is there any difference between "setiap malam" and "tiap-tiap malam" or "tiap malam"?

All of these mean essentially “every night”, but with small style differences:

setiap malam
- Very common, neutral, and slightly more standard/formal.
- Perfect in your sentence.
tiap-tiap malam
- Reduplicated form, also means “every night”.
- Feels a bit more emphatic or old-fashioned/formal in some contexts, but still correct:
  - Pada musim peperiksaan, saya belajar di perpustakaan *tiap-tiap malam.*
tiap malam
- Shortened form of tiap-tiap.
- Common in speech, neutral in many contexts:
  - …saya belajar di perpustakaan *tiap malam.*

In your sentence, setiap malam is the safest, most standard-sounding choice, but the others are also understandable and largely interchangeable.

Should there be some kind of article like “a” or “the” before "perpustakaan"? Why is it just "di perpustakaan"?

Malay does not have articles like English “a / an / the”.

perpustakaan on its own can mean:
- “a library”
- “the library”
- “at the library” (in context, usually the specific one both speaker and listener know)

If you really want to mark it as indefinite (“a certain library”), you can use a classifier:

di *sebuah perpustakaan
literally “at a library”
*sebuah
is a classifier for countable inanimate objects.

But in normal usage, people just say:

di perpustakaan = “at the library / in the library”

Listeners work out from context whether it’s “a” or “the”. In your sentence, people will usually understand it as “the library” you regularly go to.