Tips for SPP Interview: TESL Edition~

Congratulations, my TESL ladies <3

Assalamualaikum and good day to you!

As promised, I’m writing this entry to share my personal experience attending the SPP interview for TESL, along with some tips and my own English SPP note for your reference. This sharing is entirely based on my experience, so do keep in mind that the process may differ from year to year.

Let’s start with the basics. The interview took place on 26th June 2025, right in the middle of our second week of practicum. To attend, we had to request leave approval from both IPGM and our respective schools. You might wonder how we received our interview dates despite not having completed our education diploma yet. My assumption is that, as the first batch of PDPP Perdana fully sponsored by MOE, we were given a special pathway. Our interview session also coincided with the final-semester PISMP IPG students, which makes sense since both groups are from IPGM.

The interview venue was the SPP Building at Prime Minister's Department Complex, Putrajaya. I highly recommend arriving early to avoid traffic and to settle yourself before the session.

My parents picked me up from Malacca and drove straight to Putrajaya. We reached around 2 a.m., and ended up resting in the car at a nearby surau. I woke up at 4 a.m. to get ready, and we reached the SPP building by 6.30 a.m. The queue was already long by then, but still manageable. After scanning the attendance form, we were directed to the waiting lobby. In the lobby, SPP staff will check your file to ensure all required documents are complete. Be very careful here, missing or incorrect documents can slow down or even complicate your application. Luckily, they provide photocopying services on the spot, so you can fix any issues immediately.

Candidates are grouped based on the sequence of their files. I was placed in the second group, and by sheer luck (or misfortune), I ended up being the first candidate in my group. I still remember the stress, lmao. Fortunately, 8 out of the 11 candidates were my classmates, which helped ease my nerves a little.

Our panel consisted of the infamous Datuk Dr M and Dr L. If you’ve heard stories about SPP interviews, you would know that Datuk Dr M is well-known for her personal “book” of interview questions. Each session gets a different set, which naturally increases the level of difficulty, and her expected answers usually require higher-order thinking. In short, her presence is feared. True enough, she lived up to her reputation. Her questions sounded simple on the surface, but were actually very tricky.

SPP: The wait is finally over!!

Assalamualaikum dan selamat malam semua!! Setelah berbulan juga penantian saya dan rakan-rakan lain, akhirnya hari ini saya menerima SMS daripada SPP untuk menyemak keputusan temuduga yang telah dijalankan pada 26 Jun 2025 tempoh hari. Berdebar ya nak semak keputusan, walaupun PDPP Perdana ini dikatakan anak emas KPM yang hampir terjamin 100% penempatannya. Kalau temuduga kali ini sangkut, memang menangis la tunggu pengambilan seterusnya yang semestinya akan memakan lebih banyak masa. 

Berbalik kepada cerita saya, saya sebenarnya sedang off-gadget ketika keputusan diumumkan kerana tiba-tiba datang ilham nak mengemas bilik pula hari berkenaan. Kawan-kawan call, tag dalam group, cari merata dekat semua media sosial, tapi saya tetap tak muncul-muncul. Lebih kurang pukul 6 petang macam tu baru saya selesai dan buka telefon semula. Masa tu, berdentum-dentum notification masuk. Terasa la glamor kejap hahaha.

Antara yang paling kelam-kabut cari saya mestilah si Izzah. Bukan apa, sebab beberapa hari sebelum keputusan keluar, saya ada bagitahu dia yang naluri saya kuat mengatakan keputusan akan diumumkan minggu itu juga atau minggu berikutnya. Siap buat poll lagi tengok betul ke tidak naluri saya tu. Dan... betul pun! Naluri seorang perempuan, lagi-lagi perempuan gila yang analisis tarikh-tarikh pengumuman tahun lepas, memang tak boleh dibuat main hahaha.

Keputusan sebenarnya dah keluar sejak 4.30 petang. Alhamdulillah, penantian panjang saya berakhir dengan keputusan yang sangat menggembirakan. Benda pertama saya buat tentulah forward ke group WhatsApp keluarga. Langkah seterusnya tentulah bukak CapCut untuk cari template jj HAHAHA.

Cuma… lama jugalah video jj tu tersadai dalam draft sebab saya fikirkan caption. Kalau ikut hati, memang caption paling rempit saya guna. Tapi memandangkan saya kini selangkah memasuki sektor perkhidmatan awam, kenalah jaga imej sikit. Jadi saya pilihlah caption yang paling selamat dan tak mencetuskan kontroversi: “alhamdulillah ala kulli haal”. Rasa janggal tu ada lah juga, tapi kita cubalah biasakan diri. Bukan untuk jadi fake, cuma satu usaha kecil untuk menjaga profesionalisme keguruan. Bukan setakat dapat A+ EDUP sahaja, tapi kita cuba hidupkan budaya profesionalisme tu dalam kehidupan harian. Barulah tak memalukan Madam Ezlin haha.

Ada juga kawan-kawan yang pm tepi tanya kenapa caption tak serempit biasa. Sorry guys, ada imej penjawat awam yang perlu dijaga sebaik mungkin. Apa-apa pun, saya sangat lega dengan keputusan ini. Sekarang tiba masa untuk fokus pada medical checkup, penyediaan dokumen, dan proses seterusnya. Doakan saya mendapat penempatan yang terbaik, tak kisahlah di mana pun. 

InshaAllah, kalau ada kesempatan, saya akan tulis satu entri tentang tips temuduga SPP beserta nota temuduga dalam Bahasa Inggeris khusus untuk calon TESL yang saya sendiri sediakan.

Itu sahaja daripada saya. Byeee!! 

My e-Conversion MARA is Finally Approved!!!

Assalamualaikum everyone! Lepas 14 bulan bayar balik pinjaman MARA dan hampir 5 bulan lebih tunggu kelulusan e-Conversion, akhirnya permohonan pengurangan bayaran balik saya approved!😭 Dari jumlah pinjaman RM24.9k, saya cuma perlu bayar RM3.6k je sebab dapat pengecualian 85% untuk graduan kelas pertama (alhamdulillah rezeki Allah bagi). Dapat jimat hampir 20 ribu weh!!

Setakat ni dah bayar konsisten 14 bulan — lebih kurang RM1.4k dah settle. Tinggal baki dalam dua ribu lebih je, inshaAllah boleh habis dalam dua tahun paling lambat. Syukur sangat, rasa macam beban besar dah terangkat! Terima kasih daddy MARA hehehe <3

2:00 AM.

Lost in someone else's dream.

My parents always dreamed of this path for me. A stable job. A guaranteed future. A title that carries respect. Their voices were louder than my own. Their hopes became my script. And so, I followed. Not out of passion, but out of duty.

Now, I move through my days like a character in a book I don’t remember picking up. I sit in class, surrounded by future teachers who seem to belong here. They speak of their love for teaching, their excitement for the classroom, their eagerness to shape young minds. I smile, nod, pretend. But deep inside, I wonder — why don’t I feel the same?

Each assignment feels like an echo of a question I’m too afraid to answer. Do I belong here? Every lesson plan I draft, every microteaching I did, every learning aid I invent— it all feels like I’m watching someone else live my life. Like I am a spectator, not a participant.

The future looms ahead, a government teaching post waiting for me at the finish line. A promise of stability, a mapped-out life. But what if stability isn’t the same as happiness? What if security feels more like a cage than a comfort?

I am tired. Burnt out. Drifting through the motions of a life I never truly chose, trying to convince myself that this will all make sense eventually. That one day, I’ll wake up and feel like I belong.

But I don’t.

And I don’t know how to step off this path without shattering everything.

So I keep walking. Hoping that somewhere along the way, I will either find the “nyala rasa” as a teacher — or the courage to change direction. Hoping that with every doubt, with every quiet whisper of this isn’t for me, I am inching closer to something else. Something real.

-- 

A snippet of my Medium entry, when life gets really tough.