~JPA interview experience~

Firstly, i want to say sorry for being M.I.A. for so long. The two factors are:

1. Couldn't use streamyx as a lightning fall from heaven and struck the modem and my network card Kapoot! At that time i was very anxious as i haven't finish doing my scholarship application and preparation. Having internet nowadays are so important.

2. Procrastination got over me. Its hard to get into blogging after not blogging quite awhile. But when the blogging fever rages, i can blog basically about anything ; the moon, the sky, the air, the zephyr ...I think you get my point. Haha .

Swinburne rumour update: i won't be going yet, maybe in July intake or after going to Form 6.

Anyway, firstly i want to thank God for giving me a chance at the JPA scholarship interview. Thank God for his grace, mercy and favour upon my life. Lately, i find that most people recognised JPA scholarship as PSD. When i mention i am going for JPA interview, they all say as "HA? what is that? how come i donno wan?" until i say PSD(public service department;direct translation of Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam) scholarship.

I'm sure by now you want to know in detail what happened during my JPA interview. Let's backdate it to Last Friday (28th March)

Friday:
*Dad calls from office to tell me my results (no internet mar) *
*Dad congratulates and became excited*
*I became excited*
*Mom can home and i break the news to her. She also became Excited*
*Ate Duck for lunch*
*Got internet connection and start doing som research on Recom and other websites*
*Got into study mode*

Saturday=Study and Church

Sunday=Church +study+hip hop class+ study

Monday= Last minute shopping + studying

Haha, in conclusion, Anders=Study. No lar. Kidding kidding. got some fun in the middle too lar. Basically what i did was going through the topic one by one, writing down the points i can/could say and researching the internet and newspaper for facts. My researching paid off, most of my facts i was able to use them in the interview.

I was basically nervous the days before April fool's day. Couldn't sleep properly, i had to keep on reading books to actually make myself sleep. That happen to happened too (haha. so many happening words) through the days POST-JPA interview. I'm really tired out.

So on to D-day.

Jpa Interview:

I woke up around 5.30 because i couldn't sleep, wash up and had my breakfast. I went through my notes again getting the information to my head. One advice to Jpa interview wannabes; take SLEEPING PILLS if you must. You need to the sleep to be actually alert that morning. I was groggy actually and i wasn't alert.

Went into the car and use a short cut to avoid the massive traffic Jam. My father missed Pustaka library and we had to make another round to reach it. But we still reach there quite early. 7.15 am . I spend my time reading the whole speech by Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badai about RMK-9 or the Malaysian Ninth Plan. If you can get your hands on it, many valuable information can be used later in your interview. I didn't know that about 1500 schools didn't have 24-hour electricity. That itself explains a lot about our education in Malaysia.

After the some preparation , i decided not to study anymore before going in because it will only stress myself out against time. Its not SPM. Haha. I wanted to have a calm posture before going in. Met some friends along the way. I used the time to make new friends such as Nicholas and Louis. Quite fun to get to know new people. Its good to have people you know in the interview room to lower stress levels. Haha. At least not so intimidating and maybe you know a bit of their weakness. Haha.

The interview was purely malaysian time. Good lah. Not all the *use deep voice here* chosen ones(sounds like from a movie) arrive on time. Saw(as in the past tense of see not cutting) the JPA interviewers dressed in full coats entering the library to set up the things. All guys. Great!!!! Women are generally more picky i guess?

Went into the library at about 8.20 am i think. You could feel the tension in the air. Thank goodness the air-con was just switched on if not i would have suffer from major shivering.

Shivering+nervous+anxious+excitement= disaster

I was the only one wearing red; somewhere between red and maroon. Appeal to the malays!!! hahaha. At least the interviewers will remember me more coz i "stand out". haha. Wore a gold tie with tons of grey microspots to lower the sparkle and of course slacks. Wore my polished Bata leather shoes.

The waiting time was killing. All of us just wanted to enter the room and get over it. Time after time(song) it went tick, tick , tick. It was so quiet i think you can even hear someone fart or an ant squealing when you squish it . Ok , fine i am exaggerating but you get my cue. I was bored so i went through some of the RMK-9 facts to refresh my memory. Talked about politics while waiting. I also signed my attendance and arranged my documents. Wanted to take some photos but i couldn't find my camera to bring along . Sigh~

So then i we went into the interview room after much waiting. I think we were the third group . We entered Panel 2. My group we had three girls and three boys including myself. Nicholas, Min Zhi, Daniel and I were in the same group. So basically happr lor. Got three people i know. The interviewers tried to calm our anxiousness and excitement. Relax~
(adapted from my Recom post)
The interviewers played a small "April fools joke" on us. At the beginning he asked " Sila buat "introduction" tentang diri sendiri" . We all thought we had to speak in "BM" and the vocabularies were rushing through my head. They didn't specify what they want to know too. IN the END, we were suppose to answer in English. Funny lar this interviewers. I had to re-interpret what i had set to say on my mind. Oh well. One advice though, make sure you look at the interviewers. One poor boy(sorry nic no hard feelings) in my group didn't SEE and HEAR the interviewer cutting him off as he spoke too much. And he went on and on, interviewers weren't interested anymore. BTW, he mentioned about playing DOTA which is like the killer for your intro. On my part, i try to keep it light and joked with the interviewers. I think people prefer a bubbly personality than a serious and too intellectual type.

*highlights of the interview*

I mentioned i love dancing and "specialise" in ballroom dancing. Cha-cha-cha and jive.
Interviewer: Kamu tahu tarian poco-poco?
Me: Tahu.......
Interviever: Kamu boleh "demonstrate" untuk saya?
Me: Boleh , kamu mahu say menari sekarang, ya?
Haha....in the end i didn't lar. Interviewing time have to be serious mar.

I mention about line dancing too.
Interviewer: HA!!!!! Lion Dancing????
Me: bukan, bukan lion dancing. Tarian Garisan!!!
Interviewer: Oh, patutlah. Kamu berbadan besar tentu tidak dapat buat tarian singa. Kamu buat saya terkejut sahaja. *room filled with laughter*
Me: *laughs* betul tu.....

Mention about my passion for biotechnology.
*interviewers faces just suddenly stared and froze at me. Listening so, SO hard to what i say*
My heart goes......sha la lala sha la la la in the morning *music fades*
Hope i get their attention! Haha.

One part i find strange is Daniel mentioning about his achievement painting the house. Oh well. Haha.

For the second part , we were asked to do debate style. Our question was:

"Rising oil prices is a threat to our country's economy"
I was quite happy.i though to myself: We get to do our intro and discussion in English!

The interviewers split us into government(pencadang) and opposition (pembangkang). We were given time to write our points. I was the opposition. We thought and thought our points in English and getting all the facts i got into my mind. Finally it started and the first speaker begin sharply using some flowery English phrases UNTIL the interviewer interrupted : Your English is very good, now we would like to hear you speak in Malay.

!@#$%^^&*!@#$%^&*!@#$%^&* went through or minds. The interviewers enjoyed their little evil scheme against us. It was hard enough for us to be opposition . Now we had to do it in Malay. Anyway, i manage to give my two cents worth of though on the topic. But basically everyone except some were interrupting each other. I spoke about two times. I wanted to further elaborate the third time but they(interviewers) stopped the discussion. I couldn't get a word in at the heated IMPOLITE interruptions. I think that's a really bad idea to interrupt impolitely. At least say excuse me or pardon me. I think most of us went off topic but i did try to get two points on why Malaysia economy will still increase. Halfway through the discussion we were talking about bio-diesels , hydrogen engines and bringing in foreign experts(i brought it up) to solve the oil price issue when we're suppose to be talking about the economy. I was happy i spoke 99% malay. I only use the word "so" accidentally.

My points:
1. Malaysia is a major country for producing petroleum and prices are soaring all over the world. SO petronas untung and they use it for subsidy mar. Our economy won't be that largely affected but can still go on.
2.Agricultural department is using money to give subsidies to fisherman and farmers so they wont' be badly affected.
3. Technology is improving , we won't need t rely heavily on petroleum next time.
4.They are still competition among price of goods. People can still contribute to the economy.

I was about to talk about Singapore who has nothing and yet produce such large amounts of revenue when the Interviewer halted the disuscussion to an end. Oh well....I wanted to say about Singapore so much!!!!! I think looking back everyone went off topic....Or even the whole conversation was off topic. GOD PLEASE HELP US!!!!! Anyway, we were in the room for 45 minutes (someone timed us kah?). didn't know it was that long. Haha.

Now is to keep on praying for God's favour......