Mechanical, computer/program/software, system, materials, civil, electrical, electronics, petroleum.

Your "Hmm ... " suggested that you are not satisfied with quovadis123's answer?

Which engineering you are interested in? Care to tell?
Chemical? Biomed?

STPM? How about USM?

USM have their Engineering Campus is Nibong Tebal.
What engineering you want to enter?

You can check this website first
http://www.eng.usm.my/v3/

If you not able to get USM during your application, your application will move to UPU.
So, if you skip USM, then you will move to UPU directly.

Yup. Because USM is APEX status need different application.
My advice is better you choose USM application and prepare UPU too just in case.

Normally people get USM will not choose UPU anymore. Because you choose distinct choice in USM.
You need go through a test and interview for USM. I'm not sure where to get the pin. Sorry about this.

How you define strong?
Just required decent math and decent physics IMO.

A good understanding of Math is required to READ several highly theoretical engineering books. When it comes to design, engineers apply the principle and let the computer solve it. Now, let's do a little test and see to what extent you can understand it. Only a small portion of simple SPM/STPM Math is required. The rest is theoretical logic.

When engineers are to improve the design of a system, or to design a new system, a performance index must be chosen and measured. A system is considered an optimal system when the system parameters are adjusted so that the performance index reaches an extremum, commonly a minimum value. The purpose of design is to realize a system with practical components that will provide the desired time-domain operating performance, x(t), with minimal error. In many designs, we are also concerned with the expenditure of the control action/energy, u(t). For example, in electric vehicles and aircraft, the expenditure of battery energy and fuel and must be restricted to conserve the energy for long periods of travel.

Our goal is to find an optimal control u* that minimizes the following performance index (a.k.a. cost function):



where t is the initial time, T is the terminating time, x = x(t) is the current performance state, and L(x,u) characterizes the cost objective.

The Principle of Optimality states, if a control u* is optimal from some initial state, then it must satisfy the following property: after any initial period, the control u* for the remaining period must also be optimal with regard to the state resulting from the control of the initial period.

Now let us consider the current time t and a future time t+Δt closed to t and the control during the interval [t, t+Δt]. Clearly, we can rewrite J(x,t) as



Let J* denote the optimal (minimum) cost under optimal control action u*, then by applying the principle of optimality, we have



In the above equation, the first term, ∫ L(x,u) dτ can be approximated as , and the second term, J*(x+Δx, t+Δt) can be approximated by its first-order Taylor expansion:



where O(Δt²) denotes the remainder high-order terms (H.O.T.) in the Taylor expansion, which can be omitted if Δt → 0.

Therefore,



Since J*(x,t) and (∂J*/∂t) Δt are independent of u(τ) @ interval [t, t+Δt], the above equation can be written as



Rearranging the equation gives



Letting Δt → 0, then . Therefore, we obtain the following Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation:

Just like the first time you were introduced to x, y, z in geometry and f(x), g(y), h(z) in functions. Once you get used to the math symbols, its not so terrible. Not all engineering books are written in such readable manner. Some authors assume the engineering students have adequate knowledge and backgrounds in Math and Calculus, and so they present only the Performance Index J(x,u), and the Hamilton–Jacobi–Bellman equation. And you'll have no idea how they are related to each other. Some students would argue weakly that,



which is erroneous. Therefore, like I emphasized in previous post, a good understanding of Math is required to READ engineering books. And you must NOT refer to only one book but several, so that you can evaluate and select the authors that suit your taste. Are you into medical or engineering?