Rider’s Journey

Now you’ve finished SPM, you are surely unclear on what to choose for your future. STPM is indeed hard. It is already ranked as one of the hardest exams in the world. If you get As in them, there will be no problems in your future in University life. It is like a double edged sword. If you score high, you will get good courses and get scholarships to prestigious universities. If you can’t catch up, you either drop out and go private colleges or study courses you aren’t that interested in. STPM needs really hard work and has far bigger difference than PMR to SPM as from SPM to STPM.

JPA is also a good choice. It is a good government scholarship. At first i really fear of the long bonding with the country. But by thinking that when u are back, you will have a job prepared for you instead of having to looking all round the city or other cities as well for jobs. And you are fully sponsored and then payed back during the bonding. This is a view that u can look at.
JPA also has for Private universities as well. The government will also help support you there, but not as much as you are in government schools. You will also have greater pressure as you need to maintain the high scoring or average, which is also called CGPA in universities. I even got one friend who was so worried of not able to apply JPA succesfully in a private university until she cried.

Matriculation is one choice. It is like A level but only requires 1 year and u can go local universities after just one year. It is quite nice road to go and far cheaper compared to private universities or A levels like the famous Taylors college in KL or Melbourne as we all heard about people going there. And it is not that hard to venture the one year there.

There is also some place called Polytechnic. This kind of institutions aren’t that popular and famous. It offers diploma courses only and are cheaper still than private universities. This kind of polytechnic institutions are quite good, but not fully sure of its recognition. but some like curtin and swinburne which are overseas Australian institutions in sarawak, are able have recognition to their diploma certs. Polytechnic institutions may need you to do more research on them.

Last but still not least, are the Private universities like Swinburne, Curtin, monash, Taylor, Nottingham and overseas. These are really really expensive ones. All they can talk about is money. But if you have the financial support, it is quite wise to enter them. It has higher reputations than local universities and may obtain higher salary and better job hunt than those from locals. But it really still depends. The biggest problem still lies in Financial status. it is really really financial burdening if entering these schools. Yet, you can also apply for JPA if you didn’t get the local university JPA. its because all these private uni is talk about money. Unless u study hard and get Scholarship then it is all settled. Now, the cheapest Private university is swinburne, then reach to curtin then to monash and so on. IF enter these, you can only study Foundation, whereby u already know what u wanna study. IF you are still doubting, you may need to study at taylor, if u can, for A levels or SAM.

the two i know are A level and SAM. A level is like form 6 but little bit easier and consume half a year less than STPM. It is recognized worldwide and will have great scholarships if got great results. SAM however, is like matriculation but is australian. It only takes 1 year as well. but i isn’t that worldwidely recognized. hehe. but it really saves quite some time and cheaper than A levels as well.

These are the roads that you can take after form 5. There are of course many other, as these are those i’ve known for now. You may need to think very thoroughly before making the first step. The step you took after form 5 determines everything and there will be no turning back. Even if you turn back, it will be a very troublesome trip like wasting money or wasting more time. So make sure you think through all of them. Hehe.

By the way, i haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Samuel, also local Sibu person. From 4th Sibu Company. I’ve just finished form 5 last year and known the roads above through my own research and from friends. Don’t fully depend on all the info above as u may need to do some research of your own to get more info.

Form 6 isn’t a bad choice if you are willing to prepare for a big step from form 5 to form 6 and start study those super thick Physics and Chemistry or Bio books, which are totally different than form 5. IF you can cope the pressure and able to study very very hard for these subjects, form 6 might be a right choice for you. Haha. STPM is also a PRE-U test, like A level, so its like Uni style of learning and studying. haha

I hope these info helps. God bless~

10s samuel, i reli appreciate it!!