PETRONAS Education Sponsorship Programme

Hello there. Before I continue further, this experience is based on the year 2020. Which you may know, the year when Covid-19 strikes the world. Hence, the selection process would differ a bit. Nevertheless, let's go and discover from my experience in grabing this prestigious scholarship.

As an introduction, I'm not that guy who earns all straight A+ in SPM. I've only managed to get some A+ and A in my SPM, so do take in mind that not getting straight A+ in your SPM could still earn you a scholarship.
However, strive your best in your SPM as your result would be your entry ticket in applying for this scholarship.

Why you should apply for PETRONAS Scholarship ? Well, besides the fact the PETRONAS is one of the most prestigious scholarship in Malaysia, the scholarship covers you from you're pre-university studies until undergraduate levels. Moreover, you would be getting top-notch guides and helps during your studies from PETRONAS special training programmes. You would also have secured a place to work in PETRONAS at the end of your study, and to work with a company ranked in the Top 500 Companies globally, it is a golden opportunity for you to have.

So, without wasting any more time, let's get into the application process.

Application Process:

The application process for PETRONAS was quite a simple process compared to Khazanah or Bank Negara which requires you to submit essays.

For PETRONAS's application process, it only requires you to fill in your personal details, your SPM results and some accomplishments and achievements during your time at high school.

Bear in mind, at this stage, there's approximately around 20,000 applicants fighting for the scholarship. So, finger's crossed and hope for the best.

First Stage

Congrats. You've managed to be selected from the application stage. From this point on, your results or achievements won't matter anymore. It all depends on your skills and knowledge to pass to the next stage. Currently, you're among the few hundreds applicants. In normal circumstances, you would be invited to the PETRONAS Youngstars Day 2020 where you would be doing your test there. However, due to Covid-19 reasons, 2020's batch is going to answer it online. Phew..

The test, or known as the Thinking Skills Assessment would be the real deal here. With a time limit of 1 hour, you would be answering both numerical,verbal, pattern recognition and all sorts of question. Including origami question. Yeah. I'm not kidding. Questions would differ every year, which makes things even harder.

During the test, your brain must be at the most prepared level (AND I MEAN ABSOLUTELY PREPARED LIKE THE TIME WHEN YOU ARE ANSWERING ADD MATHS QUESTION). Luckily, after I've failed in these types of tests before in Sime Darby and Khazanah second stage, my brain is well melted and is ready to process at Mach 5 speed.

So, my advice is, AFTER SPM, do keep using your brain to prevent your brain power to decrease such as to keep doing Math questions (SPM levels is good enough), read books which requires your brain to process the contents, (I suggest reading The Art of War by Sun Tzu) and train your thinking skills.

Be quick and be accurate during the test. Time and your brain speed would be the limiting factor here. Also, this would be the stage where most of students will fail. That being said, PLEASE manage your time properly and do prepare your mental power. Good luck.

Final Stage - Interview

Well. Here you are, the selected ones. Big round of applause if you've managed to pass until this stage. Now, comes the time to use your soft skills and interpersonal skills to the fullest. The interview would consist into 2 main parts.

First Part - Individual Assessment

At this stage, normally candidates are required to have a very simple introduction and are given with a case study, which in my case, is a case about the most crucial future skills that teenagers should have.

In this section, you are given a time limit of 15 minutes to explain about what did you understand from the case study given, elaborate your points and conclude them with your point of view.

My advice here is, try not to be nervous. I know it's hard, but you must to. Speak in a relatively clear and confident tone, elaborate maturely and explain to the panels clearly about what you understand from the case. For practice purposes, try having mock interview with your friends asking you questions about current issues and try to answer them as if they're the panels of the interview.

And another advice is that, big and prestigious scholarships providers seldomly ask you the generic interview questions eg. what are your strengths, weakness and so on. So, what you should be preparing instead is global and current issues, National Plans, 'Dasar-Dasar Negara', yeah you get the point. These are the ones that will help you win in this interview, by including this type of content, while elaborating your answers.

As an example, future Malaysian teenagers should be prepare and fluent with technological advancements to help sustain and adapt green energy and deter poverty, parallel to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 in ensuring prosperity around the globe by the next 20 years.

You should also be respectful to other candidates and panels during the session. And by that I mean, practicing social manners and avoid speaking in political or racial matters as this may give the panels bad impression on yourself.

Second Part - Group Assessment

For this part, you are going to be discussing with the other candidates about the case study come out with a conclusion and a solution to the problem in the case. Time limit is around 30 minutes, and then you'll be presenting the outcome of the discussion to the panels.

On this session, the panels are going to look into your discussion and assess your social interaction ability, thinking skills and leadership capability based on your contribution to the discussion. You'll also be assessed during the QnA session to see your ways in handling crisis.

Hence, during the session, try your best to lead the group and give everyone the rights to voice their opinion. If you're not able to lead the group, give your very best to contribute ideas and help the team.

My advice here is to be kind but argumentative during the session. It's fine to disagree, but you must show that you have a strong opinion. Also, give out your most creative ideas as PETRONAS main stands is to be as innovative as they could. You should be specific and realistic when giving your ideas, instead of just throwing random ideas without concrete stands.

Conclusion

It is genuinely a benefit in the interest of me to be a PETRONAS Scholar and it's in my yearning to totally use this open door that I have to additionally plan more achievement and accomplish new understanding inside the ceaseless domain of the more drawn out term.

In the very end, I wish you good luck ! You have made considerable progress to score in SPM after huge amounts of difficult work. I accept that if you're sufficiently inspired to put forth an attempt and apply for one of these scholarships, you certainly can possibly get one!