“If you do well enough in SPM, you can apply for a scholarship and study overseas. Not just because you get to study at top universities, but it can also help Ummi and Ayah in financing your younger siblings”.
Ayah’s words were what cemented my determination to secure a scholarship. With the thought of my other five younger siblings that my parents had to care for, I spent days searching and applying for all the scholarships that were out there. I was not particularly picky in choosing— I simply applied for ones that I qualified for and that sponsored my intended course.
For context, my SPM results were 6A+ 3As, so I could apply for most scholarships that required 8As (A+ and As) but I could not apply for ones that required straight A+ results. As I decided to pursue Data Science, I also did not apply for scholarships that did not sponsor the course, such as Yayasan Peneraju that sponsored Accounting only.
Nevertheless, pushing those few scholarships aside, I could say I applied for every one possible. Yayasan Khazanah, Bank Negara, Petronas, Shell, JPA and PNB— you name it.
How was the application process, you might ask? One word— a rollercoaster.
Prior to applying for scholarships, I attended a bunch of scholarship webinars that were extremely helpful, such as Base Initiative and My Scholars Lab. Keep your eyes out for the upcoming ones this year!
As I managed to secure a Yayasan Khazanah Global Scholarship, this blog will mostly consist of my experience that is specific to the YK Global Scholarship application process, however I will include generic preparations that I did in applying for all the scholarships. Happy reading!
Why Yayasan Khazanah?
I admit, in applying for scholarships, I simply aimed for all. Despite that, deep down I’ve always had some hope to become a Yayasan Khazanah Global Scholar, particularly because it was the hardest out there to get and I liked to push (read: torture) myself.
In all seriousness, Yayasan Khazanah is one of the awesome-est scholarships out there! They provide a plethora of opportunities to their scholars, such as team building activities and preparation for university application classes. The scholarship bond is also very fair, which is a ratio of 1:1 (if you study for 4 years, then you are bonded to work with YK for 4 years). Oh, and don’t worry, I know what all of you are curious about, which is the allowance ;) It’s actually great, and YK is very generous with allocation for books and reimbursements of medical check ups and such.
What are you waiting for? Apply for scholarships (especially Yayasan Khazanah) now!
First, Documents and Certificates!
Almost all scholarships will require you to send in softcopies of official documents and certificates along with your application. Take a deep breath and clear out a whole evening guys, you’re about to go through every single transcript and certificate possible!
Here’s what you would generally need to prepare (in softcopy!) :
1. Identification documents of you and your parents
2. Your parents’ salary slip
3. Academic transcripts (SPM and maybe PT3)
4. Sijil Berhenti Sekolah
5. PAJSK/Extra-curricular Report
6. Co-curricular Certificates
7. Leadership Position Certificates
8. Passport Photo (most recent would be appropriate)
What I personally did was scan all of my documents and put them in a folder in my computer labelled as “Important Documents” so it would be easily accessible. For certificates, I scanned them one by one, and then compiled them into one PDF file. As some scholarship applications have a file size limit, I tried my best to squish all of them in a document with size under 1MB. I almost lost my mind doing this, but in the end I somehow managed to end up with a 637KB PDF :D (by arranging four blurry certificates in each page and providing a caption for each).
Second, Essays (oh no)
THIS is the part that discourages people. I’ve had numerous friends who were also applying for scholarships just like me, but avoided ones that required essays. And that’s perfectly understandable. They’re tedious, time-consuming and require a lot of brainpower and the will to survive.
Did I still do it? Heck yeah.
Think about it. Other than your certificates and grades, there really isn’t anything else on your application that can describe you as a person. Sure, you entered a debate competition, but what did you derive from it? Great, you applied for an engineering course, but what exactly was the incident that sparked your ambition? The essay is perfect for you to differentiate yourself
from other applicants, no matter how time-consuming and tiring it is to write.
To be honest, I didn’t mind writing essays, but it was still challenging because you had to be able to “sell yourself” in the essay without sounding like a complete show-it-off.
Some of the common prompts for the essay will be:
1. Why do you deserve this scholarship?
2. What course do you want to pursue, and why?
3. What traits/characteristics do you have? Examples in real life?
The essay does require you to sit back and reflect on your life. It took me weeks honestly, but I slowly managed to compile some ideas based on what I've done before. A tip I would give is to list all the activities you’ve done (school-based, volunteering, or maybe just hobbies of yours) and think about why you did them. And no, not the “because I wanted to increase my co-curricular marks” reason, but a pure, genuine one. Was it because you liked to share ideas? Was it because you were passionate about a certain cause? Was it related to you on some sort of personal level?
Another thing I did was search for sample essays on Google. They were helpful in providing ideas on what you should mention in your essay, although I advise you not to directly copy them. First off, that’s plagiarism, but essentially the essay should be uniquely you.
Get thinking and craft your essay, and don’t forget to enjoy the process along the way! :))
Third, Resumes
“We’re students! Why should we have resumes when we haven’t even had jobs yet?”
Well, this type of resume that scholarships require aren’t really the “work experience” kind. It’s to showcase your education and involvements in a formal and professional way. What I included were:
1. Education (High school name, SPM and PT3 results)
2. Leadership Involvements
3. Co-curricular Activities
4. Volunteering
5. Awards
6. Skills (practical skills and soft skills)
7. Contact Information
8. Reference (someone to refer to verify your resume, such as your counsellor/teacher)
Of course, it would be impossible to fit in all your involvements and achievements in a one-page resume. I wrote two each for numbers 2,3 and 4, which were the most recent and high-level achievements (international/national/state level).
I spent some time searching and gathering what I would call “professional vocabulary” to use in the description of my involvements and volunteering activities. There are tons of websites for those, so be sure to check them out!
Don’t forget to ask your reference person for their permission and willingness to be put on your resume!
Fourth, Test Preparations
I began to do preparations for tests when I got through the application stage. Most scholarships had these tests on their first or second stage, such as Shell, Petronas, JPA-MARA and Yayasan Khazanah.
Before you start overthinking and looking at these tests like a repeated SPM exam, I assure you, it’s not like SPM. Most of these “tests” are actually personality tests, or problem solving tests that test your ability to make critical decisions. Some are actually game-based, like UEM and Shell, and they were actually fun (but nerve-wracking) to play!
I prepared by taking some tests online that are fairly similar to the tests that the scholarship bodies were using. Key elements of these tests would include reading, mathematical abilities,
pattern matching (permata pintar woo) and problem-solving.
For Yayasan Khazanah, we had to go through 3 stages of tests:
Stage 1: Verbal and Numerical Ability Test
These two tests were basically a reading and mathematics test. The Verbal Ability Test will ask you a few questions based on a passage, which sounds easier said than done. The passages had long and complex sentences, and I’m pretty sure I read the passage given more than three times before answering. The Numerical Ability Test consists of mathematics questions, but they’re not as hard as SPM Add Maths so *wink*wink*.
To be honest, I didn’t even finish both of these tests! There was a time limit, and I left out 5 questions from the Verbal Ability Test and 3 from the Numerical one. I was so frustrated and thought “What an idiot, you just blew it. You just blew a Yayasan Khazanah Scholarship!”. Fast
forward to next week, I’m staring at my laptop with my jaw open because I just received an invitation to Stage 2 of the YK Scholarship Application.
So don’t worry too much about the time and not being able to answer everything, just put in your very, very best !!!!
Stage 2: Personality and Moral Reasoning Test
Okay, hear me out. I enjoyed this test. I mean, who doesn’t like personality tests? In these tests, there’s no right or wrong, it’s purely a test to gauge how you behave and what are your key traits and characteristics. I didn’t think too long for each question, and instead, I just went with the answer that was most relevant to me. For example, the question would be “How often do you like socialising?” and I would answer moderately, for I am a talkative person but also have the worst social battery ever. Answer honestly and consistently, and you’ll do just fine :))
For the Moral Reasoning Test, it’ll give you some sort of situation, and different types of responses/solutions to the situation you’re in. Again, no wrong or right answers, but they do want to see where your values lie ;D
Stage 3: Graphite Test
Honestly, my first knee jerk reaction to the Graphite Test was “huh?”, and this was particularly due to the name. I couldn’t really understand what kind of test it would be based on the “Graphite Test”, so I mostly looked it up on blogs or Google. It’s actually a mixed test, which combines reading comprehension, mathematics, personality and problem solving. Not much to say about this one, it was…okay for me hehe.
Fifth, Interview Prep
Ah, I could still remember how I interviewed myself in the mirror. Good times, good times….
What I generally did was search up potential interview questions and prompts, such as “tell me about yourself” and “what are your weaknesses and strengths?”. I drafted out answers, but I didn’t really memorise them fully because then I would sound robotic in the interview. Instead, I just listed down points I wanted to mention when talking about a certain experience or characteristic of mine. I also managed to find videos and articles about techniques to use when answering a specific type of question, which helped me a lot in drafting out answers.
To practice on the delivery of these answers, I would ask my friend to mock interview me, and what was really nice was that they often gave feedback on how I answered. As
mentioned earlier, I also interviewed my reflection a lot, and took note of how I should smile and what face expressions to make. Another thing I did were “talking exercises”, something I learnt from Julian Treasure’s TED Talk, “How to Speak so that People Want to Listen”. Overall, this really helped me in talking smoothly later on in the interview and not look like a blubbering mess.
Below is the specific experience of how I went through YK’s interviews:
Stage 3: Competency-Based Interview
I could not believe my eyes when I got an email for YK Scholarship Application Stage 3, which included a Competency-Based Interview, or CBI for short. A CBI is basically an interview concerning your experiences and achievements, including how you’ve used your skills to solve real-life problems. Some of the questions I got asked were what subject did I dislike, and how
did I manage to achieve good grades in it, and a time I led a team.
Stage 4: Group Interview with YK Management
I was leaping in joy when I got the Stage 4 invitation. The Stage 4 interview was held in a group, but there was surprisingly no discussion or interaction between the applicants in a group. We were asked a question, and would answer it one by one. I’m not going to lie, I felt greatly intimidated by my group members (who are now YK Scholars with me!). I remember just gaping in shock when I heard them talking about their activities that were international level based, or an initiative they started.
Although I felt really small at that moment, I didn’t really let that stop me from being confident in delivering my answers. One of the questions we were asked was “Could you share about an activity of any sort, which is non-academic, that is really significant to you?”. I told about an English programme that I had joined, and even if it wasn’t something incredibly impressive and there were no awards won, I talked of the experience and lessons that I derived from it.
Stage 5: Final Interview with Board of Trustees
Okay, so here comes the tricky part. A week after the Stage 4 interview, I haven’t received any email for Stage 5. Dread filled me at that time, and I began to think, was I really eliminated at this stage?
It quickly evaporated when a friend I made through a scholarship webinar (and was also applying for YK at the same time I was) messaged me saying we both got to Stage 5! I was
ecstatic, but when I looked back at my inbox, no email was there. I planned to wait until the next day, but somehow I never got the email. Afraid I wouldn’t get the meeting link for the Stage 5 interview, I emailed YK and asked about the status of my application. Alhamdulillah, they replied and resent the email, so I finally could access the meeting link.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is why it’s super super super beneficial for you to connect and get to know other people who are also applying with you. If my friend hadn’t told me we both got it, I would have never known I had gotten to the next stage.
This final stage was nerve-wracking, as I had to speak to one of the higher-ups in the Board of Trustees of Yayasan Khazanah. Surprisingly, it was actually pretty casual. I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Tuan Haji Mohd Adam, who asked me the interview questions in quite a casual manner and even striked up a conversation. The questions I was asked in the final interview were much more about me as a person, for instance, did I study hard, and how would people around me describe myself etc. I was also asked theoretical questions such as what makes a good leader and situational judgement questions.
Conclusion
As you can see, it was a rollercoaster. Not in a bad way though. Yes, it was anxiety-inducing and terrifying and I felt like I was going to fail at every single stage of scholarship application I got through, but hey, I (barely) managed :D I don’t regret any of the actions I took and all the time and energy I put in, because it came back to reward me in the most beautiful way, which was securing a scholarship I thought I could have never gotten.
To everyone out there who is going to apply, or are applying at the moment, I wish you the best of luck in every step of your journey. There will be hard moments along the way, but you’re amazing and you got this! Whether you successfully receive a scholarship or not, do think of this whole application process as a self-learning journey, because that’s what it has been for me.
Best of wishes,
Mia
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