The Good, Bad and Ugly

Sorry for keeping you guys (and gals) waiting. I have other priorities which have taken up most of my time, preventing me from updating my bloggy.....

For the last 10 months or so, like most of you are well informed, I have been slugging it out at Universiti Tenaga Nasional undergoing the PPOU (Preparatory Program for Overseas Universities). A program, on paper, worth RM 50 000 (yes, I could have fed 2 000 African orphans for a day) is said to be the most prestigious, revered etc at least in UNITEN itself. And it definitely lived up to its monetary credibility.... literally, if you know what i meant.

The Good.................

You can't 'blame' the program, the administration etc, whether you like it or not..since it has constantly producing students fit for top universities in the States (Ivies, MIT, Stanford, the Big 10 etc, although i still believe that these students deserve most of the credit). Education wise, the program has an amalgamation of lecturers who are proficient and passionate in their respective fields, whether its a projectile motion, an endangered-rare-almost-extinct-word (read:SAT verbal velocity) or how mathematics and calculus is used in real life (remember those Ms Nanda's stories.....). Uniquely, PPOU is probably the only ONE preparatory program in the world which offers 3 simultaneous courses, the SAT, AP and the Foundation in Engineering (UNITEN) - well what did you expect, considering the $$$ spent by the sponsors........

The students here are amazing and uniquely diverse, each coming from a different background right from Bintulu till Bangi consisting of students from top schools in the country...the historical Sekolah Alam Shah (now SSAS), Aminuddin Baki, St. Teresa, the revered Royal Military College, the legendary MRSM Jasin - Tun Ghaffar Baba, and other top government, MRSM and SBP schools in the country. The notion cre'me' de' la cre'me' does ring true in this sense that each and every student strove for excellence in every quiz/exam and payed full attention in classes...well of course with the exception of someone..+ hint +...+ hint +
Accommodation, though may not be of 5-star status, is more than sufficient and pretty much comparable to those at Kolej Yayasan Saad, Kolej Tunku Jaafar..etc (will post some pics later, if i can get hold of a camera)

The Bad.........

Well..with the glossy picture i painted above, you probably would have thought that this was a boot-licking or a sucking-up post. Well, you are all wrong. You and I (and basically everyone else in the world) have to admit that no creations of God is perfect, let alone the PPOU. For the first semester itself, a portion of the students here spent 40-50 + hours a week in classes, coming back without able to digest whatever information taught during the day (well, thats for me, at least). The administration doesn't seem to understand(or maybe they do, but can't do anything about it or just do not care, its always somebody's fault, isn't it ?) the need to produce all-rounders, clearly eluding whatever Datuk Mustapha has envisioned for our future workforce. Lecturers alike sympathized us but as one senior physics lecturer puts it, "I don't have the power to change anything in IKAL"...... oh well, that simply explains all.............

The Ugly............

I felt that the admin's priorities here are totally messed up. For instance, there were a majority of students who got some not-so-good-grades during the first semester's midterm for the Foundation in Engineering program whereby some seniors were roped in to help these students. Its definitely a 'brilliant' idea but why weren't there any remedial work for students struggling in the SATs, AP and the university applications? thankfully, most of the internal lecturers understood the hardship we faced and some even allowed me to miss a few classes for me to self study the APs/SATs subjects besides completing the university applications. yes, I've struggled and I am disillusioned on the real purpose of attending the program resulting in me putting in below-par effort for most of the internal exams and sub-par attention in classes since September last year. When it comes to 'claiming' expenses such as the self payed SATs and additional scores (which rightly we shouldn't do based on what is stipulated in the clause of our contracts), the admin is still haggling unto it and i have not received a single cent to date. Sometimes, i do wonder where all the RM 50 000 went..........

There is no doubt that nothing in this world is perfect and one just has to make the best out of everything, which i have clearly failed to do so. In that sense, I'm a failure. I digress that i have not effectively made used of the total RM 50 000 taxpayer's money that has been spent on my education here. Maybe, it would have been better if used to feed those poor African orphans. They definitely would have made better use of it. Imagine how many Africans would have gotten a better education or a table laid with food. Such a waste... co'mpre'nde' estu'die'nte' ?

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>>>>> by the way, this is the Pulitzer picture which Ms Carole mentioned earlier in the first semester. Do read the inscription written below (click on it...somehow the words aren't clear).