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The year was 1982. I had taken my SPM examination by end of that year (SPM or MCE in English is short form for Malaysian Certificate of Education, a Form 5 major examination in Malaysian education system). Early 1983 the result was out and I scored Grade 1 with just a pass in English….but that was enough for me to get an offer for scholarship by the Public Service Department (PSD) of Malaysian Government, to study overseas. Victoria, Australia was my destination.

Prior to departing for Australia I had to undergo a compulsory 6-month English course at Mara Institute of Technology (ITM, now known as UiTM after upgraded as university). I was interviewed by the PSD officials to determine my course of study in Australia. Needless to say, I proudly told the interviewer that I enjoy working outdoor and aspired to become a Civil Engineer. However due to my not-so-good results in Additional Mathematics, this was discounted by the interviewers so there goes my dream to become a Civil Engineer.

They must be the kind of ‘hey i know whats best for you ‘ - persons, that they had earmarked me for a study in…guess what….Real Estate Management. Well….not bad idea after all…I still get to work outdoor occasionally….so it still fulfilled that criteria…what a great way to send a poor student overseas and earmarked him for a course that didnt even crossed his mind….ever. When I told my late Dad about it…he was nevertheless excited..thinking of his eldest son becoming the great real estate king like Rahim…of Rahim & Co….one of Malaysia’s success story in real estate. Ha…ha…ha

So 6 months at the ITM went really fast. We started with free-style dressing ala university but eventually ended up with school children style of dressing due to a lot of students flunking their weekly tests in TOEFL and Australian Government English Test (AGET)….so the lecturers decided that punishing the students like that could provide them with some insentives to study harder and pass the exams eventually.

To cut the long story short, I completed the intensive course, speaking literally very little English despite the 6 months stints…passed the AGET exam and finally set my foot in Melbourne in 1984. Australia…here I come.

On the other side of this story…we found out two students actually didnt make it to Australia because of AGET failure…but they were sent to USA instead….so a lot of us screaming….had we known that…we would have flunked the AGET tests with flying colours…what a wish.

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