2010

I think the picture says everything. Happy 2010!!

What to choose after SPM

This is the most common question that SPM-leavers will have in their mind. There are a lot of options outside there, you can either go for STPM, A-levels or just go straight for diploma courses that you are interested in. But a word of caution here, don’t go choosing a course just because your friend asked you to, believe me, you are going to regret sooner or later...Haha…

4 years back, I was one of the students who sat for SPM and had applied for polytechnics in Singapore and scholarships from Sinchew Newspaper ,The Stars Newsaper, JPA and Petronas. I considered myself quite lucky to get an offer from Singapore polytechnics and called for interview for the scholarships(Sinchew and The Stars) and got it. However, I rejected the offers as I was not sure that I was really interested in the course that I have applied for and was also quite worry I might not excel in the course.

So, I chose to go for Form 6 as it is not that costly as A-levels. I am in the Science Stream and took the following subjects (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and Pengajian Am). Frankly speaking,I learnt a lot in Form 6 as the syllabus is broad and tough. You need to put a lot of effort into studying every subjects if you are aiming for a 4 FLAT to secure a place in the top universities like UKM, UPM, USM and UM in Malaysia. Well, I am not that smart and brilliant student in Form 6 so I did not pass every subjects with flying colors but luckily I still managed to get JPA scholarship to study Chemical Engineering in Curtin, Sarawak Campus.

Lastly, I gotta say that studying is just a phase of life and it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are going to apply what you have learnt in real life situation. So, good luck to all those SPM leavers in making a wise decision.

Below are the links to apply for polytechnics in Singapore and some scholarship links :

http://www.sp.edu.sg/wps/portal/vp-spws (Singapore Polytechnic)
http://www.nyp.edu.sg/ (Nanyang Polytechnic)
http://www.tp.edu.sg/main/default.htm (Temasek Polytechnic)
http://esila.jpa.gov.my/portaljpa.php (JPA scholarship)
http://www.petronas.com.my/internet/corp/centralrep2.nsf/frameset_edu?OpenFrameset (Petronas scholarship)

Curtin Accommodation

Hi! I hope this post will benefit prospective Curtin Sarawak campus students looking for a place to stay!

First, abit about where Curtin is in Miri. Curtin is actually located in Lutong, a small suburban town in Miri and the neighbourhood nearest to Curtin is called Senadin. 2 out of the 3 Curtin provided accommodations are located here; Curtin Villa and Curtin Village. So, anyway the thing is that Curtin is not very near Miri main city centre. I would say approximately 30 mins as the traffic is very smooth there. And travelling to the shopping places and city is not so hard; there are public, air-conditioned bus passing by every hour or so. The bus fare is around rm1 to rm2, I think. You can find out more about these stuff once u go thru orientation week!

One thing tho, Senadin is not exactly considered to be safe. Occasionally, you will hear about break-in's.

Now, I'm going to write to complement the info's provided by Curtin Miri.

Curtin Lakeside Apartment

Lakeside Apartment I is a 3 storey, hostel-styled accommodation with 1 common room in every floor and the buildings are divided between boys and girls. There are 5 Lakeside Apartment I buildings.

Lakeside Apartment II is a newer building that was build this year. It is apartment-styled with around 4 occupants in 1 apartment.

Lakeside Apartment is the Curtin's only in-campus accommodation and living in campus is extremely convenient. You can wake up at 7.30 am and still be in time for the 8 am class! At the heart of the lakeside apartment area is a recreation hall that can be used as either futsal, badminton or volleyball court at any one time. There is not enough area for 2 sports, just 1! Play basketball in the middle of the night? No problem! Except that there will be mosquitoes. There is an outdoor basketball court and a rugby field adjacent to it just opposite Lakeside Apartments.

Food. 2 choice: The newly-opened cafe at the recreation building which opens till around 9 or 10 pm or the uni's Cafeteria which is slightly farther.

Btw, some infos in the Curtin website are old. The gym at the recreation hall is permanently close since starting of this year but there will be a new one soon in the new Multi Purpose Building, just that it is far.

Curtin Villa

Night time in Curtin Villa.

Curtin Villa!! In my opinion, the best out of the 3 because I used to stay here! Okay, biased. haha But hear me out first! Curtin Villa is the nearest to the eateries and the local supermarket, Pick and Pack(used to be Dua Puluh Sen), let's call this Senadin shoplots. Curtin Villa is jus opposite Senadin shoplots so residents have more freedom of food choice!

Curtin Management do not provide residents cable internet like they do to Lakeside residents but Deconnexion, some generous company (testing thing), provides free, slow Wireless internet for both Curtin Villa and Curtin Village.

And because I used to stay here, you get to see exclusive picts of the single room they don't show you in the Curtin website!

View from one corner.

View from the other corner.

The single room is .... small! Notice the window? The window faces to a small alley-like space at the back. -_- Some view, huh? Definitely not a place for claustrophobics! Refer to the curtin villa layout. I shared the corner unit with 4 other girls. The other 2 single rooms of the corner unit are slightly better. It's hard to get wireless internet from my room. So I had to surf the internet at the dining area last time.

Corner unit.

Curtin Village

Curtin Village houses are one storey semi-detached houses so living there is more comfortable and quieter. There are less people there I think but I've been in there once only so I'm not sure. Curtin Village is 15 mins walk to Curtin Villa and hence Senadin shoplots. Meaning food is 15 mins away. Or you can time ur dinner properly and use the shuttle provided by Curtin. Last shuttle bus is around 9 I think. The shuttle bus service schedule they show now in the site is for the year-end-holiday only. I think that the location is the major disadvantage but Curtin Village really looks prettier than Curtin Villa hence the price difference.

Finally,
the security at all 3 accommodations are satisfactory, strict even. Living in Villa, Village or Lakeside is recommended in your first semester to help you adapt to the new place and you get to make more friends and acquaintances.

Any questions, just leave a comment and we'll try to help! Hope it helps!!

#2

Numero Uno. Intro

And now for the grand tour!

The Unofficial Chatter is the brainchild of my housemate, Fallenstars and me, Lynx because we just have too much time doing nothing it seems like there are insufficient info's about things that matters.

Sometime last year, I was surfing the web looking for accomodation in Curtin. Yeah, I found alot about the hostels alright but then there were 3 different types of accomodation provided by the Curtin site; Curtin Villa, Curtin Village and Curtin Lakeside.

How does one judge and decide? By price? And risk walking more than 1 km to the shoplots for food? Fret not, for The Unofficial Chatter is here to save the day. haha More like to unravel the knots, take away the ambiguity and tell you about stuff that we have gone through before. Okay fine, we are not genius nor have we gone through alot but hey we are trying to help, ok? Give us some cookie points!!

Anyway, the blog will start to take shape as soon as we start writting.

That's for the info part, how-to's/what are's etc. Occasionally, we might blog about current happenings, gossips, whatever we find interesting la!

That's all for now!