UPSI TESL INTERVIEW

Hello my readers!! Today’s entry is all about my UPSI TESL Interview. I would like to share with you my experience for this interview because when I found out that I had to be interviewed, I didn’t know anything like what should I do, what should I wear, what kind of questions are the interviewer going to ask me and etc… There were so many things lingering in mind and I couldn’t figure them out by myself. I was so clueless and I knew that I need some help. I asked help from my MUET teacher on the test and she told me that there will be a Writing Test, Oral Test and then there will be a group interview.

On 10^th June 2015,  a friend of mine told me to check the website whether I got the offer for the upsi interview or not but I was so busy that I didn’t have time to check it myself. None of my friends who applied for the TESL course got the interview offer so I thought that I didn’t get it too. Later that night, I just felt that I should at least check it out and so I did, and I was happy that I got the offer!! I whatsapped my friends and they congratulated me on that and some of them were pissed off because they didn’t get the offer and kept asking me how did I answer my Medsi test. LOL. Fortunately, they got the UMS TESL interview and it turns out, I got it too. I was in dilemma. Should I go for UPSI or UMS? I thought about it a lot and finally decided that I would go for UPSI since I freaking love that University and it would be amazing if I passed the interview!! On June 15^th, I had to take a flight alone to Kuching ( my first time travelling alone with no one besides me >.<)  and I stayed at my uncle’s house.

The next day, June 16^th was my interview day. I had to go to UNIMAS ( where the interview was held) with a motorcycle, since my uncle doesn’t have a car and it took me almost an hour to reach UNIMAS. *fuhh that was a long journey.. I arrived at 7:40a.m and the interview started at 8:30am. I was just sitting alone and then there was this Chinese girl ( sorry, I didn’t get a chance to ask for her name), who was sitting beside me, She started asking me about the interview and surprisingly, we got the same course yeay! We talked about the interview and I told her since it’s TESL I think the interviewers would talk to us in English. I also told her that I didn’t really prepare anything for the interview and same thing goes to her. LOL I guess we’re doomed! I met my ex-classmate, Shikin, who applied for the art course so we just talked and wished each other good luck.

At 8:30am, the interviewers started to tell the interviewees to go to the test rooms and I went to the TESL test room *duh, of course.. The writing test was quite hard since I haven’t wrote anything in English for the past two months since I graduated from high school but I was grateful enough that I managed to get the test done earlier so that I could get interviewed earlier than the rest. I was sixth interviewee to be interviewed and I was told to go the next room for the Oral Test. When I knocked the door and opened it, there was a lady, I think she’s a lecturer. She welcomed me with a warm smile and told me to sit on the chair and so I sat there, in front of her, and..the oral test started.

She asked me to introduce myself and so I did what I was asked for. She looked at my files and gave a few compliments and then she was surprised as she looked at the recommendation letter that I got from my high school ( a friend of mine told me that a recommendation letter from school is essential to strengthen your testimonial). The interviewer also asked me some questions that had to do with TESL and these are the questions that were asked by the interviewer.

1. Could you please tell me why did you pick TESL and why did you choose UPSI?

2. Do you love English?

3. What would you do if you passed this interview?

4. Do you have any other option other than TESL?

5. Please promote yourself and convince me on how much you like this course.

            Sorry guys, I couldn’t recall all of them but these are the important ones. Since you’re applying for TESL, of course, the oral test  will be in full English. During the interview, I didn’t talk in Malay at all since she greeted me in English. LOL. My interview lasted for about 15 minutes since I talked a lot about myself ( feel free to boast about yourself  because you’re allowed to do so) . I guess I was so nervous that I ended up talking for quiet a long time I think it was about 15 minutes. Some interviewees only talked for about 10 minutes or less. After all the interviewees were done being interviewed personally, we were told to take a break until 2:30 pm.

            Shikin, my friend and I went to the café and we only ordered a Special Tea C because we were so thirsty and exhausted.

            At 2:30pm, everyone was getting ready for the group interview and each group has 3 interviewees. (p/s they picked the interviwees randomly, okay) When we got into the room, we were told to put our files on the interviewer’s table and he started looking at our files.Then he told us to start talking to each other. We started talking to each other, introducing ourselves, talking about the current education issues and etc. The fun thing about this group interview is that we were allowed to speak in Malay since one of us wasn’t taking TESL. The interviewer asked us some tricky questions for example:

1.          Kenapa nak jadi cikgu? ( Why do you want to be teacher)

2.           Mengapa guru Sabah dan Sarawak perlu diberi lebih peluang untuk mengajar?

The rest were just some random questions and we were also asked to show our talent. I just started singing Gravity by Sara Bareilles and the other two interviewers and interviewees looked at me awkwardly  as if that they wanted to laugh LOL It was so embarrassing but at the same time it was fun since you need to show off your confidence in order to be a teacher. The interviewer told us whether we have a question to ask him or not and we just started asking things about PTPTN, when’s the result going to come out and etc.. Basically we asked random questions. ahaha We took our files back and said goodbye and then got out of the room. Fuhh, finally. I’m done with the interview and thank god I didn’t have a nervous breakdown during the interview. I went back home to my uncle’s house at 4:30pm because I had to pack things to go back to Bintulu the next day.

I really hope that this post will help you in preparing yourself for the TESL interview. That's probably the reason why I'm sharing this with all of you.



P/S: I'm trying my best to write in English because it's one of the subjects that I like. Sorry for grammatical errors. Like I said earlier, I'm still learning. 


Thank you for reading and good luck for your interview!!