UM LAW INTERVIEW INTAKE SEP 2019/2020





Hi guys, I've been dreading to write this blog entry due to procrastination and lack of intuition to actually start writing, hence the birth of this awful blog. However, If I wanted to start writing I wanted it to be for educational purposes. Therefore welcome to this blog entry if you were actually searching for it. I knew I was searching for this back when I was about to be interviewed. Then I noticed there were lack of recent blog posts regarding experiences of people going through the interview at UM. I think the latest was dated back in 2016. Thus enough with this introduction, through this blog I aim to document my experience being interviewed by one of the most prestigious law schools (not joking, apparently UM law school is recognized that way), also my previous endeavors before being able to enter law school so that you guys reading this might have a slight idea on how I actually got into law school in the first place (still mind blowing on my behalf considering my high school record), and lastly some tips and tricks on how to ace the interview, not only by me but also from the dean himself (literally, I'll tell you along the way).
So let's begin.

INTRODUCTION : WHO AM I EXACTLY?

So to begin, let me introduce you to who I was before this whole law school business(my not so coming of age experience in middle and high school). I came from pretty average schools to say the least. I was never accepted to any boarding schools throughout my lifetime even though I did apply to a lot of MRSMs and SBPs. I blame this due to my curriculum record for being so vulgar and dusty. I was never an athlete nor I was a star student. The last time I even had a solid recognition over my academic achievements was back in middle school. Even though I managed to obtain straight A's for UPSR, I was one of the many 72 people who managed to score such results. Therefore, my recognition was short-lived.

My record in high school was also fairly dull to say the least. I barely entered into any curriculum activities until I reached the age of 15, where for the first time I ever I was able to participate in an international exchange program in Japan (you can read all about in my previous blog entry but I warn you it isn't as interesting as this one lol). Despite not being active in school, I believe this experience was one of the key points that helped me a lot in applying to pre-university programs. This might be due to the acknowledgment of many of my friends that went to exchange student programs that managed to enter into other universities as well. Thus, I highly encourage if you are in high school or maybe taking your spm this year, try to participate in exchange school programs to other countries. I know with this pandemic going on it would be likely that most programs have been cancelled (I'm in quarantine at this very moment)  but for spm leavers, there are programs that you can participate after finishing school. My roommate participated in this elaborate exchange program to US and it was fully sponsored by the government (nope I'm not even joking). I don't remember the exact name of the program but you could direct message me on instagram and I'll investigate on the matter further by asking her what was the name of the program lol. (I'll leave my social media accounts down below).

SPM RESULTS AND GETTING INTO MATRICS AND FOUNDATION IN LAW KPTM

Ok the part that I've been dreading the most, my spm results. To summarize, it wasn't really that good lol. I was in the pure science stream where I took electives which were biology, chemistry, physics and additional mathematics, that we all somewhat very hard to me huhu. Well, except for additional mathematics which I had quite fun with learning despite my not so adequate results. Thus my results were somewhat average. I got A+ for English, A- for BM, A for Maths, Agama and Sejarah (well at least I got straight A's for my core subjects hshshs which doesn't count). Whereas my electives were B for Biology and Add Maths and C+ for Physics and C for Chemistry. Like I said, very average. However I wasn't disappointed nor I was happy. It was somewhat a neutral feeling mixed with relief that it was FINALLY over.

After my spm results, the most natural step was to apply pre university programs that I was eligible to enter into. Take note that I already applied for matrics before spm, as applications were already available then. Since I already applied for matrics, I had to apply through upu which if you have no idea what it is exactly then I wonder why are you even reading this entry haha. Without further or do, I applied into foundation in law in UITM Dengkil, which I got accepted into. (side note: I also miraculously got accepted into Kolej Matrikulasi Melaka, but obviously I rejected it cause I didn't want to pursue pure science anymore).

WHY DID I TOOK LAW?
You all might be wondering, why did I took law exactly. Well, since you are about to be interviewed by law lecturers, please prepare a good reason. Honestly it could be anything, as long as you sound reasonable and passionate about it. My reason for applying into foundation in law was that my core subjects were my strongest merits compared to my electives, which were all pure science subjects. To be honest, I didn't even struggle to score A in my core subjects in spm because I mostly studied very hard for my electives as they were damn hard. Thus the most reasonable conclusion I could receive from this is that my brain was more lenient towards subjects that were require a lot of reading rather than subjects that were theoretical. It is a true notion that I enjoy reading literature as well as current issues. Therefore these are the main reasons why I took law and since they sound quite vague and unconvincing to say the least, I did not mention this at all during the interview haha. I'll tell you later about what I told the interviewers.

ABOUT THE LAW INTERVIEWS IN UITM, UKM AND UM. WHAT THEY DID'NT TOLD YOU 

I'm not gonna talk about my whole experience in UITM Dengkil, cause I'm pretty sure you guys have heard enough stories from other people. What I am gonna talk about is my experience applying for interviews for bachelor in law in public universities that offer it. The thing is during my batch they didn't tell us that they would actually be using our first semester results rather than our overall CGPA to actually apply for degree programs that had interviews. Why is this relevant you ask? well for a start a lazy student like me would actually focus more on my first semester had I known that it would be the pointer used to get accepted to undergo the interviews but hey the past is done right, can't blame anyone apparently.

Therefore for current foundation students, please focus in your first semester and don't take it lightly. You might be missing big chances to actually apply for interviews in UIA and UITM in which both universities require you to obtain 4 flat in order you to be given the chance to go for the interview. You might be wondering why in the hell are the requirements so high compared to other public universities such as UKM and UM? Well this is because UIA and UITM both have their own foundation students that they prioritize to actually be given a chance to go for their interviews. This is when you should consider applying for foundation in law UITM and UIA if you are interested to pursue your degrees there from the very beginning. Your chances of getting in are way higher compared to if you were in matrics or foundation in law kptm as you don't have to go through the tiring process of applying for degree through upu. 

FINALLY, MY EXPERIENCE BEING INTERVIEWED AT UM LAW FACULTY 




Finally right, don't worry I added big ass headings at the beginning of these paragraphs so that you guys can actually skip whatever I was blabbering above lol. It actually took me 2 days just to write the above introductions. This is how bad my procrastination habits are.

So before getting started of course I have to tell you guys what were my choices for upu. My first choice was UM law, proceeded by UKM and UUM law for courses that had interviews. Here's the sad part, I was only offered the interview for UM law instead of getting UKM as well huhu. I think it's because during my batch they prioritized people who had put UKM as their first choice rather than second. Most of my friends who put UKM as the second choice did not get the interview so I wasn't too bummed. However, this meant that I had to work extra hard for this interview or I probably won't end taking law or any degree program probably.

I was actually really lucky cause my interview was on the third day while most of my friends got the interview on the first day which was Tuesday. Why do I call this lucky you ask? cause I basically I can ask for tips from my friends that had entered the interview before me haha.

THINGS YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE THE DAY OF THE INTERVIEW

1. STUDY la sikit

A lot of people say preparation is vital, so obviously you guys need to prepare yourselves before entering the interview. My advice? For foundation students from dengkil, please don't over do it with studying. Honestly I barely studied at all and only studied the night before. Please keep in mind that you will be entering the interview with other students from STPM and matrics, that obviously know nothing about legal terms or any ounce of legal knowledge that you guys had learnt back in dengkil. Furthermore, the interviewers of course will definitely know this thus they will not judge you based on your legal knowledge.

However, don't just don't study at all haha. For foundation students, just read on a bit of tort and criminal law( just the definition and elements so that you can answer the mooting question later in which I will explain after this). Don't waste your time on contract, they will not ask you anything related to that well during my time haha.

For STPM and Matrics students, I recommend you brush on your speaking skills. Practice answering questions spontaneously without a script as well try watching mooting videos on youtube just to grasp a bit on how you should portray yourselves when answering a legal argument. I'll elaborate further on this later.

2.  Bring all necessary documents

Make sure you bring all necessary documents that they listed in the interview offer letter and make copies of it if you must. On the day itself there is a moment where they will ask you to show documents such as your muet result, final pre-uni results and spm results if I am not mistaken.

3. Mooting

Ah yes, another part I have been dreading to write. If you don't know what mooting is, it's basically providing a legal argument on behalf of your client or in other words, defending whatever your client's rights. Mooting is what UM is known to emphasise on as we take great pride in participating and winning mooting competitions around the globe. This is literally to the point where each of the members of the faculty is needed to participate at least once in a mooting competition. That's how hardcore UM is into mooting. My advice? Focus on persuading the interviewers that your client is not guilty through your own standpoint. It doesn't necessarily need to be a legal standpoint to be honest, just from your own logical view. This interview is not aimed to test on legal skills. It aims to look at how you present yourself, whether your character from the interviewer's standpoint is able to represent the UM Faculty of Law.

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Nana Dah Habis Merapu

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UM LAW INTERVIEW INTAKE SEP 2019/2020





Hi guys, I've been dreading to write this blog entry due to procrastination and lack of intuition to actually start writing, hence the birth of this awful blog. However, If I wanted to start writing I wanted it to be for educational purposes. Therefore welcome to this blog entry if you were actually searching for it. I knew I was searching for this back when I was about to be interviewed. Then I noticed there were lack of recent blog posts regarding experiences of people going through the interview at UM. I think the latest was dated back in 2016. Thus enough with this introduction, through this blog I aim to document my experience being interviewed by one of the most prestigious law schools (not joking, apparently UM law school is recognized that way), also my previous endeavors before being able to enter law school so that you guys reading this might have a slight idea on how I actually got into law school in the first place (still mind blowing on my behalf considering my high school record), and lastly some tips and tricks on how to ace the interview, not only by me but also from the dean himself (literally, I'll tell you along the way).
So let's begin.

INTRODUCTION : WHO AM I EXACTLY?

So to begin, let me introduce you to who I was before this whole law school business(my not so coming of age experience in middle and high school). I came from pretty average schools to say the least. I was never accepted to any boarding schools throughout my lifetime even though I did apply to a lot of MRSMs and SBPs. I blame this due to my curriculum record for being so vulgar and dusty. I was never an athlete nor I was a star student. The last time I even had a solid recognition over my academic achievements was back in middle school. Even though I managed to obtain straight A's for UPSR, I was one of the many 72 people who managed to score such results. Therefore, my recognition was short-lived.

My record in high school was also fairly dull to say the least. I barely entered into any curriculum activities until I reached the age of 15, where for the first time I ever I was able to participate in an international exchange program in Japan (you can read all about in my previous blog entry but I warn you it isn't as interesting as this one lol). Despite not being active in school, I believe this experience was one of the key points that helped me a lot in applying to pre-university programs. This might be due to the acknowledgment of many of my friends that went to exchange student programs that managed to enter into other universities as well. Thus, I highly encourage if you are in high school or maybe taking your spm this year, try to participate in exchange school programs to other countries. I know with this pandemic going on it would be likely that most programs have been cancelled (I'm in quarantine at this very moment)  but for spm leavers, there are programs that you can participate after finishing school. My roommate participated in this elaborate exchange program to US and it was fully sponsored by the government (nope I'm not even joking). I don't remember the exact name of the program but you could direct message me on instagram and I'll investigate on the matter further by asking her what was the name of the program lol. (I'll leave my social media accounts down below).

SPM RESULTS AND GETTING INTO MATRICS AND FOUNDATION IN LAW KPTM

Ok the part that I've been dreading the most, my spm results. To summarize, it wasn't really that good lol. I was in the pure science stream where I took electives which were biology, chemistry, physics and additional mathematics, that we all somewhat very hard to me huhu. Well, except for additional mathematics which I had quite fun with learning despite my not so adequate results. Thus my results were somewhat average. I got A+ for English, A- for BM, A for Maths, Agama and Sejarah (well at least I got straight A's for my core subjects hshshs which doesn't count). Whereas my electives were B for Biology and Add Maths and C+ for Physics and C for Chemistry. Like I said, very average. However I wasn't disappointed nor I was happy. It was somewhat a neutral feeling mixed with relief that it was FINALLY over.

After my spm results, the most natural step was to apply pre university programs that I was eligible to enter into. Take note that I already applied for matrics before spm, as applications were already available then. Since I already applied for matrics, I had to apply through upu which if you have no idea what it is exactly then I wonder why are you even reading this entry haha. Without further or do, I applied into foundation in law in UITM Dengkil, which I got accepted into. (side note: I also miraculously got accepted into Kolej Matrikulasi Melaka, but obviously I rejected it cause I didn't want to pursue pure science anymore).

WHY DID I TOOK LAW?
You all might be wondering, why did I took law exactly. Well, since you are about to be interviewed by law lecturers, please prepare a good reason. Honestly it could be anything, as long as you sound reasonable and passionate about it. My reason for applying into foundation in law was that my core subjects were my strongest merits compared to my electives, which were all pure science subjects. To be honest, I didn't even struggle to score A in my core subjects in spm because I mostly studied very hard for my electives as they were damn hard. Thus the most reasonable conclusion I could receive from this is that my brain was more lenient towards subjects that were require a lot of reading rather than subjects that were theoretical. It is a true notion that I enjoy reading literature as well as current issues. Therefore these are the main reasons why I took law and since they sound quite vague and unconvincing to say the least, I did not mention this at all during the interview haha. I'll tell you later about what I told the interviewers.

ABOUT THE LAW INTERVIEWS IN UITM, UKM AND UM. WHAT THEY DID'NT TOLD YOU 

I'm not gonna talk about my whole experience in UITM Dengkil, cause I'm pretty sure you guys have heard enough stories from other people. What I am gonna talk about is my experience applying for interviews for bachelor in law in public universities that offer it. The thing is during my batch they didn't tell us that they would actually be using our first semester results rather than our overall CGPA to actually apply for degree programs that had interviews. Why is this relevant you ask? well for a start a lazy student like me would actually focus more on my first semester had I known that it would be the pointer used to get accepted to undergo the interviews but hey the past is done right, can't blame anyone apparently.

Therefore for current foundation students, please focus in your first semester and don't take it lightly. You might be missing big chances to actually apply for interviews in UIA and UITM in which both universities require you to obtain 4 flat in order you to be given the chance to go for the interview. You might be wondering why in the hell are the requirements so high compared to other public universities such as UKM and UM? Well this is because UIA and UITM both have their own foundation students that they prioritize to actually be given a chance to go for their interviews. This is when you should consider applying for foundation in law UITM and UIA if you are interested to pursue your degrees there from the very beginning. Your chances of getting in are way higher compared to if you were in matrics or foundation in law kptm as you don't have to go through the tiring process of applying for degree through upu. 

FINALLY, MY EXPERIENCE BEING INTERVIEWED AT UM LAW FACULTY 




Finally right, don't worry I added big ass headings at the beginning of these paragraphs so that you guys can actually skip whatever I was blabbering above lol. It actually took me 2 days just to write the above introductions. This is how bad my procrastination habits are.

So before getting started of course I have to tell you guys what were my choices for upu. My first choice was UM law, proceeded by UKM and UUM law for courses that had interviews. Here's the sad part, I was only offered the interview for UM law instead of getting UKM as well huhu. I think it's because during my batch they prioritized people who had put UKM as their first choice rather than second. Most of my friends who put UKM as the second choice did not get the interview so I wasn't too bummed. However, this meant that I had to work extra hard for this interview or I probably won't end taking law or any degree program probably.

I was actually really lucky cause my interview was on the third day while most of my friends got the interview on the first day which was Tuesday. Why do I call this lucky you ask? cause I basically I can ask for tips from my friends that had entered the interview before me haha.

THINGS YOU NEED TO DO BEFORE THE DAY OF THE INTERVIEW

1. STUDY la sikit

A lot of people say preparation is vital, so obviously you guys need to prepare yourselves before entering the interview. My advice? For foundation students from dengkil, please don't over do it with studying. Honestly I barely studied at all and only studied the night before. Please keep in mind that you will be entering the interview with other students from STPM and matrics, that obviously know nothing about legal terms or any ounce of legal knowledge that you guys had learnt back in dengkil. Furthermore, the interviewers of course will definitely know this thus they will not judge you based on your legal knowledge.

However, don't just don't study at all haha. For foundation students, just read on a bit of tort and criminal law( just the definition and elements so that you can answer the mooting question later in which I will explain after this). Don't waste your time on contract, they will not ask you anything related to that well during my time haha.

For STPM and Matrics students, I recommend you brush on your speaking skills. Practice answering questions spontaneously without a script as well try watching mooting videos on youtube just to grasp a bit on how you should portray yourselves when answering a legal argument. I'll elaborate further on this later.

2.  Bring all necessary documents

Make sure you bring all necessary documents that they listed in the interview offer letter and make copies of it if you must. On the day itself there is a moment where they will ask you to show documents such as your muet result, final pre-uni results and spm results if I am not mistaken.

3. Mooting

Ah yes, another part I have been dreading to write. If you don't know what mooting is, it's basically providing a legal argument on behalf of your client or in other words, defending whatever your client's rights. Mooting is what UM is known to emphasise on as we take great pride in participating and winning mooting competitions around the globe. This is literally to the point where each of the members of the faculty is needed to participate at least once in a mooting competition. That's how hardcore UM is into mooting. My advice? Focus on persuading the interviewers that your client is not guilty through your own standpoint. It doesn't necessarily need to be a legal standpoint to be honest, just from your own logical view. This interview is not aimed to test on legal skills. It aims to look at how you present yourself, whether your character from the interviewer's standpoint is able to represent the UM Faculty of Law.
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