JPA 2010: Interview Experience Sharing

[Jhui]

Course Applied:medicine

Venue:UTeM, durian tunggal, melaka

Experience:
1. waiting for interview.
2. divide to a few group.(i'm the first group in panel 3, had no boys in my group)
2. prepare our documents.(waiting, you'll get a piece of paper from them. You are not allowed to bring anything expect ur pen and the paper)
3. introduce ourselves with bm.The interviewers prefer to a short and strong introduction.(I can see through their faces..)
4. there were no group discussion in my group. We were given a topic and 3 minutes for thinking."Is Malaysia experienced shortage of medical doctors?Don't be panic, because it'll influenced ur presentation.
5. The interviewers will add up their point and ask for more questions according ur answers.
6. After 15-20 minutes(i think), the interview had came to the end.
7. You can shake their hand though it's no necessary.

Advice/Additional info:
1. Be moderate.
2. Be alert.
3. Be confidence!

I think that is all.Remember don't be panic.This is the first time and also the last time for u to present during the interview.There is only 1500 places for almost 10000 candidates..

Good luck and try your best^^

[jasminekpk]

Date: 6 April

Course Applied: Science

Venue: Maktab Perguruan Raja Melewar, Seremban

Experience:
It's pretty much the same as explained in the previous posts, but I'll just share my side of the story

In the letter, my interview was stated at 2pm. So I reached there about 1.30pm. Just go to where you're being directed to and you'll see some tables which are written there "Panel 1/2/3". You'll have to go to the notice board first and sign your name. Be sure to check which panel you're in and then go to the tables(Panel1/2/3) and sign your name one more time. After that, you just wait for your turn to be called by the people in charge.

I was in Panel 1. And my name was the 4th name. (NOTE: If I'm not mistaken, the names are in order of your birthday. Mine is early Jan. That's why my name is 4th placing). At 2pm, the lady called my group in. (2 chinese, 3 malay. 4 girls, 1 guy. 2 science locally, 1 law, 1 accountancy and me doing science overseas).

You hand in your clear folder with your documents and your photostated copies. They will give you your number tag which you must wear (Mine is No.4). Then they will bring you to a room.

In the room, there'll be 5 chairs in a row directly in front of the table where the interviewers are sitting. Stand there until the interviewers tell you to sit. Mine was 2 Malay guys and 1 Indian lady. The guy in the middle will do most of the talking (and he spoke very fluent English). He'll introduce himself and tell you the statistics of JPA scholarship (like 10,000 got callback, only 1,500 will get). Then, he said the interview will be done in 2 parts.

First Part (Introduction)
Mine was done in English (thank god!!). Just tell about yourself, your school, cocuricular activities, family, what course, why you choose that course, where you want to do your course. There is actually no time limit but try not to drag so long, otherwise the interviewer will cut you halfway and ask you some questions. Like mine, the first Malay girl took almost 15 mins and the interviewer kept shooting her with questions.

Second Part (Question)
Ours only had one question. Which was also done in English. The question was "Scholarship are funded by the citizens of this country by paying tax. How do you think you can repay them?" They give you about 5 minutes to jot down your points. When time's up, anyone can volunteer to speak first. I spoke the 4th anyway. After you've done giving your points, they WILL definitely shoot some questions at you. So be careful with your points! The guy who was taking Law was asked by one of them "How are the laws in Malaysia made?" He started reciting the stuffs in our Sejarah book, but the lady cut in halfway and told him "that was the end process, how about the beginning?" The guy couldnt answer but the lady said "It's okay". So those taking law, be careful!

After that, they'll ask you if you have any questions. None of us asked, so he said thank you for coming. Then we just stood up, said thank you and left the room. After you leave the room, just wait for your folder to come back and then you can go home.

Advice/Additional info:
- MOST IMPORTANTLY, don't panic. The interviewers are generally nice. We even laughed during the interview after some mistakes. So it was definitely not as horrifying as I thought.
- Bring paper and pen. You're not even allowed to bring a notebook inside.
- Speak clearly and loudly. It shows you're confident.
- Don't say facts you're not sure about! Those interviewers will shoot you questions if you say something incorrectly. They're seriously smart, haha.
- If your're doing overseas, BE SURE to know more about the course (overall cost, the country, why it's good). Again, don't simply say stuffs if you're not sure.

All the best to everyone else who's yet to take the interview!

[chalkamaniac]

Course Applied: Medicine

Date : 5 April
Time : 8 a.m. (1st batch!!)
Venue : UTeM, Durian Tunggal, Melaka

Experience : We were divided into five panels at first, according to the name list which they had prepared. Then, we were further divided into 5 groups; with each group comprising 5 persons. Each interview took ...about 45 mins to an hour. Before entering the interview room, we were supposed to hand over our clear folder (with all that's in it) and the things needed to be photocopied and certified (according to the Surat Temu Duga) to a secretary outside. We were then given number tags and a piece of plain paper(just in case we needed to jot anything down)

There were 3 interviewers - one JPA officer, one Kementerian officer, and a doctor. Make sure that you sit only after the interviewers permit you to. They began with asking us to introduce ourselves on our family background, financial status, which school we used to go to, and co-curricular activities.



Next, they began asking us questions on the latest issues. This part of the interview was supposed to be the "discussion" part, but it's more like asking our "pendapat". They will state a topic and you'll have to raise your hand before giving your opinion (it doesn't go accor...ding to your numbers). The number of questions asked ranges from 3 to 5 (I came to this conclusion after comparing with a few friends from different groups). You'll have to answer in the language in which they used to ask the questions.

The interview was actually quite brief and short (although it was almost an hour, but it didn't feel that way ) as they went straight to the point.


Oh, and in case you wanted to know, these were the questions given to my group :
1. If you were to be stationed to the rural areas of Sabah & Sarawak in the future, would you accept it? (Don't give empty promises, coz they might serang you balik)
2. The society do not use the public transportation these days. Give your ...opinion on this matter.
3. Students act as the ambassadors of M'sia to promote the country to foreigners. Give your opinion on this matter.
4. The youth of today do not have patriotism in them. Give you opinion on this matter.

(Questions 1, 2, and 4 were in BM whilst Question 3 was in English)


Rating: 8/10

Advice/Additional info: Try to be confident and think before answering any questions. Coz thinking avoids u from being bombarded by them later on... Gd luck, guys!!

[blissful]

like others,, my interview start of with introduction too,in bm.. at this moment they are paying attention to what u are saying and try to ask question for more info about what u are trying to say..
then,, some sort like group discussion..actually they ask a question and u al take turn to answer it..
for us.. actually they just ask 2 question, what is the role of doctor and should them be penalize for their medical negligence?? when u are saying your opinion,,they will also shoot u with some question,, different depends on what you are saying..

[yourhonor]

course applied: law

venue: kluang, johor

experience: well mine was pretty short, lasted for around 30mins++. we were asked to briefly self-introduce ourselves. the interviewers didn't specifically ask us to speak in english but since they asked in english, we all talked in english. then questions asked include, apakah kualiti terbaik anda? apakah cita-cita anda? negara manakah yang anda ingin pergi dan mengapa? for group discussion, we were told to list out some qualities that a leader should possess and choose a leader that you like and why. mostly we all spoke in bm except for the self-introduction part but if you can request to speak in either bm/english （a girl in my group did that) cos the interviewers weren't very strict.

rating: 5/10 i think i did rather badly, spoke too fast stammered a bit and not very convincing.

advice: well don't end up like me =.= as long as you can remain calm and can think super fast, you are safe. best of luck =)

[fallenangelxoxo]

tis is my fren's interview...

placeicc
time:8am
date:5/4/10
course:medicine

she say they didnt ask them for introduction...once they went in the room they were sitted and asked questions straight...my fren said tat the interviewer was lame to ask quest such as wat u ate for breakfast...she say the interviewer didnt pay much attention on wat they say...the interviewers asked these quest...

1. who is ur role model
2. wat is ur weakness?
3. wat will u do if u were send to russia or indonesia??
4. wat wil u do if u didnt be a doctor??

she commented tat the interview session were rather dead as the interviewers and panels were dead...not sure wat she mean by tat...she also say tat she shoot 1 of the interviewer wif m16 coz she was frustrated wif their quest...guess tat is a debater's habit...coz my fren was a debater...

anyway she say she flunk the interview and she say she wont get the scholarship coz shot the interviewers...

hope tis information helped...

[Caprix_J]

Course Applied: Science

Date : 6th April 2010

Venue: Kepala Batas , Penang

Experience :

Reached there around 12something but interview started at 345 pm .
I was in panel 3 …. Third group …. So had to wait …. Sigh …..
According to recommers , we had to sign two times .
First signed on the board beside your name
Second signed was at the registration table there.
Registration : Your name will be called . You just signed and bring your file to them.
For those certified copies , please arrange and staple it . Or they’ll have staple ready for you too.
Then just sit and wait for your name to be called another time to get your number.
Once you get your number , have to prepare to go in the waiting place and wait for the previous group to come out before you can go in .By the way , 90 percent of us was chinese . Few malays and almost no indian, i didnt know why.And if i were to say there're 100 interviewees, I can see 90 of them wore baju kurung. Amazed =) of course i mean girls.

And I realized it’s very important to communicate with those who’re same group with you . Time flies when you start talking . And those people were so friendly .
No matter what races you were from , that didn’t matter already at that time .
We discussed a lot of thing. And even to break the trick . Guess what, we actually realized that JPA arranged the date for us according to birthday . Coz 5 of us was all borned in january.
Ok , the worst was this : When we’re ready outside the interview room , that pegawai told us that : You all have to be separated according to course . And according to 5 of us now. It’s 2 science 2 law and 1 engineering. So after we were separated , just left me and another malay girl who were also taking science. 2 more Chinese in . So ended up our group had only 4 people.

Okay , we’re in ( Please wait until the interviewer asked you to sit ).
Interviewer : selamat pagi …… bla bla bla
Anyway : 2 malays 1 Indian for the interviewer
Then we started our intro in BM.
Mine was so….. short
Anyway, i was asked for the country i chose and why.
And they even asked me which university.
Luckily i've got something popped out from my mind
Answer : University of Leeds

Next session : Group Discussion
English : How will you repay the government if you get this scholarship.
Malay : Apakah keistimewaan yang ada dalam diri anda kenapa JPA sends you to oversea dan bukan other interviewee ? Apakah ciri-cirinya ?
( I screwed up BM part coz my bm isn’t good )
Then the interviewers did ask us something like : Do u guys still wanna change course or what . I didn’t know why she asked this .
During the whole ‘group discussion’ , the worst part was this : We did it like individual interview , no discussion at all . Coz we didn’t know each other since those we’re familiar with had been separated into another group. See ….This proves that communication between interviewees before the interview is very important . If not u guys will have zero interaction like what we did . So sad for this . If we were not been separated today, I’m sure the interview process will be very interesting, and of course , wont be so ‘individual’ . And for your information , for all the 4 of us , 2 were for PIDN and 2 were for PILN ( including me )

Of course the last part they’ll ask : Ada apa-apa soalan tak ?
The boy asked : As I know , those who don’t get PILN will automatically been offered a place for PIDN . So how if we applied for PIDN and didn’t manage to secure the scholarship ? The interviewers couldn’t really answer his question because they said they’re not from JPA but they said JPA should have a way for this.

Rating: 8/10

Advices/Additional info :
Try to be calm and don’t be nervous . Everything will be fine . Just don’t worry too much.


All the best to all recommers who hasn’t gone through their interview yet.
Have faith in yourself. You guys can do it for sure !

[Chichiro]

venue : kepala batas
time : 2pm
date : 6/4/10
course : science local ( major in computer science )

I was the third batch for the interview , so i needed to wait for about 2 hours outside there ( extremely hot over there !) At first i was in the fourth batch , so i tried to make friend with other applicants that i thought we would in the same group , but poorly i was changed to third batch since there was a male applicant who arrived late...argh...When the second batch went in , we had to sit in a roll waiting outside , the applicants in the third group were so serious , no talking and no joking ( making me more anxious ) And the officer tried her best to make us talk , but she failed , ( what she said was " Kenapa begitu diam , cakaplah " and bla bla bla )

So , when it was our turn , we needed to pin the number to our shirts , queued up and walked in following our numbers....Our interviewers were a malay lady , a chinese man and another lady , perhaps she is a sikh ? So we were given one minute each to introduce ourselves ( In my case , the interviewers din't specify that we need to introduce ourselves using bm , among five of us , if im not mistaken four of us were using english to introduce ouselves , including me xD ) For other group members , they introduced themselves until the interviewer said " ok , thank you " but for me , while i've finished my intro , i still need to say " erm...thats all " T.T is that a bad sign that i was talking too short ?!

Then the malay lady told us we would have two discussions , one in bm while one in bi , each topic will have five minutes for us to discuss....the first topic was in bi [ If you were send abroad , what can you do to hold good name of Malaysia ? ] (i still need to answer that question although what i applied is local science , and the applicants seemed to have been mixed up without considering whether they were from the same course or not , there were even accounting , engineering and law in my group , sigh..)and the second one is in bm [ mulai tahun ini , kerajaan telah mengurangkan subjek dalam peperiksaan SPM sehingga sepuluh subjek sahaja , adakah anda setuju ? ] im not quite remember on how she asked , but the main point is there i think ... And for the first topic , we dint have enough points for each of us , so i just try to elaborate more from the main point... and bad thing to me ,when i first spoke out for introduction , the malay lady told me "can you speak louder , i can't hear you.." oops , sorry , i had to say...and i think im the one with the shortest elaboration each time i spoke , i needed to say " errm..thats all / itu sahaja , unlike others , no question from the interviewers for me when i spoke out my points , no shooting for me ( may be im speaking too less and they found nothing to shoot me? ) and worst ,while i spoke as the first one for the second topic and , gosh ! i just too panic and forgot to say out my option ( setuju atau tidak ) and so after my elaboration the interviewer asked me " so you setuju right ? " " yes " " because you dint say your option " " oops, sorry " T.T omg , what was i doing ?!

And so the discussion part had finished , the following questions was [ What course are you choosing ? ] and [ Convince us why should we give you the scholarship ] These two are popular questions for the interview...i suppose..So , just answer according to which language they use to ask you ....

And so the interview ended , before we went out , the malay lady told us that the jpa is the one who will decide who will get the scholarship but not them ....Is that a good thing or bad thing to know ? Still wondering.....=.= at the end , they dint ask us whether have any question to ask , so we just said thank you to them and most of us just went out directly . I was curious why no one shaking their hands like what the senior told us to . So when a boy started to shake their hands , i did it too then i went out , closed the door since im the last one to leave ...and so , finally it ended here . Take your file and you can leave now .

And my advice is no need to worry too much , of course you will feel panic , unless you are a super self-confident people i used to panic before the interview with hands kept shivering , and when i entered the room , the air-con made me more panic , now with legs shivered together with hands , i even need to use my right hand to press on my left hand to prevent the interviewers from seeing im shivering terribly >.< but everything just not as horrible as we thought , i felt more relax after a while , more stable afterwards ( but i still couldn't recall most words in bi and bm T.T talking with er...er...er...) the interviewers may shoot us , but in a kind way , more like joking with a SWEET smile anyway, pandai pandai la , don't say too much unnecessary things or nonsense ...And thats all , good luck ^^

[Etude]

Course : Medicine
Venue : Putrajaya
Time : 8 am

I reached there at 7 plus ...(btr be early thn late ya) then, waited n signed my name on the whiteboard where i check which panel i got. (coincidently, i got same panel with my close friend.. ^^) About 8 plus, it started n if you get the ltr batch like me, well...wait patiently. Talk with our group members, get to know each other. When its near, the secretary asked us to giv them the file n thy gave us a a tag when the former batch finished. My heart was beating so fast i can hear the beating myself. Not joking. So, we get our seats n greet them. Firstly, they ask us to introduce ourselves. So I greet them in french and then we talk bout family, coco, the course n which place..(dont scared if they didnt ask you which country, bcoz my friends from othr panels werent asked as well. ) I screw up bcz i talk too fast..=='Next, the topic is long n i forget wht was it...smtg bout kerjasama smth perubatan smth negara. well, i was kinda blur in this topic, i just talk sumthng bout mercy n research. Next, is english topic, bout impact of global warming to health n economy..(?!) okay, juz scribble wtv i think in a minute time. We were mentioning points one by one. At the end, the interviewers ask us whtr we got any questions, so we ask them bout general questions like how many ppl were taken in a year n stuff. In the end, we said thank you n go out to get our files. End. The interviewers are nice. Relax n dun too panic. It will cause you to become blank. Remember to dress appropriately, formal, you dont wanna get kicked out of the room believe me.
Any answer you give make sure got reason n dun say things with no sense. Okay, I did my best and now I pray and hope fr the best. ^^

Good luck for those whom havent go tru this. All the best! You can do it..^^

[LaLaLaKenz]

venue : Larkin (Uni tek MARA kampus bandaraya )
time : 8a.m.
course : Engineering

I reached there at 7.45am( kinda late , right ?) but luckily , the panels were late too .. hehe .. I was the first group to enter .
question asked - SAJ stuff , quality of local universities
interview began at 9am , lasted arnd 1 hr