Undeniably, scholarships and I tend to have rather... complicated relationships. The first one I applied for (and a quite prestigious one for heaven's sake) didn't qualify because reckless little me missed out one of the application procedures. I'm still beating myself up for that. And then there was Taylor's Principal Awards where I was awarded with 10 thousand MYR worth of tuition wee waiver for selected Pre-University Courses. Considering my current financial abilities, I turned it down because as honoured as I am to be holding a TPA, the remaining uncovered fees (not to mention living costs) were still far from what my family could afford.
Back to where I started, I was about to write about what I've learned during the interview processes of YK - Stage 1 and Stage 2, which (for me) was on 22nd April and 8th May respectively.
I'd say It was definitely a fun morning. Not only did we sit for tests, but we were also given satisfying explanations about the purpose of each section of the test. From these tests the panel would determine our thinking skills and decision making abilities and decide whether we would advance to the next stage. At this point I'm already cowering at their ridiculously detailed selection process, it's like they had to literally dissect our brains in order to select the best scholar possible.
So I made it to the second stage.
The competition narrowed down from 4-friggin'-thousand to a few hundreds, I'm glad to say. Unlike the first stage, this time it was a full-day session from 8am to 6pm, which was then extended to 7pm. The venue remained the same. All candidates were divided in to 4 color groups upon registration, two groups would be interviewed first and the remaining two would have their presentation session; and then we would switch after lunch (sounds simple enough). All in all there were: a) an individual interview session which lasted around 15 minutes per candidate, b) a group discussion session which required presentation accompanied by Microsoft Power-Point slides prepared by the group itself (they prepared a laptop for each group), c) a smaller grouping session with the interviewers to answer some questions (more on providing opinions), and lastly d) some individual critical thinking tests.
What I realized at the end of the day was that they really emphasized on Critical Thinking, like what to consider when making a decision. Even before we had our group discussion, the panel gave tips on how to work together effectively and speak fluently when we're presenting on stage. The pointers helped a lot, and would benefit plenty in the future if one remembers enough. My opinion? It was more like a fruitful workshop rather than a frightening interview.
Like I said earlier, I received an email a few days earlier notifying me that I had only made it as far as the second stage. But I'm content. The experience and knowledge acquired was worthwhile, and hey, at least now I know my way around KL Sentral.
I didn't get the PETRONAS scholarship, neither did I make it to the 3rd stage of Yayasan Khazanah (YK). I say, failures are a sign of you're getting closer to what you want, so let's rejoice.
First of all, Yayasan Khazanah is a scholarship programme under Khazanah Nasional Berhad, which is an investment holding company of the Government of Malaysia. What got me interested in the scholarship was that chosen candidates would have to go through 4 stages of interviews, and well, I like challenges. My advice to future YK applicants if by any chance you are reading this now, is to go for it. Do not hesitate, I did because for each time I went I had to take bus trips all the way to the interview spot and back, book a hotel, do some fairly time-consuming research on the map of Brickflieds/KL Sentral (I live in Penang). But in the end all of it was worth the while. And even though I didn't get into the 3rd stage, I did learn a lot.
For the first stage there was no interview. I know that sounded downright weird, but it is so true. The complete session for the first stage lasts for a preposterously brief period of one and a half hours because all we had to do was sit on a chair and complete critical thinking tests. Yes, all handwritten if you're wondering. It should be a breeze, ignoring the fact that the temperature in the Odyssey Room was ridiculously low and that the tests were indescribably odd yet challenging with a slight hint of amusing.
The 5 sections we had to rack our brains through:
- Abstract Reasoning Test
- Understanding Logical Processes
- Spatial Reasoning Test
- Understanding Social Context
- Numerical Reasoning Ability Test
I'd say It was definitely a fun morning. Not only did we sit for tests, but we were also given satisfying explanations about the purpose of each section of the test. From these tests the panel would determine our thinking skills and decision making abilities and decide whether we would advance to the next stage. At this point I'm already cowering at their ridiculously detailed selection process, it's like they had to literally dissect our brains in order to select the best scholar possible.
So I made it to the second stage.
The competition narrowed down from 4-friggin'-thousand to a few hundreds, I'm glad to say. Unlike the first stage, this time it was a full-day session from 8am to 6pm, which was then extended to 7pm. The venue remained the same. All candidates were divided in to 4 color groups upon registration, two groups would be interviewed first and the remaining two would have their presentation session; and then we would switch after lunch (sounds simple enough). All in all there were: a) an individual interview session which lasted around 15 minutes per candidate, b) a group discussion session which required presentation accompanied by Microsoft Power-Point slides prepared by the group itself (they prepared a laptop for each group), c) a smaller grouping session with the interviewers to answer some questions (more on providing opinions), and lastly d) some individual critical thinking tests.
What I realized at the end of the day was that they really emphasized on Critical Thinking, like what to consider when making a decision. Even before we had our group discussion, the panel gave tips on how to work together effectively and speak fluently when we're presenting on stage. The pointers helped a lot, and would benefit plenty in the future if one remembers enough. My opinion? It was more like a fruitful workshop rather than a frightening interview.
Like I said earlier, I received an email a few days earlier notifying me that I had only made it as far as the second stage. But I'm content. The experience and knowledge acquired was worthwhile, and hey, at least now I know my way around KL Sentral.
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