For Now It Will Last But Not Forever : May 2014

I have not mention but for your information, I've applied more than 16 scholarships including sponsorships by NGOs and Government and I've not successfully got any of the scholarship I truthfully wanted. One of it will be Malaysia Matriculation ( Matrikulasi ), JPA Engineering Programme and Petronas. Despite being a fairly well rounded student possessing strings of A's, obviously I wasn't good or capable enough for all of it.

Which led me to this question :

What exactly is wrong with me?

One funny thing is, each and every time I applied for any programmes to Japan, be it by scholarship or paid, I can't get my hands of the programme. It's either my parents we not well off that time ( FYI, my youngest sister went for an paid exchange programme shortly after a few years ), programmes cancelled/not available any more.

Call me superstitious, or am I just that unlucky?

I might sound ungrateful to you but I can't help but feel disappointed at times.
I tried hard for everything but all the things I worked for seemed so out of reach.

Am I giving up? Not just yet.

It has always been a dream of mine to study abroad. By all means I would like to attain the ability and be worthy to be sponsored by big corps or the board of government.

From now on and every point onwards, do not give up.

The taste of failure might be bitter but nothing beats the sweetness of victory after saving yourself from drowning in a mud pool called failure.

Failure doesn't mean you're unworthy, maybe, just maybe you're better of doing something else.

You just need to work a little bit harder than anyone else,

but remember the passion of yours must not lose to your worthy opponents.

To all SPM candidates/Malaysian students, hey!
Took me quite a while to decide if I should blog about my interview experience for this prestigious scholarship interview. Whatever the result or outcome might be, I hope this tiny experience of mine would make a big difference to you or maybe at least be of help to you!

This interview was held around April 2014 for SPM candidates of 2013.

About the scholarship :
Engineering programme endorsed by JPA to these FOUR SELECTED COUNTRIES
-France
-Germany
-Korea
-Japan

Remember, only for engineering courses. It is totally different from the other JPA scholarship like "Bursary Cemerlang" where only straight A+ students are eligible to apply :) Therefore, this is another good fetch for other straight A's student who would like to pursue engineering in foreign countries.

JPA scholarship or any other government scholarships are usually open for application immediately or a day after the SPM results are released SO REMEMBER to apply as soon as you got your SPM results.

Minimum requirements( if I remember correctly) :
There's different requirements for different countries but in general you need at least 6-8 A- to apply for this programme.
-Malaysian
-SPM leaver

Your Resume
Necessary documents are required during the interview. Make sure you get everything prepared few days prior to the interview. You don't wanna miss anything. For me, I arranged everything according to the check list given into a clear folder. I got all my documents certified before hand just in case if they need it to be certified. It'll make it a lot easier for the person in charged to check all your documents. Besides, having a good resume prepared gives good impression to those who are checking your resume.

Attire
Formal clothing, baju kurung (encouraged) strictly no jeans or t-shirts please.
Dress neatly. Wear shoes that can cover your toes. Hahah
I wore like an OL between :) But I heard it would be better if you wore baju kurung instead so yea :D

Interview
There will be 3 sessions for this interview. 2 fully conversed in Bahasa Melayu and 1 fully conversed in English.
You will be separated into groups. 8 person in a group and you'll be separated into groups of 2 again when you enter the interview rooms. Usually each group will have an equal amount of boys and girls.

My first session of the interview : Mind Games/IQ Games
I would say this was the most relaxing part of the interview. In my case, we were given 3 different types of questions and were required to discuss it as a group and present our answers in BM. Throughout the whole session, you are only allowed to converse in BM, strictly no English. Penalty will be giving if you do so. Be careful ya! Oh yea, you'll be giving around more than 10-15 minutes to finalize your answers :)

Second session : Perbahasan ( Debate in Malay )
I was the penyokong/pencadang for the issue "Kemajuan teknologi merupakan penghakis kemanusiaan" (something like that)
there'll be around 20 minutes for you to lay out points with your fellow team mates.You are encouraged not to refer to the paper of points you've wrote. Go spontaneous.

Third session : Discussion in English
Our topic for discussion was "Food Industry". Very general. But I assume I did well in it :) Like perbahasan, you'll be given around 20 minutes for discussion and each member must present their points accordingly. Bear in mind this is not a debate but a discussion. Do not get all fire up about the opposite group's opinion. Listen earnestly and respect their opinion.

You have to bring your own stationeries. A pen and a pencil will be good enough. Papers will be given during the interview. You are not allowed to bring the papers out upon completing each session.

How I think I did and opinions about the interview.

The interview was overall fun for me and interesting. I get to meet new people and experience more about scholarship interviews like this. If there's one thing I would like to change about my performance for it, it'll be the perbahasan session. Personally, I can write good BM essay but not speak. I stutter a lot but I tried and made and effort to sound confident as much as possible. Couldn't translate and express the points I wanted. Therefore, shame on me for not practising my Malay :( The mind games was fun. It's okay if you have low IQ , ahah. Personally, that's what I think. Do your best in expressing your thoughts and support your team mate as much as possible. I don't think the interviewers were strict at all, most of them were very friendly so relax and enjoy the moment as much as possible. One of my team mates as well as the opposite team member couldn't express well in English (because she was nervous) but it is entirely okay. I don't know if it will affect your results for this interview but the interviewers was nice enough to give them a chance to explain in BM. After all, you are here to learn. Express in what form you think is the best and be confident.

You might be in groups but each of you are judged individually. Therefore, do well and stand out but do not bring others down. All of you might be rivals, but a team as whole. Do not be cocky, be humorous and lighten up the mood. Not a goof kay :) There's limits to being playful. Take this thing seriously cus it's NOW OR NEVER. For my batch, a lot of people choose Germany and France. Not much for Korea and Japan. I choose Japan because I think I could adapt well with my mediocre Japanese, hehe. Whatever your choice is, the competition is always there, don't take it easy okay :D

Most importantly, to those who are reading, you might be wondering if I've got the scholarship or not. Nope, I don't know yet but I will know by the end of this May. Pray hard that I'll get this because I've no other good offers in my hands now! I do hope this will help you a lot and please do well for your exam as well as other co-curricular activities. It'll help a lot if you're an active student. My results were not good enough to earn me prestigious offers. Take this damsel in distress as a lesson and do much better than me! Of course, you've gotta enjoy school while you can too. hehe :) Have a nice and blessed day ahead.

God Bless You!

Updated : I didn't manage to get the programme :P all the best to the rest!