Assalamualaikum and hello, yet another post about one of the struggles of life after SPM. This time around, I decided to combine two assessments/tests together because I don't think I can cope anymore reliving my fears in two separate posts. This will be another monotonous post. Let's start with my attempt of getting a scholarship from Yayasan Khazanah (YK).
The application process for YK was definitely one of the most challenging ones, as there was the need to write a 1000-word essay about your preferred field of study etc etc, make a resume, attach all your certificates in a PDF file with a maximum size of 1MB (idk how many pdf resizer apps i downloaded for this one) etc. And according to the blogs I've read of other people's experience, YK is one of the toughest among all regarding scholarships as they only give out around three for SPM leavers? This time around, I applied to study Biochemistry. After a few weeks, I got an e-mail from them to inform me that I was shortlisted for Stage 1 of the assessment, and they gave a link to do two IQ/personality tests. I don't remember the questions, but I did remember it being really tough that I didn't had time to finish some questions. Weeks passed. Then I got the e-mail to inform me that I was shortlisted for Stage 2 with a link for another personality test. I had fun doing it as the situations given were interesting and you had to click on four possible answers according to importance, in your opinion. Time passed. I was looking up news about YK on Twitter and saw people posting pictures of the triple (yes, THREE) rejection emails that were sent by YK. Gulp. And jengjengjeng, just one or two days after the 2nd stage I got the e-mail to inform me that I was shortlisted for Stage 3 which will be a half day assessment at Mercu UEM, Kuala Lumpur.
Apparently the assessment is held for almost a week as I saw other people posting pics on IG at the place even five days before my session. I also got to know that my friend Anjali's assessment was held at morning on the same day as mine and Aliyyah's session was the same as mine, while Qistina's one is on the day after and I saw Mitra posting pictures about the assessment the next Monday. Anyway. the day of the assessment arrived. Went up to the 27th floor of Mercu UEM with Aliyyah and another candidate. For this session, there were only 10 of us altogether and I heard that there were 300-400 shortlisted students for the 3rd stage. Each of us had a nametag each. 10 of us were separated into two rooms, five each in one where we were given the first task, which is an individual task. There was supposed to be six of us, but one person has not arrived.
Okay okay I have to calm down now recalling the nervewracking experience.
We were each given a file about six available positions of Legoland, including Marketing Executive, Business Administrator, etc etc each with lengthy descriptions of application requirements like their job experience and education background, personality needed and salary given. At the same time, we were each given two resumes and later on we will have to present those two people in the resumes and say which position suits them the most and why. Something like matching them with the jobs camtu. We had 15 minutes to read everything and finalize our decisions and only 3 minutes to present both of the candidates. I have to admit, my mental state was at a frenzy at that time and I was borderline panicking. The resumes were very, very detailed and sometimes their salary expectations were more than the salary given even though all the other details fit perfectly for a job, and sometimes one person can fit in multiple positions. And when the time was up, I was called to be the first person to present. There were three assessors in the same room and the atmosphere was tense. My voice was shaky and the worst part was that I didn't even complete my presentation on time, barely starting on the second resume. Sob. While others did better of course. Moving on to the next task, a group work. Now that there were 10 resumes, we only had to choose 5 people for 5 positions, having to consider all aspects and the budget given. It was very messy with some people dominating the whole task and not letting others to speak up. Later on when were done, the assessor said that we should all listen to the instructions she said clearly because we had filled up five positions and leaving out the second one out of the six, while she said in the beginning to fill up the first five. I don't know if you get it but yeah.
We had a short break before moving on to the next task, an individual one. All of us had to sit on separate tables with mahjong papers and stationeries. Mine was facing the wall in front ahahaha it was like a test. We were given this huge file each, with separate contents I guess and in 30 minutes, read through it and prepare for the presentation before presenting it. There was like an alarm clock in each of our tables. Basically in my file it was about this launching of Lyon/Leon Hotel in 6 months time and I had to present these four aspects mainly, the title and theme of the launching, the media promotion in each month, what to carry out during the launching event and preparations in those 6 months. For the promotions, there was this email from the boss (?) about his suggestion and there was this list of promotional activities with its prices. There were even pie charts, bar graphs and statistics of which promotional approach was the most influential and which activity during normal launching events that guests usually wait for. Then there were also information about the hotel (which pretty much sums up Avani Sepang Gold Coast tbh) and problems related to previous launching events. Afterwards we were called one by one in different rooms with one assessors each in the room, and we had to present it in 15 minutes, with 5 minutes of Q&A. I screwed it up too because I think I talked too fast and in the end, even with the Q&A, I still had 5 minutes left. But apparently others did it that fast too, it was uncontrollable lel.
The last assessment was the individual interview, for half an hour. I can't believe I'm saying this but it was the least stressful task of the day. Talked mostly about SAEYLS and the internship at The Star. He did say that I should speak out more, especially knowing that Biochemistry isn't a common thing in Malaysia compared to others. And that's it. Didn't even take any pictures because after the whole thing as everyone wasn't just in a friendly mood ahahaha and I was like ok ok get it done and over with. And yeah, as expected, after a few weeks I got TWO rejection e-mails from YK hahahhaa.
Now for UKM's foundation programme, there's only one called Asasipintar. The results for UPU/ public local universities aren't out yet, and I put UKM as my second choice after UM. So I got a text about being shortlisted for the test with the details etc. Went to UKM and saw familiar faces again ahahaha like Vythi, my sekolah agama friend, Farhana and my Bank Negara roommate. The test was around 2 hours ++, and I would describe it as... different? I HAVE NEVER ENCOUNTERED THESE KIND OF QUESTIONS BEFORE. It's like the kind of questions you answer on your phone's Mental Games app and all, plus there were a lot of subjective questions including IQ/general knowledge one and ethical ones. I felt like I was answering my Pendidikan Islam paper again what's with all the explaining and reasoning.
No pictures for this post. I'm thinking that this will be my last post regarding scholarship assessments~ For now, at least I am satisfied that I got one scholarship out of the four assessments that I went for, although I rejected it (being the one rejecting hurts really bad too). Alhamdulillah I was even given the opportunity to go for them all, as I definitely learnt more about myself, my weaknesses, gained new experiences and acquaintances. That is all, thank you all for reading!
For more post-SPM scholarships/assessments experience: Bank Negara, MARA, Petronas
The application process for YK was definitely one of the most challenging ones, as there was the need to write a 1000-word essay about your preferred field of study etc etc, make a resume, attach all your certificates in a PDF file with a maximum size of 1MB (idk how many pdf resizer apps i downloaded for this one) etc. And according to the blogs I've read of other people's experience, YK is one of the toughest among all regarding scholarships as they only give out around three for SPM leavers? This time around, I applied to study Biochemistry. After a few weeks, I got an e-mail from them to inform me that I was shortlisted for Stage 1 of the assessment, and they gave a link to do two IQ/personality tests. I don't remember the questions, but I did remember it being really tough that I didn't had time to finish some questions. Weeks passed. Then I got the e-mail to inform me that I was shortlisted for Stage 2 with a link for another personality test. I had fun doing it as the situations given were interesting and you had to click on four possible answers according to importance, in your opinion. Time passed. I was looking up news about YK on Twitter and saw people posting pictures of the triple (yes, THREE) rejection emails that were sent by YK. Gulp. And jengjengjeng, just one or two days after the 2nd stage I got the e-mail to inform me that I was shortlisted for Stage 3 which will be a half day assessment at Mercu UEM, Kuala Lumpur.
Apparently the assessment is held for almost a week as I saw other people posting pics on IG at the place even five days before my session. I also got to know that my friend Anjali's assessment was held at morning on the same day as mine and Aliyyah's session was the same as mine, while Qistina's one is on the day after and I saw Mitra posting pictures about the assessment the next Monday. Anyway. the day of the assessment arrived. Went up to the 27th floor of Mercu UEM with Aliyyah and another candidate. For this session, there were only 10 of us altogether and I heard that there were 300-400 shortlisted students for the 3rd stage. Each of us had a nametag each. 10 of us were separated into two rooms, five each in one where we were given the first task, which is an individual task. There was supposed to be six of us, but one person has not arrived.
Okay okay I have to calm down now recalling the nervewracking experience.
We were each given a file about six available positions of Legoland, including Marketing Executive, Business Administrator, etc etc each with lengthy descriptions of application requirements like their job experience and education background, personality needed and salary given. At the same time, we were each given two resumes and later on we will have to present those two people in the resumes and say which position suits them the most and why. Something like matching them with the jobs camtu. We had 15 minutes to read everything and finalize our decisions and only 3 minutes to present both of the candidates. I have to admit, my mental state was at a frenzy at that time and I was borderline panicking. The resumes were very, very detailed and sometimes their salary expectations were more than the salary given even though all the other details fit perfectly for a job, and sometimes one person can fit in multiple positions. And when the time was up, I was called to be the first person to present. There were three assessors in the same room and the atmosphere was tense. My voice was shaky and the worst part was that I didn't even complete my presentation on time, barely starting on the second resume. Sob. While others did better of course. Moving on to the next task, a group work. Now that there were 10 resumes, we only had to choose 5 people for 5 positions, having to consider all aspects and the budget given. It was very messy with some people dominating the whole task and not letting others to speak up. Later on when were done, the assessor said that we should all listen to the instructions she said clearly because we had filled up five positions and leaving out the second one out of the six, while she said in the beginning to fill up the first five. I don't know if you get it but yeah.
We had a short break before moving on to the next task, an individual one. All of us had to sit on separate tables with mahjong papers and stationeries. Mine was facing the wall in front ahahaha it was like a test. We were given this huge file each, with separate contents I guess and in 30 minutes, read through it and prepare for the presentation before presenting it. There was like an alarm clock in each of our tables. Basically in my file it was about this launching of Lyon/Leon Hotel in 6 months time and I had to present these four aspects mainly, the title and theme of the launching, the media promotion in each month, what to carry out during the launching event and preparations in those 6 months. For the promotions, there was this email from the boss (?) about his suggestion and there was this list of promotional activities with its prices. There were even pie charts, bar graphs and statistics of which promotional approach was the most influential and which activity during normal launching events that guests usually wait for. Then there were also information about the hotel (which pretty much sums up Avani Sepang Gold Coast tbh) and problems related to previous launching events. Afterwards we were called one by one in different rooms with one assessors each in the room, and we had to present it in 15 minutes, with 5 minutes of Q&A. I screwed it up too because I think I talked too fast and in the end, even with the Q&A, I still had 5 minutes left. But apparently others did it that fast too, it was uncontrollable lel.
The last assessment was the individual interview, for half an hour. I can't believe I'm saying this but it was the least stressful task of the day. Talked mostly about SAEYLS and the internship at The Star. He did say that I should speak out more, especially knowing that Biochemistry isn't a common thing in Malaysia compared to others. And that's it. Didn't even take any pictures because after the whole thing as everyone wasn't just in a friendly mood ahahaha and I was like ok ok get it done and over with. And yeah, as expected, after a few weeks I got TWO rejection e-mails from YK hahahhaa.
Now for UKM's foundation programme, there's only one called Asasipintar. The results for UPU/ public local universities aren't out yet, and I put UKM as my second choice after UM. So I got a text about being shortlisted for the test with the details etc. Went to UKM and saw familiar faces again ahahaha like Vythi, my sekolah agama friend, Farhana and my Bank Negara roommate. The test was around 2 hours ++, and I would describe it as... different? I HAVE NEVER ENCOUNTERED THESE KIND OF QUESTIONS BEFORE. It's like the kind of questions you answer on your phone's Mental Games app and all, plus there were a lot of subjective questions including IQ/general knowledge one and ethical ones. I felt like I was answering my Pendidikan Islam paper again what's with all the explaining and reasoning.
No pictures for this post. I'm thinking that this will be my last post regarding scholarship assessments~ For now, at least I am satisfied that I got one scholarship out of the four assessments that I went for, although I rejected it (being the one rejecting hurts really bad too). Alhamdulillah I was even given the opportunity to go for them all, as I definitely learnt more about myself, my weaknesses, gained new experiences and acquaintances. That is all, thank you all for reading!
For more post-SPM scholarships/assessments experience: Bank Negara, MARA, Petronas
Ayy congrats, I didn't even make it for Stage 3 for YK lol.
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