My interview was due Friday, 03/04/2009 (the last day of JPA interviews), 8.00 a.m in Putrajaya International Convention Centre (PICC). I departed at 6.30 a.m from my house in Kepong and reached the place at about 7.20 a.m. By the way, before I enter my main point, I would like to describe a little (not really) about the scenery in Putajaya. First, it is HUGE, everything in it is prodigious, even its road is broader than the normal ones we see in our neighbourhood (despite those living in Putrajaya of course). Its a pretty good place to drive around, haha, but honestly, without the sign boards, I'll surely lost my way. Second, its beautiful (duh~), even the traffic lights are decorated beautifully, they're all spoilt, though, but there's not much to worry about, 'cause there are only a little cars there. And the road lamps are built with patterns too. Then the residential areas, the banglos are enormous and SOO grand and beautiful (lol, how many times have I repeated this word?). I would really like to know the millionare's son living in those banglos (Chinese of course)! Then I will not need this JPA scholarship to further my studies, haha! Forive me, I like to day dream. Oh ya, I even saw our Prime Minister's and Deputy's banglos, grand and alone and massive and beautiful(again, lol, I'm starting to wonder about my vocabs), standing there on the hill, richly surrounded with trees and plants. Well, all the interviewees who went there would have seen it, they're beautiful, aren't they? Then the PICC building, haha, I've heard 2 different comments about it, Jing Mei's parents said that it looks like a graduate's hat, and my dad said that it looks like a gigantic space craft. Well, I just think it's huge, and well, different from the buildings I've seen in KL. Entering Putrajaya gave me a really different feeling, well, maybe it was my nervousness which overwhelmed me, but it really gave me a different kind of inexplicable feeling. Okay, I'm done (finally) with my description of Putrajaya, and now I'll proceed to the main topic today, my JPA interview experience.
I entered the building with my dad with a major nervous and uncomfortable feeling, the former because, well, it's normal to be nervous right? The latter because my high heels was VERY loose. It was my sister's long-time-ago heels and was also the only formal shoes I can find in my house, so I had to bear with it, but it was difficult to catch up with my Dad's speed. Wow, tell you what, I've found a new ability of mine, which is I'm REALLY good in crapping, my God, I really sound like an old granny after going through my second paragraph! Anyway I reached the well, was that the lobby? to find a large crowd gathering in front of the many boards there, with plenty of A4 papers sticked on the them. I searched for my panel room (panel 14, which I knew already because Guan Rou saw it on her interview day). I was numbered 11, which would mean I'm the 1st candidate of the 3rd batch. I met Wan Ling on my way to the panels room and went in with her, hers was panel 13, we were arranged according to our birthdates, and I heard a Malay lady saying it was because with the same birth dates, we were then supposed to have the same maturity, well, even a slight difference counts I guess.
We went in front of our panels' room to pass up our photostated documents. I met Yuen Shue (one of my primary school's classmates) who had the same panel as me. I sat on one of the many chairs and chatted nervously with one of the candidates there, he said he just came to gain experience as he had already plan to start Form 6. Anyway, after the 1st batch (with Yuen Shue inside) went in, my name was called up for the second batch. Some of the candidates didn't come, so I were to replace their places. I was the 4th one of the 2nd batch. There were 1 Indian guy, 1 Malay guy and 2 Malay ladies in my group. Luckily there was still time for me to know the guys (well, the girls sat far away from us) before our time came. The waiting period really set butterflies flying furiously in my stomach but I tried to stay calm. After approxiamtely an hour, the 1st batch session ended and we entered the room. There were 3 panels, an Indian sir, a Chinese lady and a Malay lady.
They then asked us to introduce ourselves according to our numbers. I was VERY lucky to have panels who didn't mind about our language ( I mean we were free to speak in either Malay or English, but we spoke in English throughout the interview, except one Malay candidate who asked permission to speak in Malay). But one thing i'm really angry at myself, when it was my time to speak, I spoke and things went smoothly until the time where I stuttered:" I was the Head of Bulletin Board of... um... (pause), I was the Head of Bulletin Board of, erm... (pause) KH Club..." GOD!! How could I possibly forgot that it was the Interact Club, I stared blankly for about 10 seconds, with all the panels looking at me stuttering!!! God, that was the worst part of my interview.
Aftet the introduction session, we were given a discussion title :"Do you agree that Malaysia's education system which is exam-oriented make students less creative in their thinkings?" Well, I personally think that it was not a very tough question. All of us agreed of course, with points like most of the students just memorize from text books without understanding bla bla bla... I gave reasons like there are no practical exams like lab experiment exams for science subjects, students just memorized word to word for Paper 3 (written practical exams). After that, they asked questions like what do you think we should do? One of the candidates gave his opinion and then the problem came again,I raised my hand to answer and the Malay interview forgot that I had already spoken for the former question and she told me :"You haven't get a chance to speak just now, do speak now.(something like that)" I was taken aback because I had spoken just now but she forgot and that surely will pull down my marks. But anyway I stated my opinion for the 2nd question. But its really frustrating to think that I answered but she forgot, I hope the other 2 interviewers did not.
Then we were asked one-to-one (well, 3 to 1) about our preferred course and country and why bla bla bla. I was the only one there who applied for a local scholarship. Well, the whole interview was actually for those who wanted to go overseas but, when I applied online, I remember choosing the local one, but I was suprisingly shortlisted as one of the overseas candidates, so I went anyway. Because I was applying for a local one, one of the interviewers asked me :"What can you serve for the government if we were to give you this scholarship?" I practically answered what a chemical engineer (that's my preferred course) can do for that question, I recited my answer to one of my friend after the interview and she said I wasn't off-topic, so, well, I hope not. Then we were asked to ask them questions, any questions about JPA. And our interview session ended. Then I made my 2nd mistake, I got up and turned to leave, until I saw all of the candidates went in front to shook hands with the interviewers. I was like, shoot! My impression mark is surely to be near to 0! and went quickly to shake hands and mumble my thanks to them. It was a relieve to leave the room. I made brief details of my interview experience with some of my friends there and left the place.
Well, I think I did average, not too good nor the opposite. I was told a local scholarship is easy to get, and now I regretted a little for not applying for an overseas one. But anyway, I hope my experience can help those who will attend their interviews next year. Good luck and all the best to those. The tips are:
1. Wear formal clothes or baju kurung, I heard some were kicked out form the room for wearing t-shirt and jeans.
2. Speak confidently however you can even if you're shaking like hell inside.
3. Remember to shake hands before and after you're being interviewed.(Don't make the same mistakes as me!!) Take the initiative to do so if your group members didn't.
4. Do not slouch or cross your legs.
5. Prepare answers for those questions which will surely be asked, like, why do you choose this course/country? and also answers for the introduction, both English and Malay, you never know what language they'll ask you to speak.
6. Double check your documents before you leave your house. And after the interview, remember to check your original copy of documents (inside the clear folder) too to check whether did they take your Borang Pengesahan, one of my friend didn't have hers taken and was considered (maybe) not qualified.
7. Get to know some of your group members before entering the interview room, to prevent awkwardness in the interview room and also to get you throat working.
That's about all I can give. Good luck again.
