PART 2: WHAT ARE THE OTHER 2 GOOD NEWS?

In my previous post, I wrote about my SV will not be around for about 2 weeks. So masa SV aku gi Jepun tu, sempat lah aku finalize the thesis. Walaupun tak banyak mana nak betulkan, tapi sebab aku dah start kerja, with 12hours of teaching load & 220 students, agak mencabar jugak lah. So dipendekkan cerita, lepas SV aku balik, terus aku setelkan print hard bound & mintak sign dia. And on 17 December aku hantar my thesis to IPS. Finally done.

Rasa lega sebab dah siap semua.

Rasa tak percaya aku dah habis Phd.

Rasa sedih sebab aku dah habis study.. huhu.. Nak belajar lagi..

At the same time, aku tengah sibuk nak pindah rumah ke Muadzam. Aku dapat kuarters UNITEN lama dah, sejak 15 Nov. Tapi disebabkan viva aku 20 Nov (not to forget nak tunggu kerja2 pembaikan rumah tu siap), aku tolak tepi dulu isu2 pindah ni. & Untuk tambah keserabutan, aku ada gatal2 apply gi attend conference on 27 Nov, which is a week after my viva. So hal2 pindah umah mmg aku tolak tepi lah dulu. Nak dijadikan citer, conference yg aku gatal2 apply tu is a bit different. Usually aku prefer oral presentation, but this one is poster presentation. Saja je nak dapat new experience sebenarnya. As a preparation for the conference, aku kene siapkan poster about 2 weeks before the 27^th. This is because in Muadzam utk design & print poster tu might take a longer time compared to other places, maklum lah cuma ada 1 kedai je offer servis tuh. So dalam pada sibuk nak viva tu aku pun sibuk la prepare template utk poster presentation.

MIRCELE MELTA 2015

27 November 2015, Universiti Malaya

A day before the conference, aku balik PD dgn anak2. Plannya anak2 akan duduk di PD while I’m attending the conference. Husband kene kerja weekend tu so tak dapat hantar aku balik ke PD. Mujur la family aku ni mmg jenis yg sgt2 membantu. Tak kisah, anytime aku boleh mintak tolong. Alhamdulillah.

With the judges & other participants

So pagi2 tu aku bertolak dari PD ke UM naik Avanza. Sampai sana, buat poster presentation till noon. Tak tau pulak ada judges akan dating and ask questions. Aku tau yang conference tu ada 2 round. First round, poster. Second round, oral presentation (untuk yang memang round 1). Kat conference ni aku berkenalan dgn sorang Cikgu SMAP Kajang, yang tgh buat PhD jugak, Nisa namanya. Lepas round 1 kami pergi lunch. Masa lunch tuh MC bagitau nama2 yang akan masuk round 2 ada kat skrin depan. Tengok2 ada nama aku.. Aiseh, macam mana nih, Aku langsung tak prepare slides utk round 2 sebab aku mmg ingt aku takkan masuk round 2. Lagipun aku saja suka2 je masuk poster tuh..Addoiii.. Memang carik pasal namanya nih. Then aku gi depan and tanya pada MC boleh tak aku tak payah masuk round2 . Dia cakap tak boleh sebab once dah masuk round 1 kiranya agreed utk masuk round 2. Camtuh pulak. So camne? Masuk je la round 2 nak buat camne.

Lepas lunch tuh aku gi solat, then masuk hgall semula dalam pukul 2. Masuk2 tu tengok judges dah ada dalam hall. MC plak terus mintak slides aku. Aiseh.. nak buat cmne ni, slides tak prepare lagi. So sebab takde choice, aku pun decide utk guna je slides viva. Tak sesuai sebenarnya sebab dlm slides viva tu ada the whole thing in my study, tapi utk conference ni aku cuma highlight suku je dari study tu. Tapi nak buat camne. Padan muka sendiri la sapa suruh tak prepare. Yelah, memang la aku tak prepare, sebab aku ingat aku tak masuk round 2… Isy2.. Apa2 pun yg bagusnya aku org last sekali present. Judges tak banyak sangat komen, Cuma satu soalan tuh, “What is the progress of your study?” Aku dgn confident nya jawab, “I ve already passed my viva last week”. Then judges tak cakap ape2…hehe

During the presentation

The third good news

Masa sesi penutup, diumumkan nama pemenang. Came to my surprise that I won the Bronze award though it was totally unprepared. Didn’t expect at all. Rezeki, Allah yang bagi. Syukur sangat.

Masa nak balik tuh , Avanza plak takleh start. Rupanya bateri kereta habis. Dgn dibantu oleh Nisa & menggunakan kaedah cuba jaya, hidup pun kereta tuh. Mujur jumpa jumper dalam kereta..Lepas tu aku balik PD  dgn rasa syukur yang amat sangat for winning the third place. Third place pun nak kecoh ke? Memanglah.. itu aku tak ready langsung, tup2 dapat no3..So, that’s the 3^rd good news.

The Bronze Award- given by Prof. Dr. Gana & Prof. Dr. Stefanie

 The fourth good news

A day after my viva, I received a cheque from insurance company. Disebabkan aku tak pernah claim anything, aku dapatlah sejumlah bayaran bonus, amaun dirahsiakan.

All in all, Allah yang Maha Pemurah lagi Maha Mengasihani ..Dah bagi aku macam2 kebaikan dalam dunia nih. Jadi, memang kene bersyukur & humble atas limpah kurnianya..4 good news in 7 days. :) SubhanaAllah, Alhamdulillah

4 GOOD NEWS IN A ROW : PART 1- VIVA VOCE FOR MY PhD

Dah hampir sebulan lebih aku cuba untuk update blog ni tapi tak berkesempatan. Macam2 acara marathon untuk aku habiskan dalam masa beberapa minggu ni sejak report duty. Sampai masa untuk aku share kan 4 berita2 gembira yang aku terima dalam tempoh 10 hari.

The first good news:

After 3 years of joy and tears, finally aku dipanggil utk sesi viva. I submitted my thesis for pre-viva in May 2015. After 1 month, I was called for the session & passed. After made some corrections, I submitted the final version for Viva Voce, in early July. The common practice is it only takes about 3 months to be called for the viva. However, my session was delayed twice because the examiners were unavailable. So, after waiting for more than 4 months, baru lah viva aku diadakan. Quite unhappy because my aim is to complete the viva becfore I report for duty in the end of September 2015. Tapi kita merancang, dan segala2nya Allah yang tentukan.  I was told about the viva session 20 days before the date. I only prepared 2 weeks before the viva, and a few days before the viva I was too lazy to study my slides and notes. Most of the time, I spent time to pray and recite Al Quran & asked Allah too make ease of everything. I was quite calm (more than I imagined) during the day of the viva. A day before the viva, I go back to Kuantan. My husband took a day leave to take care of the children. I guess the next day is going to be a Papa Day care.

20 November 2015. It was Friday. The session starts at 9 am. 

I came early, set up my lappy and try to make myself comfortable with the viva room , which is located at IPS UMP. While waiting, suddenly Arif (one of my former colleague at KPM) came to the room. Rupa2nya he was appointed as the Secretary. Good, I think. At least I can have some familiar faces, including my SV in my viva session. Then, my SV came, followed by the Dean, Prof Chairperson, Internal Examiner and lastly the External Examiner. I was quite surprised that only 1 external examiner attends the session. So I asked my SV why (after the viva). Rupa2nya in UMP, only 1 external examiner will be called if the PhD candidate has passed with minor corrections. OO… napelah aku tak tau awal2 sebelum viva..hehe

So the session starts tepat2 pukul 9 am. Prof. Chairperson greets everyone. He asks me to leave the room for a while. Alamak , kene keluar ke? Baru excited nak present. So aku pun tunggu la kat luar kejap. Baru je aku nak duduk, tiba2 Arif panggil aku masuk semula and the session starts. Prof. Chairperson kata aku boleh present between 20-30 minit. Aku memang tak sabar2 nak present. Sebabnya ini je lah peluang untuk aku betul2 syok sendiri, knowing that the audience know what Im talking about. Sebab dah sah2 examiners dah baca thesis aku. So diorang sepatutnya faham lah apa yang aku present. Berbekalkan keyakinan yang agak tinggi (99.5%) aku pun menggoreng ayat demi ayat. Dan rasa sangat happy bila tengok examiners really pay attention to my presentation (regardless whether they like it or not) & angguk2 when I emphasized certain points. I complete the presentation in exactly 20 minutes. Wow.. rasa macam 2 minit je bercakap. 

Then, Prof. Chaiperson pun warm up dengan bagi pendapat dia secara general about the presentation. Then he opens the floor for the examiners to give respond. The Prof from UKM is the Chief Editor of one of the paper that I published this year. She is a very nice lady. The responses are more on clarification and to check whether I did everything by myself or not. Among the 40 spot viva questions- none was asked! But takpelah, because I did not really prepare for the spot questions.

After about an hour the Q&A ends. I am satisfied with myself because I handled the questions professionally, in a way that I did not commit into any arguments and I defended my work whenever appropriate. 

Next,  Prof. Chairperson asked me to leave the room for a while. I was about to sit when Mr. Secretary called me to enter the room. He said, “ Umi, whatever happens harap kau bersabar ye..”. At that time, aku memang pasrah je . Nasib la nak bagi lulus ke fail , minor or major. But Im quite confident that I am going to pass the viva.

Masuk je bilik, Prof. Chairperson saja je bagi intro panjang2.. Dia kata saja nak dera sikit perasaan. And I don’t even remember apa yang dia cakap. 

Then, Prof Chairperson said, “ Umi, for this viva session we have decided to award you a PhD with a minor correction”. And how do I feel at that moment? 

“ Alhamdulillah, I know that I am going to pass”. Kalau masa tu boleh sujud syukur, memang aku sujud time tu jugak. Tapi tak sesuai tempat and situasi. 

My sv, the internal and everyone say “Congrats Umi, you are now have become part of us. Welcome”. Then, Prof Chairperson continues, “At first we decided to give you less than 1 week for the correction because yours is too minor, not many corrections. But considering that you are now working, plus your SV will not be in Malaysia for the next 3 weeks, we give you up to 3 months. But you can submit your thesis as soon as you complete everything.” Wow, that’s a good news. Getting up to 3 months to do the correction is really an advantage for me. With 12 credit of teaching load and 210 students + mid term + consultation of assignment, I really need that 3 months. 

Apa pun, this will not happen tanpa izin Allah. I am so happy, delighted, overjoy, contented and all synonyms yg seangkatan dengannya.. Alhamdulillah Ya Allah. Pengorbanan and susah payah selama 3 tahun ni mendatangkan hasil. 

Before everyone left, we took photos. The examiners congratulate me again and hug me. The Prof. from UKM says, “Umi, I have another good news for you. But let your SV tells you about that”. What? Another good news? Wow.. Lepas tu aku terus gi IPS amik segala borang yang kene isi & janji jumpa SV at her office, excitedly want to know what is the good news.

The second good news:

The good news is.. the paper which I published this year is a Scopus-indexed journal. And My SV told me that the journal has been upgraded to be in ISI-indexed journal list…
Ni link untuk paper tu :
http://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/article/view/8361

Woow kan? To get published in a Scopus is veeery challenging, and to be in ISI is reaaaly a good news.  Again, alhamdulillah, thank you Allah so much for these two good news. What are the other 2 good news? Ha, yang tu next time aku tulis. Penat dah ni taip panjang2..