Back with stories about KTT

Attention. This is de longest post I have ever posted. Please be patient while reading and I hope u enjoy de information I provide below. Thanks.

Okay, it had been 5 days since I arrived at Kolej Teknologi Timur (KTT) in Sepang, Selangor. I arrived at de college on Monday morning (30 June 2008) but I visited de college 1 day earlier. My first impression of de college was “OMG! Is this where JPA medic / dentistry scholars study n stay?!”. As I had previously seen a photograph of de front view of de college, I wasn’t that surprised compared to my friends. De college is quite secluded, some even said it is away from civilization. It is actually 2 blocks of shop lots built up an inclining hill, so there are lots of staircases. It offers A levels programmes for JPA n MARA students n other diploma programmes for non-sponsored students. I’m taking A levels and I’m a full-time India-bound dentistry students.

Just an introduction about de college. It comprises 2 blocks of shop lots, de first 2 floors from de ground consist of lecture halls (got very funny “scent” inside), main hall (gosh, u can never ever imagine how de MH looks like), cafeterias selling malay food (can SMS to order food ), staff room, minimarket, student lounge etc... De floors above are apartments where de students or non-student residence stay (as I mentioned earlier, the place is actually shop lots, just that de college rented most of de place for own use). Each apartment has a big living room, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen, 1 balcony n other stuffs like tables, chairs, beds, wardrobes n much more. Each rooms is to be shared by 2 person, so each apartment has 4 students.

I’m staying at apartment 11-2-A3 (tangga 11, 2nd floor, apartment 3), but there’s only 3 person staying there including me. I share a room with a senior, Jesse (he’s a male, not female, a part-time india-bound medic student twinning with Melaka Manipal College. He has done his AS level, now taking A2 and will be leaving de college at de end of this year. He’s very kind and helpful, his hospitality made me feel comfortable when I first arrived at de college.). Another housemate of mine is Vincent, he’s a full time Czech-bound medic student. My apartment is facing de back (mountains n jungle) while some are facing de front (street n empty shop lots).

What I meant by Tangga is staircases which bring people up to their apartment. There are more than 10 Tanggas, n I’m using de 11th Tangga to reach my apartment. At Tangga 10, dunno which floor, there is an apartment owned by a non-student residence. Everyone calls him Pak Cik Parang. He hates noises especially during midnight. There were incidences where my seniors made loud noises during midnight n de Pak Cik Parang was damn furious that he brought his parang and arrived at de outside of de seniors’ apartment. De uncle shouted, roared, cursed n hit de apartment door hard n even hacked de door with his parang.

So, those staying at Tangga 10 must be extra precautious especially in de night. They must not be noisy or else they will invite de uncle for a terrifying nightmare. I’m staying at Tangga 11 (luckily) but also need to be careful. Sounds scarying leh?

All de students sponsored by JPA are divided into 8 groups: 2 groups for full-time (FT) India-bound medic students, 2 groups of FT India-bound dentistry students while de other groups consist of Indonesia / Poland / Czech Republic-bound medic students. There are also students sponsored by MARA who arrived 1 day later than JPA’s, but I’m not sure where will de students go after their A levels. What I observed is that de number of female students is more than de male students. Take my group as an example, there are about 30 female students but only 8 male students, if I’m not mistaken. However, de conditions of other groups are different, or better.

There are hundreds of future medic / dentistry students or perhaps future doctors at KTT. So, can u imagine how competitive it is at KTT despite de awful condition?

De students came from all over Malaysia. I have a few friends from Sarawak, they are very excited to tour around Selangor because they heard there are lots of shopping malls in Selangor. There are also people from Selangor, like me, so we can go home very weekends. De college offers transport service (bus or van) to take students to Giant, LCCT, KTM Nilai or pasar malam, but de students have 2 pay for de tickets which range from RM0.50 to RM10.00.

I arrived at KTT on 30 June 2008. There were soooooo many people there. De registration process took me hours to finish where I have to submit my documents to JPA officers, admins of KTT, take souvenirs, after that I was brought to my apartment by a senior. Thanks to her. Upnext was de opening ceremony of de orientation week (5 days) followed by hours n hours of briefing about A Levels, orientation week n also briefing by JPA officers alternating with break times. I ate my dinner which was maggi mee at 12am++. I wore my formal shirt n pants (all students there must wear formal attire for formal events n tutorial / lectures everyday) for more than 14 hours (I took my shower at 12am++ because de day was packed with activities).

All of us were given overwhelming pressure although it was our first day at KTT. According to de JPA officers, all of us have to meet de cut-off points (12 points) in order to be continuously sponsored by JPA. Let me explain de so-called “cut-off points”. All of us have to take 3 subjects in A Levels, namely Physics, Biology and Chemistry (it’s a different case for de india-bounds, I’ll explain later). Getting an A (90-100%, where 89.8 is considered B) for a subject will contribute 5 points, B contributes 4 points, C is 3 points n so on. If one managed to obtain 3 A’s for de 3 subjects, he gets 15 points. If de accumulated points of a person is less than 12, his / her JPA scholarship (precisely sponsorship) will be forfeited, meaning he / she has to pay for de degree programme.

For india-bound students, no matter medic or dentistry, we must take at least 3 subjects where mathematics is optional. In order to fly to India, we have to get an A for de 3 science subjects each, however, de result of maths is not taken into consideration. Maths is just an extra subject for us to meet de cut-off points. For instance, if a person gets A for physics, B for biology, B for chemistry n A for maths, his accumulated points will be 14 (take de highest 3). He still can receive sponsorship from JPA, but he can’t fly to India, instead, he will be sent to countries of lower cost such as Indonesia or finish his degree locally.

It is even harder for de Czech-bound students. Their A Levels takes only 1 year (really express) while mine is 1.5 years. Not only do they need to score above de cut-off points, they also need to take de entrance exam of Czech’s universities. If they pass, they still need to go through an interview. If they are successful in de mentioned steps, then only they can set foot into de universities.

Sounds tough n stressful leh? Awaiting us are cabaran demi cabaran.

Okay, enough of the academic stuff. De days that followed are full of activities like games, ice-breaking, college tour, varieties of briefings, do’s n don’t at KTT, telematch, aerobic exercise, performance training n much more. We have our performance training (for de closing ceremony on Friday) every night (until midnight) starting Tuesday n we have to wake up very early de next morning. We were very tired even in de morning. Some of my friends have big eye bags hanging below de eyes while I kept fishing during de briefings.

My group’s performance was a drama, which is a compilation of Disney’s fairy tales with KTT as de physical setting n Pak Cik Parang as de ending. I’m involved in de drama (but not de main character la of course) and we are de 1st runner-up among de 8 groups of JPA scholars n a few from MARA! After all, our hard work was not in vain. My group members held a celebration yesterday night but I didn’t join because I went home.

The above is a rough introduction about KTT n what I did few days ago. On my previous post dated 28 June 2008, I mentioned that I look forward to how I feel after de orientation week. Now I can say that I feel quite “light”, no longer nervous n tensed like last time. I adapt to de new environment quite well n I gained new friends who are very funny and crazy. Who says JPA scholars are bookworms and nerdy? You can never imagine how crazy we went during de orientation week.

Classes start next week. It’s time to get serious, again. And yes, thanks for your patience (if you read this post from top to bottom). BEST OF LUCK to you.