Astro Scholarship

Astro Scholarship

Typically, Astro awards about 7-8 full scholarships a year to students who will pursue their undergraduate degree in various fields of study locally and abroad. For your information, the scholars in my year(2013) are studying degrees ranging from Economics to Geophysics and Computer Science in the UK, US, Australia and Singapore.

For more information regarding the scholarship and to apply, visit this website :
http://www.astro.com.my/careers/indices/index_184.html

From my observation, Astro does not seem to maintain the same, exact shortlisting procedure every year. Therefore, my experience may or may not be entirely relevant to what you will experience during your assessment sessions.

Below are the 5 stages of assessments that you will undergo :-

Stage 1 : Application Form + CV

This is the usual application form where you fill in the necessary details and also attach your CV. You can find various examples of CVs and good guides in writing a CV online.

Stage 2 : Online Assessment

The online assessment will test you on your Verbal Reasoning/English and Mathematical ability. There are some practice materials available online which you can work on. Also, you will have to provide a response to an essay question which may vary on different years. On my year the question was “How best can Astro (being a pay service) reinvent itself with the avalanche of "free" content?”.  There was an option to choose another question, but I can’t remember what it was.
Tip 1 : Do some practice before you take these sort of tests to keep your mind sharp and prepared.
Tip 2 : Speed and accuracy are both important. Try not to dwell on the same question for too long if you can’t answer it.
Tip 3 : For the essay, remember to answer the question and also check your grammar.

Stage 3 : Interview

I was interviewed by two ladies, one is the VP of Human Resources and I think the other was the head of the business strategy department. As usual, they asked me to introduce myself and then the interview progressed from there. We also discussed about the essay that I wrote in Stage 2.

Stage 4 : Group Activity – facilitated by Leaderonomics

We were put into groups and underwent various team-building activities, in which several members had opportunities to lead the group(voluntarily). There were Leaderonomics representatives who were facilitating all the sessions and watching our every action and speech throughout the day. At the end of the day, they gave each of us personal feedback (5-10mins) regarding our character, strengths and weaknesses.




Stage 5 : Final Interview

The interviewers were Andrew, the Head of HR and the VP of HR(my interviewer in Stage 3). I remember one of the questions asked was “ Tell me about 3 of the most important lessons that you have learnt in your life.” Unfortunately, I can’t recall the other questions. However, the questions in this stage were definitely harder and less mainstream than that of the previous interview.
Tip 1 : Interviews ALMOST ALWAYS start with you introducing yourself. So be well prepared for that. This is your opportunity to direct the interview to your advantage.
Tip 2 : Analayze all the relevant extra curricular activities and experiences and be prepared to elaborate on them. Pinpoint some “winning points” that you know they will like to know about you. For my case, they were stuff like introducing the KPI in the Prefect Board,etc.
Tip 3 : Prepare for the basic questions like What are your strengths and weaknesses, where do you see yourself in 5-10 years time, etc
Tip 4 : Good interviewing skills always comes with experience. Don’t take it too hard if you don’t do as well as you would like to the first few times around.


Good luck!

Jeffrey Cheah Foundation - Sunway Scholarship

After what I've gone through, I've found out that they only expect to offer 1 scholarship to overseas student only for universities at the level of Cambridge/Harvard etc. They do offer a few scholarship for local unis especially their own uni (eg.Monash,Sunway). Scholars will be placed in the SMART programme upon graduation. Typically the bond should be 5 years with Sunway upon graduation.

There are 4 rounds/types of assessment.

Round 1

Application form + Essay. The essay was "Please tell us more about yourself that is not covered in the above sections/questions which you believe will assist the Scholarship Selection Committee in its decision. Your personal Statement should be not more than 400 words". Do take this opportunity to highlight the key aspects about you that they should consider.

Round 2

Interview. If you pass the interview you will proceed to round 3 on the same day. The interview is set for 1 hour per person. They really ask a lot questions and want to really get to know you in every way. One tip I can give is to be prepared knowing yourself well, your aspirations, your future plans, your course, details about experiences you have been through in your ECAs.

Round 3

English, mathematics and spatial test. If im not wrong these are the formats used.I think it was a total of like around 20ish sub questions. My advice is be careful with the time limit set.
English - https://www.savilleconsulting.com/docs/preparation-guides/preparation-guide-verbal-analysis.pdf?sfvrsn=4
Maths - https://www.savilleconsulting.com/docs/preparation-guides/preparation-guide-numerical-analysis.pdf?sfvrsn=4
Spatial - https://www.savilleconsulting.com/docs/preparation-guides/ana-ap-pg-das1-inte@02-01-2013EF5BDD2B6F50.pdf?sfvrsn=4

Round 4 (Final)

There were 4 of us on the last round for this cycle. Apparently they shortlisted candidates in few cycles.

Part 1

They gave quite a lot of different pictures which had meanings depending on how you perceive them. They asked us to introduce ourselves and explain why we chose the picture. Try to give example of your experience if possible and relate to your explanation if possible.

Part 2

Individual presentation. They gave a case study about expanding a business abroad. They gave really a lot of  details. I think it was 30 minutes to prepare for presentation (mahjong paper and stuff) and like 10-15 mins to present and then there was a Q&A session after that. Know what you are talking about, because they will drill you a lot on the ideas that you have proposed. I felt time was the biggest constraint during this task.

Part 3

Group discussion. We sat in a circle and the assessors were seated in every corner watching us. We were given a value or two each to defend and propose in a new company. Then in the end we had to work together to decide on a few main values that the company will hold. I think in this session you should be tactful, able to give input as well as listen to what others have to say. There's no leader, but it may be possible to show your leadership ability by sort of steering the direction of the conversation, but be careful not to look too bossy. We were given some time to prepare before speaking.

Bank Negara Scholarship (Pre-U and Undergrad level)

Pre-U Level

Apparently they have changed the assessment style in 2013, so my experience wouldn't be entirely relevant any more (2011). But still, just in case they do revert back I'll just share the experiences that I can recall.

There are 3 different sections in this one day assessment. Essays, Group activity, Interview+individual presentation.

Essay

I believe this was the first part of the assessment.
30 minutes to write an essay in English and another 30 minutes to write an essay in BM.
I think the English essay was something to do with credit cards. The BM essay was relatively easier, some sort of current issue that we used to write about in our BM essays in spm.

Group activity

Each of us got different roles in the team, and we were to plan some kind of event or activity in Bukit Jalil Stadium. I'm not sure if they gave us the roles or we chose our own roles. Note that you don't have to be the leader to make it through. A lot of my other teammates had various roles and still made it through. You just have to play your part well.

Individual Presentation + Interview

I can't remember whether the topic was about leadership or it was about comparing whether IQ or EQ is more important. After presenting on the topic, I was asked some interview questions.

Undergraduate Level

I can remember this assessment quite clearly as it was pretty recent. It was supposed to be of a new format ie. the 2-3 days camp but since only 16 out of 25 who were short-listed turned up, they decided to do it in one day. So basically, there were 2  parts. If you pass part 1, you get into part 2 which is the interview. If not, you go home after lunch time.

Part 1

a) English Essay

30 minute essay. What is your one greatest strength that can support your application. *so glad no BM Essay* :)))

b) Group Presentation

We were to discuss a plan on how to expand the business of a food company selling western and local food. At the beginning I volunteered to be the Project Manager, but another person wanted it as well. So I stepped down and took up the role as Marketing Agent instead.The assessors did commend me for that, and later they asked for my rationale on that during the interview. Remember that this sort of group presentations are very subjective and you have to put in the effort to stand out in a good way somehow, be it providing good ideas, showing good leadership skills, tolerance, being able to express yourself well, etc. The assessors will be constantly watching every move you make, so it would be difficult to pretend. Try to portray your key strengths as naturally as possible.

Part 2

It was a 5 interviewer to 1 interviewee interview.  I emphasized on the things I wanted to highlight and they just asked questions based on my personal experiences and ideologies. My advice is to try to direct the interview in your favour. When they give you the chance to introduce yourself, that's where you begin introducing the main things which is important and you would like to highlight about yourself.(things that can be expanded on and asked questions about) I believe most interviewers prefer this approach as they do not need to ask you the typical questions but rather they can ask your more questions about your personal experiences. For example, I talked about how I introduced the Key Performance Indicator system in my prefect board and they then asked me more about my experiences as Head Prefect, etc. I also believe you really need to know why you chose your course and about Bank Negara as well. They also asked about current economics issue so I talked about the Eurozone and the high youth unemployment and that I thought austerity was not the way to go in the Euro area. If you haven't been reading much, do spend some time reading www.bbc.co.uk or some business magazines like the Economist. You need to be able to understand these issues especially if you intend to study Economics in uni or work in BNM in the future.

*Results out in 1-2 weeks time.