Tag Archives: open university malaysia

OUM Convocation 2025 (MK29): Part 1 – Getting there

Posted in Good Things by

Open University Malaysia’s 29th graduation ceremony was held at Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC). My husband suggested that I stay at my father’s or sister’s place and travel from there. I disagreed because I knew that it is easier to travel from Melaka to PWTC than from their places.

Indeed, it was.

Melaka Sentral >> Terminal Bersepadu Selatan (TBS) >> TRX Mall >> PWTC

I booked an 8am bus ticket (Mayang Sari) from Melaka Sentral and reached TBS by 10am. My little adventure began as I looked for the commuting line that could bring me to the new mall, TRX.
I am very thankful for this map.


Armed with my TouchNGo card, I took the LRT Sri Petaling Line heading to Sentul Timur. I made my stop at Station Chan Sow Lin. There, I followed the crowd and went down the escalator many floors below to find MRT Laluan Putrajaya heading to Kwasa Damansara. In just less than 2 minutes, I was already hopping off at Tun Razak Exchange Station.

I spent about 2 hours at TRX. I had kebab for lunch and enjoyed desserts at a muslim-friendly cafe. TRX is like a mini Pavilion. You have the marhaen floor and the posh floors that are home to luxurious brands like Valentino, Bottega, etc. I did see the many famous stores that people have been raving about on social media, a like the expensive tea and chocolate place. However, since I was very focused on my mission to find a birthday present for my husband, I skipped window browsing. I ended up empty-handed and left TRX to PWTC.

I am very thankful that ladies-only coaches exist. Imagine the crowd on a Friday afternoon during lunch hour. Especially when the commuter lines are so well-connected with places like KLCC and HKL. Hence, to be able to sit comfortably in the ladies’ coach is such a blessing.

To get to PWTC, I got onto the same Platform 4 heading to Kwasa Damansara. This time, I stopped at Titiwangsa Station. From Titiwangsa, without leaving the station, I boarded the LRT Ampang Line to PWTC.
Just like that, I am already on the pedestrian bridge that not only connects the station to Sunway Putra Mall but also to PWTC. What a lovely and convenient location for graduates! I walked to PWTC and collected my graduation robe.

OUM robe collection

Before this visit, I made sure to do a few things.

  • Completed my payment of RM400 online – this covers the cost of the graduation ceremony and 3 printed convocation pictures
  • Updated my profile on the alumni portal – I get merchandise in return
  • Completed the Kajian Pengesahan Graduan online

Upon collection, I was given a goodie bag with all the stuff. Since I passed my course with distinction, I received a medal that I could keep. I had 2 guest passes, but since my daughter is less than 12 years old, she couldn’t enter the hall. Thus, my husband stayed with her in the hotel room while watching the LIVE broadcast on YouTube. The next part of this convocation journey is coming soon.

My Final Year Project (FYP) for Psychology is complete

Posted in Adult Learning, Ponderings & Personal Development by

When I first started, it was difficult to envision the end. Eventually, I did. All I had to do was take it one step at a time, holding the hand of my supervisor.

I studied motivation among the staff at my clinic. The biggest hurdle when conducting any study at a KKM facility is that I need to get approval from the Medical Research and Ethics Committee (MREC). That means having to set up a National Medical Research Register (NMRR) account and doing another set of study protocols based on what I have already written for Chapters 1 to 3 for my Open University Malaysia (OUM) subject. Once the study protocol was written and the relevant early permission was granted from my superior at the workplace and the district health office, I had to submit these documents to NMRR. I had to revise my protocol and my consent forms twice. It was disheartening at first because I was running out of time. I initially wanted to complete my FYP in 2 semesters, but I do not have control over the technical aspects of other things. This became my second hurdle.

I learned to accept that some things are just out of our control. The things I could control at the time were my reading and understanding of the topic through literature reviews. I also tried my best to perfect my chapters. I used a thesaurus a lot because the words I used were, at times, less academic. Even then, everything just comes together. The ethical approval came just in time when I wanted to start my data collection.

The data collection period was exhausting. I had to transcribe on my own. I had to squeeze in the tasks of analysing, transcribing, and reading the data between the times of the early morning, after work, and over the weekend. Writing up the report was an equally exhausting stage as I tried to make sense of what my results were. It got to the point when my sympathetic responses went into overdrive mode. However, the euphoria of being absorbed in the process and fully understanding what I wanted to achieve kept me going. There were certainly some things I initially overlooked, which just underscores how vital it is to have an engaged SV. I’ve had my sights set on this SV ever since my semester studying social psychology. She was one of the first people I considered when we were selecting our SVs, and it turned out to be an excellent decision. You can genuinely feel the positive energy of an exceptional SV radiating from her. A hallmark of a great SV is her ability to guide me through complex topics, even outside her field, ensuring that external readers can easily grasp the concepts.

Towards the deadline, there was a lot of ping-pong going on with our emails but we persevered. I felt a huge relief when I submitted my report to OUM. On the day itself.

Is this the end of my FYP? Technically yes, but remember the NMRR and MREC I mentioned earlier. Now I have to submit a report to them. I hope I can use my OUM report instead of re-doing it with a different format. I will check on it soon.

Exam season

Posted in Everyday Life by

April, August and December are exam seasons. This semester I took 4 subjects of which 1 of them was 100% dependent on our course work – Research Methodology. I enjoyed exploring the subject but it does feel overwhelming. There was so much literature to read. I had that submitted on the 4th of August. The other 3 modules also had written assignments but they were handed in much earlier in July. Now are the remaining exam papers.

I have completed the essay exam for Ethics in Psychology and Dynamics of Adjustment. I am only left with Perception and Emotion today. The take-home essay question starts at 2pm and ends at 10pm. With other daily chores to be done like cooking, feeding the family and all, time does run out quickly. I am just glad that I took leave for these papers cause it would be really stressful having to write a paper in just 2 hours on a working day. Imagine getting off work at 5pm, and then having to fetch the kids, prep/order dinner, wash up and finally settle into answering the question. Sakit dada.

I find that trying the questions the tutorials post in the forum is helpful. It gives you an idea of what to expect. Sometimes there are sample questions which are equally mind-stimulating.

Once I am done with today, I can relax a bit before I jump into my next semester. That’s another 4 subjects. And then I can concentrate on my Final Year Project.

Summing up September

Posted in Everyday Life by

September was turbulent. This is what happened.

Largest mobile outreach vaccination programme

We were vaccinating between 500 to 650 people per day at locations like Sekolah Henry Gurney, Penjara Sungai Udang and MPHTJ. The challenging part was making sure that the total number of people vaccinated tallied with the number of vaccines given. If the total number of people registered on the Mysejahtera system is off – I need to figure out whether we missed out on verifying certain people once they completed their vaccination, the earlier registration did not go through, vaccine vials went missing etc.

My colleague speaking to the Chief Minister

Once I had to stay up late to tally up the numbers because the Mysejahtera system was offline for a few hours during the vaccination programme. We couldn’t wait as the prison had protocols to abide to. So we did manual registration and I had to complete the back logged data afterwards. It was a pain going through the 400 plus consent papers and see whose names are not registered and verified in the system. This is important because Malaysia provides digital certificates in the Mysejahtera app. It would be an injustice to the prisoners, should they be released one day, to discover that their names are not in the system. Although everyone has a physical card to keep, it’s always nice to have a digital one with you at all times since everyone has a smart phone nowadays.

Semester Six

I am now in Semester 6. How time flies. I wished I started sooner. Haha. I guess starting anything before 40 is a great idea. Even if they are thoughts for a career change. I am taking 3 subjects instead of 4. Gotta be realistic sistaaa..

Mini celebration for Doctors Day

I was really excited for this one. We celebrated early. It started with just plans for lunch and then the idea expanded into including games, gift exchange and awards. Surprisingly, I bagged 2 awards – one is the doctor with the Neatest Handwriting and the other one is the Most Soft Spoken. LOLS. I need to digest the latter thought and start viewing myself from other peoples perspective. I am pretty sure my personality is very different in the car whilst driving. I did not get to attend the party as I was out doing my mobile vaccination programme but I managed to keep up with the updates through Whatsapp. It was fun for me from a far. Being present takes too much energy.

My personal contribution to the party were sandwiches and the coffee machine. I had no idea people would love the Nescafe Gold Blend Barista machine. I had thought that they would prefer the capsule ones. Anyway, some friends who wanted to get it for themselves discovered that the product has been discontinued. Wow. I am that lucky few left with the machine. After all, it has been in our possession for a few years already. Husband purchased it from Shopee before the capsules were popular.

Moon chamber – Preloved BookStore on Shopee

Instead of giving away the books – which people would appreciate less, I decided to sell them online through the Shopee platform. I feel it is the easiest selling platform for beginners. of course, Shopee will take a percentage of your total sales for their service fees but it is still one of the easiest way to sell your stuff.

I set up my shop. I listed my items. I described my products and put in the weight of the items (roughly) so that Shopee could calculate the shipping price. I also get to choose the couriers available near my home. My choice is Citylink, J&T and Ninja van. If someone buys my books, I just have to print my airway bill (AWB), pack the things in my cute plastic bag and drop it off at their respective points. My favourite is the Mail Box place at Kip Mall. No need for extra weighing and all. Just drop it off. I had no idea it was that simple. So far, last month alone I made RM19. That is good enough than having to see the books rot on the shelves. At least I get to buy new books after that!

October is currently off to a good start. I wonder what interesting things it will bring.