Insurance Purchase Provides A Protection

                I gain the idea of writing this post when I realized that there is a certain group of people, consist some of my friends, who do not know insurance deeply. What they know is just that insurance is used only when a person dies. Note that this post is not for advertising any insurance plan for you to purchase, but to share my experience and opinion on what I personally know about insurance.

                Do you know that there are two types of insurance available in the globe? In this post, we are not going to cover the two major categories of the insurance since I am sure that it had been well-known by you. Here, I would like to further narrow into the two major types of life insurance in specific.

Misconceptions on Life Insurance

                The most common misconception that I heard from my friends is life insurance always needs purchase and you will lose everything when you are still alive. This is why a lot of people do not want to buy life insurance. They even avoid from the agent from promoting the insurance plan to them since for them, life insurance is just about wasting money. The misconception also occurs when some of the people just buy an insurance with the too low of premium which results in the lower compensation to the beneficiaries when the holder of the policy dies. Indeed, life insurance at least provides certain amount of money as the source to finance the funeral of the holder and to pay the unpaid debt owed by the policy holder.

                Another misconception which needed to be changed is the life insurance is of no different with the general insurance. People are often confused with the term life insurance when they mismatch with some types of general insurance which are quite alike to life insurance, which is medical insurance. You will be shocked when you see that a person can go to claim money for himself when he just gets injured. He thinks that life insurance is going to cover everything that he losses in his life. This is the true story that an insurance agent told me when I had a conversation with her. Indeed, the life insurance that you and I know from the birth is all for the beneficiary, never for the policy holder. Therefore, hopefully through this post, there will be a little change on your knowledge on what actually a life insurance is.

Types of Life Insurance

                In general, life insurance can be divided into two types, namely the term life insurance and the term endowment life insurance. The major difference is the benefit that the policy holder will obtain from the purchase of the life insurance. For term life insurance, if the policy holder is still alive at the maturity date, then the beneficiary will not receive any benefit from the insurer. Instead, if the policy holder dies within the coverage period, then only the beneficiary will receive some certain amount of the benefit as stated in the agreement. Whereas, for term endowment life insurance, the beneficiary can be the policy holder himself or herself. This is totally different from term life insurance where the beneficiary will never be the policy holder himself. For term endowment life insurance, the beneficiary of the policy will receive benefit no matter the policy holder dies within the coverage period or still alive at the maturity date. The benefit that the beneficiary receives will be more if the policy holder is still alive.

                By comparing the two types of the life insurance, you may first think that the term endowment life insurance is better than a term life insurance. However, since the benefit of the term endowment life insurance is much more than the term life insurance, the premium for the term endowment life insurance is much higher. For example, the annual premium of a term life insurance is around RM400 (for AIA) while the annual premium of a term endowment life insurance is RM2400 (for Great Eastern). For term life insurance, the insurance policy will be terminated if there is no premium payment made. While, for term endowment insurance, a certain percentage of penalty will be charged on the accumulated fund if premium is not paid. The policy holder may be forced to surrender from the term endowment life insurance plan.

                Personally, I would rather recommend a term endowment life insurance instead of a term life insurance especially for students like you and me. This is because we can guarantee the fund, maybe used as the education fund for our children or the retirement fund for ourselves when the plan matures in 20-30 years. Even though the premium is quite high, I am sure that, by reducing daily unnecessary expenses, you can easily accumulate RM2400 in a year.

                I hope that you are benefited from my writing.

2019-12-03

3.40pm

A letter to Juniors

                Desire or not, it is already the middle of the semester for all the students in my University. For now, I am sure that most of the students are having their mid semester exams, that may cause them to burn a midnight oil studying.

What stimulate me?

                In the past two three days, a lot of students especially juniors text me and asked a lot of things. Most of the questions focus on the future road of themselves which the questions are raised only when the students feel that they cannot cope with the mid-term exam. Before I continue my writing, I would like to explain two major things. First of all, I would like to say that once you chose Business Mathematics, just go ahead, no quit or fear, being confident with our choice is the only way to reach our success. Secondly, this post is not about any exam tips (some even demanded for exam tips, but I am not the lecturer). It is all about what you can do after you graduate (Just an advice, do not blame me since I am also only in Semester 5, but at least I hope I can motivate you).

                With major and minor in Business Mathematics, basically you may go to two ways after you graduated. Remember that the one you study now does not necessarily guarantee what you are going to be in the future. It is all about the attitude and how you convince the people based on the knowledge and skills that you are equipped with. It may sound too abstract at the beginning for you. Let us continue discussing.

Several Expected Careers

                If you choose to go to the major (Maths), the main focus will be on the data management. The type of data I mention here does not necessarily related to the minor or specific fields that you are going to handle. For example, Numerical Analysis, Programming, Statistics-related subjects offered here will prepare you for the data management. Even you go to the analytics, the knowledge offered by the subjects will still help you a lot. Apart from data management, you can also go to the field of academicians, where you can be the researchers after you studying Master and PhD later.

                You can also go to Minor, where the main focus differs from field to field. I take myself as example. For me, as a student with minor Finance, I can be the financial manager, financial analyst or even an actuary upon my graduation. For Business Mathematics student, the main advantage we are compared to the student with pure Finance (perhaps?) or any other fields, they are easily replaced in the IR 4.0 today. The value of the easily replaced product is always lower compared to the unique product that is hardly replaced.

                With the data management skills and the mathematical skills that students from the pure studies of the field do not have, we are at the frontline compared to them upon the graduation. I had once received request from the students of the other fields, to teach them on the analysis of data for their study. This is because R&D in the industry nowadays requires a lot of data management skills that can handle the huge database in the IR 4.0. Therefore, personally, I would always suggest my juniors to take as many as the useful or related subjects for them to use in the career field later. If possible (unless you want to save pointer), just take subjects that are not too basic such as the Principle of Management etc. so that you will not be at the back compared to the other students. I personally take 10 Finance subjects (6 in minor, 4 in elective) which the requirement is just 6.

Expand Your Knowledge

                In order to face the challenges in IR 4.0 today, it is not enough if you just read or know whatever you learnt in the textbooks. It is a must for us to know things outside the textbook such as the current issues or any other skills which are not in the course syllabus such as Python programming, chord progression or brain practice so that we are not outdated. The knowledge can be also expanded through watching useful Youtube video, communicating with experts, reading online books or even writing blog like me. The more you learn, you will notice that the more that you do not know.

                Before I end my post, I would like to give some advices to the juniors who will be choosing their minor fields two semesters later. Choose whatever you think you are interested, if none of it you are interested, then choose the minor field that is popular nowadays such as information technology, data management or data science. It is advised not to choose minor fields like law or accounting since it is impossible for you to be a professional lawyer or accountant if you do not take the whole package. I am sure you won’t be regret after reading my post.

2019-11-11

4.30 pm

Happy Double 11!

Are We Really Prepared for IR 4.0?

                Industrial Revolution 4.0 (or IR 4.0) may be familiar for Malaysians like you and me. In general, the fourth Industrial Revolution, as the previous, refers to the total changes in the industry from the conventional computers (IR 3.0) into the Artificial Intelligence (AI) that increases the productivity of the industry with a lower average cost.

Concern of the Experts

                This morning, I had attended a forum in my University entitled “Where are you in the IR 4.0?” which I personally think it is significant especially for the students who are still studying in the University. It is specially organized by the Quantitative Science Association (QuSAC) by inviting the graduates who are now serving in the governmental and private sectors.

                According to the panels, the IR 4.0, no matter we like or not, is now completely happening in the economic sectors in Malaysia. Everything today is to deal with the big data that requires multiple tasking in order to produce the analysis effectively and efficiently. Unlike the traditional method which we will calculate all the mathematical and statistical step by step manually, the work today can be done in just one finger’s click.

                Looking deep into the IR 4.0, there are actually several industries, if not equipped with the technological skills as being required by the industry, are going to be eliminated from the economics chain. The most impact goes to the finance and accountancy that technically needs a lot of manual calculation and preparation once ago, are now being slowly affected by the development in the IR 4.0.

                Imagine that you can get the statements in just a minute with several clicks. What you need to do is just to insert the receipt or what so ever documents of payment and the AI machine can generate a financial statement in just few minutes automatically. This of course will bring a serious threat to the people in the finance and accountancy.

                As what being concerned by the experts, the students nowadays are almost alert of the IR 4.0. However, most of them are still panic and do not what to do in order to equip themselves with the skills demanded in the IR 4.0. As the panels did mentioned, Microsoft Excel, R and Python, that you once think are not important to learn, might be the advantages for you in the industry nowadays that requires automation.

What to Prepare for IR 4.0?

                In this IR 4.0, big data is a trend. Everything sector deals with various amount of data. The first step is of course to learn at least one application that may help you to manage the huge data. This should not be any problems to you since Excel that you may once think is a child’s play, has been the most useful application required by almost all the employers in the industry.

                Looking deep into the main core of the IR 4.0, we can notice that innovation is very important for you and me to sustain in the competitive environment. Innovation, when compared to creativity, is a more advanced step. This is where the info-graphical resume enters. In the industry today, the black and white resume is no more attractive for the employers to hire you.

                Taking an example from the Tencent Games in China. Innovation had actually, saved the company from the biggest crisis that it could encounter since the introduction of the video game, King of Glory. Tencent Games face a serious threat from the LOL moba that is going to be introduced in the end of this year. The number of players had been decreasing dramatically since September.

                As what you can see, in IR 4.0, everything happens very fast. Sometimes, you just collapse in just several seconds when you are not even prepared yet with the changes. Opportunity just passes very quickly, the one who is the fastest will be the final winner of the competition. This is where innovation enters, which could “slow down” the tempo of the changes and hence, solve the problem of aging.

                Getting back to the previous example, you would not expect that the innovation being done by the Tencent Games had totally saved it from the big decease when the Autochess Mode is being introduced. With the innovation, the number of players again, increase and return to the peak moment of the game itself.

                You can see the power of innovation in the industry. Innovation, as I mentioned, is a more advanced step of creativity which it does not necessarily bring a completely new thing to the society. An existing thing which is the trend of the society that is being improved is also part of the innovation that we could think of.

                Now, it is the time to ask ourselves, are we really prepared for IR 4.0? Rethink.

2019-11-10

2.45 pm

Millionaire Mind? Aim High Start Low

                I believe that becoming a millionaire is a dream for you and me, no matter who we are. We might be a lecturer, a student or even an ordinary person that does not have any wealth or valuable properties.

Millionaire Mind?

                Two days ago, I went to a workshop which is related to how to become a millionaire. At the first moment, I was quite excited with the workshop even though personally, in my heart, I am the kind of still doubtful of the topic since the workshop is handled by my lecturer, who looks not really like a millionaire, unless he performs some personal business.

                Among the points being given by him, I just pay attention since this is the responsibility that I need to have at the moment I decided to attend for the workshop. He started to say that, he is not a millionaire. You can imagine how all of us think when the sentence was released from his mouth. Handling a workshop related to how to become a millionaire, but you yourself are not even a millionaire? It sounds really sarcastic.

                It is not the purpose of this post to blame anyone. However, the lecturer managed to convince us especially me myself when he started to share on the knowledge that he knows. He said he had paid MYR 1500 to attend the training session on how to become a millionaire, which I personally do not think that there is a need for doing so.

                Indeed, I agreed with the main idea that he delivered, breaking the jars. What “jars” did he mention? I am sure all of you wondering. The basic idea is like this, when you received the salary, break the salary into several portions that you want to put your money in. For example, the first jar is for your food, the second jar is for instalments etc.

                Since the workshop is free for us, therefore the lecturer was only willing to give 3 out of the 8 successful jars he could have. I could actually guess what he is going to say. Nevertheless, the jars that he is willing to share with us are useless. So, I am not going to share the jars here. In my opinion, actually the idea of breaking jars is good, but is it to make you a millionaire? I think the journey is still far away from the idea of “millionaire” that you and I know. By splitting your salary into the correct portions of expenditures is not enough to make yourself a millionaire, which I again, state that it is not the problem with the lecturer, but there is doubt on whether there is a need to pay the MYR 1500 for the 8 jars that you and I can easily guess?

Save then Spend or Spend then Save?

                To be millionaire is not an easy thing that you could achieve just in one sleep. However, the self-financial management is really important to make you a base to become the millionaire that you dream. Indeed, the daily financial management really deals with the decision that we could make on the moment you receive your money, either the scholarship, the salary or any pocket money from your parents.

                I am sure that since you are a child, your parents should say this when you receive your pocket money from them. “Take this money and make sure you do not use it up. Save for your future need.” Good, the initial objective of the statement is really to help building the financial sense in you and me. However, don’t you wonder, the money left is always too little, maybe 10 cents per day? Or even nothing left?

                This is what we can do to cope with our natural tendency, as the human being, which is the higher tendency to spend money rather than earn money. It is a norm that we tend more to enjoy rather than work hard to gain money. The psychological effect that you cannot see with your eyes will really stop you from going towards your millionaire dream.

                “Everything starts from small”. Yeah, it is true that you have an aim to become a millionaire. Here, I want to share something regarding your income. Rather than planning how to spend your money first when you get the income, how if you plan how to save your money first? By saving the money first, you will brainwash yourself that you only have the remaining money as your available income to spend. Then, from here only you plan how to spend.

                It might be too virtual. Let me explain. You get salary of RM3000, instead of planning how to spend the RM3000 as less as you can so that more money left to be saved, you should save RM600 first. By this, you will brainwash yourself that you only have RM2400 to spend.

                Aiming high might be a good motivation source for yourself. How if you sit down and start building your path towards the aim right now?

2019-11-07

8.20 pm

First Class Facility, Third Class Mentality

                Last night, I unintentionally visited that “pity” Obike apps that I had not been using for more than a year. The server failed to be connected and this had raised my interest on what really happened to the Obike Malaysia. It was a shocking news when I discovered that the Obike Company in Malaysia had been shut down in June this year.

                Founded in Singapore, Obike Malaysia had been landing for more than 24 countries in the world. (Wikipedia, 2019) However, the Obike in Malaysia had been closed due to the insolvency. Some of the sources said that it is due to the poor management while some said it is due to the low demand in Malaysia (since the cars are common things in Malaysia).

Abandoned Bicycles

                I decided to search for the real cause of the shutting down of Obike Malaysia. Although in my heart, I had some suspected causes that I personally, think after I recalled the almost alike situation that happened in my University, around one and a half year ago when I read one article that comments on the factors that led to the insolvency.

                Looking back into the real situation that happened in my University, the Obike was once introduced in my University when on that time, the Obike just landed. I still remember that moment when the students were given offer price for using the bicycle service. That was the time when the students were busy registering for the Obike account in order to get the rewards.

                I myself also paid deposit for the service, it was around MYR19, if not mistaken. At first, everything ran smoothly as what had been planned by the Obike Company. Whatever complaints we made will be entertained in two three days and I was quite satisfied at the beginning. What happened afterwards was when I started to find the students taking the service for granted. Maybe due to lack of monitoring process, the Obike started to be seen everywhere. I could one time even found seven or eight bicycles along a 2km road, being abandoned by the roadside.

                That was the time when I think, oh my god, what happened to the Obike? I stopped using the Obike service when I once complained on the faulty lock, but it looks like there was no any improvements when I again, used the same bicycle. The number of bikes available here also reduced from 50 at the beginning to 3 at the end, which I personally, found that the service started to be inconvenience.

Malaysian’s Typical Thinking

                Would not it be a sarcastic case when the Obike Malaysia, stopped its operation, mainly not from the poor maintenance, but was due to the too much of bicycles being abandoned? The number of abandoned bicycles had created a huge cost to the company and this finally brought to the collapse of the company when the number became uncontrollable. Imagine that only in the University, there were already hundreds or even thousands of Obike being abandoned, everywhere except the place they should be parked. In the newspaper report that I read, the picture taken is really horrible when you can see, ten thousands of Obike bicycle which are broken, being dumped in just 2 years of launching.

                From here, we can see that it is no more the problem of the Obike Company in managing their service. Don’t you even wonder, why can the Obike survives in Singapore until now but collapsed in Malaysia in just two years? As what all we know, Singapore is really popular with their “kiasu” mind, or in English, “afraid to loss”.  Malaysians as what I observed, are famous with the lazy characteristics.

                Since we are lazy to park the bicycles back to their original place, we choose to abandon it by the roadside. Since we are lazy to report the failure, we choose not to do so. Since we are lazy to lock the bicycles, we let the bicycles unlocked until the action affects other users’ chance to use it. Since we are lazy to arrange the bicycles, we just put it at the original place and leave it even though it is at the “sleeping” position.

                This kind of attitude really needs changes. In Malaysia, we often said that, yes, we want to be a country that is modern. Modernisation needs a lot of technology, a lot of good facilities, an easier way of doing work and even a deeper knowledge in everything. Trust me, if we continue with the same kind of thinking way like what we did to Obike Company, that you may once abandoned it and ignored the faulty, the modern country will be just the dream that will never be achieved.

                “First class facility, third class mentality” is always the obstacle for a country to be modern. Start to change yourself for a better Malaysia.

2019-11-07

1.00 pm

Education - Not an Easy Road

                It was once I had a communication session with one of my lecturers during my training session in the Centre for Training, Management and Appraisal (CeTMA) at the university that I am currently studying. The communication session, for me, is quite meaningful and I personally think that I should share the information with all of you as my readers.

Initial Objective of Education

                As the title proposed, the education is not an easy road. Through my conversation with the lecturer, who is also the Director of CeTMA, I found that the initial objective of education is now rarely followed by the students, especially the undergraduates who are still studying.

                Education, initially is a field which the main objective is actually to teach a human being not to be perfect, but to think rationally and critically when solving a problem. The main different between the educated people and the uneducated people, “theoretically” should think in different ways. The educated people should be able to think more critically which the solution being proposed by the people should solve the problems more effectively compared to those who are not educated.

Objective Distorted

                However, through the conversation, she shared her opinion to me which I personally also agreed to the opinion. Most of the undergraduates nowadays, when go to the practicum, seems like they do not know anything on what they had learnt in the university.

                The major cause of this phenomenon is the distortion of the education among the undergraduates. The more serious problem is, the distortion starts from the early education of the students. I am sure that your parents must once said, “Study hard and get good results, you will be a successful person. “ I once think, what is the relationship between good grades and good job? It is not related at all!

                Nowadays, the employers look into more perspectives than the past. Not only those “perfect” exam scores they look into now. The employers tend to look into the initial objective of education which is the ability to think critically.

                You might be doubted, wow, the point is obviously virtual. How are we going to achieve? Well, just put aside you doubts. I might use several posts to share whatever I had come across with my lecturer here.

Study for Exam or Study for Life?

                Through the conversation also, we came to the root cause of the distorted education. It is the time for graduates to think of one thing, what is the purpose you come to the university? To be equipped with the skills so that you can seek a job? To pass in the examination with the flying colours and being popular in the university?

                Some of the undergraduates cannot even find why they are here. They just study for their examination without knowing deeply the knowledge they are getting. Memorizing the books Is a common thing for a university student when they only study in the last minute, after they had been busy for the other student activities, which they think are more essential than their academic. The often excuse for last minute study is busy for the events etc. This also makes me wonder, why are you joining a lot of events since yourself do not even have sufficient time for study?

                This caused the fresh graduates to be unemployed when their study is just for examination. This mind is not only limited to the objective of getting a good mark, it also goes to the selection of the subjects. Students tend to register for the subjects they think is easy to score, without really thinking the needs of the subjects in their future career field.

                Exempting the students who are forced to take the course, a serious problem occur when the students study only for examination. Normally, the last minute study leads to the short term memory where the students immediately forgot what did they learnt after the examination. This is the effect of memorizing books that I mentioned earlier. This kind of attitude finally leads to the lack of competency among most of the graduates when they cannot even provide a solution related to their profession when they are being required by the employers.

It is Time to Change

                I hope that you understand what did I wrote in the paragraphs above. This is just part of the conversation details between me and the lecturer after we discussed in deep regarding the issues of unemployment among the fresh graduates. In short, as an undergraduate, it is crucial for us to always aim for the “Whole-Life-Education” rather than the “Exam-Oriented-Education”. What do I mean here is to understand really well on whatever we are studying so that the knowledge we gain will be stored as long-term memory, not just for ourselves but for a better future.

2019-11-06

6.30 pm

Two-Year-Promise

                You may start wondering on the moment you read the topic. Two-year-promise? What is it? Why do you see this? Well, this is a “product”, but not the physical product that you can touch or see. It is the “product” truly from my heart, which I personally promised to myself that I am going to deliver when I temporarily stopped my blog and went for the other stuffs, which I think, might be more meaningful, perhaps?

                It is almost two years and it is time to “deliver” this “product”, i.e. the promise that I personally owe you for two years. In this post, I am going to explain on why I stopped my blog activities temporarily two years ago.

Seeking Experience

                Well, as I began to create the blog, on that time I was just in the first semester in the university that I pursue my studies. The experience I shared to you might be limited since during that time, I was still a newbies here. The experience that I thought, is great on that time might be a child’s play for you. Therefore, I did not see that there was any need for me to continue writing the blog except maybe the first or second posts that might be still “unique” to be shared on that time.

                Currently, for your information, I had entered the third year of the university life. There are a lot of experience that I cannot wait to share with you, which happened on me throughout these two “manufacturing” years. No matter the story is valuable for you to read or not, I think the next several posts will be really focused on the incidents that I came across in these two years, that I personally think, is interesting to be shared.

Seeking More Meaningful Hobbies

                Apart from writing a blog, I actually found quite a lot of meaningful hobbies for myself here. Hobbies are quite important since they help us to release stress when we are in pressure. At the time I started to create the blog, I found that just writing a blog is not the best hobby that I could have at that time, especially I was just a person that I myself think, is not yet matured. Therefore, after I stopped writing the blog temporarily, I had went through several more meaningful hobbies that I may share with you later if there is opportunity.

                The hobbies include writing novels, playing musical instruments, singing and one of the hobbies that I just stopped two weeks ago, which is playing mobile games. The mobile game that I personally admit that I was addicted to, is the King of Glory (or in Mandarin, Wang Zhe Rong Yao), a game that is similar to the Mobile Legends that I am sure all of you know what it is. For me, the game is can be good or bad, depends on how you think. In the academic perspective, there are several things that I would like to express in the later post on this kind of game.

This is the game result of Wang Zhe Rong Yao. This is the best game that I personally think I had played. The hero I played is Zhuang Zhou, my second most favorite hero after Cai Wen Ji.

Seeking More Matured Way of Writing

                From time to time, writing is not only purposely done to deliver message in text, it also requires some techniques or ways to attract the attention of the readers. A post that is not interesting at all will not attract the reader to continue reading. The similar pattern or the way of writing even makes the reader bored. With limited knowledge and experience when I was in Semester 1, I therefore decided to stop writing the blog temporarily and only comes back here after I know more matured ways of writing. This kind of improvement is achieved when the courses that I had taken requires me to do so. I also earned some experience of writing through the activities that I participated in throughout the two years. Again, as usual, I might share the ways in the next few posts.

               

                Some of you might be a new reader for me and some of you might read my posts before. No matter you are older, younger or same age with me, I hope that you can learn something when you read my post here. The most important thing is I hope that I could deliver my best “product” after 2 years of “manufacturing” process that I am involved in.

                Thank you for reading my post from time to time. Welcome to the new reader and sorry to those who looked upon for my posts in the past 2 years. Have a nice day.

(For your information, starting from this post, the words will be limited to 800 words for your convenient study.)

2019-11-06 (2 years after a temporary stop)

5.10 pm

Boon Keong

That Time When We Are Stressed Out

It is time to start!

                Five weeks passed and I am sure you are waiting for my next post to know something about what is Business Mathematics since 28^th of September. After a few more weeks after the previous post, I finally have some ideas to talk about the course I am currently pursuing.

                Before I continue my writing, I would like to apologize to all of my beloved readers to let you waiting for a long time. I am really sorry since after my previous post, I suddenly encountered a lot of series events and I had no even anytime to sit and write my post.

Young Motivator Programme

                At the beginning of the October, I attended a programme named “Young Motivator Programme”. This is actually a selection program for the students in UUM to go to the UTHM for the next round which will be participated by all the public universities representatives over the Malaysia. The most interesting thing is my friends and I do not even know that it is a competition. We just took part because of the merit marks given. We think that it is just a normal counselling programme.

                The programme was held in the Islamic Centre. We were shocked when we were told that we needed to deliver a speech based on the title given to us on the spot for 3 minutes. Unexpectedly, I received a big hand after the talk.

                Unsurprisingly, I was selected into the semi finale of the programme. After that programme, I entered several organization under the UUM. For your awareness, there are 18 Chinese organization in UUM. I took part in 2 of them that are Bei Sheng and Bei Fang Qi Dian Jiu. Bei Sheng takes part in giving useful information to the Chinese students and also organizes some motivation and interaction programme for them. Bei Fang Qi Dian Jiu is responsible in developing the hidden potential among the Chinese students in Music.

                I also attended the Student’s Body Day in UUM from 3^rd to 5^th of October. There were 36 clubs altogether in UUM which were registered and not academic-based. I participated three of them including the Archery Club, the Chess Club and the Music Club. The role of the clubs, as you can see from the name of the clubs was to promote the culture and arts among the UUM students.

Mid Semester Break

                One week of Mid Semester Break after that really made me relaxed. This was the first time I really enjoyed a holiday. This was because we were told that we would be given a lot of assignments after the break, along with the Mid Semester Examination. These really made me stressed out. In addition, the assignments given in a few weeks ago will also be due in two or three weeks after the mid semester break and need to be presented.

                To let you know, in university life, assignments are rather important for you to score high pointer compared to final examination. In all the subjects I took in this semester, 4 of them have a 60% weightage of assignments. One of the subjects even has a 70% of weightage for the assignments. This proved that assignments are the most important item that we must score in university.

Young Motivator Program Again...

                After the mid semester break, I attended the semi finale of the Young Motivator programme. I was asked to clean the stable in the Ekuin Centre of UUM. First of all, I had to lead the horse out of its stable and tie it at the pole so that it won’t escape. Next, I had to clean the container being used to serve water to the horse. Then, I need to clean the faeces and the urine of the horse. Finally we will prepare the new straws (known as sodas) for the horse. The whole process was interesting and my teammate and I had a good time there.

                However, I was a little bit sick on that day. Due to the over sweating, I was terribly cold when I was in the SAC hall. As a result, my mind was also frozen and my performance during the talk was bad, I guess. As what I expected, I did not proceed to the next round.

                This experience actually shows that you must be both physically and mentally fit if you want to be successful. Sometimes, you need to work hard so you need to be really healthy whenever you want to achieve something.

Brief explanation of the Subjects

                Oh ya, before I forgot, I still remembered that I promised to you that I was going to share my life in academic aspects apart from the extracurricular aspects so that you will be more understanding on what Business Mathematics is. Now I am going to give you some brief explanation on the subjects I took for this semester.

                For Calculus I, basically it talks about the Differentiation and the Integration and we will play with one variable only. For Science students who would like to pursue your studies in this course, it might not a problem but for Accounting students, you need to be prepared with trigonometric sense (that sin, cos, tan will mess up your life again).

                Whereas for Data Exploratory and Generalization (or Statistics I, easier, I also do not know why do the management put such a long name instead of Statistics I or Descriptive Statistics), we basically learn how to describe a data with proper graphical display, together with the correct measure of central tendency, dispersion and the shape. This is a really hard paper for me since it needs a lot of critical thinking.

                For Discrete Mathematics, it is almost like the basic mathematics. We will be learning 2 parts only basically, that are Logic and Proof and also the Coding and Graph Theory. For more about the parts, you can go to my another sub blog with URL link www.discretecrowinx.blogspot.my. This is like the application of Mathematics in Computer Science and is very useful for logical thinking.

                Malaysian Nationhood Studies and Ethnic Relationship are two common subjects that all the IPTA students must study. Both of them are almost the same in terms of the syllabus. They talk about the formation of Malaysia and the process for Malaysia to achieve independence. The differences are just Malaysian Nationhood studies focus more on the history while the Ethnic Relationship focuses more on the building of the ethnic relationship through the understanding of the independence process of Malaysia.

                Business Accounting is basically the same as the pre-university Accounting, so there are no worries for Accounting students in pre-university. However, for Science students, you need to work harder since it was not easy to understand the basic accounting concepts in one or two days, I admit. The lucky thing is you can choose to not taking this subject if you are in Business Mathematics (it is elective), I just take it because it is the precondition subject for the next paper I plan to take in Semester 2, that is Financial Management.

Closing

                These are all basically the brief explanation on the subjects I took in this semester.

                I think it is better for me to stop at here by now or else, you will be sleeping afterwards. Thanks for reading and see you in the next post.

                Enjoy your day!

2017-11-02

5.05pm

Partner blog: www.makopl9574.blogspot.my

QuSac - An association for all SQS students

Introduction

Again, one week is over when I am typing this post. As my post goes more and more, I am going to be more specific, come narrowly closer to my course, that is Business Mathematics.

Orientation, add drop session and the first two academic weeks went very fast. It is already more than 20 days I am here, in UUM, as a Business Mathematics major student.

Week 3 comes

Week 3, em… I am already adapted to the UUM life but still have no idea on what to write about my course, haha. Maybe I need to wait for two or three weeks before I could be able to write something that can contribute to all of you, not making you sleep by turning this blog into a Maths lecture.

Therefore, about what I learn in my course, I will only share them to you after Week 6 for my Semester 1, please be patient. Alright, in this post, I actually want to share with you on Quantitative Sciences Association (or we know it as QuSac), an association which takes care and plans programs for SQS students.

My own experience in getting into QuSac

The moment I know about this association was when I saw the Whatsapp notice that got viral in the SQS Whatsapp group when somebody repost the news. This was the negative impact of spamming a group with unnecessary messages. The interview was almost over when I noticed and I quickly rushed to the QuSac room after my last class on that day.

Luckily, the door was still opened to me. The interview was not like an interview but was more likely a chat between me and the interviewers. We chatted happily. I did not even feel any stress. Maybe, this could be the result when we face anything with an usual attitude.

I could feel that the interviewers were confident of me after the interview, even though I was late for around 15 minutes. I really thank them since they are really understanding.

Being selected

Unexpectedly, I was selected as the exco of QuSac! And, now we are going to do something like ice breaking to SQS students in the upcoming week. These are my personal experience in my interview for QuSac.

Indeed, I told the interviewers on how diligent I was when I was in Matriculation. By becoming the head of 2 and taking part of 4 out of total of 5 volunteering activities being held in my Matriculation college, I think I succeed in making their trust to me and select me as an exco.

What is QuSac?

Now, let me have a short briefing on what QuSac is. QuSac is actually an association which actively organizes a lot of activities foe SQS students, for example Ice Breaking and Student Interactive Day. Apart from that, QuSac is also focusing on the academic performance of SQS students and forms academic programs which can improve their performance. QuSac actually plays a role like the association in the other school in UUM.

That is all I can talk for QuSac. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my next post!

2017-09-28

1.00 pm

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That Perturbing Moment

                Happy belated Malaysia Day to all of my Malaysia friends! This post was initially planned to be released on 16^th of September but then was postponed because I had an outing on that day. I was too busy to write a post.

                Well, in this release, I am going to share my own experience to all of you on the “add drop session” in UUM that was the event that happened exactly after the orientation week. Perhaps this also happened in the other universities. Only other universities may use a different name or different progress.

The first batch 

                My batch is actually the first batch to be given the chance to add or drop online for the subjects we took for our respective course. The batch before was not given the opportunity therefore they were forced to follow whatever that was already in their timetable. They could only do manual add drop but our batch can do both manual and online add drop.

                What being planned and what actually happened are always different but it is better to have a plan rather than going ahead without any goal or direction. This add drop session really made me suffer when I had to do a lot of plans including Plan A, B and C on the eve of the add drop day.

                The add drop session will last for around 3 days and 12 hours. However, most of the students will be waiting in front of their gadgets to login to their portal and preparing themselves to grab the time session they preferred. Same went to me.

Long time planning

                On the day before the add drop session, I planned until 1 am for around 3 hours. I even missed the call from my family. Luckily, I succeed to come out with at least one perfect plan for my own after the 3-hours-work.

                With the advice from my senior before my plan, I made up a plan with the most strategic locations and the most appropriate time session. Among the advice are do not arrange the time until 5.30 pm since it is really exhausting and make sure there are as less gap as we can between two subjects.

Manual add drop started earlier

                As what I said earlier, what I planned was a little bit different from what happened on the next day. On the next day, I did not have any classes in the morning. The add drop session started from 12 pm so I still have some time looking back at my plans and do some adjustment. What surprised me was the manual add drop session started at 9 am!

                This really made me nervous. Since I was new here, I was lost in finding the exact location for the manual add drop session. Together with my friends, we quickly went to the bus station and rushed to the School of Computing (SOC), that was the first school providing manual add drop session by boarding a bus.

                We reached there around 11.15 am. It was quite late. Since the online add drop session had not started yet, we rushed here and there to search for the SOC lab. My friends reached a little bit late since they missed the station in front of the SOC. We were accidentally separated by the crowd in the bus.

Different schools responsible for their own students

                The lecturer-in-charge in SOC helped me in the manual add drop session. What surprised me was then she suddenly spoke out some words.

                “You are not supposed to be here. You are not SOC students but SQS.”

                The words made me nearly laughed. On that moment only I know that the students must go to their respective school for the manual add drop. On the same time, I realized that SOC was the only school which opened for that session on the particular moment.

A nice lecturer

                Luckily, that lecturer was quite good and still help me although I am not their student. I  succeed in getting the courses I want according to my plan. However, one of the subjects was full and the empty session did not match my need. In the end, I was only be able to register for 17 credit hours in this semester, which differs from my original plan that was 20 credit hours.

                For most of the students, I am sure you had been giving up and continued with that 17 credit hours throughout the semester. However, I am not that kind of person who will simply say, “Enough already” and continue with what had being set for you.

Determination... Success

                In two days after the add drop session, I thought of the pros and cons of having 20 credit hours rather than 17 credit hours in the first semester. Finally, on the second day before the add drop session ended, I made up my mind to go to the school that the subject belongs to and fill in the appeal form.

                I told the staff who was in-charge that day that I was determined to take the subject this semester since I desired to shorten my studies. Up to my surprise, my appeal was approved in just an hour. Although the group given to me was not what I appeal before, but at least I succeed in getting a course that was fully occupied by other students!

Moral of the story

                In conclusion, you can see the power of determination. As long as you are determined, do not stop halfway. Go ahead with it and I am sure you will get what you desired, just like life.

                That is all for today, I hope that you enjoy reading this and enjoy your day as well.

                Thanks for reading! :-)

2017-09-19

10.13 am

Partner blog: makopl9574.blogspot.my

(p/s: The subjects I took for this semester are Discrete Mathematics, Calculus I, Data Expository and Generalization, Ethnic Relationship, Malaysian Nationhood Studies, Business Accounting and also co-curriculum (we call it as ko k). The next post will be on the brief explanation of the subjects I took in this semester.)

Adapt, Adopt and Accept

   Well, it is another half month from my previous post. I am finally being registered as an official UUM student pursuing Bachelor of Science (Hons) Business Mathematics student on 5^th of September that was Tuesday last week after my long journey of 4 hours and a half from my hometown, Pantai Remis.

 As what you can see from here, the highway is still dark. It was around 5 am. :-)

The first day

On the first day that was the registration day, my family and I departed from our home at around 3.30 am. It was really early. We have no choice since UUM is really far from our house.

Since I needed to settle my JPA stuff on the same day, we stopped at Jitra for a while to have our breakfast. Jitra was quite big but it is still 30 minutes from UUM. We stayed there until 8 something and then we departed to UUM.

 We ate at a stall near the LHDN Jitra. The food was a little bit expensive but we had no choice since we are rushing to LHDN and also UUM for registration. The nasi lemak were just put on the table and you can choose as how many as you want. But then, they will charge you. I think they had calculated wrongly for the bill I supposed to pay since it was much cheaper than what we calculated.

The nasi lemak looks special. It was not the usual white santan rice that we have. Otherwise, the rice was cooked with kunyit.

Reached at UUM

We reached at UUM around 9 am. The traffic on that time was really congested. The traffic jam lasts for around 15 minutes before we could enter UUM. 

There are a lot of cars in front of our car. The blue paper aside was actually the clue for the guard to determine which way we are going to use in UUM in order to reach our hostel (or we call it as INASIS)

  UUM is actually quite big. I was quite surprised when I heard from our Student Affairs Vice Cancellor Assistant that UUM is around 162 hectars wide and is the largest public university in Malaysia. There are around 15 INASIS (or Student Residential Hall) for UUM students.

  My INASIS is in GRANTT. The registration starts by giving the original documents to the facilitators (faci) there to check whether they are the right documents as what they want.

  There were 2 types of registration. One was INASIS registration, another one was academic registration. We did both at the main office. 

This is the student private file given to us. We had to arrange all the certified photocopied documents in the file according to the sequence being provided. Beautiful file right? (But, this is not for us, we need to submit to our school then)

  In UUM, we call our learning center as school, that is totally different from other universities that call it faculty. I am of course, the student of the School of Quantitative Sciences (SQS).

  Oh, ya before I forgot, we then went to Varsity Mall for lunch and printing. I went there along with my family.

This was my first lunch in UUM, with my family. Honestly, the food was not very delicious here, haha. In my opinion lah. But, different people have different views, who knows?

  My family left me at around 1.30 pm. If you asked me whether I was homesick after that, I will admit yes. But, only a few minutes, haha. Suddenly that kind of blur, like don’t know what to do for a while but then quickly became ok already. (This is why to juniors, choose to enter matriculation at pre-u level, it will help you suiting well in Degree)

Orientation

The orientation really made us tired. We almost woke up at 5 am and slept at 2 am. A lot of talks had been given to us since the first day of orientation. I am not going to tell you the talks here so that you wont be bored with my post.

Oh ya, this is Varsity Mall (vmall). Something like a shopping mall that you always see but more to mini market.

  Apart from the talks, we were also guided by our faci to surround the university so that we are more familiar with UUM. I went to my school and also had a look at the Lecture Hall. Walking and walking were really tired. Luckily, we are not going to do this later in our class. Actually in UUM, there are buses that will always board us here and there.

This is the opened hall of my INASIS. Look great right? But after I visited to other INASIS, I noticed that theirs are much greater, haha.

 The first Indian friend I made in UUM. Hi, deva…

Most of the activities we had during the orientation week were held in this hall(Dewan Muadzam Shah or DMAS). It is a hall with capacity 5000 students and we can only enter for 3 types of agendas throughout our studies, that are orientation, examination and graduation.

My portal activation was carried out here. As the university ranked 6^th, In UUM, the learning process was carried out in portal. Through one account, we can access to all types of facilities. And not forget to tell, the wifi speed in UUM is around 76 Mbps. (This is actually not my school, it is SEFB)

The one and the only Chinese faci in our INASIS. She is really kind and helpful, and cheerful also. The best thing is when the other faci had stopped leading the juniors after the MSK, she were still with us although she was also busy for the starting of the new semester.

This is the cafeteria in the campus area. Em…actually almost the same as the cafe in INASIS, haha. The faci down there is of the same school with me.

MORE…..

Library facilities

Super senior in SQS

The slot Moral. Actually, our batch this time consists of around half of non-muslims.

This is my room. Quite small compared to Matric but convenience.

Photo with my roommate

My friend in KMPP

  

  So, basically, that are all about my orientation in UUM. (not including talks)

  The last night of our orientation was Art Appreciation Night. A lot of performance had been carried out. Here I include parts of the performance.

Thanks for reading! :-)

2017-09-12

11.55 am

#UUMisthebest

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