Part 2.
I had only about 3 weeks, from the time of the last interview to the due date for submission of the postgrad application, which was on the 10th of January 2020. I had to work on few crucial things all at the same time: (please browse here if you are interested https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate)
IELTS a must pass mission with one attempt and ensuring a minimal band of 7.5 for total band and minimum 7 for each component which was writing, reading, listening and communication. Please choose Academic IELTS, not UKVI. The latter is for different schemes.
Completing the Personal Statement need to write my best PS that do justice in reflecting my own self since it will be used as the medium for evaluating my justification to pursue DPhil.
Study Research Proposal
Tracing, and certified all the required documents which included
o Own Passport
o Birth Certificate
o Undergraduate transcript
o Postgraduate/ Specialist degree transcript
o Undergraduate Cert
o Postgraduate/Specialist degree cert
o Awards Certificate
o 4 referees
o Curricular Vitae
o Research Proposal
o Other relevant certs on accomplishments
To complete all these within 3 weeks was a daunting and stressful task. For a few reasons, one was due to the time factor. When you work against the ticking clock, it was always stressful. Secondly, it was so close hence I did not want to miss the golden opportunity or get knocked out merely for technical reasons. Thirdly, the personal statement(PS) and the proposal. It took me 3 weeks to complete a PS and going through draft after draft as I wanted to make it reflective of my pure intentions and solid enough to be considered for the final process. Fortunately, I had my wife to check on the content and my English teacher since my time in SMAPK, Teacher Dr. Husna Khadir to proofread my English. And I was glad I did 😊. Thank you, teacher Husna, for your help. Going to remember that for a lifetime.
Developing the proposal was another story. It was honestly embarrassing at the initial stage. The initial 22 pages proposal was submitted to my potential SVs and it required major corrections. They wanted it to be only in 6 pages. I was like, phew…from 22 to 6 pages. How do I do that…But that was part of the learning process. Summarising and simplifying things which were redundant and unnecessary, making complicated things simple and concise were the key in this process. I truly learned a lot just from the process of applying alone.
I had registered to sit for the IELTS exam in December, and it cost me around RM 800. All bookings can be done online: https://ieltsregistration.britishcouncil.org/test-chooser. You can visit the link if you are planning to sit for it.
I did my last minute revision particularly on tips on how to score each component. These last-minute steps were crucial since I had not been able to do much practice or revisions on the format and etc. Most of the revisions were guided by online teachers via youtube channels. One of them which I found very useful was FASTtrack IELTS. For the first-timers, the format can be quite confusing but the British council and IELTS website provide sufficient materials for you to be familiar with the format.
As for me, the previous experience of sitting for IELTS during A levels, prior to the undergraduate studies was very helpful at this stage. It did alleviate some anxiety knowing the Dos and Don'ts. Alhamdulillah, I achieved the required band of 7.5. Reading: 7, Writing:7, Communication: 7.5, listening 8.5, hence the overall band: 7.5. So IELTS ✅. And please bear in mind that different universities may set a different IELTS requirement, so it is advisable that you check on all beforehand.
I had overwhelming support from my superiors. I am eternally grateful for that. The application required 4 referees so I managed to get 2 from my current workplace; Senior Professor and Consultant of Emergency Medicine; Prof Dr. Ismail Saiboon and my head of dept than, Assoc Prof Dr. Johar Jaafar and another 2 referees from the Ministry of Health which were the current national head of service Datuk Dr. Mahathar Abd Wahab and my sifu in emergency ultrasound Dr Adi Osman. I can't thank all of them enough for helping me on this journey. May God bless all of them.
On the new year's eve 1st Jan 2020, once all the checklist had been ticked, I submitted the application via the online portal and continued to pray hard.......
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