A Freshman's Guide to Asasi TESL UiTM [Semester 1]

Update (22/2/2016): Dengkil campus is the centre for all foundation programmes for UiTM: TESL, Law, Engineering and Science. No longer Asasi TESL intake in Lendu, Kuantan and Shah Alam.

Hello peeps!

I've been thinking so much to share my experience with you guys regarding the Asasi TESL program. So, here we are, a freshman's guide to Asasi TESL - Semester 1.

(For those of you don't know, Asasi TESL UiTM is a one-year foundation program consists of two semesters)

P/S: It's a very very long post, so don't skip anything! You're going to have a lot of reading to do in this foundation program. Trust me!

*First semester starts on June and ends on October


1) Interview

Well, of course, you'll be heading off for the interview first about a month or so before you are accepted into the program. Keep in mind that there are more than hundreds and thousands of candidates all over Malaysia that are having their interview the same day as you are.

So, you should be grateful and lucky that you are selected into the program after having the interview. You're one step into the game, man!

Once you're done with your interview, give a month or so and you'll probably receive a news from the UiTM (online, of course). If you do, congratulations!

First thing to do, open a Bank Islam account. This is very important since every payment (fees, allowance etc) is via Bank Islam, not other banks, as it's the official bank for UiTM.

2) College registration

On the registration day, you'll be required to bring all your clothes, your appliances, your study materials and such to the college you'll be staying.

3) Minggu Destini Siswa

This is very important. Minggu Destini Siswa (MDS) is an orientation programme, often held in the first week for new foundation and degree intake. And I'll tell you, you're going to be so exhausted during this week, you'll be falling asleep at random places - maybe during the briefings, you will be cranky and moody and grumpy, sleep deprived, but at the end, you're going to enjoy and miss it.

This event will require you to be physically and mentally strong as you are going to be bombarded with multiple briefings, from different sectors of UiTM as they introduce to you every single thing about it. So it's your choice really, to hear or not to hear the briefings.

It's like a boot camp - wake up at 4 am, gather around at surau until subuh, breakfast, morning activities (either learning the UiTM anthem and songs - there are like 2-3 songs about UiTM you have to know), attend briefings, lunch, more briefings, dinner, more briefings, supper, sleep, repeat.

You don't have classes yet during the first week so don't worry about the textbooks and what subjects are you taking soon..... yet.

Just, brace yourself and prepare yourself for the worst.

Don't worry my friends, you will be guided by a group of seniors called 'Pemimpin Mahasiswa'. They will lead you the way, and sometimes nag or scold you, but you know, it's orientation.

There are several things you will be settling during this event:

• Your matric card - A photo of you will be taken, dressed formally, to be put onto your matric card. This card will be your 'licence' throughout the foundation program. If you lose it, you'll have to pay RM50 for a new one. So take care of your cards very well, as you'll be using it for various things like borrowing books, entering libraries, making reservations etc.

• Your student registration - You will need to prepare an X-ray and your important documents (copies of your IC, birth certificates, parents' IC and income slip etc). This is crucial for your database and recognition as a student of UiTM. The PMs will guide you through this.

• Your scholarship - Yes, you read that right. There will be a scholarship/allowance given to all foundation students, roughly about RM2k, for each semester (plus if I'm not mistaken, 'tiket pergi dan balik' for students from Sabah & Sarawak. But you'll have to do the paperwork first - download the agreement letter and forms, fill them in, get your parents and an important person in your town to sign (don't forget yours too), get the Hasil stamp (2 stamps, RM10 each - you can get them from the post office or Hasil office) and submit it to the PMs that very week. You will also have to make three copies of your important documents and get them verified by the same important person who signed your forms. Also, you don't really get the money at that time; you will have to wait for about a month or so. Then, the money will be transferred to your Bank Islam account.

4) Subjects for the semester & studying issues

So, what are you going to study for this semester?

In Asasi TESL, students are to learn the four basic skills of English language: reading, writing, listening & speaking, and grammar. And there you have it: your four core subjects. You will learn these four subjects for both semesters. Also, in total you have 8 subjects, with 24 credit hours (each class is 2 hours, so there will be 2-3 classes per day).

What about the additional subjects?

For both semesters, students will learn a subject on Islamic/Moral Education Studies (coded as CTU). Another three subjects for this semester are:

• College Study Skills 
• Malaysian Studies
• Computer Literacy.

Of course, you will require textbooks and notebooks for all subjects. Textbooks are sold to students by lecturers, so you will have to pay them to get the books. Please take note that most of the books that you are using for this course are imported, and they might cost you a lot. Plus the books are quite thick too.

Don't forget to validate your courses in the first week - this is quite important for your final exam. You can do so by accessing the i-Student portal.

How many classes are there?

The TESL students will be assigned to different classes (not according to their achievements or level of understanding). In each class, there will be a class representatives (we call it 'class rep'). They act like the high school class monitor - updating your classmates about new assignments or works or info by lecturers.

If you ever chosen as a class rep, do keep in mind that your duty is to inform your classmates every single thing. Don't keep these info to yourself, and make sure you inform them as early as possible. I'm talking about you informing your classmates that you will not have a morning class even though you got the message from your lecturer at 4 am in the morning. Trust me.

Lecturers are not like teachers in high school. They can have classes or cancel them whenever they want. So you might want to keep checking your Whatsapp class group for updates, especially in the morning. Otherwise, you'll complaining to yourself that you have come prepared for the day but failed to get the info that the lecturer is not having his/her class today. So yeah, once in a while, you will have cancelled class.

Cancelled class?

Yes. This can be a good news and a bad news: the good news is that you don't have a class; the bad news is that you will have something to do, or worse, have a replacement class, often in an unexpected time. Sure, there'll be plenty of surprises for you this semester.

What about assignments?

Well, I can't tell you everything but I can give you some insights about what will you do for each subject this semester.

College Reading (TSL011) - You'll be doing 4-5 journal reviews, which are a 200-word essay of your own reflection towards an article given. Lots of reading skills materials to learn.

College Writing (TSL021) - Assignments may vary according to lecturers, but it's about the types of essay you are learning.

Listening & Speaking (TSL031) - You will listening tests and learn about phonetics and proper pronunciation according to UK Revised Pronunciation.

Grammar (TSL041) - Well, pretty much everything about grammar, focusing on tenses and nouns.

Islamic Education Studies (CTU081) - Plenty of group works and presentation to be made. There is also hafazan or memorization of Al-Quran verses and also Qur'an recitation.

College Study Skills - You'll be studying.... well, about how to study.

Malaysian Studies - Remember the History subjects you have learnt during high school? Well, say hello to them back.

Computer Literacy - Assignments regarding the parts of computers. You will also need to make your own educational software for primary school students (individual) and a short video regarding technologies and education (group work).

Make sure you have your own laptop and pendrive/hard disk. This is very important for you to make your own assignments much easier and no hassle sharing other people's laptop.

Printers are optional, but essential. You'll be using this to print your assignments so having a handy printer by your own will make things a lot less tougher, especially if you're the kind who loves to procrastinate.

You can also bring your own wifi modem and subscribe to an internet plan. Of course, there will be wifi connection all around the campus, but due to the number of students using, it might get slow by times. So, like I say, do have a good Internet connection by your own as this might help you when doing researches for your assignments.

5) Other tips

- i-Student portal

You can find out everything about your UiTM status via istudent.uitm.edu.my. This website will link you to the bursary (finance department), examination status, students affair, i-Learn and others.

i-Learn is a portal where you can find your study materials uploaded there by your lecturers. Certain lecturers, however, will use other alternatives like Facebook, Schoology, Whatsapp and such. Make sure that you are notified and get those messages early and fast.

You can also visit the UiTM Library website at ptar.uitm.edu.my where you can find past years questions and online books or journals for researches.

- Your matric card

If possible, wear your matric card everywhere you go. You might be penalized and get a warrant (saman) by Polis Bantuan if you are found walking around without it.

- MUET

MUET is an acronym for Malaysian Universiti English Test. It's a test designed by the Majlis Peperiksaan Malaysia to evaluate student's comprehension on English language and it is one of the criteria needed to further your studies, especially studies that are related with English language, such as TESL, Science, Engineering, Architecture and such.

For TESL students (or TESLians, familiarize yourself with that name, it's a cool name, okay? :D), we are so lucky that we have a subject included in our syllabus that prepare us for the MUET test.

Which subject? Listening and Speaking.

That's right. In this subject, you will learn how words are pronounced according to the UK Revised Pronunciation, and also a new set of alphabets called International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA). This set of alphabet is based on the sounds each letters from the ordinary alphabet we know everyday. I'll make a post on this subject later. It is so interesting, yet it so complicated. And, the tests and final exams is a lot similar like Listening Test in MUET.

In fact, we can use what we've learnt in our subjects during the real MUET test.

In MUET, you will be assigned to finish four papers;

• Reading: You will have to answer 50 objectives questions based on several sets of passage in one hour
• Writing: You will be required to write a summary and an essay.
• Listening: For this part, you will listen to several conversations and answer the questions using the clues given when they speak
• Speaking: You will be assigned to a group of 4 and there are 2 tasks for you to complete: task A - individual presentation, and task B - group discussion.

Registration for the test is opened around September or October and the test will be done in November. Don't worry if you forgot to register for the November test - you can still register in December or January for the March test.

MUET is very important, because the minimum requirement for you to be able to further your studies in the TESL degree programme is at least Band 4.

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And that is your guide to Asasi TESL UiTM for this sem. I hope you will survive it and make it to the next semester. That's all for me. If you have anything, you can leave your comments and I'll be checking them once in a while to answer them.

Until then. ^^

P/S: Some of the points here are adapted from a good friend of mine's blog. Here's the link: aidanhaswell.blogspot.com

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*Asasi TESL used to be in Lendu, Shah Alam and Kuantan before. Now it's in Dengkil. So down here is my previous experience back in Shah Alam*

In Shah Alam, for previous batches pre-2014, the boys stayed in Kolej Meranti located outside the main campus in Seksyen 2. But for my batch, we stayed in Kolej Perindu, right at the centre of the main campus.

The girls will be staying in Kolej Mawar, located next to Dataran Cendikia (I'll tell you more about this later) and situated much closer to the Seksyen 7 gate.

You will have to fill up a few forms and be given a key to your room, where you can settle your stuffs there. The arrangement in the room depends on the college: sometimes it is assigned, and sometimes it's first come, first serve. You will be together with friends from other courses too. In some cases, you could be the only one from your own course. So, make sure to say hi and be good to everyone!

Kolej Perindu's room can fit up to 8 people with 4 bunk beds, 8 tables and chairs, 8 lockers, 8 whiteboard, and two fans. On the other hand, Kolej Mawar is a bit smaller with each room capable of fiiting 4 people  with 4 single beds each.

This is a room in Kolej Perindu

Inside Dewan Sri Budiman

Getting to the faculty

Once you are done with the MDS and got your beauty sleep during the weekend (I know I did), the following week will be your very first week at your faculty. The beginning of everything. Hmmmm... but how to get there? In fact, where is the fact?

Being TESLians, you are now under the Faculty of Education UiTM. And where is it? Well, I did mentioned that the girls will be staying at Kolej Mawar, right? Now, Kolej Mawar is much nearer to the main bus stop where the TESLians will board (or rather, fight for their rightful place in the morning with other students, particularly Music students) the bus to Seksyen 17, your faculty.

'What??! Hold up! Seksyen 17? But I thought our faculty is in the main campus.'

Yes dear, we thought so too. But then, we were wrong. The faculty is NOT in the main campus. It is located somewhere else outside, in Seksyen 17. Bear in mind that the main campus is located in half-Seksyen 1, half-Seksyen 7.

So yes, TESLian will be using the bus everyday to get to the faculty. But you need to be early and fast. Since class starts at 8 am, the earliest bus will be at 7.40 am and you'll how crazy people get to be in that bus. One more thing, the buses don't really have an organized schedule, the buses come and go at an uncertain times, so if you need to be there early, make sure you're there an hour before leaving just in case.

You will be seeing a lot of buses like this one in the main campus, but the only bus that will take you to the Faculty of Education is bus E

Remember the bus code - Bus E. (purple sign)

For Perindu boys, unfortunately you have to walk down to the bus stop since the E bus doesn't go through Perindu in the morning, not until 9 am. So just walk down to Dataran Cendikia and you shall arrive at the bus stop. I suggest you're there by 7 am, so wake up earlier than that.

I'm not sure for you guys but the Faculty of Education has always been in INTEC campus Seksyen 17. I was informed that the Faculty is moving to UiTM Puncak Alam campus in 2016. But still, I'll just share what I've been through there.

Once you board the bus, you'll be heading straight to Seksyen 17 in about 15-30 minutes, depending on traffic. You can get there by RapidKL bus or taxi too, but it will cost you a lot though. When you arrived, the bus will drop you at a bus stop amid a neighbourhood then you'll have to walk to the faculty through the INTEC main gate.

Walk to your left and you'll find the Edusquare, home of the TESLians and other students of the faculty. This is the main ground where you'll be spending a lot of your time here. There, you'll find the Angsana Hall - the main hall of your faculty. The foundation classes are often the topmost level of the building - TEC 1, TEC 2, M310 and M311.

Cafes are available for students - there are three cafes in the campus: Kafe Gagak (located next to the main office), Kafe Mentari (air-conditioned, a bit further away, near the Dewan Besar INTEC) and Kafe Hensem (the farthest cafe from the faculty). The foods are quite nice but be careful with the price and hygiene, especially Kafe Gagak (hence, the name. You'll know why.

Since early 2015, classes will start at 8 am and ends at around 4-5 pm. Recess or lunchtime is from 12 pm to 2 pm, plenty of time to get your lunch and perform your solat.

You can also visit the INTEC library (a big building you can easily spot). It's an air-conditioned, 4-storey library so you can do whatever you want there: borrow books (this is where your matric comes in handy), study there, surf the Internet or just relax for a moment. If you have friends studying in INTEC, you can even meet them here, as they often come here to search for study materials and such. It's a very peaceful and calm place, a perfect place to take a nap indeed. :)

Expenditure

As you may know, Shah Alam is a big and developing city so the living cost there pretty high. Hence, you might want to prioritise your budget and consider what's worth spending.

For food, you can find them in Dataran Cendikia (where the bus stop is). It is literally a food town where you can find many kinds of food in the stalls and kiosks. Sometimes there is a bazaar where they sell clothes and accessories but it's seasonal. The food there are quite reasonable and the portions are sometimes outstanding.

But the downside of being foundation students here is Dataran Cendikia is obliged to the degree students. This is because they only open when there is a new degree intake or a new degree semester begins. Once the degree semester ends, so does the square. It becomes a ghost town with nothing available for foundation students. It's a bit disappointing too. So you have to be wise to find other places for food.

Seksyen 7 is also a food haven. There are various restaurants - mamak, masakan kampung, Western, Kelantanese, Chinese.... you name it - and also fast food restaurants - Pizza Hut, McDonald's, KFC, A&W. There are also some bookstores, clothing shops, printing shops, workshops and laundry shops. You can also go to I-City by foot via Seksyen 7. If you want to explore more about Seksyen 7, board the C bus or RapidKL 603 (if I'm not mistaken).

The same goes to Seksyen 2 (the main gate of UiTM). There is a food court that sells food with prices compatible for students (as it is close to Kolej Meranti). It has all the things Seksyen 7 has, so you can there via D bus or RapidKL 604 (I'm confused with these two RapidKL buses, so maybe try your luck)

RapidKL buses

To board the RapidKL buses, you'll need to pay RM1. Well, depends on your destination, but for the three RapidKL buses I've mentioned, you only need to pay RM1. Or, you can buy your very own Touch-n-Go card and use it to board the buses. You can get those at Seksyen 2 bus stop.

Seksyen 2 bus stop is where you can exchange buses to go other destinations too. There are buses that can bring you to:

• Shah Alam KTM Station
• Padang Jawa KTM Station
• Plaza Alam Sentral / Plaza Masalam
• SACC Mall
• Setia City Mall - UiTM Puncak Alam
• KL Sentral

Other places in UiTM Shah Alam

If you are bored spending time in the room, why not go out and explore the main campus?

• There's a sport centre where you can play all sorts of sports and games (it's open till 11 pm)
• Three libraries that you can pay a visit, they are called PTAR or Perpustakaan Tun Abdul Razak - PTAR 1 located in Menara SAAS; PTAR 2 located opposite the Faculty of Law compound (both PTARs are close to Kolej Perindu); and PTAR 3 located in the Engineering Complex (close to Kolej Mawar).
• Menara SAAS is the central hub of UiTM Shah Alam campus. There, you can find the post office, banks, and galleries where you can learn more about UiTM history. To get there, board any bus that goes to Kolej Seroja, then drop yourself there and make your way across the streets to the tower. You'll need to climb up a few flights of stairs to get there. Menara SAAS is located next to Dewan Sri Budiman (the place where you'll probably have your briefings during MDS).
• Next to Menara SAAS is the Budisiswa building where you can reach there through a bridge across a road. This building houses the Cultural Centre of UiTM Shah Alam and also a hall named Dewan Resital Panca Sakti.

For your information, UiTM Shah Alam campus is not situated on a flatland, instead it is located on top of hundreds of small and steep hills. So the roads are quite steep and winding in certain areas. You can go around the campus using the G bus or just wear your sport shoes and jog around.

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