thetrystero
先輩
- 1 May 2008
- 27
- 0
[EDIT: This is for the POSTGRADUATE exams.]
Just came back from the quals today. The following are some comments and observations on my part.
Date & Time: Sunday, May 31st 2009. Registration: 0800, Briefing: 0845, English: 0900, Japanese: 1010
Venue: Confucian Secondary School, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
Number of candidates: 178
Number to be chosen for 3rd stage (interviews): 70
4 people proctoring the exam, including Ms. Yin and a representative from Japan. Results will be released end of June. Successful candidates will receive an invitation via phone to come for the interviews, which are scheduled for mid-July. Unsuccessful candidates will receive notification via post.
I arrived at about 8am, registered, and went to take my place in the examination hall. The security was very lax -- the registration table was set quite a ways away from the entrance and several non-candidates were walking in and out of the hall freely before the examination. Although most people put their IC on the table for the duration of the examination, there was no specific requirement for us to do so. They should definitely step-up in this area to prevent any potential fraud in future.
English Exam: The format this year represents a break from that of the previous 4 years. Sections I and II contain one reading comprehension article with 7 questions each. Sections III, IV, V were variations on the fill-in-the-blank theme (10 each) and in the last section, section VI, we were required to choose alternative words to replace six underlined words in a passage. 4 answer choices per question, labeled 1,2,3,4 (NOT ABCD). Although the change of format meant that I did not have advantage of familiarity, it also meant that there was no longer the notorious "Section III" of the old format where the answers were sometimes quite obtuse.
Ms. Yin said that the Japanese exam was "very, very hard" this year, and beginners were recommended not to take it.
On our table tag, there was a "remark" line in addition to our names and candidate numbers. The "remark" line highlighted any inconsistencies in our application forms, although their consequences were left to our imagination -- there was no comment from Ms. Yin about the impact that any of these remarks may have on our application going forward. Here is a selection of the remarks. Each number corresponds to the section on the application form.
1. Name: did not fill in either native or romanized name correctly (or both).
2. Nationality - not sure about this one. I thought that non-Malaysians would be automatically DQ-ed
4. Current status - have to mention whether your're student/lecturer/etc.
5. present address must be in Malaysia.
7. Study program. Ms. Yin did not elaborate on this so I have no idea what went wrong here.
8. study levels: "Graduate" means Masters PhD etc., NOT undergraduate
This last remark was rather puzzling:
CPE: In Ms Yin's words: "your course of study was not what we expected" and just left it at that (at the time, it sounded like a kind of warning as in: "if you don't get selected ... you know why" but maybe that's just me). Whether this meant that our chances are diminished or whether we would be given the option to re-write our proposal for a more suitable course of study before the application was submitted to the Japanese authorities (this one seems unlikely, but we can hope, right?) was not stated. Or maybe we were just at the exam to fill the seats. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Just came back from the quals today. The following are some comments and observations on my part.
Date & Time: Sunday, May 31st 2009. Registration: 0800, Briefing: 0845, English: 0900, Japanese: 1010
Venue: Confucian Secondary School, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
Number of candidates: 178
Number to be chosen for 3rd stage (interviews): 70
4 people proctoring the exam, including Ms. Yin and a representative from Japan. Results will be released end of June. Successful candidates will receive an invitation via phone to come for the interviews, which are scheduled for mid-July. Unsuccessful candidates will receive notification via post.
I arrived at about 8am, registered, and went to take my place in the examination hall. The security was very lax -- the registration table was set quite a ways away from the entrance and several non-candidates were walking in and out of the hall freely before the examination. Although most people put their IC on the table for the duration of the examination, there was no specific requirement for us to do so. They should definitely step-up in this area to prevent any potential fraud in future.
English Exam: The format this year represents a break from that of the previous 4 years. Sections I and II contain one reading comprehension article with 7 questions each. Sections III, IV, V were variations on the fill-in-the-blank theme (10 each) and in the last section, section VI, we were required to choose alternative words to replace six underlined words in a passage. 4 answer choices per question, labeled 1,2,3,4 (NOT ABCD). Although the change of format meant that I did not have advantage of familiarity, it also meant that there was no longer the notorious "Section III" of the old format where the answers were sometimes quite obtuse.
Ms. Yin said that the Japanese exam was "very, very hard" this year, and beginners were recommended not to take it.
On our table tag, there was a "remark" line in addition to our names and candidate numbers. The "remark" line highlighted any inconsistencies in our application forms, although their consequences were left to our imagination -- there was no comment from Ms. Yin about the impact that any of these remarks may have on our application going forward. Here is a selection of the remarks. Each number corresponds to the section on the application form.
1. Name: did not fill in either native or romanized name correctly (or both).
2. Nationality - not sure about this one. I thought that non-Malaysians would be automatically DQ-ed
4. Current status - have to mention whether your're student/lecturer/etc.
5. present address must be in Malaysia.
7. Study program. Ms. Yin did not elaborate on this so I have no idea what went wrong here.
8. study levels: "Graduate" means Masters PhD etc., NOT undergraduate
This last remark was rather puzzling:
CPE: In Ms Yin's words: "your course of study was not what we expected" and just left it at that (at the time, it sounded like a kind of warning as in: "if you don't get selected ... you know why" but maybe that's just me). Whether this meant that our chances are diminished or whether we would be given the option to re-write our proposal for a more suitable course of study before the application was submitted to the Japanese authorities (this one seems unlikely, but we can hope, right?) was not stated. Or maybe we were just at the exam to fill the seats. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
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