Getting UKM Speech Science and Occupational Therapy Interview!!

In May 2016,very nervous day, I got to know that I got interviews from UKM for Speech Science ( Sain Pertuturan ) and Occupational Therapy ( Terapi Carakerja). Somemore I had one test MEPSI for special education UKM too.

Due to GPS problem, I missed the test but it's okay for me because what I really aim at are Speech science and occupational therapy. As my third choice ( special education ) was gone, I need to put harder on my interview.

HOWEVER, I don't really have much time to prepare my interview as I was busy working in Wendy Montessori Preschool ( one of the Montessori Kindergarten which accept special needs children. AND this's where I get my experience on Speech Delay and Motor skill problem children ). Therefore, I did preparation one day before INTERVIEW. Very geng, right? I went to search interview questions and answer.... Finally I found out the it's not really useful. Please JUST let yourself relax and get a little knowledge about your course. When I gave up on searching, I found out that I forgot to prepare my CV. CV is a kind of resume that you need to write your biodata and involvement in school. But I still added on my working experience in related field so that I can increase my change of getting into that particular course.

Okay. Now come to interview day. I needed to Kolej Tun Syed Nasir near Taman Titiwangsa. It's a very nice garden for jogging ! Haha. I knew next time I may go to this garden for jogging if I study there, One thing that's not nice was there's not sign board to show where is UKM. I actually missed up the road and I made a round in the garden.

I think this map is quite better than GPS. You may have a look on this map so that next time you will not have the same mistake like me. Finally my sister and Ｉ arrived KTSN. There were two counters. Depend on your course, my Speech Science interview was in counter 2. There were different courses in the counter 2. Therefore, you need to go in front to look where is your course name and queue up. I did queue up in the wrong line ( Sains Pemakanan ) then after 15 minutes only I realized as I was thinking why so many people went in front and didn't come back and there's short queue in another line. Finally, I went in fron and realized I was in wrong line. Normally, queue of Speech Science and audiology were little bit people. The least was audiology and the most was biomedical. Even when I came out from interview, there're a lot of people lining up for biomedical. Quite SHOCKED.

I came to the stall and did registration. I gave all the documents needed. Tips for you : it's better to make a copy of all the documents needed （ even it's not written as "salinan" ). If you have two interviews, please prepare two sets of documents. I did put one passport photo on my CV so I thought i didn't need to give one more passport photo. Actually the photo was used for interviewer to know what you look like. Hence, if you want to put photo on your CV, better just print photo from printer and give passport photo to them. As i glued my passport photo on my CV, the person in charge of me took out the photo and stapled together with the documents. I felt that it's not nice. ONE more mistake I made was I forgot to print surat tawaran as I didn't know the link but it's okay as my name was on the list.

After registration, I needed to sit aside and waited for calling. It's not one-to-one interview. A group of 3/4 people will be called at the same time to be interviewed. I can even see a group of 5 people being called. I think it's depending on how many candidates registered on that course. During my turns, two candidates and I were called. They will call randomly. I had ants on my pants. We were brought to a room and waiting for second calling. During the interview,  there were three interviewers and three chairs for interviewees. We just sat on the chairs randomly so I sat on the first chair. Each interviewer will be in charge of one interviewee, Before sitting, I greeted them first to make first impression.

If the questions asked in English, you need to answer in English. If the question asked in Malay, you need to answer in Malay. Sure will not asked in Bahasa Cina and Tamil xD.

The questions asked are : 

1） Is Speech Science your first choice? 

- if yes, answer why

- if no, what is your first choice ? If you get Speech Science and your first choice course at the same time, which will you choose ? Why ?

2) Kalau dalam perjalanan ke temuduga, anda nampak seorang orang tua sedang melintasi jejantas. Anda sudah nak lewat ke tempat temuduga tapi orang tua tu berjalan perlahan dan susah. Adakah anda akan tolong orang tua tu melintas jejantas ? ( the question almost alike as I forget the real qeustion. You need to answer the reason too. )

3) What is the criteria for you to choose a teammate ?

After interviewers ask question, you can be the first ones to answer. It's not depend on the sitting place. Some question I let others answer first and Some I answer first. Actually it's a quite short interview. Within five minutes, we all came out from the room. Just one thing was at that time, I purposely wear a blue POLO collar t-shirt with a ribbon and formal pants which looks like jean and I was not wearing black shoes. Blue shirt with autism ribbon was worn purposely so that I can tell the interviewers I have experience on autistic children. Nevertheless, the interviewer in charge of me called me to stay for a while and gave some kind comments on my attire as my attire seemed too casual and not formal. She did say that the interview will not be based on the attire but the performance during interview. I just kept on giving my sincere apology and appreciation on her comment. After that, I asked the documents I wanted from them ( as I didn't make salinan ) and shake hands with them.

Although she said the interview will not be based on the attire, I was still afraid of not getting Speech Science. I felt that my first impression for them had been affected, so I need to make good impression on my second interview. As my second interview of occupational therapy (OT) was held in the afternoon, my sister and I went to Pavillion to have our lunch and buy a new formal attire. All the queues for interviews in the afternoon were quite short not like in the morning ( soooo terrible ). As there's little people, so I was called to interview immediately after I registered and brought to a room again waiting for second calling. Three interviewers and three interviewees ( same in the morning ).

Before asking questions, the interviewers gave us some briefing about "If the questions asked in English, you need to answer in English. If the question asked in Malay, you need to answer in Malay." Actually the interview in the morning, the interviewers were devoid of time so they didn't gave such briefing. I knew this rule because I went to ask other candidates in the morning.

The questions being asked by OT teachers were :

1) Please introduce yourself including your family and the involvement in your previous school. ( Luckily I had done the CV yesterday as the CV had involvement in school. )

* one additional question for me ( although I change to formal attire, i still wore ribbon on my clothes. ) : Why are you wearing that ribbon ?

2) What were you doing after you have graduated from the school ?

3) Who is your role model ?

4) What is the criteria for you to choose a teammate ?

5) Apakah masalah pernah dialami oleh anda semasa melakukan aktiviti ? Bagaimana anda menyelesaikan masalah itu ?

6) How you ensure the group work is doing well ?

Some of the questions the interviewers will request the particular interviewee answer first. This interview used up more than 5 minutes so i felt it's the real interview i had imagined. Before leaving I shake hands with the interviewers and say thank you to them. Of course I asked some documents back as I didn't make salinan.

In a nutshell, I had an intuition that I will sure get one of the courses. The chance of getting Speech Science is quite low but the chance of getting OT is quite high. It's my fate......... waiting another two months for semakan keputusan upu ...........................