6 May 2014 Tragedy

6 May 2014 was a very devastating day for me. It was just a few days before my A Level A2 final examination started, so I was quite busy doing revision. At that time, I still have not received the offer to study Medicine at any university. About 2 weeks before that, I attended the interview for Perdana University. I felt that I performed quite well during the interview, so I was quite confident that I would be offered a place.

Actually, after attending the interview at Perdana University, I did not like the university and its location. However, I was still hoping to get an offer from Perdana University because that would give me the confidence to attend the interview for IMU and NUMed Malaysia later.

On that afternoon, I was revising the topic 'Complex ions' for Chemistry. I was able to understand and remember all the ligand exchange reactions for complex ions in the syllabus, and I felt quite happy about that. However, that happiness was short-lived.

At that moment, my mother just arrived home after work, and she came to my room like usual. However, her facial expression was a bit unusual on that day, so I believed that something must have happened. Then, she told me that there was a letter for me from Perdana University. It was highly likely that the letter was about the outcome of my application after the interview.

My mother had not opened the letter since it was for me, so she was a bit worried. At that time, I felt like telling her 'Don't be so worried. Most likely Perdana University is offering me a place', but I did not do so. Although I was quite confident, I still felt nervous about the contents of the letter. I opened the envelope and pulled out the letter quickly.

However, the first thing I saw on the letter was its subject which stated 'Rejection of Application'. I looked through the letter for more details, but all they said was that they decided to reject me, without giving any reason. Since my IELTS results and forecast A Level results that I used to apply to Perdana University were quite good, the rejection was definitely due to my poor interview performance.

I felt extremely disappointed about that. Earlier, when I was rejected by all the UK universities that I applied to, I did not feel disappointed because I knew that they were very competitive. However, the fact that I was rejected even by Perdana University which is not a high rank university clearly showed how poor my interview performance was.

My mother was just beside me at that time so I had to tell her that Perdana University rejected me. When she knew about that, she was also disappointed. Then, she encouraged me not to feel sad and try again with other universities. Actually, since when I first knew that attending an interview is required for entry into Medicine course, I have been worrying that I might face problems with that.

I would be attending the interview for IMU later on that month and then the interview for NUMed Malaysia on the following month. Since IMU is more competitive than Perdana, it was quite possible that IMU might also reject me because of my poor interview skills. NUMed Malaysia is even more competitive, so my chance of being offered a place was even lower.

After I was rejected by Perdana University, I did not know how my future would be. If other universities also rejected me, then I would not be able to study Medicine anymore. I was so desperate that I applied to SEGi University as a backup option, but even then I might not be offered a place. My greatest hope at that time was that I could receive an offer from IMU, and I dared not even dream of getting an offer from NUMed Malaysia.

I was already very stressful at that time because of my oncoming A2 final examination. Combined with my stress after being rejected by Perdana University, it was surely a hard time for me. However, I told myself that no matter how disappointed I was, I must not let it affect my performance in the examination. My focus on the examination did help me forget about that temporarily.

Luckily, it all went well in the end. I successfully passed the interviews for both IMU and NUMed Malaysia and received offers from them. Now, I am studying Medicine at NUMed Malaysia. Thinking back, I should not have applied to Perdana University, then I would not have to experience the stress of being rejected.