The most probable reason that you googled for this page, is that you are going for an interview between 25th to 27th May 2016 for a place in the medical course at UKM Medic. First and foremost allow me to congratulate you for getting an interview slot.
In summary, UKM Medic consists of 2 years of pre-clinical course followed by 3 years of clinical course. The nerds tend to excel during the pre-clinical years since the only required skills to score is lots and lots of book-mugging. The people-person tend to do well during the clinical years since it requires a lot of interaction between you and the patients. If you abhor contact with other people, perhaps being a doctor is not a suitable profession for you.
For a quick look at one of the many pre-clinical courses in PPUKM, check out this link.
Below is the complete list of the courses;
Click here to download “Buku Panduan Prasiswazah Fakulti Perubatan”.
The above courses already took up a lot of your time. They are really very heavy. I doubt that I could cover each one in detail but fear not, check out this blog which was written by a UKM medical student at http://kurakuramedic.blogspot.my/. Under “highlighted topics” are links to each subjects/modules which you can click on and learn more from her perspective.
On top of these courses, there are CITRA courses that you must do and pass. The aim of these CITRA courses are a mystery to most PPUKM lecturers, so chances are it won’t be raised during the interview.
But since you are going to be stuck with it, you better go through it first and decide whether it is really something that you want to tangle with and whether it will make you a better doctor. It will help if you compare the workload of UKM Medic against other public universities that don’t have these CITRA courses.
How good are UKM medical graduates? Check out this link for a little bit of chest thumping!
The highlight of UKM Medic is the PPD programme which is “uniquely UKM’s”. Apparently it won the “The Best Jury Award for Innovation in Vocational Education and Skills Training” at the World Education Summit 2011, held in New Delhi from 13-15 July 2011. Prof. Dr. Abdullah Sani insisted that I insert something about PPD in this write-up. Unfortunately Googling didn’t help, I just couldn’t find any comprehensive write-up about PPD, not even on the Jabatan Pendidikan Perubatan’s webpage. Can anyone help?
UKM Medic will also practise integrated CGPA (iCGPA) soon. Please understand the implication it has on the assessment of your performance in Medic UKM.
Is medicine really the career for you? What are the options after graduation? Check out these slides that I used for a career talk way back in 2011 in SDAR Sungai Gadut.
Good luck in the coming interview!
Tips for the interview;
– Sorry, I can’t share the marking scheme for the interview. Anyway they change the format every year.
– Come to the interview well-dressed and well-groomed, like a “doctor” should be in terms of appearance. Remember this is NOT a “Devils’s Runway” audition.
– Be knowledgeable about the medical course in UKM . The necessary points are highlighted above.
– Be confident and able to converse well. A “doctor” should generate confidence in their ability to care for their patients. Please talk and converse with the interviewer and don’t be quiet. If you are quiet, how can we give you any marks?
– There will be sections of the interview in Malay and English. Remember this is UKM, a university created solely “Untuk Memartabatkan Bahasa Melayu”. Yet the medical programme in UKM is conducted totally in English. That is why you have to be conversant in both languages.
– Be aware of current medical issues since you will asked to elaborate about them.
– There will be scenarios on medical ethics, please be prepared. My favourite used to be about gender issues, about female doctors caring for male patients and male doctors caring for female patients. You’ll be surprised by the response that I got in the past interviews.
– Another favourite question is how much does a doctor earns? The basic pay of a newly graduated doctor is only RM2,777.98(UD41-P1T2). My starting pay back in 1992 was RM1623. Don’t believe me? Check out the SPA website.Because of allowances, the take-home pay is slightly higher;
-Elaun Perumahan : RM250.00
-Elaun Tetap Perkhidmatan Awam : RM300.00
-Elaun Kritikal : RM750.00
-Elaun COLA : RM100.00-RM300.00 (mengikut lokaliti)
So the take home pay is slightly less than RM4,000 a month for a new doctor. So don’t say a new doctor’s pay is RM10K a month, unless you want to make the interviewers laugh.
– But most importantly, come to the interview because YOU MUST WANT TO DO MEDICINE, not because YOUR PARENTS/GRANDPARENTS/SIBLINGS want you to do medicine. Remember this is a lifetime vocation, you will do this for the rest of your life! Otherwise it won’t end well for you. Do not waste your time or our time.
– PARENTS! Don’t force your child to do Medicine, if they don’t want to. Let them choose their own future. I have seen too many blood and tears and I have seen time and lives wasted because of parents projecting their own ambitions upon their child. Generation Y is not as tough as Generation X. We survived because we have to. Generation Y won’t. Please don’t change the course options behind their back. Remember it will be them taking the exams, not you, the guy who meddled with the form. Sounds weird but it is a true story.
– Good luck once again!