Jordan: The First Stop

"Nanti lepas results SPM, mama plan nak bawak semua pergi Palestine."

"Palestine? Serius ke ma.. Bukan tak selamat ke kat sana. Takut la kalau apa-apa jadi."

Setiap orang yang mendengar hasrat kami sekeluarga untuk ke bumi Palestin pasti tidak terlepas memberi reaksi yang sama seperti saya ketika pertama kali mendengar perancangan mama.

Setelah mengikuti taklimat yang disediakan oleh Al Amin Travel, gambaran keadaan sebenar di Palestin tersingkap sedikit demi sedikit. Perasaan takut yang mulanya membelenggu diri, kini berlalu pergi diganti dengan keturujaan untuk berpijak di bumi penuh barakah.

Jordan

Setelah bermalaman di Abu Dhabi International Airport, penerbangan kami diteruskan ke Queen Alia International Airport, Jordan. Persinggahan kami di Jordan adalah untuk membolehkan kami memasuki Palestin  melalui Sempadan Jordan-Palestin. Sebelum merentas sempadan, kami berpeluang menikmati makanan tengah hari di Abu Zagheh dan melawat beberapa tempat bersejarah di Amman, Jordan. Paling menarik sudah tentu ketika melawat The Cave of Seven Sleepers (Ashabul Kahf). Walaupun terdapat beberapa gua lain yang dipercayai tempat Ashabul Kahf, namun gua di Amman adalah paling mirip dengan gambaran hadis.

[gambar]

Sebelum tiba di sempadan, kami diingatkan sekali lagi untuk tidak bercakap kasar dan menarik muka ketika berhadapan dengan pegawai-pegawai Rejim Zionis. Beberapa kisah mengenai rombongan sebelum ini telah diberitahu kepada kami sebagai gambaran awal mengenai situasi sebenar yang bakal kami hadapi. Bukan itu sahaja, kami dimaklumkan berkali-kali mengenai jawapan yang perlu diberikan sekiranya pegawai tersebut menanyakan sebab kedatangan kami ke Palestin. Ya, tujuan asal kami semua adalah untuk melawat Masjid Al-Aqsa, namun apabila ditanya kami perlu menjawab "to visit Jerusalem". Beberapa aspek lain turut diingatkan bagi tujuan kelancaran di balai imigresen.

Muka hadapan Passport Malaysia : " Passport ini sah digunakan di semua negara kecuali Israel"

Perkara ini menimbulkan tanda tanya sebilangan pihak, " jadi macam mana nak masuk kalau tanpa passport ?" Kami menggunakan visa untuk aktiviti keluar masuk Israel.

Setibanya kami di Balai Imigresen Israel, kami diarahkan untuk beratur bagi urusan body & luggage scanning serta melalui proses pendaftaran kemasukan. Di stesen pertama, passport kami dilekatkan dengan sticker dan pegawai mula menanda sesuatu pada sticker kami setelah melakukan imbasan muka seorang demi seorang. Perasaan gerun mula menebal dalam diri setelah saya dapati tanda pada sticker saya berbeza daripada ahli keluarga yang lain. Niat untuk bertenang semakin punah setelah saya menyaksikan beberapa insiden ketidakadilan berlaku. Antaranya, pelancong Eropah di balai imigresen ketika itu dibenarkan untuk memotong barisan kami ketika proses pemeriksaan dilakukan serta tiada penahanan passport yang dijalankan ke atas mereka.

 Lain pula dengan kami. Passport beberapa orang daripada rombongan kami ditahan termasuk saya. Paling mengejutkan, ketua rombongan iaitu Ustaz Syafiq nyaris dibatalkan visa walhal visa kami semua telah diluluskan sebulan sebelum berangkat.

Passport mereka yang ditahan, dipanggil oleh pegawai serta merta. Kami diarahkan untuk memberi hand luggage bagi tujuan pemeriksaan yang lebih ketat. Selain itu, kami diminta untuk mengeluarkan sebarang objek yang terdapat di poket pakaian kami. Setelah diyakini tiada perkara yang mencurigakan, passport kami dikembalikan. Urusan yang sepatutnya selesai dalam masa 30 minit menjadi 2 jam setengah dek kerana pegawai-pegawai imigresen yang menahan kami tanpa asbab serta melambatkan proses kami.

Persoalannya, mengapa mereka berperilaku sedemikian kepada pelancong muslim?

Jawapannya mereka ingin melengahkan umat Islam menjejakkan kaki ke Al-Aqsa. Perkara ini jelas dirasai oleh satu rombongan lepas yang tiba pada waktu pagi dan dijangka berpeluang mendirikan solat jumaat di Masjid Al-Aqsa. Namun begitu, kesulitan yang dihadapi semasa urusan di balai imigresen membantutkan niat mereka disebabkan mereka terkandas di balai tersebut sehingga 3 jam dan terlepas waktu solat jumaat. 

Perjalanan masuk ke Palestin bukanlah mudah, tetapi kemanisan pertama kali menjejakkan kaki ke sana dirasai kami semua membuatkan kami berasa lebih bersyukur dengan nikmat yang diberikanNya.

My journal!

USM DDS Interview 2020 (COVID-19 Edition)

To give you an insight about my UPU choices, USM DDS was my fourth choice starting with UM BDS, UITM BDS and the third one is UKM DDS. I did not have any exact reason as why I came up with this kind of order but one thing that I was sure of- I really wanted to get into a dental school. Perhaps, I am sure the one that reads this also have the same dream as mine, may we achieve our dream together :) 

I didn't expect to receive interview call from USM as it was my fourth choice but all and all I was blessed and grateful. Here are some of the requirements that I need to fulfill prior to the interview session. Every year, the requirement are differ, and as for the year 2020 this is what my batch needs to do, so if there's similarity in terms of requirement for next intake, you could implement my tips & ideas that are provided in this post.

1) Write a Personal Statement

The personal statement has to be in Arial 11 and with a maximum of 4,000 characters including space. Not only that, It has to be in Malay language. The scope given for the personal staement is regarding knowledge and experience in dentistry.

Tips&Ideas:

• Search about personal statement that relates to dentistry to have some insight about how it's written.

I found this video was very helpful throughout my preparation process:
> https://youtu.be/USR-tkKnLlc

• Think of a genuine story on your own (describe a certain event that sparks your interest in dentistry)
• Express the qualities that you have to show how your qualities matches with the dentist's/dental student's (e.g: good in manual dexterity, have a sense of responsibility towards helping other people, excellent in communication skills..)
• Write it with a heart full of passion towards dentistry field. When you write it wholeheartedly, I am pretty sure the readers can also sense the love you have for dentistry and eventually they will pick you.

2) Prepare a Video

The video that I need to prepare has to be in English with duration of 3-5 minutes. There are several things that need to be covered in the video; self-introduction, declaration regarding the choice of dentistry, and the next one has to be chosen among these three, share your first experience attending dental clinic, what do you know about specialties in dentistry, talk about your curricular activities. I chose the latter as I found it's quite an easy task for me.

Tips&Ideas:

• Again, watch any video resume related to dentistry to have a general idea on how it's going to look like.
• Prepare your speech as to prevent your time from being wasted during filming session.
• Learn how to edit your videos through youtube (for me, any editing apps can be used as long as you know how to manage it). 
• Give a touch of creativity during editing process as the panels would love to watch a creative video. Some creative elements that I can think off are including background music, wording, photos/videos taken from activities you have carried out (act as a proof whenever you utter a  statement, e.g: In my video I said I was good in communication skills, then right after the statement, I attached a video of me joining debate team) 
• Speak with confidence.
• Wear proper clothes. (Please don't wear casual clothes)

Notes++

All these Tips&Ideas solely come from my experience, there's no right or wrong. I hope these tips can be used as a guideline during your preparation process. Up till today, there's no follow up from USM. I was not sure it this is the only phase that they have but if there's another phase, I will update about it soon.

If you want to see my personal statement and video, kindly fill up the contact form, I'd love to share them with you via email.

Next post is going to be about the remaining interview sessions which are BDS UM, BDS UITM and DDS UKM!

Till then, thank you for making it this far <3

Top 20 Student in Life Science (PASUM) ; Tips & Tricks

Hello there curious soul! Firstly, as the title mentioned, I was awarded Top 20 Student (Sains Hayat) due to my outstanding achievement in Final Semester 1. I was so grateful indeed. Believe me, I was not expecting to receive this grand award of PASUM at all! However, at the back of my mind I had a tiny piece of dream to be among the Top 20 as I had always look up to the ex-PASUM students that received this award in the past. Saying that it was an easy pathway is an understatement.

There were twists and turns along the way alongside rough patches, but I glad I did it! I got CGPA 4.00 for both semester. To give you an insight about my educational background, I was not the genius type. When I said genius it referred to someone that sleeps, plays video games, does barely exercises yet getting 4.00(it seems like an exaggerated statement but it's not, I've met these kind of person in reality). For me, one word to describe about me is hardworking. Nothing is impossible if you work on the things you have wanted so badly but remember it must be in a smart way. This post is not intended to prove that I am berlagak or anything but solely for knowledge purpose. So here goes the tips and tricks for you to survive PASUM and graduated with 4.00!

1) Finish Every Single Tutorial

Alright this one is like the most important out of all because I kept getting this exact advice from my fellow seniors. To put in simple words, tutorial is like worksheet that the tutor will give you as a homework for every subject. 'Fresh from the oven' topics are featured in every tutorial. It's easy and very systematic because firstly, you just learned about it from lecture so you must have the momentum to test your understanding about that topic. If you find it's hard for you to complete the questions given, fret not you have a bunch of helpful classmates and lectures/tutors are just one call away, you can simply message or call them if you find difficulty in some questions, and surely they will guide you along the way. 

Once again I repeat FINISH YOUR TUTORIAL by hook or by crook. Even if you don't have sufficient time to finish it due to other commitments, complete it at least a week before your exam. This is because majority of the questions that come out in final is based on tutorials. The questions are not the same but understanding of concept is the same. Lectures consist of vast array of things that you need to learn but for tutorial it magnifies the scope on the things that will come out for finals. Hence, it will ease your burden to study for finals as you just have to put more focus on the sub-topics/concept that revolve around the tutorials. 

2) Do Past-Years Exam Papers

You can purchase both mid-sem and finals examination papers from KUAZ printer shop. I would say that doing past paper really helps in engaging familiarity on how the questions look like in real examination. Personally for me, mid-sem questions are repetitive (as the format is MCQ), so please take a look on the questions even the night before exam, and if you can't answer certain question, use this opportunity to discuss with your friends or revise back the topic that you are unsure of.

As for final paper, the chance for it to be repeated is minimal (but during my time there were some concepts applied in exam that similar to past paper) . This is because final paper mostly depends on the tutorial and every year there is a slight differ in the sub-topic that you need to focus on. So, for the third time I am repeating this, do your tutorial kid, it's really gonna help you in your finals!! 100% guaranteed! Although, I said it was minimal, I suggest you should peek at the format of the paper just to get a rough idea on how the real exam paper is going to be.

Oh, one more thing, before final examination, there will be a study week (1 week), and during the study week, PASUM provides clinics for every subjects so, I am sure you wouldn't want to miss the clinics as you can make a full use of this clinic to ask opinions from the lecturer regarding your answers in past paper and the most significant one, you can ask for their last words ;)  (sometimes it's so vague so, be attentive!)

3) Focus During Lectures

Every lectures has a maximum period of 1 hour (unless which is rare there will be kelas ganti). Honestly, I have to admit that as a mediocre student myself, I couldn't resist the temptation of  sleeping during lectures. In PASUM there are two lecture halls which are DKU and AUDI. Both are very cozy and trust me you will find utmost serene there. However, it is still our responsibility to listen to the lectures.

Open your mind and open your eyes, because you will probably missing out hints and tips from the lecturers without full-focus in the lecture hall (especially bio!!!) Even if you have missed something, please ask your friend about it later as you don't want to be left out till the examination day. If you still are not clear about how lectures are being held. It is basically you need to watch and listen to the lecturer's presentation and you will be provided with lecture notes that you have to buy from KUAZ printer shop. Soft copy is also provided thru Spectrum (which is UM website for educational purpose, don't worry every UM students get to access it at anytime at anywhere). But don't be surprised if you are not provided with lecture notes because some of the lecturers want to initiate you in making your own version of lecture note. So, just go along with it & be tough okii!

4) Don't ever give up 

This one sounded so typical that you might ignore it. But please don't. At times, life in PASUM can be a bit overwhelming and makes you doubting about your decision to be in PASUM. You are surrounded with top-tier students and sometimes you couldn't help yourself but to think that you are the dumbest one. Every so often thing doesn't happen as what you have expected. Low grades for quizzes, tutorials or even mid-sem. Grade for every subject is based on 50 (final) and 50 (continuous assessments e.g: quiz, tutorials, lab reports, midsem).

If you happen to flop in continuous assessment, my advice is it's okay to feel sad but don't let it engulfs you permanently and makes you numb to do next move. Chin up you still have finals, you still have next examination so focus on that. I believe with your determination you can ace it!

On a spiritual note, if God has faith in you, why aren't you.

++ Notes

All the best to future PASUM students!

You can also check this website for ultimate guide
https://muhdrahiman.tumblr.com/post/174244636151/pasum-a-complete-guide

Don't hesitate to drop any comments/questions below or you can do so in contact form. I am really looking forward to help you in any possible ways. Whoever made till here, you guys are amazing! Thank you :D