But one of my friend who is studying in form 6 told me that only need to sit and wait for the letter. He is my schoolmate when he is form 5 and now he is studying form 6 at another school because my school doesn't has form 6 for science stream.

You see, the basic procedure to get a degree is like this:

SPM/O-Level -> Pre-u -> Degree

Common pre-U in Malaysia: Matriks / STPM / Foundation

Matriks (Matrikulasi):
- takes about 1 year.
- the certificate is only recognized by Local Uni (a.k.a. IPTA).
- if you are not a bumiputera, u need two things to get in matriks, luck and an excellent result. (90% of Matriks students are Malays.)
- relatively easy and semester base.
- easier to enroll into IPTA compared to any other path.
STPM:
- takes about 2 years.
- the certificate is more widely recognized compared to matriks, it is recognized by both IPTA and IPTS.
- relatively hard, very wide scope and everything is determined by one examination.
- way harder to enroll into IPTA compared to Matriks students.
Foundation:
- takes about 1 year.
- a course in a university before you start your degree course.
- for the foundation of IPTA (a.ka.a asasi), similiar to matriks, if you are not a bumiputera...
- for the foundation of IPTS, this could be the most expensive path.

Beside these, you can also choose to take A-Level, which is simliar and equivalent to STPM. (Or you can say STPM is Malaysia version of A-Level.)

There is no way that you can take science subjects without taking mathematics in STPM.
Anyway, science and mathematics are somehow related in many ways, engineering, science and IT all require mathematics.

If you choose college, means:
SPM -> Diplomma -> Degree
You can stop at Diplomma if you want but please be reminded that degree>diplomma (rank).

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Added on November 4, 2008, 12:07 amLOL, I will just skip, hope you don't mind.

- Fail BM = no SPM certificate for you, pretty much means you're doomed.
- Not sure wheter you need to pay for it or not but most probably it isn't free and won't be very expensive.
- Fail again? Haha, retake again! (unless you don't want your SPM of course.)
- The most significant difference would be the fee, IPTS is way more expensive.
- Gather up information?

Anyway, passing BM in SPM isn't that hard actually, I never get A during my normal exams in school but ended up getting an A in SPM, lol.

And most importantly,

How can you fail your BM? It's our Bahasa KEBANGSAAN~!

This post has been edited by Dr@gon: Nov 4 2008, 01:14 PM

I was from Form 6, ya, it is very true that only the hardworking one will do well in STPM, the coverage of the subjects are just too wide. (And I ended up with bad result. )

My suggestion is, if you have no financial problem and already very clear about what you want, just enroll in a IPTS taking foundation already. Of course, if you want to stop at diplomma only, you can go college.

Just my suggestion, it's up to you afterall.