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I posted this entry in my old blog before, and it received many hits from those who will be participating in Petronas Educamp, with a lot of encouraging comments. So I decided it’ll be useful for those who’ll be going to the next educamp, so here I post it again in this new blog
Khairul Syahir, December 4 2007

I know, I know, you want to get Petronas’ scholarship, you’ll have to go through a series of evaluation, not to mention the 3-day Educamp program made compulsory to all prospective applicants. That’s exactly what I went through before securing their scholarship, so don’t sweat! I’m here to tell you about it.

I won’t go through the application process. You’ll have to figure that out yourself. That’s the first and easiest step among the many you have to undertake to get their scholarship.

But don’t go looking for sample answers or sample case study or things as such. I’m not giving you any. Effort, man, effort. And a practice of equality, too.

The first day, you go over there and register. They’ll allocate you room for you to stay, but they don’t readily sort out which room you’ll be staying. So, if you wanna stay with your friends, go to the room check-in counter together and usually they’ll ask if you want to stay together. If they don’t, then insist. Most probably you’ll get it. Then, there’ll be briefing on the entire educamp program as well as the scholarship itself, and another briefing about UTP. Then, you’ll have lunch. Believe me, the food is good. Well, at least during my educamp session. By that time, most of the parents had already gone back.

After lunch, there’ll be sessions with the facilitators. You’ll be assigned into groups with 20+ candidate, and each group will be assigned 2 facis. These sessions are actually to help you prepare yourself for the interview. In the sessions, you will have to talk. The first session was about thinking out of the box. For the last educamp that I went through (December 2006), they give you a picture of an object, and find as many as possible the usages of that object apart from its conventional use. Then, each smaller group (in that 20+ pax group, you’ll be divided into smaller group, 4 – 6 persons) will have to present what they came out with. Other groups can argue and your group must defend your point to avoid losing them.

Next, there’s the survival session. Don’t expect anything physical, cause that’s not how they do it. They’ll give you a situation, then you’ll have to decide and so on and so on.

Go on to the night session, you’ll have another last session with the facis. There, you’ll have to tell a story. My session, we were asked to tell about “successful story”. Doesn’t have to be your story or one-that-actually-happened story though. There’s this one guy in my group who told a very interesting and novel-like story. But yeah, he took it from the Chicken Soup series. Well, it depends on your facis though. Our facis allowed us to tell stories like that beforehand. So that’s it. First day. End.

The second day, there’ll be talks and briefings and tests. There’ll be briefing about the next day’s interview, and talks about the courses you’re taking. then there’ll be tests. 2 tests, to be specific. The first one is called the English Proficiency Test and the other is the Critical Reasoning Test. Don’t worry, both are objective questions where you mark your answer in OMR sheets. A note though. I didn’t finish the second Critical Reasoning test. Time constraint. I doubt it anyone did. That night, you’ll be assigned your group and sequence for the next day’s interview. They’ll assign you a number such as B304. They’ll explain what each word/number means there.

The third day, hah, interview, nothing else. First, you’ll go into the first room, where a faci will give a bit of briefing and small talk of his experience (depends on the faci, though. Mine was nice). Then, you’ll go into the Preparation room, where you’ll be given a case study each. in your group of 4/5 people, you’ll be given case studies of the same topic but different opinion/solution. Such as, the topic is causes of natural disaster (just a mere example, here. That’s not what I got) and you might get an opinion from industrial activities and others in your group might be from global warming and stuff. In the preparation room, you’ll have to prepare about what is required from you. Instructions are given in the case study sheet. Then, you’ll go into the Waiting Room, where you’ll be.. well.. wait. When your turn is called, then only will you go into the Interview Room. You’ll be interviewed by two interviewer, and the first time you’re called, it’ll be individual interview where personal questions are asked such as why you want to take this course, etc. as well as you have to present you opinion on the case study you got. After all your group members have finished, then all of you will go in together and this time, it’s a group interview. You’ll have to discuss, argue, agree, reject, stuffs like that. It’s kind of you have to present your solution and defend it. Well, don’t go overboard, though. If finally you’ve realised you’re wrong, say you’re wrong. Your group has to reach a consensus, an agreement to the best solution. Don’t be too dominant. That’ll kill you. After that, you’re finished, and you can go home.

A bit to say, don’t be too afraid or nervous of the concept of 3-day evaluation. Although you’ll hear people say they’ll evaluate you from the first day, I didn’t see that happen, though. The only thing they’ll assess you is from the two tests and the interview and that’s it. The whole 3-day educamp program is actually there to help you. The first day, especially, you will be asked to talk to prepare you for the interview. And only on the first day they gonna ask you that. So don’t waste that chance. Throw away your shyness or, or whatever that is that prevent you from speaking and let yourself be helped to speak on that first day. Build up your self-confidence, set your mind in the right mindset. I’m a stutterer, medically, but I went on just as good.

Last word? Well, just go there and do your best. To be honest, you don’t even need to read this. But as for me, it’s always good to be prepared beforehand. And it’s better to know how to prepare. That’s why I write this. Hope it helps.