UPSI TESL Interview Experience

Asalamualaikum and Hi everyone. I would like to share my experience during my TESL interview at UPSI last June! (In the end of this post, I'll tell you if I got accepted or not.) 

It started with MEDSI test first. The very first obstacle. I checked if I qualified to sit for the test, and yes I did. tbh  I didn't have any tips for MEDSI but one thing that I can tell is, be consistent with your answer. 

I am from Sabah, so my interview was at UMS. There were two tests. The first one is ujian khas which is writing. I was expecting the question to be something like argumentative essay but turns out it wasn't. It was pretty simple. There was a graph, and we were asked to write an essay not less than 120 words about the graph. I can't say I did well, but I tried my best by giving my best. I did it like how I usually do with pengajian am semester 2 graph hahaha. 

The second test is the interview. The interview was conducted in a group of five. My group was the second last for the day. It was almost 4pm when we started. There were only one interviewer present in the room. He didn't ask us any question, instead he reviewed our files and his colleague was the one who asked us question through google meet. It was less intimidating because I can't see the interviewer face because they didn't show us the screen. We can only hear her voice. It was somewhat a good thing I guess. 

So now to the questions that we were asked. The group before us said the question were hard. I remember one of them saying the question were 'What is the first thing you would do if you became the first Malaysian female prime minister?' I kinda freaked out because I obviously cannot come up with any smart answer hahahaha. And they also got different question for each of them. I was the third in group to answer. At first, I thought we will be given diff q for each of us, but it's just the same for all of us. Not being the first definitely gave me advantages such as having more time to build your answer and came up with good ideas. 

The first question is a basic one. 

1. Please introduce yourself. 
I answered it calmly although I did stutter a little. Told abt my SPM English result, my MUET band, where I'm studying and this and that. Also told my family background and lastly I said 'One interesting about myself is I like animals, and I wanted to conduct a TNR Programme in my district.' and I continue elaborating on TNR. I actually wanted to tell them my passion in English and why I decide to take this course. But it suddenly disappeared from my head. I totally forgot to tell them about it. Also i was worried that the next question they will asked me regarding that so I kinda play safe there. 

The second question, we were asked to answer it in Malay. 

2. Apakah perancangan anda 5 tahun akan datang? 
I started  by saying if I graduated and successfully posted to a school, I will be a devoted English teacher. something like that. and I continue by saying 'If I didn't get posted any time soon, I want to open a cat shelter for stray cats.' It's like a continual of my first answer. This was completely impromptu. I just spew whatever I had in my mind. I was actually kinda surprised because my malay baku is pretty good! 

The third question is my faaaaaavourite. 

3.What do you think about depression and how do you help your friend with depression. 
I said everything I knew. I was somewhat mentally ill myself, so it definitely helps. HAHAHAHHA. kidding. but yeah. I followed lots of mental health advocate on social media so it reallllly helps me in answering this question. I remember I was very confident during this question. I also gave a quote related to the question. 'Everyone is fighting a different battle every day, so be kind.' 

That's all! tbh I was hoping for more question because I feel like I didn't say enough. There's a lot of things I wanted to talk about. The other candidates were explaining how passionate they are during the introduction part but there's me talking about cats lol. 

What I really can say is, to ace the interview, you need to be confident. Answer with confidence. Like you know what you are talking about. I also try to be as attentive as I could while other candidates were presenting their answer. 

And...... yes! I did get accepted. I didn't hope much because I'm scared of being disappointed :(. But here we are!! I'll be registering next week! I hope everything goes well. Any updates I will be sure to post it here. 

Thank you soooo much for reading <33 
If you are going to the interview soon I wish you all the best~ 
You can do it!!

*I wrote this entry on 27th September 2022. I didn't post it until now, 26th December 2023. 
I'm on my semester 3 now!