PNB Scholarship candidate shares test experience

In the midst of scholarship interview season, Nor Izzati binti Sabri, an 18 year old from Kedah shares with Afterschool.my her experience after being shortlisted for Permodalan Nasional Berhad (PNB) Scholarship.

Nor Izzati is second from the left at the back.[/caption]

The PNB Global Scholarship Award 2016 programme provide opportunity for students with outstanding academic achievement in their SPM to pursue tertiary education in public universities and selected private universities, as well as top universities abroad.

The scholarship provide sponsorship to selected outstanding post-SPM students to top universities in the United Kingdom and the Australia to pursue tertiary education in the disciplines that are related to the business activity of PNB.

Prior to entry into universities, the selected students are required to undertake a two-year A-Level programme.

1. Scholarship Application

Go hunt for scholarships online!

Apply for all scholarships that meet your academic qualifications. You must be always alert with scholarship application dates/deadline if you do not want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity.

For PNB scholarship, you need to submit the application forms by post. Thus you need to mail them quickly, at least one week before the due date. Late submission or applications will not be entertained.

2. Waiting time

Once the application forms are mailed, you will be informed within 30 days if you are selected for the writing test. Therefore you must check your email regularly so that you won't miss the writing test.

3. Do research!

Search for the exact location of the test (which building, room number, etc). You do not want to be lost on the day of the writing test as this will bring a bad impression to the scholarship provider.

I personally searched on the Internet about PNB writing test and found out that IQ test is the type of question that will be stressed on. So I played the ‘BrainWars’ game on my phone to activate my thinking skills (hahaha!).

If you want to do some preparation for the first section, I suggest you to read English newspapers and magazines such as News Strait Times and Readers Digest. The best tip to answer this section is to understand all of the passages given and make the dictionary your best friend.

4. Test Format

For the PNB scholarship writing test, there were 3 sections in total.  Candidates were given 20 minutes to answer each section.

1. Critical Reasoning Test Battery

There were 30 questions for the first section. The language used was in a high level so you need to read the passages meticulously so that you can choose the best answer for each of the question. The best tip to answer this section is to reread and understand all of the passages given.

There were three options for the answer:

A. True

 B. False

 C. Cannot say

2. Mathematics & Economy

There were 18 questions in total. Most importantly, never forget your most precious weapon, CALCULATOR! They will give you a few pieces of papers in case you want to scribble and do calculations. Reading a lot of economic materials will help you to answer these questions.

3. IQ test

There were 40 questions and all the questions were in diagram forms. They will give some diagrams in order and what you need to do is to guess the next diagram. You can search for the IQ test on the Internet if you want to ace this section. Believe me, it was not too hard. :D

5. Wait for the interview

After the test, the representatives from PNB informed me that they will inform within 30 days whether I will be called for an interview.

That’s all that I can share with you guys. Good Luck for those who are going to attend PNB writing test. Keep reciting doa if you are nervous, InsyaAllah everything will run smoothly. Believing in yourself is the main key.

You’ll never know your luck if you don’t even try. Always believe that fortune favors the bold.

We wish you luck Izzati!

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