So you think you can apply to Cambridge? Round 3!

The Interview:

Tongue-tied, drenched in sweat, few hundred applicants to Cambridge each year had to face the famed fear-inducing interview. According to the video of the interview webpage, the Cambridge interviewers are generally nice and tries to put the applicants at ease; they are looking at your thinking processes, your knowledge in the field of study and your application of that knowledge.

~The Interview~

The format of the interview is a mano-el-mano interview, where you will face some of the faculty of Cambridge in a 20 minute mental smackdown. Unlike most interviews, the interview will have some written questions where you have to draw graphs, solve IQ problems and also some weird questions you have never seen before. Examples for the interview questions have included: Why do bullets spiral? (Engineering), how do you measure the mass of a human head? (Medic) and how do you explain complex numbers in everyday terms? (Mathematics) And unlike Oxford (Another dastardly tricky interviewer), Cambridge interviews most of it applicants as long as you meet the minimum requirements.

The interview is purely academic, so if you are the sort that likes to read encyclopedias and those Horrible Science series, then it will definitely be at advantage for you. Having lots of these general knowledge really helps; or else how are you going to answer the "Why do bullets spiral?" question if you don't know about the rifling of guns? I think Cambridge really appreciates the type of people who are innately curious explorers and creative thinkers, so don't stay confined within your A-Levels syllabus. Read more in the field that you are intending to study. And practice on this.

I also think that the interview is not something that you can prepare beforehand; it takes months and maybe years to have the knowledge foundation to face off with the Cambridge interviewers. And basically they can ask you anything under the sun - from programming robots to explaining jet engines to describing wind turbines - so how are you going to prepare for it? Of course, the brushing up of your A-Levels studies is a must, but then again, you can't exactly prepare for the onslaught of weird questions that will definitely appear. It is unpredictable.

Take me for an example, I tried my best in preparing for the interview by borrowing a book on gadgets and science and really tried my best to cover as much ground as possible. I learnt about the inner workings of washing machines, guns, gyroscope, the Hubble space telescope, wind turbines (it's mentioned twice for a reason) etc. I also went for  a mock interview organised by Mabecs (the UK educational counselor remember?) which I did pretty well. I think that the mock interview was pretty well done, as its simulation of a Cambridge interview was accurate. I remember trepidation, sweat oozing under armpits and shaky limbs, but also confidence in what I'm talking about and calm thinking. I was tested on something I didn't learn before in my mock interview, but still I answered in a placid manner, which was so much different from my performance in the real interview.

The real thing:

I went for my interview two days after my written tests, and it was held at home ground - Sunway College. My interview starts at roughly noon time but I went there around 30 minutes earlier. I was wearing suit and tie but instead of accentuating my confidence, they hid my fears. After waiting for some time, I was called to the interview room.

For the first few minutes, the interview went quite smoothly, the interviewer asked me for my details and my background and said that I have done my work. Then he (the interviewer) asked me about my  interests in engineering and it all went downhill from there.

Him: So what are you interested to do in engineering?
Me: Power, energy. The transformation of energy from one form to another through machines.
Him: Give me an example of such machines.
Me: Wind turbines.

As you can see, I sort of dug my own grave. To be honest, I know quite a bit about wind turbines but I could never predict the direction that the interview would go. First the interviewer asked me to describe a workable dynamo, which gave me a sweat because it was SPM work and I have just all but forgotten about it. However the next part was the hardest as I was asked to design the dynamo in different ways. But (some sort of) common sense helped me along the way. However I was so nerve-wrecked by the dynamo question that later I started fumbling throughout. The stern face of the interviewer didn't help either.

When I got back, I immediately googled "I failed the Cambridge interview. What to do next?" The results were encouraging. Majority of the answers say that the perception of your performance is quite subjective, basically, there is no RIGHT and no WRONG. The interviewers are looking at your thinking pattern and how you tackle problems using your knowledge. You could be answering questions wrongly all the time but if you are barking up the right tree you can still get in.

However, for my case, I was rejected by Cambridge in the end, though some of my friends who got the same interviewer got in. So I guess that some mistakes are costly in the end.

So what do you think? Please comment below.

UPDATE:

I saw this every interesting post on Quora the other day and I think it is worth sharing out to the students out there. It is about the apparent high acceptance rate of Oxbridge as compared to the Ivies. Anzo, one of my PI writers had suggested that in order to apply to Cambridge, one has to be confident of scoring 4A* in their A-Levels exams. Best of luck to those who are applying to Cambridge this year.

So you think you can apply to Cambridge? Round 2!

Say hello to So you think you can apply to Cambridge? Round 2! The written test!

If you asked to be interviewed in Malaysia, you are probably going to walk the same path as mine. After filling in the COPA and SAQ as detailed in my last last post, you will received an email detailing your interview date, venue, interviewer as well as any written tasks that you have to take. Contrary to what the official college webpages say, we Malaysians asking to be interviewed in Malaysia will take a different format of entrance tests. Instead of multiple interviews in a number of days, we only have one and only one interview here in Malaysia. Also, we won’t be doing the written tests as detailed in the website. The only way to know what type of test you have to take is to wait until the official email is received, but I doubt that the format ever changes. Usually Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Nat Ski (Natural Science) students will take the TSA (Thinking Skill Assessment) which was what I took. To get a better idea of what I am saying, I will show you an excerpt of the e-mail:

All applicants being interviewed in Malaysia (except for medics and vets who take the BMAT), are expected to take one of a range of Written Tests which will be held on xxx on yyy. You do not register separately for these tests and no additional fee is payable.  All the Tests will be of 2 hours total duration and your test will be the appropriate one from the following list.

a)  If you are applying for a place for Chemical Engineering, Classics (4 year course), Computer Science, Economics, Education, Engineering, Natural Sciences, or Psychological and Behavioural Sciences you will take the TSA (Thinking Skills Assessment).  This test is in two parts: first you will take a 90 minutes multi-choice Thinking Skills Assessment Test, then additionally you will be expected to choose and answer ONE essay or other question selected from at least three questions relevant to your intended subject as specified in a supplementary 30 minute Paper.  Further information on the multi-choice part of the Test including a sample paper can be found on the internet at: www.tsacambridge.org.uk  Those taking the TSA will require a soft pencil and an eraser.  For the 30 minute supplementary essay paper a pen of some sort is recommended and will be more appropriate.
b)  Cambridge Law Test: this is of 2 hours duration and Law applicants will be expected to answer two questions (one an essay and the other a comprehension test) relevant for someone with an interest in Law.  Law applicants who are interviewed in Cambridge take a shorter one-hour version of this test.  Specimen questions and further information may be found at:  http://ba.law.cam.ac.uk/applying/cambridge_law_test/For all the following tests there are no specimen questions or past papers available and no syllabus is published.  This is designed to ensure so far as possible that all applicants may take the test on an equal basis.  
m)  Mathematics: this Written Test is of 2 hours duration and applicants will be expected to answers questions selected from a range covering many areas of Mathematics.  There will be 6 questions altogether and candidates will be expected to answer the first question plus two out of the remaining five questions.

All applicants need to bring a photo ID to the test and this may be inspected.  You may NOT use a calculator or a dictionary (book or electronic) for any of the papers. Also, mobile phones, even if switched off, may not be brought into the examination room or to an interview.

TSA

I believe that the letter regarding the written test is pretty much self-explanatory on the format. In the excerpt above, there is a link to some TSA sample tests but it won’t be enough. There is only one Cambridge TSA sample there if you search the ATS (Admission Testing Service - provider of the tests) website but there are 4 Oxford TSA samples also by ATS, so use them and now you have four samples. If you are in need of more exercises, the Cambridge A-Levels thinking skills paper are good practice although the current papers focus more on the problem solving (IQ questions) and not the critical thinking (argument) part. So I borrowed a book on arguments and studied on it which I found useful. Although in my practice I scored pretty bad on the TSA practice, I find that the practice trained me to work faster through the questions. Time constraint is really a big problem on the test, as usually people can’t finish the test in time and those who are well prepared can also just finish it in just the nick of time. Another advantage of doing practices is that you can readily identify the types of questions that will come out instead of getting paralysed by the ‘impossible questions’.

TSA

The Essay

Unbeknownst to most people, there is a second part to the TSA – the essay. In 30 minutes you are supposed to write a well-developed essay which can be quite challenging (if you did the SAT essay you will know what I mean). Usually the topics will be on something related to your intended major, for example engineering applicants will get questions on the future of robots or renewable energy. In this part, there are also some past papers (Oxford's) that you can practise on especially if you are an A-Level student who haven’t wrote an essay in ages. There is no format for the essay so feel free to write your views and opinions here on the subject that you are most familiar with.

After asking a senior, he informed me that the weightage for Cambie's interview and written test is roughly like this:  20% each for your grades, personal statements, recommendations, written tests and interviews, so be sure to excel in each and every part of these five factors!

That's all for written tests. Care to share any tips and tricks? Any questions? Thanks for reading!

TIPS

1. Don't panic on the day of the test. Do a lot of practices beforehand to familiarize.

So you think you can apply to Cambridge? Round 1!

Welcome to 'So You Think You Can Apply to Cambridge?'
Round 1!

This is just the preliminary round, nothing more than what to fill and what to do before applying to Cambridge. I have not entered Cambridge, so I cannot detail the life of a Cantabrigian, but I still remember the harrowing process that was ‘trying to enter Cambridge’. Celine Wan's blog post, though dated, described the whole process beautifully.

The first step to an Cambridge application is through UCAS – the portal. You need to select the University of Cambridge as one of the choices together with your choice of college and course. At this stage, you will need to do the following: Find the course that you want to apply, list down the Cambridge college you want, write the personal statement and ask for a reference, all before the month of September.

Why September? I hear you ask.

For those who wants to be interviewed in Malaysia, you need to submit another two applications called the COPA (Cambridge Online Preliminary Application) and SAQ (Supplementary Application Questionnaire), all before the 20th of September. You will be asked via e-mail to complete these applications, which costs 30 pounds. The COPA is a supplement to your UCAS application where they will ask you extra questions on you.

There are a few questions worthy of attention in COPA, including an additional personal statement on why you want to study at Cambridge. You will also be asked to detail your A-Levels studies, as well as any specific career plans (300 characters) and how you have kept your interest in the subject that you are going to study (another 300 characters). you would also need to upload your transcript, i.e your SPM results and its translation.

The SAQ is strikingly similar to COPA, however, once you click 'I have filled in COPA' box, it would automatically be 90% complete with only two parts you need to fill. In another respect, SAQ is actually like COPA, only COPA is more complete (and its for international students trying to go to Cambridge, if I'm not mistaken).

I cannot advise on writing the personal statement and course selection but I do have some advice on choosing your college. On choosing colleges, there are a few factors that you can weigh on. First, accommodation. Some colleges will allow you to stay at the hostel there throughout your undergraduate studies, whereas some can only house you for two years and after that you'll need to find accommodation outside of the college like that. So do check the accommodation conditions at your college before making a choice.


Secondly, funding. If you don't know what to aim for, aim for the rich colleges at Cambridge such as Trinity and St. John. By being rich, they can actually offer you cheaper boarding and other opportunities such as exchange program abroad. Thirdly, proximity. Echoing the real estate mantra, location, location, location. Some universities are nearer to certain features than others. For example, Peterhouse is practically next to the Department of Engineering. I initially chose Peterhouse for some this reason too, but after finding out that one of my classmates is applying there as well, I immediately withdrew and applied to Gonville and Caius - my second choice college. Not because I was afraid of losing out, but to maximize the chance for both of us. I forked up 130 pounds for the interview and the COPA and I am not going to waste it competing with my overqualified friend.


In reality, these factors are actually just peripheral benefits; it does not in any way diminish the Cambridge experience. After all, all the colleges are Cambridge colleges. You still have supervisions and attend the same lectures. Each college actually has its own pros and cons. For example, you might need to stay at home everyday eating Hall food from Gonville and Caius but they will make it up for you by providing you with their pretty library. If you can't make a decision, you can actually make an open application to the University of Cambridge, where the computer system will match you with one of the colleges there. You will be treated like a first-choice applicant to that college and they won't be able to tell the difference contrary to what other people says.

Nevertheless, some people believe in the statistic games using this website. They also believe that certain colleges are "course-inclined" meaning that if you're studying certain courses at certain colleges you would have better admission chances, some also believe that some of the lesser known colleges have better admission rates. Well, I can neither deny or confirm this rumour. Of course some better colleges will have more applicants and hence tougher competition but I think that the university wide admission rate of 20% is quite accurate. Personally for me, I just use the website to get a better picture of the admission statistics as well as the student population.

However if you can readily discern what you like about a specific college, then don't hesitate to do so. Besides finding out more about Cambridge which will definitely pique your interest in applying there, you could also answer the "why Cambridge?" question more convincingly in the interview.

That's all for part 1. Stay ready for part 2!

TIPS:

1. If you can choose a specific college, go for it! You would have some fodder to talk about during Cambridge interviews (i.e. I like this xxx college because of its yyy atmosphere) but this is just something minor.
2. The admission statistic is no manual to enter Cambridge, don't rely on it too much!

An Oxbridge Overview

“Who here wants to apply to Cambridge?” Ambitious hands shot up.

“Oxford?” This time, a change of hands.

“Both Oxford and Cambridge?” The ‘kiasu-est’ (most competitive) of the bunch finally raised their hands, but instead of thunderous applause, they received peals of laughter.

“You can’t apply to both Oxford and Cambridge! Those are the rules,” Ms. Irma explained that due to high application to both universities, a rule was set stipulating that no one, no matter how legendary he or she is could apply to both universities in order to cut down the volume of applicants. I was lucky that day; I haven’t got the guts to say that I want to apply to Oxford and Cambridge (collectively known as Oxbridge) or either one yet. However that little incident piqued my interest – just how quaint these universities are? and also marked the inception of my journey to 'try to get into Cambridge'.

And quaint they are indeed. Oxbridge are the two oldest universities in the world, but there is no one single building that we can call the Oxford University or the Cambridge University. Instead, they both run a collegiate system, meaning that under the big umbrella of Cambridge University (I will hitherto use Cambridge for all my Oxbridge examples) there are actually 31 different colleges which are part of the University of Cambridge. So Cambridge University is more like the ‘University town of Cambridge’ with all the Cambridge Colleges dotting the landscape.

Under the collegiate system, the universities will provide the lectures to the students en masse while the colleges will provide for the students’ welfare and supervisions. Four colleges will accept only mature students, i.e. those aged 21 or over (St Edmund’s, Lucy Cavendish, Wolfson and Hughes Hall) while another three only accept female students (Murray Edwards, Newnham and Lucy Cavendish). Girton and Homerton are located quite far from the town of Cambridge. Trinity College is the most well-known as well as the hardest to get into whereas Peterhouse is the nearest to the engineering department. Hence, there are a few considerations in choosing a college to apply which I will detail in my next post.

The supervision system is something only specific to Oxbridge colleges (In Oxford they are called tutorials). A student at Cambridge has a tutor who will guide the students in learning, usually on a one-to-one basis or sometimes a few students to a tutor. This sort of tutelage guarantees that the students who are frequent askers of questions will wring the most out of this system. Don’t be surprised if your tutors happen to be famous researchers or even Nobel laureates because the whole purpose of having the supervision system is to have the best brains passing on their knowledge to the students. Personally, I find this system to be a good one as we have the chance to learn from the top of the field in a face-to-face interaction. Although the facing the tutor, mano-el-mano, might freak some of us, but in the end of the day, it is indeed a rewarding experience.

In Xu Zhimo’s poem - “再别康桥” or “On Leaving Cambridge”, Cambridge is described as a heart-stopping, breathtaking beautiful place, so much so that he said he would rather live as a reed in the river Cam. Anyways, Cambridge is a marvelous place with rustic scenery and majestic buildings due to its location in the outskirts. It is the place that will give you goosebumps all over your skin just by being so beautiful.

For example:

Girton - my friend maintained that this is the most beautiful college of all

Punting in the river Cam - Ze Kai said it is a must

Caius library - the largest and the oldest
and one of the reasons why I selected  Gonville and Caius as my college of choice

Besides being picturesque, Cambridge is also much steeped in tradition. Some of the colleges provide dinner at halls, meaning that you have to wear the full academic regalia while having dinner with fellow coursemates and tutors at the college, just like something out of a Harry Potter movie.

but Hogwarts is modeled after Oxford

Hoped my explanation opened the doors for you to dream to go to Oxbridge :)

TIPS:

1. Malaysia has a very strong presence at Cambridge under the Cambridge University Malaysian Society (CUMaS). Be sure to check their website for tips on entering Cambridge, their experiences in Cambridge and their next Outreach sessions.

Do you think Oxbridge is the place to be? What are your first opinions of these two giants? Do share your thoughts and opinions.

Personal Statement part 2

Remember the personal statement by my friend

talking about the wonders of the universe which stunned me,

here's an excerpt of it:

"The study of our universe has had a profound influence on me. It revealed to me a humbling perspective of the universe, that humanity is insignificant in the scale of the cosmos. Faced with such reality, I often ask: is there meaning to our existence? Amazingly, physical laws seem to provide hints. I am intrigued by the implications of the Anthropic Principle which echoes humanity’s connection with the universe. Perhaps there is a chance that I will be able to discover the truth behind this question. For this reason alone, I believe the study of physics is something worth devoting my entire life to.

Is it possible to discover the meaning behind physical laws? Will we achieve grand unification? What is the fate of our universe? These are the questions that I hope to one day be able to answer, the reasons I will study physics.”

The Rambling Style

In the Rambling Style, instead of following the formulaic “what I did at school, what co-curricular activities I’ve done to prove my love for chosen subject, why I loooove the subject so much” (typo intended), the Rambling Style goes for the jugular – it directly describes the subject that you’ve chosen vividly, making it the most spectacular personal statement if done correctly.

Here’s another example of a Rambling personal statement for law.

Notice the strange fluidity of the whole essay despite the writer not mentioning any “verbs”, i.e. actions that he had done. Notice the passion that seems to radiate from his words? Besides the 10 commandments I have posted earlier, there is another way to go on writing the personal statement – Behold! I call it the Rambling Style!

In my previous post, I’ve highlighted the need to write before editing. This actually goes in accord with the Rambling Style. When we write without editing, we tend to write sentences that first appear in our minds. We tend to write these disorganized, repetitive sentences that looked messy but were logically sound. In other words, we tend to ramble. These sentences have a RAW quality to it. Like a blunt axe, the essay shred directly into the reader’s mind, hitting the point directly in the reader’s head. THUD! The parries by the long, edited, superfluous sentences seem fluff when compared to the crunch by the big, ‘in-your-face’ battleaxe.

However, the axe is ugly. Thus after we possess the axe, we need to polish it to make sure it shines without diminishing its raw power. Now that’s a tough act of balance. On the one hand, we want it to look as smooth as it could and fit in with the other sentences; on the other, we want to retain its RAWNESS. This editing job can only be done by one person and one person alone – yourself. Be warned! The journey to crafting the perfect essay is long and arduous process; it is akin to boiling Chinese medicine soup – seven bowls of soup is boiled until a small broth is left. We need to cut out the sentences that do not add value to the personal statement until the sentences that mattered left. There are two types of sentences that add value – sentences that enhance a special effect, and sentence that answers the prompt. If the sentence does not add value, ditch it. I will talk more about value in the US application part.

Besides showing your passion and likes more strongly, another pro with the Rambling Style is that you avoid the risk of writing the standardized essay like everyone else. Instead of the usual “to inform my choice, I joined blah blah blah (activity) to get a better grasp of engineering (lesson learnt)” or “I did xxx and learnt yyy”, you go berserk by writing about what it meant to be an engineer, how you were inspired after using a toilet bowl with a flawed design etc. To quote my friend: “if you can make the admission officer smile, you win.”

Of course, a prerequisite of the Rambling Style is to know what you’re talking about. If you are applying for a course like engineering, chances are the experiences you had can’t be threaded together to form a good ramble. Usually Rambling Style is better suited if you are applying to a course like Physics, Law, Economics or Political Studies (like the two examples above), where a huge bulk of the essay can be based on your own unique views and opinions. For courses like engineering and medicine, the personal statement is almost set in stone. Budding engineers will almost always talk about the Mathematics competition that they had won a prize whereas future medics will never hesitate to mention the job shadow at the hospital. For these courses, it is hard to use the Rambling Style unless you had a special experience worthy of mention (e.g you made a multi-million app/ invented something/did CPR and rescued someone) or been through certain thinking processes. However, the traditional personal statements are not bad either; they are at least solid.

One word of caution – the Rambling Style may backfire, even to the educated English writer. In the UCAS Personal Statement, you are supposed to write about a bunch of things: your interests, your first introduction to said subject, your relevant studies and skills in ONE WHOLE ESSAY. If you rambled too much about something, you may have wasted the words given on the other aspects of yourself or you run the risk of veering off course from what the personal statement is about - YOU. One rule of thumb is to use the Rambling Technique sufficient enough to make your essay ooze “Oomph” and still cover the rest of you meaningfully (See how the Law essay writer still managed to squeeze in his experiences in the student council as well as his readings in there).

Personally, I am an advocate (read: sucker) for the Rambling Style, and I think it should be used as often as you could and it is a perfect transition to the US application essay style (if you are applying to both US and UK). If you really are passionate about something, you should be able to express ideas and experiences in the pen of a crazed enthusiast, right? If you can’t achieve the Rambling Style, don’t fret, just write the personal statement the best you can and make yourself as valuable as possible – after all, the Rambling Style is another way to write the personal statement, not the only way.

Do you agree on what I have said? What are your opinions on this? Please do share your thoughts :)

Personal Statement part.1

Why do I say that personal Statement is your weapon of choice? Because up until writing the personal statement, everything you do has been defined by logical steps - first you research the course you want to study, then you choose the university that is around your level, you get the grades, you take IELTS, BMAT, LSAT and whatever tests you need to take and voila! Nothing goes wrong. However enter the personal statement, you are on your own, there is no one to guide you, there is no way to study for it, no marking schemes (an A-Levels' favourite), no alternative but to sit down and seriously write it. And how are you gonna write it? Your choice.

OK, let me introduce the UCAS Personal Statement, probably one of the most important essays in your life. It is one of the factors that the universities consider and also your only chance to talk about your weird hobbies/your inner fantasies/your prediction for the future. Keep in mind though that you can only write one essay to your 5 choice universities, so it might be a bit hard for you if you applied to 2 obviously different courses, i.e. accounting and computer science. If that happens, some universities will a)outright reject you (LSE), b)request you to write additional personal statements (UCL) or if you are super lucky c)accept you without further questions (Manchester). So for those with conflicting interests, you can contact their admission officers and explain your situation to them. I think that is one way to go about it instead of taking risks.

So now under 4000 characters or 47 lines (whichever comes first), you are going to describe why are you going to study the subject you chose, what you have done up to this moment that makes you eligible and basically, sell yourself.

But how am I supposed to do that?

Let LUMO share with you some tips and tricks:

1. Start early. I cannot emphasize this enough. You need to complete it at least a week before the deadline in January or even worse, for those going to Oxbridge, Mid-September. This is easier said than done. So during your honeymoon semesters in Pre-U, try to write a personal statement now and then, although you might later find it repulsive and hard to look at, I assure you that this exercise will definitely help you when you are seriously writing it out. Also, be on the lookout for your exam periods. If your exam period is near the deadline, writing it early will make you have a peace of mind to study. Trust me, you don't want to be in a I-need-to-write-my-personal-statement-yet-I-have-to-study-for-A2-and-take-my-SATs-so-I'm-going-to-cry-myself-to-sleep-now situation. Also check with your referee to see if they had completed their references. If you inform your referee at the last minute and write your personal statement then, most likely you won't be able to apply for UCAS in time.

2. Join relevant clubs and activities. Again, in your honeymoon semesters, you should do something worthwhile that you can write in your personal statement. To be honest, not every budding engineer has a father that owns a garage and had dismantled engines before, and not every future doctor had a mission trip to Indonesia/Myanmar or did blood donation drives. Some of us may discover our passion in a job fair during form 5 and doesn't have much to show for it. So one simple way to show your passion is through your activities. If you had shadowed an engineer or was previously attached to the hospital, the admission officers will surely see that you have the passion for it. After all, its not something that you'd do for fun right? So in Pre-U, you should start doing something to advance towards your future studies even if you don't have such an immersive childhood. It is not too late.

3. Be academic. That's right, be super academic. 80% of your essay should be about the subject that you are about to study and nothing else. Extra-curricular activities should be just some minor statements to show that you are not a machine, unless it is all directly linked to your intended course. Top universities have said that what they want to see is your academic potential and not your athletic prowess on the field. After all, they want you to study there, not to play rugby (As opposed to US universities).

4. Don't copy. As much as you are tempted to use the ctrl +c, ctrl + v cheat code, don't ever do that in your Personal Statement. UCAS runs an anti-plagiarism engine that will detect if you try to rip off other people's work. Also, even modifying other people's work is a weak strategy. You cannot make someone's voice and style your own. Finding your own voice is infinitely better and easier to accomplish.

5. Write long and cut short. I suffer the curse of this generation. I can write short answers and medium-length pieces but not sprawling essays. Hence, my work is always short of word length as I tend to summarize. Don't do that, the best (actually the only) strategy in writing the personal statement is to rant and ramble and write as long as possible. Then only you merge them up and edit your work. That way you can keep the unexpected sentences that adds value to your essay, instead of thinking of how to fill the gaps with "what else can I write about?". I believe that the raw sentences contains a kind of power that is not found with edited and well thought of answers and is the one that we should seek.

6. Write a draft. Writing a draft is the one of the best advice for the personal statement writer. Instead of staring at a blank document, paralyzed by fear to write the first paragraph, you should start a draft which will proceeds to be a readable essay to be the perfect personal statement. Writing the personal statement is like a distillation process - no one gets it right the first time (unless they happen to be  accomplished writers). One of my earliest draft was said to be too cocky by my mentor who proofread it, but as time passes (and many drafts deleted), I managed to write a personal statement that's just right. It sounds exactly like what I would say and is exactly what I want to portray myself as.

7. Cover everything. Make sure you cover everything that matters in a personal statement. If your whole essay is about a work experience in an engineering firm, the readers will definitely have some unanswered questions about you, such as your aspirations or your current courses. Make sure you don't break that reader-writer's pact. Even a mention in passing is better than none, so make a checklist and make sure that you try to cover as much (important) ground as you can.

8. Ask people to proofread. Do not be scared of plagiarism. If what you are writing is your own personal statement. there shouldn't be a fear of people robbing you because they won't have the same personal experience. You should let the people around you who knows you well to read it to see if the essay sounds like you, a best friend/classmate would usually do the trick. At the same time, you should let someone who doesn't know you that well (a teacher usually) to read it as well as they does not have the "auto-correct" that your friends have when reading your essay. That way, you will know which parts require clarification. In short, the more the merrier. Even I had a minor correction after my mum (a true Grammar Nazi) read my personal statement. She was the tenth reader or so.

  

9. Seek an English teacher. Sometimes we are blinded by the mistakes made in English, and our friends and relatives too, but nobody fools the English teacher. As the final step, we should always consult a professional.

10. Stay positive. Even though you feel that you don't have the impressive material for a Cambridge essay, or you can't even wring a single word out of your unreliable brains, don't give up. I had friends who continuously rambled on the Anthropic Principle and stellar mysteries, who reversed the 80:20 ratio and they still managed to get offers from university. These 10 tenets are just guidelines that I felt was the most useful in crafting the personal statement. So whatever I say you shouldn't do, you can still do it and prove me wrong (if you are really, really sure about it). Like I said, the personal statement is the weapon of your choice.

In the end I still feel that the best way to write a personal statement is to lock yourself in your room, think deeply and fall into zen state for a few days, write a first few drafts, and finally reveal to the public your latest draft - a method that my friend used to craft one of the best essay I've read in my life. No matter what your modus operandi is, make sure that you really perfected the personal statement. The rest are just base stats, the personal statement is your weapon.

Don't sell yourself short - give it your best shot!

As always,

TIPS

1. Start early.

2. Join relevant clubs and activities.

3. Be academic.

4. Don't copy.

5. Write long and cut short.

6. Write a draft.

7. Cover everything.

8. Ask people to proofread.

9. Seek an English teacher.

10. Stay positive.

11. Visit collegelah for personal statement examples.
Copied from its 'about us': CollegeLAH is a website by the students for the students, featuring the honest story of applications and university life as told by Malaysians. So be sure to check out this website.

Still don't know what a personal statement is and how it fits into the overall scheme of things, refer to my previous blog post. Still confused? Leave a comment below.

Book Giveaway

My dear readers, I have a surprise for you today! I have a book giveaway!

The leftover books 

The old physics textbooks plus some supplementary reading
My juniors claim that the syllabus has changed for physics
but I think that you guys can still use it.

The Cambridge endorsed set of Mathematics textbook!

Some STPM reference books, given to me
by my senior Khaw

A half-done Chemistry Paper 5 and a Physics exercise.

These are my leftover books, from my A-Levels at Sunway College Petaling Jaya, some of them I deem useful while others, not so. Anyways, these books can be yours today if you wanted them! I have passed it to my friend, currently residing at Sunway-Monash Residence with the order that "In one year's time, if someone ask for the books, I will direct them them to you; if not, you're free to dispose of it as you wish." Hence if you want it, just drop me an email and I'll give you her contact number. The last date before this event ends is at 1st November 2016.

Hurry up, inform your friends if you stumble upon this blog and need A-Levels book and/or the STPM reference books, however do note that the books are currently staying at Sunway Monash Residence at Petaling Jaya.

LUMO is here to help! :)