I don’t know what course I want to take
First, ask yourself what do you like the most. Perhaps you like nice looking flash, website and programs or perhaps you are fascinated by the latest technologies in automotive and cars. This is the first and foremost thing you must first consider. One of the most common mistake people make is to look at the $$ factor and their own results. It is not to say results are not important, it is important but not to an extent it’ll influence too much of your decision. However, please do note that you shouldn’t stray too far away from reality. For example, you found that your interest is in music yet, you can’t even identify what a flat/sharp is in theory. If this is the case, you should then re-evaluate your second interest as trying to study something you have no knowledge in, will get you no where near far.

I don’t know what to do and how to start
Well, to start, the first thing you should do is to understand what you like as stated on the first post. After that, try looking at your results and will your results be able to help you to gain entry into the specific institute. For some if their results are slightly off the standard or aren’t looking that well, there’s always foundation courses available.

I have chosen my course and what should I do now?
After you have chosen courses that you find interesting, the next thing is to short list all the institutes that are offering them. In this time, let’s just leave every other factor out and short list all your choices. Then from your choices, evaluate the details of each institutes for example, are they offering accredited course by LAN? Are they having positive feedbacks or are they just a phony institutes? How well do they rank among the other institutes which are offering the same course? Try sorting out all this and cut out those that don’t fulfill those criteria. In my humble opinion, the most important thing is to look at the accreditation of the institute and the course itself.

I have short listed all the institutes, then?
Well, after you have narrowed down your choice, you should then consider one of the most important factor, the $$ factor. This is one of the cruel realities you must face. First thing is to look at your budget including tuition fees, living expenses and miscellaneous expenses and compare them with the information given by the institute, if they go out of your budget, the institute shouldn’t stay on your list as regardless of how good the institute is, if you can’t support all the fees, then it’s not really a wise choice. After all this shortlist, you will most probably be left with a few (like 5) choices.

A short note to above, even if they are over your budget, you can always check if any of the scholarships are available for such institutes, if yes, then you can try to apply for the scholarship. Well, everyone loves a prestigious institute compared to a “cap ayam” institute.

So I can apply now?
Wait just yet, after you have short listed all these, one of the important things is to check this out institutes by visiting them and talking to their course advisor. Never trust too much of the information you found on websites as most likely, they are showing all the nice wonderful information and most probably, you wouldn’t see something that is negative. After visiting all the institutes, do check for some online feedbacks from current seniors or you can ask your friends in the institutes about the status or their view on the institute.

Generally these are some simple guides to how you can choose an institute. However, do not make these mistakes when you are choosing some of the institute.

1) Do not follow the crowd or your friends in choosing a course or institute, don’t worry about friends as you’ll make new ones once you are there. Following the crowd is a fool’s theory and it shouldn’t be followed.

2) Undeniably, $$ factor is an important factor and it’s one of the rules guiding your choice. However, please do not choose an institute because it is cheap, do check the credibility and accreditation of the institute. No point getting a cheaper education where no one will hire you as they don’t recognize the institute.

3) Don’t give up just because you messed up your SPM results. Remember that results are not everything, it’s just a measurement tools to see how well you fair in school, stick it to your mind that A doesn’t mean everything and results only meant something, not everything. There’s always a second chance for you to improve yourself like foundation courses or form 6.

Additional Information
1) Culture Shock - Tony C
2) What to do after Form 5? Form 6, Private college or Uni? - LaR_c
3) Extra information on Form 6 - soccergod
4) Additional information on foundation courses - cynthia_tss
5) Choices after SPM - azarimy
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A simple list I wrote based on the frequently asked questions in the education section... Hopefully this may clear some of your doubts...

If you think something is missing, please add them in your post .... thank you ...

Everyone is welcomed to ask questions and get their doubts answer here instead of creating new threads with little replies

This post has been edited by Geminist: Nov 30 2005, 06:28 PM

This is something I encounter often especially for new school leavers (SPM) as they are pretty much attached to their friends for few years ...

That is why I'm mentioning this issue here ... And hopefully in return, they will take their time to look at this issue ...

In case anyone have anything they would like to add in to the first post, please drop me a PM with the details ... And of course, credits will be given to that person ...

Hi Tony, thank you for your contributions ... Instead of putting the article on the first post, I'm thinking of linking it instead to the first post ... I hope you're alright with it since your article is quite long

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As for the culture shock, I didn't really experience much of it when I came to UK as I'm already used to being away from home ... But when I first left for college after I finished my SPM, the change of environment is really shocking ...

To share a short story, one of my acquaintances, he went to Australia to study right after his SPM, guess what? He returned to Malaysia 2 weeks after as he's not used to being far away from home ...

Anyways, an alternative way to overcome such issues is that, stay in Malaysia for like 1 year to do your foundation studies before going for oversea ... That way, you'll experience less cultural shock when you're at oversea ...

Hopefully this helps

Sim (2) asked me about this question and I can't really help as I'm not familar with A - Level and programming courses ...



Can you guys help him out? Thanks many

I'm not sure what sort of course provides you with what you want, however, if you're really really sure about what you want to do in the future, I would suggesting going to a college (as in general, you'll spend more time going into STPM compared to college) ...

However, I'm in no way doubting you, but sometimes, the decision we make when we are young are in - correct ... So why not open up yourself to more choices and try not to confine yourself?

All the best to you

You don't need to worry much about your trial results if you're not thinking of applying courses using the trial results ... (besides, I didn't get any As for my trials too as far as I can remember )

You don't need an outstanding set of results (assuming you meant straight As) to apply for such course (though having straight As will definitely gives you an advantage in your application for things like scholarship) ... You can enter to the mentioned courses as long as you have an above average results in the relevant subjects ...

I'm not sure about matrics and STPM as I never been through both so I can't really tell you whether they are easy or which one's better

Lastly, you'll be facing with an English environment sooner or later, why not start early?

*By the way, you can try slowly improving your English through typing a proper word instead of using internet jargons ... I'm not English educated (that's why you can still spot some errors here and there ) and that's how I learn to improve my English, by watching tvs, reading book and writing alot of things ...

All the best to you

This post has been edited by Geminist: Feb 9 2006, 08:14 AM

Topic title updated to encompass a wider range of graduates (SPM/STPM)