Renew your Passport online - it has never been easier!

 My passport is expiring this year but I plan to travel abroad some time end of this year. The thought of renewing passport is terrifying - not too much - but yeah, it's gonna be troublesome. As usual, I googled online and found out that I can renew it online! What you need is a softcopy of your passport photo. I got mine taken at a photo studio nearby @ RM20. You can read the requirements on the immigration website but in short, tie your hair, remove any accessories and Ta-Da! 

1. Go to this page: https://imigresen-online.imi.gov.my/eservices/myPasport 

2. Click setuju and fill in the details - Note that you can only do this for 13 years ++ (below 18 needs parents/guardian to collect passport together)

3. After payment has been done, print out the payment receipt (you gonna need it when you collect your passport later). Wait for an email from immigration stating that passport is ready to be collected at your desired location. 

I applied mine on a Wednesday evening around 5pm and I received the email on Thursday 10am - That's how efficient they are now! 

I chose to collect my passport at Shaftsbury Putrajaya. It is located at Shaftsbury building Putrajaya, level 2. It might be hard to locate but don't worry, just ask anyone there, they will show you the way.

I parked my car around 215pm, went in got my number, passed to the officer my passport, IC and payment receipt. At 230pm, I drove my car out from Shaftsbury and it's still within the parking grace period. That's how efficient Malaysia Immigration is now! 

They deserve an applaud and stop complaining Malaysia government - they are improving, We are improving! 

Mari Kita Membaca Campaign

Recently, been kinda confused. Of what I really love doing and how to live in reality. Been surfing the net, doin bits of work, practising a lot. Happen to look into my bookmarks and found the education malaysia blog. Their recent post is about this campaign - Mari Kita Membaca. This campaign basically raise funds to send books to orang asli village. Here's a short introduction about this campaign from the blog :

We started just a few months ago and in a nutshell, we fundraise to send
books to orang asli villages which already have community learning centers. We
screen and select villages that we think will benefit the most out of getting
the books and after consultation with local teachers, we help them buy the books
that would assist them in their curriculum. It's not a very big operation, but
we do what we can. We have a pretty quick turnover of our cash, and 100% of it
goes towards buying the books and any delivery expenses.

So, I've posted bout World Vision on adopting a child, this time around i would love to share this meningful cause to readers out there. For more info, visit their site here.

Come to think of it, I yearn to be volunteers - though I will not get a luxurious life but at least my life will be a purposeful one. Worth pondering~

MALAYSIA

What is the first thing that comes into your mind when u hear the word Malaysia? For me, it's

1 Malaysia, Rakyat Didahulukan, Pencapaian Diutamakan

I'm so "thankful" that I'm living in this country, a country where

1. I have to pay 3% interest for study loan - and need lengthy procedure to change the 3% to 1%
2. My batch of students are being discriminated as those who applied for PTPTN after July 2005 and graduated b4 2010 is unable to convert their loan to scholarship despite graduating with first class honours. FYI, only those who applied after July 2005 and graduated b4 2010 are affected. Why? Is it because those students are not Malaysian? They are not to be "didahulukan"? Or because their "Pencapaian" is not "diutamakan"? Talk about the "1" concept. Does it mean those students are not within the "1"?
3. Another case is for MOE. Thanks for their transparency in selecting GSTT. How many non-Malays are actually employed as GSTT? Why hasn't anyone ask MOE to publish those data? Are those data unavailable or those data are simply undisclosable?
4. Recently, I have been facing problems with Maxis. I know that Maxis is a NGO, so I should not put the blame on government. But then again, what happens to consumer rights organization? Aren't they supposed to be aided by the government to help us, users who are being jeapordised by those conglomerates? We have no channels to turn to. Are we suppose to turn to politicians everytime we face this kinda problems? If that's the case, I suppose those politicians or representatives will find that 24 hours a day is no longer sufficient.
5. Lastly, Insurance agents. It is also during these few months, I met with an incident where I cancelled my policy and was suppose to get some money back from the company. I cancelled it in late February and was told to wait for the cheque to be sent to my company (coz that's the address i gave them). I waited, and, waited. I called her in April, and July. The only response is to WAIT. I waited patiently until December. Supposing the lifetime of a cheque is 6 months, it will be expired even if i receive it now. I called the headquarter, bypass my agent. Guess what, the HQ says that the cheque has been sent out to their branch at Muar and is not invalid as it has expired. So, I will have to wait for another few months before getting my money back. Luckily it was only few hundreds, imagine if i was few hundred thousands, who can i ask for for those interest i could've earned. Insurance company? Insurance agent? Once again, no channel to complain.

Seriously, I'm starting to feel tired. Tired of Malaysia's policy. Of Malaysian's attitude. Of Malaysia's government. I love Malaysia, that was why I decided to work here instead of going abroad. Look at what has happened to me. If there's anyone to blame, I should blame on me for being patriotism.

MTest, KPLI - PART 2

Continuation from Part 1,

We stopped at the scenario during examination. I presume you have got some idea on the exam day itself. Move on to the test formats and some question which i remember, getting ambigious d.. :P

I was in the 3rd column, so my 1st paper was the English paper. Not bad for a start, at least it doesn't dry up my brain juice fast. But the questions were harder then what I did in the reference book. Especially the part where we have to choose the correct sentence to replace the wrong ones. The sentences were long and lengthy. The 1st part where we have to identify the incorrect word was quite easy, most are easy to identify. Whilst the last part, also about the same standard as in the reference book. All in all, you can rely on the reference book for this English test, except that you might have to read faster during the exam as there are more words and sentences.

Paper 2 was the Quantitative paper. I almost couldn't finish it on time. Spent too much time calculating some questions on areas. Some basic stuffs, Algebra, Quadratic Equation, Perimeter, Volumes. Don't worry about some huge formula which you have to memorise, coz I didn't come across any which i don't remember the formula. A tip is to read the question and answers b4 you start calculating coz some answer can be found without even calculating. There's 3 questions which I seriously have no idea to answer. It was the statistic question. I was given a bar graph, x axis showing number of student which has got text book loan, y-axis showing number of student without the loan. There's number of student written on every bar showing number of student with loan. There were 3 questions based on this graph, at that time, with few minutes left, my only option was to make a wild guess. So i have only 3 wild guesses in that paper.

Next, it's the INSAK paper.135 questions in 30 minutes, it means you'll have to answer them almost spontaneously. I did, and finished all in 20 minutes so I had 10 minutes to do checking. I reached Question 60+ when time's up. during 2nd checking, i realised i made 2 mistake. So i think it's better to finish them up faster and go for a 2nd round check. By the way, you cannot rely on reference book for this section. The answer in the reference book is fixed; ie. A for yes and B for no. But in the real test, they will list out A and B options. A can sometimes be: Saya akan menolongnya ke kuliah B. Saya akan menasihatinya supaya mengambil cuti. So, it demands more time for you to read. Try to read ASAP.

4th paper is the Verbal paper. all this while, when i was studying MTest, the only paper which i have doubt with myself is the Verbal Paper. It's simply so hard to tackle. The malay vocabs were way too hard for me to understand. However, in the real test, the vocab part was quite easy - in the sense, they ask words like Sedut - Hembus, Nasi - Saya Makan... all those easy word, leaving the hard part which is to define the relationship and choose the correct answer. At least it gives me a chance to think instead of choose blindly. The fill in the blank was also quite ok, with answers like mengesah, mengecam, mengenal pasti. Lastly, the Pemahaman - I have to say the text was long, 1.5 pages. About handphone. first question was to add a sentence, which they gave into the appropriate place so that it makes sense. Next, to find some isi tersirat - quite hard, last question was to find the main purpose of this text.

Lastly... the most challenging paper - especially when it's all in Malay - Analytical. Gosh, imagine reading out a situation in Malay and solving them. For me, I will have to translate them to either English or Chinese before they make sense. Imagine how much time i'll have to spend on it. There were 4 scenarios, 16 questions. and Last 4 questions bout other stuffs. There were 2 questions about inductive and deductive statement. I totally forgot wat's an inductive statement >.< I remember the last question was, in Malay but i remember them in English.

There are lots of kid with kutu on their hair during hot season. The kutu grows a lot during the hot season.

Find from Sentences A-D which match the logic of the sentence above.
A. I forgot what
B. forgot.
C. There are lots of KPLI candidates. The publisher needs to publish more book to meet the demands.
D. The beautiful beaches attracts lots of tourist during summer. Those states with beautiful beaches are filled with tourist during summer.

As for the questions with scenario, 1st scenario was there are 3 animals whose names are, A, B, and C; 3 colours, Perang, Putih and Hitam; 3 sizes, L, L and S; 3 kinds of animals, Kambing, Kucing and Arnab.
They gave few criterias to fulfil,
If Black animal, it must be Small
If kucing is L, Cici is Perang.
Kambing is Black.

Then you are asked to find answers with the conditions. The first q was which animal is Cici is?
There are few conditions which i forgot, but basically, this question is solvable.

Next scenario, bout a school which has 10 buildings and how they are linked tgt. Just draw out the buildings and arrow connecting them and you can get the answers. Quite easy for me so it will too for you :)

The following scene is quite confusing. About testing of cats, 1 technician can test 1 cat at a time. 1 technician working. 5 days a week. 2 sessions per day. Monday morning no lab. Then they have given 6 cats. A - F. listed down few criterias and asked few q in connection to the criterias. It's very confusing coz the cats are interchangable. To be honest, I guessed all 3 questions here.

Next, another confusing but making sense question. Family Relationship. Says that A is B's daughter-in-law, C is B's Brother... and so on.. I dun really remember. But remember to make the relationship flexible. They will add in more people or remove some in the questions.

I presume that's all I have to share. If you want to know more, leave a comment here and I will reply if my memory still serves me well.

That's all for MTest 2010, for January 2011 intake. All the best in case you too are on your way to be an educator/educationist - my friend and I once argued on this.

MTest, KPLI - PART 1

Recently, I have been googling on MTest - Malaysian Teacher Selection Test and my efforts was in vain. In fact not many info was provided for this, is it coz it's against the law for anyone to post tips on it? Or ppl were just too lazy or selfish to share. Anyway, it was a good experience. I really wonder is the MTest result valid, if that's the case, then why aren't all the teachers full of dedication or smart, in the sense, has certain level of intelligence. I'm not criticising teachers, but merely stating my 5 cents worth.

Enough of the introduction, about MTest. Candidates were informed 5 days prior to MTest, which gives them only 5 days to prepare. Assuming most candidates are working adult, they only have 5-6 hours/day, 25 hours to really prepare for this exam. Mtest consists of 5 components:

1. INSAK
2. English
3. Quantitative
4. Verbal
5. Analytical

All questions are in Malay, except for English of course. If my mind still works well, Quantitative is bilingual (Malay and English).

Before going into those questions, I think it's better to share my experience so that those who plan to take MTest will have a better picture and will not be as blur I were then.

Reach the location - which is a secondary school at 8.30am. Some people were queuing up for I don't know what so I just continue the line. When i reach the front, then only i realise the queue was for candidates to look at few pieces of A4 paper to look for your name, IC and sit number. Mine was Room D, number 17. After I got my seat number, i proceed to the class room, Room D.. Now, where is Room D? There were no indications except for a paper pasted at the classroom door. I will have to look at every door then, great way to waste your time!

Here it is, 2nd floor, 2nd room. Signed my name at a piece of paper at the door since everyone else did the same. I suppose we should just follow the crowd. Waited outside the classroom because everyone else was there. At about 8.50am, few school teachers walked into the room with a clock and OMR papers. We were instructed to sit at the designated place, place our pencil box on the floor, only stationaries, IC and exam slip on the desk - reminiscing the past~~

The teacher distributed the blank OMR paper, please do not simply change the paper coz there are serial number on it and it is distributed in accordance to the number. On top of that, do not write anything unless asked. Time is crucial here.

An additional note on the OMR paper, it's 2-sided, 1st page has 160 or so column for A or B, there's also the word INSAK written on top. I think it's self explanatory. This page is for you to shade your INSAK answers. Next page, there are 4 parts, Quantitative, Analytical, English and Verbal - forgot the sequence though. Thus, do remember to shade in the right column!

Bout 8.50am, the teacher distributed the booklet. There are 5 column and 6 rows of seat in the classroom. Every column will be distributed with different question book. Still unclear? A clearer illustration, Column 1 will be given Booklet A, which is INSAK; Column 2, Quantitative; Column 3, English; Column 4, Analytical; Column 5, Verbal. Every question book has to be answered in 30 minutes and the booklets will be rotated. Hence, DO NOT write anything on the book unless you want your neighbour to know all your answers!

In the next 2 hours and 30 minutes, all you have to do is to concentrate answering the questions, the invigilator has a lot to talk... Simply ignore her if you want to finish those questions in a section in 30 minutes.

Wanna know about the format and questions? Read on Part 2...