Tips Temuduga By Athirah Zainul

A moment of silence untuk tajuk post yang sangat poyo .

Well readers , note that what I’m about to share here is more to my personal experience and stories . So if you’re hoping to find something that is very straight to the point , I’d say it is best for us to end our relationship here .

Gituuu .

So I’ve been to 3 interviews so far .

The first one is the interview for MARA sponsorship programme . I’ve applied for Health Science with intention to pursue speech pathology abroad . Its foundation programme is IB programme (International Baccaleurate) at Kolej Mara Seremban and kalau lepas pointer I get to choose to go to UK or US , if I’m not mistaken .

I’ve wrote about this interview previously in this blog but I’m gonna extract the main points here .

So for this iv , ada online psychometric test which will be carried out a few days earlier . You can google it yourself to for more details sebab all psychometric test lebih kurang sama . You will have to answer questions to test on your IQ , personality , general knowledge and a few about MARA itself .

It’s not gonna be easy that it’s not that hard .

So jangan takut but instead prepare well for it .

After the online test , here comes the real deal .

The good news is it is not a one-to-one interview and the bad news is taktahulah time uolls interview format cemana . Haha

Just read it anyways .

So first of all , of course , you will be asked to make a short intro about yourself .

Then the interviewers gave us a series of situations and we were asked to give our opinions about it .

Ada satu soalan tu lebih kurang macam ni lah ..

“.. lets say it is made compulsory for the students under this programme to hafaz (memorize ) the Quran in order to qualify them to study abroad apart from having good pointers . What do you think ?”

You have to be realistic .

IB programme itself is not a joke .

And to hafaz the Quran in just two years time . Say what ..

Answer honestly , brilliantly .

Jangan jadi fake .

"im okay with it"

"you’re okay with it ? "the interviewers asked in disbelief .

Just because MARA said so ? No people . Jangan jadi pengampu .

There’s nothing wrong in saying out your opinions but in a proper way of course

A few in my groups voice out their worries about this matter .

They said that it is a good thing but its not an easy task to hafaz the whole Quran in a very short time , what’s more we are in the IB programme . Most of us may not be able to make it to fly .

I agreed with them and suggest that instead of memorizing the whole Quran , why not emphasis more on the teachings in it .

Help students to create the akhlak of the Quran within them .

And maybe memorize a portion of it as to fulfill the requirements to fly abroad .

Since its good to memorize the Quran , why not make it one of the requirements to graduate because we would have much more time to memorize the Quran , which is up to 5 years , and of course with a better quality hafazan .

Actually there’s no right or wrong in this kind of interviews .

I supposed the interviewers are more interested to see how you deal with certain situations , how you tackle problems and of course your manners in group discussions .

Jangan nak menyerlah sorang-sorang .

Apalagi nak condemn others in the group .

Not long after , the iv results were out .

And guess what ?

Tahniah ! Permohonan Anda Berjaya !!

Alhamdulillah J

But for some personal reasons , I had to decline the offer  .

Kind of regretting my decisions right now but yeah Allah surely have a better plan for me inshaAllah .

For your information , I applied speech pathology for my undergraduate studies so the next two interviews would be mainly about this course . Im afraid I cant help you much if you’re searching for “tips temuduga perubatan” or what-so-ever . Love yah :*

So here we go .

My second interview would be the one I had in USM Kubang Kerian for Speech Pathology course

I was interviewed by 3 panels consisting of the Head of Audiology programme , A Speech Pathology lecturer and an ENT surgeon .

And again it was not a one-to-one interview .

It was a group of 4 , a much smaller group than the one I had earlier .

So since speech pathology and audiology were somehow related , the interview for these two courses were conducted in one go , two of us were speech applicants while the other two were audio applicants .

We started off by introducing about ourselves , one after another .

So how is exactly the best way to introduce oneself ?

Click here and read all about it .

Gua dah kasi senang lu dengan link segala bagai , lu tinggal baca dan execute. Jangan malas .

Next , interviewers tanya kenapa pilih kos itu .

So obviously , you need to have a good knowledge about that course . Well at least bacalah speech pathologist tu kerja dia apa , buat apa . Search pasal subjects list untuk course ni would be a good idea too .

Kalau ada personal stories yang related boleh cerita briefly . Contohnya , ada family members yang ada speech problems . So rasa motivated nak ceburi bidang ni and tolong orang kurang upaya macam tu . Tell them what you hope to achieve in this field , as such nak tolong motivate disables supaya tak give up . Nak tolong kanak-kanak improve their quality of life and etc .

Yang penting be honest .

Be true to yourself .

Jangan tipu .

Interviewer tu ada jugak tanya kenapa gua tak apply medic instead and I told him my reasons .

Then each one of us were asked to state our three main strength and weaknesses

Here’s some tips on how to tackle that questions .

Since I’ve also applied for speech pathology in UKM , I was asked which university would be my priority if I get both offers .

USM or UKM ?

Mak aii . The hardest question so far but I suggest you to answer it honestly okay?

Gua jawab apa ? Hoho biarlah rahsia .

Then , we were each given a situation to solve .

Something related to our courses .

As such , interviewer tu tanya gua ..

".. katakanlah Athirah ialah seorang sukarelawan di rumah orang tua-tua . Dan ada seorang warga emas ini tak boleh bercakap dan dia cuba cakap/minta sesuatu . Bagaimana Athirah handle situasi ini ?"

ada yang dapat pasal macam mana nak handle patient hyperactive , nak approach kids yang suka menyendiri and nak buat apa if ada patient kanak-kanak yang menangis as soon as dia nampak muka kita .

interviewer itu ada explain jugak sikit-sikit pasal what actually need to be done after kita bagi jawapan . Sebagai contoh , interviewer ada cakap bahawa its normal for kids to cry sebab mereka masih belum terbiasa dengan stranger . But when they’ve reached certain age point , they would be okay . Its not that they cried because your face was so terrifying or such .

The one thing I love about this iv is that I got so many valuable advices about my course and my future job prospect from the interviewers itself .

So to summarize the questions asked in my second iv ..

1.     Introduce yourself

2.     Why did you choose this course?

3.     What is your main strength and weaknesses ?

4.     USM or other universities ? / Why USM ?

5.     Problems solving (bahasa Melayu)

6.     Anything else you wanted to ask us ?

And yeah , this interview was conducted both in English and Malay , depending on the interviewer .

It is very important for you to have a good command in both languages okay ? It enables you to express yourself well and impress the interviewers .

So then after that 30 minutes iv , ada hearing test and speech screening .

To ensure that you yourselves takda kekurangan upaya dari segi pendengaran dan pertuturan . You want to help people with such disabilities right ? Kenalah make sure you have a normal speech and hearing condition .

The screening were carried out by senior students in the course itself which is obviously cool gila for me.

The interview result will be released on 11^th August 2015 .

I honestly didnt hope much for this iv since there will only be 10 applicants selected out of 73 applications

So yeah hahahaha ada rezeki ada lah kan ? huhu

Anddd last but not least , my interview for Speech Science programme in UKM .

Paling simple paling laju .

Cakap cakap then you’re done .

I was in a group of three people .

And to cut it short .

1.     Perkenalkan diri anda dan apakah kursus yang anda mohon ?

2.     Kenapa anda memohon untuk kursus ini ?

3.     Tell us about your co-curricular involvements .

4.     Problem Solving .

Tadaaaaaa dah boleh balik . Like seriously . 10 minit ja . That’s it . The end .

And there goes my interview stories .

Im sorry if I didn’t help you much .

But kesah apa gua .

HAHAHA

Okay me gurau gurau ja . I really hope by reading this blog post , you will have some idea on how your interview would likely be and thus make some necessary preparations for it .

Draft out your answers and practice it.

Prepare all the necessary documents needed for the interview and compile all of your certificates neatly in a clear holder file to give it a dash of the professional look.

Dress appropriately and formally . Elakkan baju batik .

Speak confidently but mind your manners.

You have to realize the fact that your good grades will only enables you to make it to an interview but the thing that will help you make it through the interview is your ability to impress the interviewers .

And there’s no second chance to make a good first impression .

Prepare well . Pray hard . And leave the rest to Allah .

May the force be with you .

Goodluck dearest !!