Thursday, May 29, 2014

Interview at UM

*Edit.
It's 12th of August 2014. The results came out and Alhamdulillah, I got accepted. You may read about it here.

Assalamualaikum! :)

So I got up at 4am last Saturday (24 May) cuz my flight was at 6am. Got ready and stuff then my mom sent me to the airport. Travelling alone, once again! I kinda love this. I feel independent whenever I do so. Also the stamps in my passport. Love them. Anyway, so I arrived at KLIA at about 8.30am or so. Took the bus to KL Sentral and reached there at 10.30am or so. I promised to meet a friend there so I waited at McDonalds. It was the easiest place to wait, in my opinion.

Anyway, so he arrived at 11am. I have never, ever met him before until that day. We only knew each other online so that was our first ever meeting. He's cool. He is what I pictured him. Haha! So we went to Nu Sentral to find a place to eat but ended up eating at KFC in KL Sentral. ~_~ So we talked and stuff, transferred files into each others' HDD. Movies, mostly. And animes. Later we took the taxi to UM. Ha, this is where it all starts........ my UM interview.

So we had to be there 30 minutes before the time scheduled in the letter, which was 2pm. Arrived there nearly 1.30pm. Prayed Zuhur then waited in the auditorium. I met Mayra there! She's such a pretty girl! So we just talked and stuff. Later, they called out our names but my name wasn't in it. =_= So I went up to the front with some other people and we gave our interview offer letter. As I was going down the stage, I met a girl who is from Sabah too. Her name is Athirah and she applied for Degree in TESL too. It was nice meeting her. What I love is that she was there alone. Sole traveller. :')

Anyway, so we waited for quite a long time. They played Tiga Abdul and this dude laughed like heck. His name is Valmiki (sp?), but I got to know him laaater in the day. Anyway, yeah. Names were called and it was 4.30pm. We had to go to another place to wait for our turns. Block B? or D? Idk. Waited there with Mayra, an Indian girl, Athirah and Miki. Shared stuff with Miki. He's a really cool guy. Very charismatic. I absolutely adore charismatic Indian guys. I have no idea why but they have this real strong independent thing about themselves. Maybe it's just me.

Anyway, my turn was at 5pm. Huh. Finally! So I went in, greeted the interviewers and they told me to stand and I had to do an eye test. It was the colour blind test. Oh yeah, I got interviewed by Dr Zawawi Ismail and another man who I don't know, I just love his English. Anyway, I was so nervous because these are huge people. They have huge reputation and Idk. I was so overwhelmed. Okay. So they told me to sit down and I sat.

Interviewer: So, Nur Zulaikha. Tell us about your background.
Me: I.. I wa-
Interviewer: Your cultural background. How you were brought up, etc.
Me: *huh okay question wasn't finished =_=* I was born in Sabah. My mom is Chinese and my dad I Malay. yaddayaddayadda. (I talked about how I got used to travelling and how the people in Sabah are united in a way)
Interviewer: Okay, in your opinion, which cultural is the better than the other?
Me: I think tha-
Interviewer: Like, the cultures in Sabah and the cultures in the mainland. Which do you prefer? (or something like that Idk)
Me: *why am I so eager in answering?!* I think that the cultures in Sabah, the people there are united... yaddayadda.

And then, I forgot the orders. Um yeah. Anyway then they said,

Interviewer: Okay, can you teach? We're giving you one minute, there's a whiteboard and marker behind you. You may erase that. Any topic. Go.

Me: Okay, so today we are going to learn about subject verb agreement. For example, 'He cooks dinner.' (yaddayadda me explaining about the singular and plural shizz.) Another sentence I did was, 'They walk to school together.'

Okay, good job. Good job. I love the example there.
Thank you, thank you.
Okay you may sit down.

I don't remember what happened next?! I think they told me to reenact the choral speaking speech I did years ago. I told them I could do it when I was actually so nervous that I was fidgeting. I said sorry many times and then they calmed me down and said that it was okay. So I sat down.

Interviewer: Ok. Zaman kini, guru-guru tidak dihormati. Bagaimanakah cara untuk memastikan pelajar menghormati guru?
Me: I think that the teachers sho-
Interviewer: Sila jawab dalam Bahasa Melayu, ya, Zulaikha.
Me: Uh. Okay. Saya rasa bahawa yaddayadda. Jika guru menghormati pelajar dahulu, IN A WAY, *chuckles* pelajar aka-
Interviewer: Takpa, takpa. Sambung dalam bahasa Inggeris.
Me: Okay. Um, in a way the students will-
Interviewers: *laughes* Itu yang saya tunggu. (or something like that)

What the heck just happened there though?!?!?! Why did he laugh?! T_T Was it because I wasn't supposed to actually answer in English? Or was it because they could tell I was full on English mode that day and I am more comfortable in talking in English? Hm. I have no idea. I hope it's the latter. Anyway, then they dismissed me and I thanked them. "Have a nice day!" I said. (I always do because David started it =_=)

Fuhhh. Glad that was over! But I was and still am quite disappointed in myself. I feel like I could do so much better. But it has passed. Let's just pray for the best. In sha Allah, I can get this. If I don't, then maybe UiTM is for me. Wallahua'lam.

So after that, performed my prayers and then met my friend. We took the taxi to KL Sentral. Later we went around Nu Sentral again because my sister wanted me to buy pampers but they were expensive. So we went around and bought Auntie Anne's pretzels. Had dinner at Subway. The pretzels were so good! Uh, then we just talked. Most of the time I was focusing on my phone. I feel so bad. I should have just ignored my phone. Life sucks. People suck. I suck. I really should have turned off my mobile data but I didn't. =_= Sorry.

So yeah, then we took the bus to KLIA. He accompanied me! I couldn't believe it. I told him to head back but he insisted on sending me home. :') I was and still am so touched. So we just talked in the bus and he gave me a button badge. Damn. It hit me right in the heart. Uhm, yeah. We just talked and talked, shared stories. He dedicated me a song right there and then. Haha. Love the song, love the lyrics. So we arrived at KLIA and he performed his prayers. At 9pm, we sat near the gates. It was a short but sweet meeting. I didn't want to go back but I had to. We said farewell and off I went into the gates. Sad thing is, I turned around but he wasn't there. =_= He had to catch the bus. Haha!

Flew at 10.25pm and arrived at about 1am. It was definitely a tiring day! Imagine in the plane for 5 hours, to and fro combined. In the bus for 2 hours, combined. Sat in the auditorium for 2 hours. 9 hours of sitting! Just imagine that! Not to mention the times we ate! Probably 12 hours of sitting! I actually crashed to bed and slept the whole day. Literally. I'd open my eyes, browse my phone for few minutes and slept again. I was soooo tired. I still feel guilty because I didn't hang out with my Dogo2 United. :( I hope I can make up to it!

Woo~ This is such a long post! Hahah! OHHHHHHHH BY THE WAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!!! I finally got Hlovate's Versus! My friend got it for me! Thank you! It's a book about this dude who was a skater boy then he met this pious girl. He liked her but he was nowhere near her level in religion. And yeah, the story goes on. He changed. It was hard for him but he changed. I am still stuck at chapter three though. I just had this hibernation mode after the interview. o_o I didn't blog, I didn't read, I didn't do the chores. I just.... hibernated. I think I am alright now. :D

Okay, I hope to finish a lot of things before September! CAN'T WAIT FOR SEPTEMBER!!!! Okay. That is all for now. Thanks for reading if you did! I hope the interview thing is useful for those of you who are called for interview! TESLian now, TESLian forever! :)

Fi hifzillah.
Assalamualaikum.

6 comments:

ppyeong said...

Hey zulaikha. Im hakimah and also a student from uitm, but my campus is in melaka (i dont know where yours were. Sorry). I applied for B.Ed in Tesl at UM. I just wanna ask you a question. Do ou have any tips to get through UM' interview session? Because i do hope i get called for the interview this year.

ecachan said...

Oh hi! I was from Shah Alam campus. :)

Actually I don't really have any useful tips. Haha! The only thing I can say is that, be yourself, talk confidently and don't be afraid to voice out your opinions. There might be a mock-teaching but it was just for a minute or two, so speak loudly and clearly, and as I said, with confidence.

I hope this helps cuz honestly I can't think of anything else to advice on. Haha.

All the best!! :D

Unknown said...

Hey i found your blog and it's helping me in some way... Hahahaha
i got the interview.. It's next week and I really don't know how i'm going to face this... *.*
Uhmmmm how long is the interview? Ahhhh i'm nervous 'cause i'm not much of a talker.... Anyway i felt little bit relieved after reading your blog... ^^

mailificent said...

Hi you're from Sabah? Me too! I just wanted to ask. If i apply for this degree,and I got called for the interview. Will the be interview be held in Sabah or KL?

Nur Zulaikha said...

Hi Mailificent! I hope it's not too late to reply, but if it is, I hope anyone else reading can benefit from this.

Be reminded that my interview was in 2014. My interview was held in KL so I immediately booked tickets and flew to KL. However, my other friends called and asked if there were interviews held in Sabah, and there were! So don't be afraid to call and ask. I'm pretty sure they are considerate enough to hold an interview nearer to where you're from.

Hope this helps! Good luck.

Unknown said...

Hi!! I am from Sabah too. I want to ask regarding UPU. In UPU application ( if you still remember), you are required to choose a zone for the interview. Did you choose Zon Sabah or other Zon?