When I graduated from the As

... As as in A -levels

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The period of time from 'After the As' to 'Start of Uni life' is a long period that can be incredibly fulfilling for every single graduated student. Go out, find jobs, take up various kinds of jobs, and go have fun, be a local tourist. It's very worth it.

On the other hand, it's good to start on (or even before, already started on) your write-ups, your meagre empty looking resume, your scholarship applications, your college applications, even the references, documents, every little thing needed to get into college, work, and other avenues that have opened up in your life.

I will cover in brief concise details on both Resumes and Applications (scholarship)(uni)

#Resumes: 
I have very good and understanding bosses that understood I was a newbie, fresh out of school, little to none experience. They gave me a lot of worldly advice and some of them were Key to resumes:
ALWAYS INCLUDE:
Your name, your contact number, AND your photo. Your photo leaves a deeper impact in employers, and many also use for admin purposes, including say, printing your employee tag.
You should try to add in any other accomplishments you've received before, in the resume, as it lends a insight on you. These should be after all the essential details, every other resume template has.
ALWAYS be ready to pick up a call. Usually employers contact you via calling, which is the most convenient for them. Smile and hope they get back to you :)

#Applications: TAKE NOTE OF DEADLINES. (they all vary)
Write ups. The useful thing I had was to have a base write up , a general one.
Most applications end up having a specific Question-based writeup for you to answer, but having that base also saves you a lot in terms of letting you go through your thoughts from before, and giving you some inspirations some times.

KEEP a copy of your write up with you, especially if you go to an interview. They WILL reference to the content in it, about 70 plus % of the time.

In interviews, it's good to take note of your interviewer's name and position. It is just plain politeness and gives recognition to them. :)

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For me, I had not much limitations to myself so I adopted the try as many policy at first:
-NTU
-NUS
-NTUNIE (Steps: Apply to NTU Edun as an option, THEN apply in MOE as well)
-MOE TS P (PSC gateway)(Scan in required documents)
-MOE Teaching Award (Excel sheet to fill up and submit)
-NTU scholarships
-NUS scholarships

So in the end, I received the Offer from both NUS and NTU, but NTU offered a college scholarship, so here I am.

one down so far

... another yet upcoming

So last week I went for my scholarship interview for the NTU's College scholarship. Hopefully this gives some help to any future hopefuls who Google the appropriate keywords.

As usual, for interviews or anything in life really, the basic level of preparation is always advised. No need to overly research and memorise - for that would defeat the purpose of an interview where interviewers get to have their own first-hand view on what your character is like and reaction and mindsets etc : all that would be useless if you drilled yourself for every question. (Those of us students who have undergone Project Work Oral Presentation (OP), remember that the drilling for OP is different - for that every level of preparedness is expected and well-benefiting in the end - trust me, you don't want to flounder)
The interviewers will be able to tell if you overly prepared for it; NOT that that is bad but it is just one thing to consider.

Anyway, it was held in conjunction (or it just so happened to be) with the Tea Session with the NTU President, so i took the time to stroll and just chitchat with the professors and student volunteers there, as well as some other fellow interviewees.

Interview time came, entered a quiet room (okay not that literally quiet what with talking) that had 3-4 sectioned-off corners (well, a typical room has 4 corners, yes). Directed to one corner, behind the panel sat two gentlemen, whom i realised I never got their names. Oh wells. It would have been nice to know exactly who is interviewing you - you could ask i guess.

They started off with a simple question of "What is a scholarship to you?" or something along those lines.
I spoke frankly that it is essentially in the very basic level what it is: covering monetary needs so as to relieve of one burden at least, which is to me already a big deal as I do not want to siphon my parents' money if I can get the opportunity not to.

The rest just dithered off into various topics including (and not limited to): What I was going to pursue, What I have been doing, What will I do with the scholarship if given, (and because i expressed interest in teaching,) What i learnt in class.

It really was a back-forth kind of thing as the interviewers also gave me some tips on teaching and things to consider and warn me of next time when dealing with some situations, and also told me more about scholarships and the flexibility involved.

NOTE: Be careful what you say each time you respond, for one theme i noticed was that in this interview it is less rigid than some I have had in previous years, more of a literal back forth chat, and they use points that you bring up in a previous answer to carry on another question.
Occasionally they do refer to your application too, so do read up and remember what you wrote in your essay yeah? They will ask you to back up your words or give example to further elaborate/substantiate.

Oh, I asked them a few things, including what were they looking for for the scholarship holders and for goodness sake the guy replied cheekily "What do you think/Who do you think deserves a scholarship?" Aw, be like that. Haha.

All in all, less rigid interview than some others, depth-wise is moderate. Don't panic, don't give ..undesirable answers (common sense is basically key) and no worries!
((Honestly, I suffered from my usual cold and stuttering again but I did my best to lessen it and the gentlemen were kind enough to ignore it, thank you))

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Anway, above is the main interview content.
Met several Profs that I recognised from previous tea session in end Jan, met some friends there for the tea session too, and gosh, the freebies given were a lot and very useful. Haha, immediately replaced my card holder. And there was a NTU bluetooth headset - haven't tested it out yet though.

I'm due for my MOE Award interview soon so wish me luck there too. Knowing my luck, they will ask plenty of current issues which are not my area as I rather dislike such topics that basically deals with unhappiness - but hey, can't escape them, can we?

Cheers