Khazanah Scholarship Guide

It's that time of the year again when the SPM and STPM results are released and scholarships are all opening one by one.  For you lucky people out there, I'll be writing a series of scholarship guide to aid everyone who is going through the selection process so that you may have a better understanding of what to expect.

Khazanah's scholarship is opened every year and they have quite a few scholarship programs for different students.  You can check them out yourself with this link right here http://yayasankhazanah.com.my/?p=main&c=global

Though khazanah have different scholarship programs, the selection process is almost the same for all their scholarships.  It's just that some have less stages than the other. (They either have 3 stages or 4 stages and the first 2 stages would most likely be the same)

So, I went through the whole Khazanah Global scholarship selection process about a year ago and I'll lay out my experience here one by one.  Khazanah's scholarship assessments are known to be grueling and intense,  they have a total of 4 stages of scholarship assessments for the Khzanah Global scholarship.

Here are the 4 stages:

1. So after you applied online(submitting your essays, resume and whatnot) , khazanah will select people from the applicant pool to do a psychometric/reasoning test at Menara UEM (near KL sentral).  The test is to eliminate more people to roughly about 200 applicants to enter stage 2.  You can do some sample psychometric test from this website here.

2. After about 2 weeks, khazanah will start informing the selected students about the next stage.  If you got this far, congratulations!  If you haven't gotten any news, fear not and try other scholarships.  There are plenty of scholarships out there if you're willing to find them.  (Also, do not hesitate to ring khazanah up if you have any questions regarding the scholarship)  So you're at stage 2 now,  if tradition follows, khazanah will most probably conduct this stage at PNB Darby Park Executive Suites.  Stage 2 is the most intense part of the scholarship assessment as it will last for one full day.  Assessments include group presentation, group interviews, critical reasoning, decision making and individual interviews.  Be prepared to have conflicts with your group mates and sort out your discussion so that your group works hand in hand.  Interviewers also have this favorite question of "If you were to eliminate someone from your group, who will it be?"  Yes, they want to create tension among your group and see how you handle it.  Just be creative with your answer and back it up by sound reasoning, one of the cliche answers would be "I choose to eliminate myself, because of blablabla".  Oh, you'll also get a chance to enjoy a rooftop buffet lunch at stage 2.  The food and the view should ease the stress of this stage.  Read an elaborate breakdown of stage 2 here.  Good luck and enjoy =)

3.  Woah! you've reached stage 3 now, breathe of relieve.  Stage 3 would be an interview with khazanah's senior executive.  It's just a short and simple one-to-one interview (roughly 7-10 minutes).  Here, you will meet your competitors and all of you will wait patiently for your turn in a meeting room.  Stage 3 is held at the khazanah's office at KLCC.  The questions asked in the interview are very generic and they just want to know more about you.  Example questions are, "Please introduce yourself" , "Name your proudest achievement and how you overcame it", "Who inspires you and why" and etc.

4.  After about a week, Khazanah will inform those who made it to the last stage.  If you reached this stage, congratulations, you are just one more step in securing a scholarship from Khazanah.  The 4th stage would be held at menara UEM(like the first stage) and this time the board of directors will be interviewing you!  For the past years, the last stage interviewers rotate from the board of directors of Khazanah to the board of directors of UEM.  But it was UEM's board of director (Tan Sri Dr Ahmad Tajuddin Ali) that interviewed me last year.  The questions are again generic and they just want to know more about you.  Prepare a few unique points about yourself that you want the world to know and speak them out confidently during the interview.

After all these stages, you will know the final verdict roughly 2 weeks after the final stage.  If you made it, congratulations for you are now a scholar of the most prestigious scholarship in the country.  If you did not,  don't be discouraged, take it as a life lesson and move on to pursue greater things. =)

Peace out, before I forget! The scholarships are once again open this year! Hurry up and apply =)
Apply now!

PS: The location and interviewers for each stage can vary each year,  this is just a guide during my year(2012).