JPA 2010: Interview Experience Sharing

[BattleBoyz]

Course Applied: France Engineering

Venue: Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh

Time: 2p.m.

Experience: My group consist of 5 person: 2 boys, 3 girls. 1 malay girl and the rest were chinese. I'm the fifth person and also the last person of the batch. 3 of them applied engineering (including me), one applied social science and another applied economy.

Introduction in BM. We talked about our personal particulars, family background, coco achievements, course applied and why you chose that course. When answering the questions, please be careful with your words because they will shoot you back with your answers. I think i did well in this part until the end part. They asked me to name 3 buildings in France and i screwed that up because i don't know the buildings at France!! I knew eiffel tower but was too nervous to think of it!! They also ask me to say some basic French. I told them words like bonjour and mercy. Then one of the interviewers asked me what is air in french and i cannot answer that as well!! Also, they provoked me by saying I chose France because the girls there are hot. I screwed this up by saying if I want to see hot girls, the Japanese girls are hotter and the interviewers laughed about it. Then they ask me if want to change to japan engineering and i said i will stick to France. >.<

Discussion done partly in english and partly in bm.

1. Discuss about the quality of water in Malaysia.
It was okay with me until the interviewer start to shoot questions at us. The discussion was done in english. Then, the questioning part starts with bm. Ask our opinion on the water quality was not so good when government was in charge of it but the quality becomes better when NGO took over, which one is better, NGO or government and how do we save water. I was the last one to say out how to save water and all my ideas was said by the other four interviewees, leaving myself elaborating their ideas. So, be sure to answer it first!!

Individual part they asked us to nominate a candidate in the room if only one of us can be chosen to go overseas. I chose a girl and gave my reasons but one of the interviewers said i had a crush on her because I chose her, which is of course not true. I think I should have chosen myself as the one but not others. There was one boy with me that chose himself and the interviewers even joked "now you see the true face of your friends" and we all laughed about it. Some questions regarding New Economic Model, how it helped to bring our economy back to normal level and role of economist in it was asked as I chose the girl that want to study economy.

Lastly, they asked us if we got anything to ask and we didn't ask any questions. Then the interview session ended. The whole session took about one hour.

All in all, the interviewers was quite nice (not to me) as they always teased me using the girl issue.

Rating: 6/10 (hopefully I'm a good entertainment for them )

Advices:
1. Never say Japanese girls are hotter. I learned it the hard way.
2. Sell yourself if they ask you to nominate a candidate. Show your confidence and mention your strength which makes you special enough to be the one.
3. Drink water before going in. It might be a long interview inside there.
4. Eat until you are very full and make sure you get enough sleep the night before. I was so hungry after the interview even when I ate my lunch before going for the interview.
5. Answer the questions first if you know the answer. Don't let go of your chance to outshine others.

Thats all! Good luck to you guys and gals for your interview.

[Nicholasng925]

Here are some favourite questions asked by the interviewers around the nation in JPA interview 2010:

1) Introduction [Name, previous school, family background, co-curriculum, course applied and reasons(Make sure you do adequate researches on the course/major selected)](Mostly in BM, but if you're lucky, you will get to speak in English.)
2) Country selected and reasons. (Make sure you don't say about foreign education is better, or else it might be offensive!)
3) What make you special that deserve this scholarship?
4) Why choose to study overseas, but not local?
5) Would you be willing to accept the scholarship, but for local?
6) Local universities that offer your course applied.
7) Scholarships are funded by tax payers' money. How do you wanna repay them upon graduation?
What is your strengths and weaknesses?
9) Global warming
10) Name of Deputy Prime Minister
11) Name of Finance Minister(accounting) / Head of Judges(law)
12) Private Insurance
13) Wawasan 2020
14) 1 Malaysia concept
15) Quality of Water in Malaysia
16) How to preserve and conserve environment?
17) H1N1
1 1 Malaysia Clinic
19) New Economics Model
20) Green Technology
21) Restriction of 10 subjects to be taken in SPM. Discuss.
22) One word to describe yourself
23) How to improve literacy level among Malaysians
24) Ways to reduce homesickness when study abroad.
25) Kahwin sambil belajar.
26) What do you see yourself doing 10/20 years later?
27) Great Wall of China has been chosen as world heritage by UNESCO. Discuss.

Good luck to all the interviewees who'd be having their interview tomorrow. The last day of JPA Interview 2010!!! Lets us shine together!!!

[Turkey]

I'm actually quite lazy to type out my experience, but I've learned a lot from Recom, so I should repay back and hope future JPA applicants will learn something from here too.

Place: Putrajaya
Course: Accountancy

1) Introduction about yourself:
The interviewers are a little different than others that I've read in this thread. They don't want to hear about our co-curricular achievements and academic results. I think they have printed out our online application, which they kept referring to. We are required to state our course and country, reason, and tell them why we deserve this scholarship. The criteria that they are looking at are originality, communication skills, confidence, and potential. 1 of the interviewer even said, "You can even say, I deserve this scholarship because I deserve it la! This is what we call originality."

2. BM question:
Apakah yang kamu telah buat sepanjang masa 3 bulan sementara menunggu keputusan SPM?

3. Second option:
They ask us if we have any second option if we don't get PILN. Some said they only aim for PILN, while some said they can accept PIDN offer too. This is really important, in my opinion, because they will jot down this and give it to JPA to refer. There's no good or bad answer for this, I think, just say what you really want.

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That's all for my interview. There's less questions for my group, and not even 1 question about our course. So, I think it really depends on who your interviewer is. Everyone has his/her different ways to evaluate people.
My interviewers are quite special as they don't like the usual, common sense, facts-like answers. They want answers which are out of the box, answers which reflect your personality.

REMINDER: Don't ever laugh at other candidate's mistakes, even if all the interviewers are laughing and you feel like it's a friendly atmosphere. You can smile, but I think it's bad to laugh. I am regretting now that I laughed at someone. Sorry... She must have feel really bad...

[deepkutty_92]

Course Applied: Engineering

Venue: Kepala Batas

Experience

Three words to describe it. 'I did badly ' I left home with my father at 6.39 a.m as I'm from the island. I reached there at 8.15 a.m. We were lost actually. (It was quite surprising as my father has been there before... well, no comments..) Then went to check my name on the board. There it was, panel 3 at 11 o' clock. Then, I went to the counter (a table actually) to report to them when I saw my friend. Yippie! I got a friend! Then I waited with her and another two girls. Our names were called and we were not in the same slot. My friend went earlier than me and i was right after her with my chinese friends. Then I waited.......... till 10 o' clock. OMG! Time to go in. Oh, I forgot to mention. I got no.4 anyway. There were 6 of us, two engineering (including me), 2 law, 1 accountancy, 1 business. We went in, and greeted the panels. We took our sits before the lady in the middle started introducing her and the panels. Then, she explained about the interview (intro in bm, 'group discussion' in bi, general questions in bm/bi). Then, its time for introduction. We have to mention about ourselves, family background, cocurriculum activities, course selected and why, preferred country and finally working experience. Well, i did ok but i missed one of my major cocurriculum activities and volunteering job during the holidays! Then comes the second part where we have to express our opinion on building one-stop centre for abandoned babies in english. I struggled and stuttered through this section (all because of i forgot that one word, so I panicked. ) By the way, we were not allowed to agree with or condemn another person's opinion. Lastly, the third section! Two questions were asked, 1. Are you strong with your stand to study the course? (It's just a yes/no question, and all said yes) 2. Why do you deserve to get the scholarship? All but one replied in English (including me). I did fine with this part, although my answer was the shortest.... Then, they asked whether got any questions from us, but none asked anything. So, all said thanks and went out. Well, that's all lorr.....Then i went back home...

Rating: ?/10 (I know I did badly)

Advice/Additional info
1. Think quick. For us, they gave time to think, however i think that it is vital to think quickly.

2. Think differently. Unique answer with personal touch always draws attention.

3. Don't forget to give back the tag and take back your files. I almost successfully have forgotten that.

4. About the attire, they don't really care much as long as it's formal and nice to see.

5. Relax. Don't be a tention party like me!

To those who are going for the interview tomorrow, good luck lorr....

[unsolvedcryptex]

Course Applied: Engineering

Venue: Putrajaya

Time: 2pm

First, we were asked to introduce ourselves in English. They did not give us any time limit and we are free to talk anything. Instead, they insisted on telling ur koko achievements and they write down as well. For example, if you say u play sports. They will ask wat sports and write it down as well. I do think that it is important to tell them ur koko achievements as they wrote down ours.

Question: Bagaimanakah anda boleh menterjermahkan konsep 1Malaysia dalam profesion anda. (in BM)

Okay I felt that this question is of coz less about facts which is entirely good but it's bad for those who are taking course like Accountancy. One of us applied Accountancy and then I think he's the one who can give the least point. Nevertheless, I salute him for trying to give his best to speak out his points and try to get involve in the conversation.
Also, I felt that some of us actually gets out of topic. They mentioned about some of nilai that we can find in moral as a way to translate 1Malaysia based on our profession. For eg, ( Not what he said) we should practise harmony among each other. So irrelevant but none of us actually stop him and say he's out of topic. Also, I realised only two of us( including me) actually understand the topic and give examples that how we can contribute. The rest like pour out their Moral nilai. For the one who applied for accountacy, he did like that and I salute him for speaking out and try to get involve. I can say that he can almost say about nothing. I myself suggested an idea that I think engineers can work on and I think it's pretty safe.
Then they asked us to present the idea to them individually. I made a mistake there. So, I think i might over-dominate the whole interview. So be careful as not to speak all the points altho you are the first to speak. In the group discussion where you are supposed to present to them, the points are from each and every person. Please don't copy and paste others' idea and elaborate it. That's the mistake I did. I quote the idea from that person by saying he said this and that. But I just realised afterward that I might have stole their points. This is something that is reached and agreed mutually. Strangely, despite those ppl who pour out their ideas using nilai-nilai only, out of 3 only 1 person who actually repeated their nilai. The rest talked about something more relevant in individual. But since I did not touch bout nilai as I myself do not think that these nilai are really answering the question, I am quite shocked as I left those points that they have mentioned for themselves to elaborate but they did not elaborate on it. Only one did.
So, do not get out of topic. If any of my group mate see this, this is my personal view and you might have your own reason to justify bout it, u can tell me. I personally did not do that in group bcz at least you all are trying to say something. I understand that and it's not my job to tell you what is right and wrong. I just do hope to know why nilai nilai are relevant to 1Malaysia based on ur profession

They even asked " What do you understand about 1Malaysia". I did badly in this coz i dun rly know wat's that.

They asked who are undergoing foundation at any place. I told them I did but none of us told. Only me. Guess it's not a good thing to tell them you did. How does that affect at all right? I mean they wun even know if we are really in any course. They offer but if u duwan, u reject. Since u told them you are inside a program, might affect a bit. I dont know bout this

Seeing us talking bout 1Malaysia, one of them finally asked Siapakah pemenang pertandingan lagu 1Malaysia? None of us know.

My advice:

Going for the interview, don't expect to be perfect. I think most of us actually was being shot. Even mine, I did well in the whole interview( I think) but at last, one of them asked that question and we have to look down and felling ashamed of ourselves. So, do not be sad if you are being shot and can't answer. Everyone get shot in there and almost a lot of ppl cannot answer 1 or 2 questions. So dun feel bad if u can't answer. Everyone will get shot at least once.

[aiping]

Course Applied: German Engineering
Venue: Kepala Batas
Panel : 3
Time : 4pm , 8th April

Group members: 6 of us.. 1 Science (local), 3 Science (Australia), 2 German Engineering

Experience:
Greet the interviewers nicely and SMILE. Wait they ask you to sit and THANK YOU.
Well, my interview session was separated into 3 parts.

1:Introduction
For my group, the introduction must be done in BM. The interviewer let us to talk about anything we wanted to. So, talk about name, family background and co-curricular achievement in school, what course you want to apply and which country. You must know the reasons on why you choose that country.

#2: Question: Do you know what is the meaning of alternative energy? What kind of energy is alternative energy? Why we want to practise alternative energy? What is the advantage of alternative energy? (In BI)
The interviewers gave us 2 minutes to think and arrange our points. Then, they asked us who will be the volunteer to talk first.

#3:
Question: Do you prefer or regret the course that you choose ?(In BI)
All of us said No regret except a guy said he wants to do engineering instead of science.
Question: Why you do think you deserve this JPA scholarship? (In BI)


On the same day, one of my friends from other panel was asked about 1 Malaysia Concept and do you think SPM is easy or hard?
And my friend, who applied medicine, was asked “How would you make hospital better and why? Apakah punca-punca remaja melibatkan aktiviti-aktiviti yang tidak faedah dan langkah-langkah pencegahannya.

Additional info:
- You are not allowed to bring your own notebooks, bags and mobiles into the room. Don’t worry, they will give you a piece of paper =)
-Try talk a lot with your group members (Ice-breaking)
-Relax, the group discussion questions are very random
-Always smile
-Be a good listener.
-Sit straight and never leap to back of the chair.

[danialaiman]

Course Applied: France Engineering

Venue: Institut Perguruan Raja Melewar, Seremban

Experience:
I arrived there at about 3.20 p.m. Then I went to the counter in the library to register my name and the lady there gave me a list so that I can arrange my cert. Few minutes later, the lady called my name, gave me a tag [i got no. 6] and escorted me to room no.1 [panel 1].

So, there were 2 guys and 1 lady as the panel. They asked us to introduce ourselves in BM and why we should give this scholarship to us? What is our best qualities [something like that but I forgot to told them..]. Then, they gave us a question in English; what impact the 9/11 has on the global education system. It

[freya]

Course applied: Social Science


Venue: Bahagian Teknologi Pendidikan Negeri Pulau Pinang, Pokok Sena, Kepala Batas.


Panel: 3


Group: My group was a lil bit weird, there were 4 students in a group, 3 girls and 1 boy. 3 girls are chinese and the only boy is malay. Weird is it? 1 social science, that’s me, 2 accountancy and 1 engineering.


Time taken: around 40-45 mins


#1 Self introduction:
Introduced ourself in BM! oh my god, my BM sucks to the max. Can’t even speak proper BM. I had mixed a lot of English in the introduction, i know it’s a big big big mistake to do so, but what to do, i really don’t know how to speak proper BM. And i was super panic cause im the first one! Okay, back to the point, we can talk whatever we wants, talk about our family background, talk about co-cu activities, why choose this course? which country u want to go? and why?


#2 Discussion:
In english, luckily! so the question was: patriotism levels among youth in the country have declined, state your point of view. We were given 2 mins to jot down our own points.


#3
The panels asked, who wants to change their course? none of us say yes. So, move to another question, so the panel asked us, there are 1500 places for this year, now we are given an opportunity to promote ourself and talk about why we deserve the scholarship? We can choose to answer this question either in BM or English. yeah, for me of course English. lols. 3 Chinese were using English to answer this question just one, the only boy answered it by using BM.


That’s all, the interview finally ended. All 3 panels are nice and polite. They won’t shoot us and never shoot us. FYI, one panel is pengawai JPA, one is doctor and another one is someone who works for government as an architecture for 8 years. lols.


p/s: I know my english is not good at all, sucks. So, this whole long long article sure have lots of mistakes. I’m so sorry. All the best to all who went to the interview! and good luck!


the blog post: http://yiphing.net/2010/04/08/my-jpa-interview-experience/

[syairahusna]

Course Applied: Medicine

Venue: PICC, Putrajaya

Time: 8.00 A.M.

Personal experience:

Here at Putrajaya, there are 15 Panels with 25 interviewees each and then will be divided into 5 groups of 5 interviewees. I was lucky as in batch 2. In my group there are 3 guys from three different races which are Chinese, Malay and Indian and 2 girls which me and 1 Indian girl.

Well, my interview was weird because we got no topic to be discussed AT ALL and ironically, it lasted more than an hour.

The interviewers consisted a PTD ~ Indian women, an engineer and a professor who's currently teaching at UIAM if I am not mistaken~ Malay guys.

To tell you the truth, they (actually it's just the professor who did the talking. The others were only chipping in) just ask us about our personal interest and asked us to elaborate about Program Pendedahan Kerjaya Seorang Doktor. They also encouraged us to write books and do specialization if we continue pursuing our dream of becoming a doctor.

The professor even told us some jokes. For intance, when the engineer guy told us that he's from JKR, the professor immediately cracked up jokes by saying "Oh, Jalan Kurang Rata" and all of us laughed.
The other one was when he asked us the meaning of MBBS. We said Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery and he suddenly said "Wrong!!". All of us started to get panicked as his impression towards us may have gone down in the drain but then he said, "Members of Backbenches Society".. We all laughed out loud. He was so funny.

Then he gave some advices and asked us if there's anything that we wanna know about this scholarships and the courses that we have chosen.
The end.

P.S.--> I don't know if this will be helpful to those who are going for the JPA interview

I really don't know how to rate my performance as I was unsure myself of what have I done during the interview.

[hehechicken]

Originally Posted by Nicholasng925

Here are some favourite questions asked by the interviewers around the nation in JPA interview 2010:

1) Introduction [Name, previous school, family background, co-curriculum, course applied and reasons(Make sure you do adequate researches on the course/major selected)](Mostly in BM, but if you're lucky, you will get to speak in English.)
2) Country selected and reasons. (Make sure you don't say about foreign education is better, or else it might be offensive!)
3) What make you spe...

Then what is the point applying this overseas scholarship when you don't even agree education is better out there? Interviewers are mature adult and do you think they are likely to be fooled by this i-wan-this-scholarship-so-i-lie answer? Anyway I don't think this lie is necessary and is neither effective.