Bonjour! I just realised that I've been spending the whole night writing down posts regarding the interviews, and its almost 2am right now and I'm continuing with this one. Lets talk about my experience with the JPA-MARA SAC Interview, shall we :)
JPA-MARA 2015/2016 SAC Interview - 25th March 2015
Hm where do I begin? This year's SAC "interview" was a bit different from the past few years. Instead of wearing formal attire, we were told to dress up in long-sleeved white t-shirt and track pants, as well as with sports shoes. When the dress code was first announced, there were rumours that a bleep test would be held during the interview spread like wildfire. Lucky for us, that was not the case. Just like the previous years, the SAC interview had the same procedure. My session was scheduled to be at noon, I think around 2.30pm (I can't remember exactly) and the venue was at Intec, Shah Alam. Mum and I went to Shah Alam pretty early, and we went to grab some brunch with her friend at Coffee Planet, then they dropped me off at Intec just after Zuhur. I performed my Zuhur prayers at the surau there, and by the time I got to the room I was assigned to, I was a few minutes late, but fortunately for me there were others who came later than I did. There were chairs arranged in a circle and the girls sat on one half of the circle while the boys sat on the opposite half. Then, the staff came in and called our names one by one and we passed them the documents while they give us our numbers. I think mine was 23 or 29, I honestly can't remember. Anyway, after that we were separated into four groups, mixed genders, and my group and another group were asked to remain in the room while the other two groups moved to the next room. So, the first session that we had was to present in BM, and the topic that we got was - Jika anda merupakan pemimpin pada tahun 2040, apakah teknologi yang boleh digunakan untuk memajukan sektor sukan dalam negara Malaysia - or something like that and something else along the line. We were given 30 minutes, I believe, to discuss the topic and we were also given a mahjong paper to write our points down. I'm really sorry, its been a month since the interview, so most of the details are blurred now. Anyway, my teammates consisted of really impressive people; one of them, the group leader, actually wrote a novel before. She is also a debater which means her BM was extremely good. The boys in my group were pretty excellent too, they were really participative, most of them gave a lot of suggestions and they did an awesome job at presenting. During that first session, I personally think our group shined more than the other group that was in the room.
After we were done with that, we switched rooms with the other two group and began with the second session, which was presentation in English. We were asked whether we would like to switch our teammates, but we decided it was best to stick with the original groups. So, the topic we were given was - Why is important for the youth to have volunteerism and something else - I'm honestly such a goldfish, I can barely remember anything. Throughout the discussion it was obvious that I had the upper hand in this topic compared to the rest of my team, and the other team had a strong English speaker as well. I tried to spill out as many ideas I had, and I was also given the honour to write down the points onto the mahjong paper this time :p Anyway, even though some of my teammates wasn't really good at contributing ideas this time, but they again did an excellent job at presenting and I have to say I am kinda jealous of their skills. The other group also had one girl who stood out for being able to speak really good English. After we were done with that, we basically finished the whole interview and we were allowed to take back the documents and leave. Unfortunately I didn't manage to make any new friends this time, but it was a pretty interesting experience, and I think I look forward to work in that sort of competitive environment in the future.
I was kinda bummed after this interview because I felt intimidated by how good the other candidates were at presenting, and the fact that they were analysing us mainly based on those two presentations made me feel pretty anxious. Do remember that you must speak only in BM during the BM session and English during the English session. I was actually told off my the officer when I spoke English during the BM session. I was also pretty overwhelmed by the fact that most of them there got 8a+ and above for their SPM results. Also, remember the girl who wrote a freaking novel, oh well she was able to speak basic mandarin too. Academically, they were much better than me but I guess I do give off a confident vibe as that same girl won't stop saying how confident I was during the whole thing. I honestly wasn't I was freaking out I was trying my very best not to bawl my eyes out when I got in my mum's car after the interview.
Good news is, on the 25th of April, just a few days ago, the results came out and Alhamdulillah, I've managed to pass the interview. I did apply to go to US to study Science, but they did not specify was Science courses are available, and I am hoping that they will accept architecture as one of the courses. Even if I have to beg, I don't mind as I really do want to study in US and this is one of the best pathways I can take to achieve that. Based on my whole experience during this SAC thingamajig, the only tips I have is that you need to be confident. I've read somewhere that the main thing that they're looking for is confidence, as well as good command in both English and BM, and the ability to work well in groups. So if you're not confident with your English, this is the time to buck up! My English is honestly not great at all, but I'm guessing it is enough to secure me a spot during interviews, but I still need to put in more effort in order to improve it. All in all, don't be intimidated when you get there. It honestly does not depend on your SPM result once you've been shortlisted for the interview, because from there on they no longer care about your As, but they need to see that you have what it takes to survive studying overseas. I've known people who got like 9a+ for SPM and did not manage to pass the interview, so keep that in mind.
I hope this post has been helpful and that it has been interesting to read, let me know how your interviews went and if you have any tips when it comes to acing interviews!
If you'd like to read about the final round of the TWCS interview, click here!
-am-
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