STPM UPU - Appeal before 30th Jun & Co-cu Participation Explained

Posted by Chong

Congratulations to all successful STPM UPU applicants. For those of you who fail to get one of your eight choices or your information doesn’t appear in the database, you may appeal online using the official appeal form, E-RAYUAN on Ministry of Higher Education website before 30th Jun 2006.

In addition to that, you may appeal offline through Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) by completing and submitting the appeal form which can be downloaded from http://www.mca.org.my to Biro Pendidikan Pemuda MCA Kebangsaan, Tingkat 7, Wisma MCA, 163, Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur. Bear in mind that you have to attach your letter with a certified copy of your Identity Card, SPM and STPM result slip each. If your information does not appear in the database, you should attach your PIN receipt on top of the copies of documents mentioned previously. Besides, you may call the friendly MCA person in charge of the appeal process at 03-21618044.

Co-curricular Activity Participation Explained
This year is the first year that participation in co-curricular activities is taken into account or in other words, contributes 10 percent of the total score in the selection system for entry into local public universities. I learn that the 10 percent is calculated by adding two of the highest marks from four categories which are the club or society, sports, uniform bodies and national service and then divide the total marks by 2. Much to my surprise, no mark is allocated for participation and achievement in activities outside the school. So, does it mean that Ministry of Education encourages form six students to participate in school level activities only?

Contrary to a few schools which count the School Prefect Board (or in Malay, Badan Pengawas Sekolah) as a uniform body, it is actually categorized as a club or society according to Ministry of Higher Education. For rare cases such as the president of School Prefect Board is also the president of Mandarin Society, he or she may only choose one of them to be counted as the club or society category. So, all lower sixth form students this year including me should be wise in choosing the right co-curricular activity categories combination.

Update: A Malaysia Students Forum reader, BooNBoX posted a great reply on the importance of co-curricular activities for STPM students.

BooNBoX wrote,

There are good and bad in every system introduced. It's hard to have a perfect and flawless system that can satisfy every individual in this world.

In the recent system, I got total of 8.5 out of 10 in my KOKO CRUNCH part. (Ko-kurikulum) Wow.. looked amazing isn't it ? How can I have such good mark ? You may ask... Well, To be honest, I have a 'quite' low-key profle in my Form 6 ... So where the hell you get you mark ?? You may ask again... My total 8.5 outof 10 were from my past activities since Form 2 to For 5 ... "So what's the point you telling all this ??" I'm not showing off here, I'm trying to imply that please take track and record of what you have done in the past !! If you had participated in some BIG event ... please record and remember it NOW ! So you won't have headache by the time you are filling the UPU form !!

Oh gosh !! What if I threw the certs ?? What if I feed it to my dogs ?? Haha... please you are Form 6 (or younger wishig to enter university) and I assume you know what to do right ? Go ask your in-charge teacher in secondary school whom she knew that you participated in such events and ask her to write an official letter to prove you have done that !!

The funny thing is ... What's the point of having COCO CRUNCH while you don't enjoy eating it ?? I mean ... extra curicular activities are for us to learn things other than becoming a reading n memorizing machine. So wht's the point if you join a club just because the ministry want you to ?? Think again !!

Hmm.. well.. another advice for all those who are going to choose competitive course once again ! OK .. i will tell you the real-life situation in my circle and you observe and analyse... See whether you are OK to choose the course. I won't tell you who's who and how they did.

In my school.. (SMK COCHRANE) I am one of the TOP 10 STPM student. One of them scored 4A,1A- and got 4.00. She chose UKM Actuarial Science as first choice but she failed. She got Physical Science in UM. How ironic ... I guess (personal guess) perhaps her KOKO CRUNCH spoiled her overall marks..

While the other scored 4.00 with the results 4A, 1B+ got his first choice which is Aerospace Engineering in USM.. It's not a very hot course so it can be predicted that he would get it...

Another who scored 3.84 chose to do Pharmacy ... ... but he ended up with 6th choice which is Biochemistry .. the weak point i think was came from his KOKO CRUNCH... he is a quiet guy so not much KOKO CRUNCH he had eaten...

My friend she got 3.83 and i knew she got very good KOKO CRUNCH (but still lower than mine) and she got her second choice to do BIOMEDICINE in UKM .. but she's going to NUS soon... Me who got 3.83 as well with my 8.5 KOKO CRUNCH ... The total point is 94.7 out of 100 .. i ended up with being one of the 506 Chinese (nationwide) who got Electronic Engineering in USM ...

Another great girl in my class got 3.92 ... she applied for medicine and dentistry for 1 - 8 choices ... ... PLEASE YOU MUST NOT DO LIKE THIS !!! why ? she ended with something called "Sains Perhutanan (SERAT KAYU)" ... ... PLEASE... each year things are different . plus more.. KOKO CRUNCH IS COUNTED so you must not choose competitive course i yo dn't have a nice KOKO CRUNCH to bite...

After all these examples.. I'm afraid that you can see how GREAT the influence of those KOKO CRUNCH ?? I believe the cut-off point for medicine is around 94/95 which means I would still had chance to get medicine even i din score 4 FLATS ... YOU SEE ?? 4 FLATS doesn't mean EVERYTHING nowadays !!! With some GOOD KOKO CRUNCH a guy with 3.83 like me can beat off many those 4 FLATS book worms who don't want to be involved in anything ... ... i mean something BIG ... You need to involve in BIG event if possible !! Because it just too difficult to get good marks i know since you need to represent the state if you wan to get 4 marks ... ... Anyway.. evey year the system will be different .. it is just an advice... so ADIOS and ALL THE BEST !!!

I asked some questions,

I am studying lower 6 at a school which has just opened form 6 classes for 2 year or so. So, everything in KOKO CRUNCH and other form six related things are very vague for both my teachers and I. Would you mind to answer some of my questions?

1. When A takes 5 subjects in STPM and get let say 4A and 1B+, will he still get 4.00? So do you mean that when someone takes 5 subjects, he can choose the 4 highest grade to be counted and neglet the remaining 1 grade?

2.May I know how the KOKO CRUNCH be counted? I learn that the 10 percent is calculated by adding two of the highest marks from four categories which are the club or society, sports, uniform bodies and national service and then divide the total marks by 2. Am I right? Can you please tell me the exact marks being allocated for attendance, participation, achievement and position?

BooNBoX replied,

I'm ready to help. Here are the answers for your questions..

1. When A takes 5 subjects in STPM and get let say 4A and 1B+, will he still get 4.00? So do you mean that when someone takes 5 subjects, he can choose the 4 highest grade to be counted and neglet the remaining 1 grade?

MPM only chooses the highest 4 subjects (not chosen by the students) in your STPM examination for the calculation of your GCPA. So if you took 4 subjects all subjects will be counted for the GCPA but if you took 5 subjects only 4 highest subjects will be chosen. My friend got A in his PA, Maths T, Physics and Further Maths T but he get B+ in his Chemistry. Anyway his final GCPA turned out to be 4.00. Honestly I didn't know about this, becoz if i did i'd sure take all 5 subjects that i wanted...

Anyway when you trying to apply for scholarship it may be a bit eye-scratching results for the only B+ in your straight A results slip...

2.May I know how the KOKO CRUNCH be counted? I learn that the 10 percent is calculated by adding two of the highest marks from four categories which are the club or society, sports, uniform bodies and national service and then divide the total marks by 2. Am I right? Can you please tell me the exact marks being allocated for attendance, participation, achievement and position?

OK.. make it simple.. next year it'd be a different and new system if not mistaken.. but it is more or less something similar.. it won't care for your attendance participation etc... the only thing is you need to join and make some acheivement ... and of course being recognised by your school... you can't say I WON IN COUNTER STRIKE COMPETITION ... UNLESS YOU ARE REPRESETING YOUR SCHOOL'S IT CLUB then it would be a different story

the point scheme is something like below

Position
0 - no participation
1 - member
2 - AJK .. etc...
3 - Vuice secreatary/vice treasurer.. etc...
4 - Vice president/Treasurer/Secretary.. etc
5 - President (etc..)

Achievement
0 - no achievement
1 - representing class
2 - representing school
3 - representing zone/daerah
4 - representing state
5 - representing country

for uniform there will be a different point scheme.. depends on your rank... like my uniform i joined scout and i got 4 for my pangkat (i forgot what's the rank ... since i got it in Form 4) and i joined International Jembory i got another 5 points for it so totaled 9 points out of 10 IN UNIFORM CATEGORY)

Another category for PERSATUAN i got 5 points for my PENGERUSI rank and another 4 points since i won in a national competition...

(there's no need to consider my sport category... because it's lower than 9 points) so my highest 2 categories are UNIFORM and PERSATUAN which are 9 points each.

Hence my average from this KOKO CRUNCH is 9 points out of 10.

I got 3.83 in my STPM hence i got 86.175 plus the 9 marks i got total 95.175 which qualifying myself to enroll in Electronic Engineering course...

Hope this helps..

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Scoring 1A in SPM Chemistry

Posted by Chong

A reader, Lix asked how to score in SPM Chemistry at Malaysia Students Forum (powered by Google Groups) so I write this post with the hope that Lix and other readers will benefit from it. I assume her to be a form 5 student this year since she mentioned the word ‘Kimia’ in her post. For your information, form five year 2006 is the last batch of secondary school students studying Science and Mathematics subjects in Malay.

Let me start this post with my own experience in SPM Chemistry from grade 4C to 1A. Last year, I scored 4C in Chemistry in my mid year examination. I didn’t even know how to write a correct chemical equation. I started worrying that I might get bad result in SPM Chemistry. From that moment, I studied very hard and finally scored 1A in SPM Chemistry. You should start revising each and every chapter in the syllabus now. How? Follow these tips:

• Master basic but important concepts
• Memorize important facts and processes
• Practise past-year SPM papers
• Practise all trial papers

Master basic but important concepts – You must at least know how to write correct chemical equation, do simple calculation and understand basic chemical concept likes Mole Concept. Note that there are only a few types of calculations in Chemistry compared to Physics so please master all the calculations. Try to learn them yourselves reading the reference books first. If you really couldn’t understand them, you should seek help from your class or tuition teacher.

Memorize important facts and processes – Memorize the colours of chemical substances, understand the salt preparation process… It works effectively although some might argue that memorizing facts is the wrong way of learning. I personally agree that you can surely get a 1A in SPM Chemistry if you could memorize all the facts. However, I strongly recommend you to understand each concept and fact before you start memorizing them. Learning Chemistry becomes more exciting and enjoyable using this method.

Practise past-year SPM papers – Past-year SPM questions will repeat from time to time because of the limited scope covered in SPM Chemistry syllabus. This is no secret that most SPM candidates realize it. Practice makes perfect. Try every question and learn from your mistakes. For essay questions, get the marking schema from your teachers so that you can see how the marks are allocated and which points or keywords deserve full mark, etc. Learning from the essay marking schemas is a highly effective method!

Practise all trial papers – After SPM trial examinations, try to get other states’ SPM trial papers and practise them. Try Maktab Rendah Sains Mara (MRSM) SPM trial papers too! You can either exchange SPM trial papers with your friends from other states or get them online through certain websites. I was lucky because my Chemistry teacher collected other states’ SPM trial papers for us last year. Sometimes, one or more exact or similar questions will come out in the actual SPM Chemistry paper. SPM question leaks do happen every year.

In conclusion, you have to study and understand every chapter carefully. Believe me, you won get 1A if you have read only a few topics and focus on only certain chemical concepts. Like it or not, read-understand-memorize all topics is the only way to guarantee a 1A in SPM Chemistry.

Update: There is a very useful message posted by a reader at Malaysia Students Forum, sharing his/her personal experience on the topic 'How to Score Well in SPM Chemistry’. It is certainly worth a good read!

BooNBoX wrote,

You know what, there's an old legend in secondary school. Normally you hear this story when you are about to enter Form 4.

"Bio, Physics, Chemistry... the difference between these three pure science subjects is that, all three require different brain usage in a different percentage... In Biology, where you need 75% of MEMORIZING skill and 25% UNDERSTANDING of your text. Mean while for Physics, it's the other way round where you need only 25% MEMORIZING skill (my friend derives the formulae other than memorizes it!!) and 75% understanding. Chemistry is some way in the middle and should be the easy for all ... ... you need half memory and half understanding, i.e. you are not only memorize the formulae and concept, you need to apply them as well ..."

To be honest, for the first monthly test in my chemistry, i was about to fail ... ... i did even know how to get the numbers of atoms in a mole of oxygen gas ... ... becoz I couldn't see the concept and i did understand it... i could not imagine the concept... so.. the most important thing is .. YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND AND ACCEPT THE CONCEPT...

then... you learn the basic, how to balance an equation... this is the most basic AND useful skill in chemistry... even in STPM, sometimes you really scratching your head til bleeding but still couldn't figure out the meaning and the question... all you need to do is to balance the equation and you will get the concept for that particular situation/condition... then you are half way to the answer...

the question is .. HOW TO LEARN TO BALANCE THE EQUATION ?? well... ... this is different for every individual... it's more or less like Maths... ... someone good in Maths (and understand what is Maths) could normally do better in balancing the equation... ... just take it as a simple Maths equation and maybe you will get a clearer picture ... ... break the molecules into simple element... ... ... take it simple and think simple .. then it will be...

HOW TO SCORE OK (WELL MAYBE) IN CHEMISTRY ... the most important key is ... ... go through every chapter and learn the basic concept... then... understand its concept but doing some practice questions ... ... doing questions will let you know how to apply this concept ... ...

e.g. : you study about thermochemistry... you know it's about heat produced/asorbed in a chemical reaction... ... but you won't be able to do the questions if you never done it before ... ... becoz you don't know how to apply the concept !

With the concepts in your mind... you should be able to do most questions ... but ... what if you want to do ALL QUESTIONS ??

HOW TO SCORE WELL IN CHEMISTRY then comes in your memorizing skill ... ... you need to memorize examples... ... you need to memorize the colours of elements... ... formulae... ...

you probably know about daniel cell... how to draw the cell and know which way the current going around the circuit... ... but if the question ask you to give an example ??? what if the questions asking you to build an experiment to know what element contain in an unknown substances ??

so to score very well, you will need this.

that's all i wanted to tell you all based on my personal experience. Some might feel not comfortable with my way, I understand that becoz i believe every individual got its own way to excel. Hopefully you can benefits the best from my opinion other than following it blindly.

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Reign226's Guide to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah (The Only Definitive Guide for Undergraduates headed for UMS)

Posted by Reign226

Reign226's Guide to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
(The Only Definitive Guide for Undergraduates headed for UMS)
Version 1.0

Well, I've come up with something to do to tide my own anxiety with the impending university entrance which is going to be announced in about three week's time. I thought why not write a few entries on life in KK, Sabah, for the benefit of people who are going to study in UMS (god forbid). Of course, studying in UMS is fine...it is a fine place. Just that I am biased towards getting off KK. But I am digressing already:

Introduction:
KK is a nice place. Small, quaint, relatively safe and as a result, immensely boring. Of course, parents would probably delight in having their sons and/or daughters enrolled in the city below the breeze (that's our motto) because life here is very relaxed and slow. However, there are a few things that most people have a misconception of and I am here to fix it. Feel free to preuse this section in order to brush up on your local trivia.


Servay Hypermarket hides behind the foreground of this picture

First of all, we do not live on trees. I know, I know, it's a cliched thing whenever a Sabahan writes about the 'misconception' that people in Sabah still lived in trees. But I feel the need to mention it nonetheless. What is not a misconception is that if you are coming from a big city, be prepared to be surprised by the lack of good public transportation. For one thing, we only have one flyover in the heart of KK, and there is on-going construction of a highway (a real one) in the heart of the city, which makes hell out of the roads there. If you are planning on driving in Sabah, please don't do so until you have familiarized yourself with the hellish roads here. Ride in a local car first.


A...erm, flyover. Let's all point and look.

Also, the people here speak malay differently. I'm not really clear on the difference but it's mostly to do with the intonation. Note that the lexicon is also different. For example, people in Sabah refer to 'pantat' whenever we want to mention the backside. I was made to understand people in Semenanjung say 'pantat' to mean the female genitalia. Hell, I don't know if this is true or false, but I hope I wasn't bullshitted to. We have a few words such as 'om' and 'pilak' which refers to the illegal immigrants here. It is said that the illegal immigrants here emit a distinctive odour that any Sabahan or people living here long enough will learn to pick up. I am not bullshitting here.

On the subject of illegal immigrants, yes, it is a worse problem over here where we border Kalimantan and Indonesia. But the situation is largely under control. However, as a result, riding on the public transportation becomes much of a hassle because sometimes, the busses will refuse to travel certain routes whenever the police is conducting traffic checks. This, fortunately, is not often done. A few years ago there were a few pretty serious crimes involving illegals but the situation has calmed down a lot recently. It's not really a big deal so Don't Worry About It (DWAI).

I guess I should end the introduction here and head on for the meaty stuff.


UMS
Aaah, UMS. A pretty nice place. Supposedly the design won a few awards. It cannot be denied that it's one of the most, if not the most beautiful public university in Malaysia. I have been inside a few times and the university, in a word, is HUGE. Not only that, it is HILLY! You do NOT want to ride a bicycle inside the campus because you'll tire out very quickly. However, cycling TO university (if you live outside) is a viable strategy, but still not advisable because where the heck are you supposed to park it? The internal bus routes is good enough, for all practical purposes.

The road outside of UMS seems to be a bit dangerous. There have been accidents involving undergraduates here. It's probably nothing to worry about, and a coincidence that accidents usually involve undergraduates as it's the only road leading to UMS. Just exercise proper caution when on this road, like every other roads.

I am not really an expert on UMS because I've been inside only a few times. However, what catches the eye is the 'twin towers' sitting on top of a hill in the middle of the university. I'm supposed to say something about what it is, except that I have no clue. I believe, if memory serves, that it's the hostel, and there is a KFC outlet there. Other notable stuff of this university includes it's excellent location which is just in front of the beach (not sure if students are allowed to go there though) and being next to 1 Borneo, which is a new megamall opening in 2008, thereabouts.


Accomodations:
Kingfisher Park is a HUGE housing estate that is sited about 2KM (around 3 minutes car ride) from UMS. It is a sprawling suburb that has it's own little commercial center that has some of the best food that the east coast of Sabah can offer. There is a huge variety including chinese, indian, malay and western treats inside of the commercial center and is probably the best place you can stay outside of UMS. My friend rents a house here, and the rent averages for about RM1000. It's a pretty decent house. Two stories, about 4 or 5 rooms not including kitchens and toilets. He managed to stuff eleven people in it, and it's still got space in the living room.

Wong Kwok recently launched the University Apartments that's supposed to be an alternative to Kingfisher, but I don't have any information on this place. I'm not even sure where it is. But all I can say is, don't bother, just try your best to get a place at Kingfisher and you'll be a happy person.


Entertainment:
Unfortunately, as Sabah is a pretty sleepy town, do not come here expecting a lively nightlife. However, if you know where to look, there are enough things to keep your life as an undergraduate far from boring. More importantly, UMS is about 6 minutes by car from the city center. Six minutes! That's pretty darned close if you ask me.

Damai
Damai is a complex of shoplots situated a few minutes from KK. If you are going to Damai from UMS, take the Highway (seriously, this is what the locals here refer to the road. It's the first highway here connecting Luyang to Likas) as it will be closer than driving to KK then down. But who cares...since the difference is negligable. Anyway, the peak hours of Damai is from 5pm to about 10pm. Expect to see a lot of pretty girls here as there is a pretty large Coffee Bean nearby. This is also the site of the infamous Cyber X, arguably the city's largest and best cybercafe. Cyber X never closes and is close to impossible to get seats. Your best bet is to come here during 6pm when even gamers have to retire for dinner.

Describing the actual layout of Damai is an almost impossible task. Suffice to say, if you come from the road, the block to your right is Cyber X, and if you go straight and to the left, you arrive at one of the best places for 'makan malam' in KK, as long as you keep it before 11pm. The place I am talking about is usually referred to as 88 or, as my friends call it, Damai Super Corridor. It can get pretty packed here and it consists of about 5 different coffeeshops located back to back, not including the mamak and a-piang stalls. The prices range from cheap to average (about RM4) and the drinks here are really kau.

This concludes the Damai section. There's a place to game and a place to eat. What more do you want?


Lintas
Aaaah...Lintas. It's located further away than Damai, but that's speaking relatively as it's only at most 4 minutes away. Lintas peaks at about 12am and lasts all the way to the early morning, depending on the situation. It is the location of the infamous Salim group of mamak coffeeshops that serves some of KK's best indian dishes. There is also a pool parlour here and it's usually vacated, unless you come here reeealy late. Has great tables, large, air-conditioned and relatively free from smokers.

A little secret: There is a moving Lok Lok van here that likes to appear around 12am. It is, to my knowledge, the only Lok Lok van in the whole of KK.

Lintas used to be a great place because of it's vibrant illegal racing nightlife. Nothing funnier than watching a Kancil roaring across the road, only to realize it's all sound, no speed. But there can be some pretty cool cars driving around. Unfortunately, it has mostly disappeared because the residents around the area have complained heavily about the noise. On lucky days, you'll be able to see people racing. More often than not, they have relocated.


Kota Kinabalu

Mega Pavilion, one of three cinemas in KK

KK has three great cinemas. GSC is a fairly large building and is easily recognized from the movie banners hanging from the walls. It has a decent screen and a decent pricetag. An average cinema. Then there is Mega Pavilion, which is classier and as a result, more expensive. I've only ever been there once, but they set the air conditioning too cold and it's not worth the extra few Ringgit I paid for, which is why I still stick to Growball, the third and hardest cinema to find because it's located in the 8th floor of Centre Point, the shopping mall here.


Center Point

As for shopping, Centre Point is a behemoth and has almost everything you want. Growball operates the cinema, pool parlour and arcade here and there's always an event going on in both the ground floor event hall and also the 5th floor Palm Square. The local PC Fair is always held in the grand ball room but is much smaller than the ones in KL.


KK's branch of GSC

Karamunsing is the equivalent of Lowyat Plaza and has more computer shops per capita than anywhere else in Sabah. Prices here can vary wildly so be prepared to do some proper surveying. KK Plaza is the one I least go to, because in a way it's like a smaller, lesser version of Centre Point. As you can see, the shopping here is not really all that good, but if you come one a week anyway, it's not that bad.


Karamunsing

The Islands/Beaches
Sabah is home to many picturesque islands and beaches. For all intents and purposes, I will focus on the popular destinations, and hope that I will be forgiven for leaving other things out.

The best and closest beach to town is a place called Tanjung Aru, a pretty upscale place that has undergone recent 'upgrades' to make it a Tourist Spot. What this means to the average student is... be prepared to spend. And take my word for it and do not order the 'wuo tie or sui kau' here. They're vegetarians. And cost RM1 apiece.

Tanjung Aru is actually a name given to a collection of three beaches. The first one is located right in the middle and is a good place to frolic around enjoying the sights and sounds. Beach 2 is located a bit deeper to the right and is a place for couples to go to at night because doing it in a car is somehow better than doing it in the comforts of a cheap hotel room. The third beach is arguably even more secluded.

Besides Tanjung Aru, I can't think of any other beaches to recommend going to, with the exception of Karambunai, but that's more of a five star resort rather than a public beach.

The islands are a different matter. You can choose from Manukan, Gayana, Sapi (and probably a few others I have forgotten) and these are all collections of islands located off the west coast of Sabah. One would go to the port located near the Marine Police's HQ and pay for the fare, which is about RM20 to RM25 depending on the destination. Then you will board a boat and they will bring you to the island, which is about ten minutes ride.

Most of the islands charge an entrance fee, and it is best to bring your own food and swimming equipment as rents are expectedly high. Personally I've only been to Manukan, and it's a pretty great place. Be prepared to meet lots of tourists if you are unlucky (or lucky, depending on how you look at it).

Misc Talk:
If you are planning on grocery shopping, always head to Servay Hypermarket Likas, which is closest to UMS. It has everything you could possibly ever want, and then some more. If you can't find it in Servay, just a short drive to Likas Supermarket will probably fix that problem.


Likas Supermarket

Postscript:
This is a work in progress. I will update this post with relevant information and pictures when I have the time to go out and grab them. If you would like to know more about UMS and Sabah in general, do comment and tell me what I should write about. Thank you!


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