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Friday, April 07, 2006

JPA Scholarship Interview - My Experience

Posted by Chong

It was 7:45 am as I arrived at Politeknik Sultan Haji Ahmad Syah (POLISAS), Kuantan yesterday. Luckily, I didn't get lost in this big institute. I went to the hall (Dewan Besar) and waited near the entrance. At 8.00 am, we signed our attendance and went into the hall. There were tables and chairs arranged in rows. We sat and listened carefully to the representative's instruction.

At 8.15 am, we started answering the psychology test. The test paper consisted of 294 questions and the time given was about 45 minutes. Some of the questions include:
1. Saya minat memasang/membina sesuatu peralatan. A Ya B Tidak
2. Saya suka menolong orang yang berada dalam kesusahan. A Ya B Tidak
3. Saya suka bekerja di luar pejabat. A Ya B Tidak
4. Saya dapat memimpin dengan baiknya. A Ya B Tidak
5. Kesihatan dan kekuatan badan adalah sangat penting bagi saya. A Ya B Tidak
...

After that, we went to the library. We were divided into a group of 8 to 10 students. My group consisted of 8 students. All of them were total strangers to me. We arranged our original and photocopy of the certificates and documents according to the instruction while waiting for our turn. When it was my group's turn, we walked into a discussion room inside the library. Luckily we had time to know each others while waiting outside the room.

In the room, there were two friendly interviewers. First, we had to introduce ourselves in Bahasa Melayu. After that, we started a group discussion on the topic 'Unemployment among Local Graduates'. We were given 5 minutes (3 minutes actually) to prepare some notes on the topic. Then, one of the interviewers asked who of us wanted to start the discussion. I took the initiative and voiced out my points and the discussion began. We had shaken both of the interviewers’ hands before we left the room.

I know I will fail in this interview because my English speaking is terribly poor. I know I made a lot of grammatical mistakes when I spoke. Four other students in my group could speak English fluently while the rest same as me. I will not make any complaint even if I fail since I agree others are better than me. Thanks to JPA!
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Comments
17 Comments

17 comments:

  1. First things first, nice blog and kudos to you for scoring straight As in ur SPM :-).

    "JPA scholarship is a full scholarship offered by Jabatan Perkhidmatan Malaysia (JPA)"

    id wish to correct that statement. infact, JPA do offer loans to students who are interested to pursue their education overseas just like the PTPTN.

    "Let say all straight A1 candidates win the scholarships, the remaining scholarships will be 1290 – 945 = 345 scholarships. So, all 3834 straight A1+A2 candidates have to compete against each others to win the remaining 345 scholarships. In other words, only less than 9 percent of them succeed to win the scholarships."

    Mind you that not all straight a1s student would be called up for the interview. First of all, apart from academic achivements your cocurricular activity plays a vital role as well. These criterias are used to filter out those students who doesnt deserve to get a scholarship simply due to the fact that they are not active in anything besides academics.

    Lets get to the statistical part of it, lets just say.. out of the 945 students who got straight a1s, half of them are nerds ^_- (whereby they dont participate in any corricular activity at all)

    So, that would make 472.5 students who would be potential JPA candidate.(the other half of the 0.5 person would be orang bunian??) just joking .. then make it 473.. Ok now, be aware toothat there are other scholarships offered by some other public/private organizations.. EXP:UEM,MARA,Khazanah NB,BNM , and the list goes on and on and on..
    Now, lets just assume that 30% of them would go for the latter mentioned scholarship. This would cut the numbers of the potential JPA candidates down to 142. Which means .. hey.. check out the numbers.. there would be another 1148 places !! GREAT NEWS huh ? So.. does that mean that of all the A1+A2 scorers , 30% of them would get a place in JPA ? NO!.now lets assume that 30% of the 3834 students are nerds and wont get selected for the interview..So.. they would be 1150 places more.. HECK.. theres even two vacancies!! Now.. those 2 seats would probably be given to the above-mentioned NERDS.. *sniffs sniffs* Ah!! i smell hope for you!! Gues what.. MARA offers 1000 places for Bumi-only top achiever candidates.. so that leaves out 3779(which includes both straight a1s and A1+A2) places for the non-bumis to fight out 4 a place in JPA.. 3779 minus 40% nerds/30% non-nerds opt 4 other scholarship.. if u do the math, theres still a big hope there.

    When i read this, http://malaysian-students.blogspot.com/2006/03/failed-to-get-jpa-scholarship-first.html
    i was utterly touched :,(. I truly understand those chinese/indians (non-bumi lah.. simple) working so hard in school/home/library with a great hope of securing a scholarship to study overseas.. i mean.. who doesnt rite ? Having stayed/brought up/schooled in a town where 90% of the populations are chinese.. i always receive grumbling from my chinese classmates/schoolmates that the govermant are too biased with their policies... they give too much priority to the bumis... come to think of it.. yes.. true.. but not to the extent of jeopordizing other races :-) im SURE ! we are one lucky malaysians here ... if you look at the history of racism in countries like the USA,Germany and Isreal.. ud be horrified.. but the truth is that.. racsim is everywhere.. No doubt...
    Well, when ppl say, biased towards the bumis.. i can say not QUITE also..to be specific.. Malays ?? cuz.. FYI, swak bumis dont get that much of a privilage, much more being a non-muslim compared to their Malays/muslim counterpart. If u come to fill my shoes (my dad's an Iban and mum's a Chinese) u wud cut down more on the Bumi part.. trust me.. Im kind of a worried dude here too.. i got 10a1s and an a2 in my SPM .. I applied for MARA and from what ive heard they only allocate a certain amount of places for swak bumis.. namely the ibans,melanaus and so on... so.. its kinda worrying too. Same here.. i was quite active in schools 2.. just like you, i was the Schools English debater and the english editor of the school's magazine, i was a scouts memeber 2.. so those criterias prolly gives us the edge.. Both of my sisters which id say pretty active in school 2 (public speaking,debater) managed to secure a JPA and MARA scholarship respectively.. they didnt get straight A1s! most prolly their curricular activities helped them.. so conclusion here is my friend.. THERE IS A BIG HOPE FOR YOU ALL THE WAY!! you active in school rite ? "For those succeed to win the Scholarships in the end, make sure you really appreciate it and feel thankful to our government. Malaysia Boleh!" that statement made u a champion.. you are aware of the goverment's "biasness" and yet you still had the heart to pledge your loyalty by fortifying them. HAHA..some of my friends would be like "Huh!!!! F*ck the goverment!! I HATE Malaysia.. how nice if i were still in China.. :(..Equal opportunity for all" ... me telling/advising them would be of no use at all.. they've got to change their mentality from within.. the intrinsic way.. in fact.. the Government didnt come out with their policy for no reason rite.. theres certainly a reason for everything... Anways.. CHao!! Signing off!! One more thing, keep that chin up and dont give up on hope..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Please read this post for my reply on Supremacy's comment.

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear Chong,
    I am a Post-SPM student waiting for results which will be coming out on the 12th of March 2007!
    I want to apply for the JPA scholarship but I don't know how. I was hoping you would be kind enough to inform me exactly how to apply.Please post it on your blog.I shall be reading your blog every other day to see whether you'd respond!

    Thank You!!

    NLeena

    ReplyDelete
  4. NLeena,

    Once the SPM results are out, you should go to the JPA eSILA (Portal JPA) to fill the JPA scholarship application form.

    You won't see the form right now, it'll only available after the SPM 2006 results are released. Mind you that the online form will be available for a short period of time (two weeks I think), so you should go and apply immediately after you've got your SPM results.

    Please leave your contact detail like blog url or email address. Feel free to share your JPA scholarship interview experience with us so that SPM 2007 candidates will have a clearer picture of the interview process, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. hi, im a spm leavers. igot my spm result last week. and my result is 9 A1 IA2 2 B3..I oso applied 4 JPA once spm result was released. today, i received a mail that about i am shortlisted 4 the JPA scholarship interview. im very very afraid now, as i know my result is not tat goog...somemore im not tat active in co-curiculim. can u guy giv me some tips or advise that wat i should do during the interview.....please help,,,,,,

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hey,Anonymous
    me too !
    my result even crap than you,
    8A1s ,1A2 ,1 B3 and 1B4,and thanks God that i am given a chance to be interview !
    well,although deep inside my heart know that i wont able to compete the straight As students in interview,plus ,English is my forth language and in school im only ordinary active.
    tell u wat,i even thought that i had insert wrong my result in the application form !
    However,lets us work hard and pray harder ~~Congrats ya,appreciate the chance and hope that God give us !
    anything you can add me in msn
    [email protected]

    ReplyDelete
  7. You might want to read the JPA scholarship tips offered by one of the Malaysia Students blog reader over here.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi there,
    thanks for ya experience...now can anyone tell me how's the process for the jpa scholarship n some tips on it???thankz you~~~pls reply me asap:)

    ReplyDelete
  9. i took my spm in 2006. when i was called 4 an interview, i was really thankful and nervous at the same time.

    i arrived at the place i hour earlier. registration tables were not yet opened. i managed to talk to a few other candidates while waiting. then we had to give our pho. certs to the pegawai and we were given a no. to wear on our beautiful nerdy clothes. ma group had bout 7 p'ple.

    we introduced ourselves- name, course and why. then, we had to discuss bout wawasan 2020 in malay and should school uni be abolished. i tot vmy or cluster schools will b asked but i was wrong. last ques.- why should jpa give u the scholarship?

    we took back our files and headed upstairs to take the psychological test- 200+ ques. in 35 mins. no need to shad eproperly cos got no time. then we graded ourselves and finally, we could go home.

    just a piece of advice- try to talk no matter what, u will be given marks if u talk, but never dominate cos it's a group discussion. make eye contact and smile. when the interviewers laugh at a comment, u laugh 2gether- show tat u're interested.

    right now, i can only trust in God to provide a way 4 me. If He wants me to get this scholarship, I am sure tat He will make a way.

    all the best to those who have applied too. may the good Lord bless you wherever u are. lastly, always remember to trust in God,- He will never let u down.

    ReplyDelete
  10. hello!nice to meet you.i am tony.I have read your post on malaysia student about the jpa scholarship.i am waiting for my SPm results.i also decided to apply for the scholarship cause i am from a middle class family.i know that this scholarship can be apply by online.My ambition is to study biotechnology.what about you?i also very worry about the interview.You have experience right?Can you tell me the situation during the interview?What are the hot topics they ask frequently?Do you get the scholarship?Is it easy for the interview?What you should bring during the interview?I really hope you can solve my doubt as soon as possible cause i have no idea about this at all.THank you!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Starting from this year(2008), the psychology test will be conducted through online test. Student's who managed to secure a place for the interview can go directly to www.jpa.gov.my to conduct the test.
    All the best.

    ReplyDelete
  12. hey everyone.. i am waiting for my spm result right now! i had planned to study dentistry but i 'm confusing because i do not know the pathway to become a dentist! should i go to form 6 or others?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous:

    If you are planning to study dentistry(local public university), it's better for you to take the local matriculation programme. Taking form 6 wont give u much chance to get it.
    JPA also offers students to dentistry, but the places are VERY limited. I myself failed to get it with 10A1. Just hope for the best.
    All the best to you!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. hi chong!!!
    do you have any imformation about the sime darby sholarship?

    tq..

    ReplyDelete
  15. hello ?
    May i ask is it the country we choose must follow JPA wish Eg.(only UK, Germany Japan ..... ) ? OR Can we just simply choose a country and gv a appropriate reason to them , then we can go as our wish ?

    ReplyDelete
  16. I found that candidates can choose to answer interviewers' questions in Malay. Is it true? Or I can only speak in English, but my English speaking is really poor. Too bad.

    If it is true that candidates can speak in Malay, and I'm speaking in Malay too, will I be an underdog comparing to those who speak in English but not fluently?

    And what is the frequent questions the interviewers will always ask?

    ReplyDelete
  17. I'm planning to study astrophysicist.What is the pathway?

    ReplyDelete

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