"How come you're on your break now?"

"So weird la your uni"

Hahahahaha yeah tell me bout it. Truth is, my pre-sem had officially ended a week ago!! If you've been following my ig, you'd know. Therefore I now have a month to kill before our next registration on 29th August for the real orientation.

Since I've seen a glimpse of uni life thru this pre-sem, I thought I'd share the

5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MALAYSIAN UNIVERSITY

There are not many stories about Msian-based university on the internet especially about mine (Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka aka UTeM) so kinda hard for me as I was finding more info abt the uni. Therefore, I'm making a post to share the experience aha.

1. Living all-over

I had my share of surprised moments when I first got my room key. I found out I am staying off-campus. And that wasn't in a dorm... but a house instead. There was 6 flight of stairs up to my place and I am forced to see filthy-filled bins while climbing all the way. I thought life was gonna be unbearable then.

Well, in UTeM there are a total of 6 residential areas for graduates as of this date. There's 2 on-campus hostels called Al-Jazari (AJ) which is an all-boys residential and Lestari. From these hostels to class, (differ for each faculty) but to the furthest faculty I believe takes approx. 15-20 mins by feet. It's quiet far. 

There's also Seri Utama (SU) which I heard is an all-girls residential. As SU located off-campus, it's quiet accessible to the urban but I never have an experience living there yet so I ain't so sure how 'urban' it is. I do see many shop-lots nearby when passing by though. SU is the closest to the Industrial Campus (Kampus Industri) which is one of UTeM's 3 campuses - Main, Industrial and City Campus. It's also quiet a new residential area somewhat 4 years or so since it had its first residence.

Bunga Raya, Emerald Park and Makmur is considered the 3 further residential areas with Makmur being the furthest as it takes approx. 35-40 mins by bus while 30 mins for Bunga Raya (BR) and Emerald Park (EP) residences. They're all situated close to the city. Makmur is located vv near to Melaka Central. Meanwhile, BR and EP are both in Bukit Beruang and located pretty close to one another. All these hostels consists of residences from both genders. Bunga Raya is an apartment-like concept with students living in a house with 5-7 housemates with 2 people each room. If you're lucky, a room happens to be attached to a toilet. Like mine. Yeah, I lived in BR during pre-sem.

2. Expensive study books

We are all asked to buy books but little did we realise how extremely short the time of usage for those books. For my pre-sem it was only like 2 months?! Lesser bcos my books were untouched all the while before exam week. Such a waste, I know. I spent RM70 for 3 books that is to be used shorter than 3 months. #regrets

No matter how new books always seems better. NO. They're a waste and trust me, you won't need them as much as you think you would. Buy second hands (check out websites like Carousell) or get it from seniors. You'd save a ton by doing this. It's all up to your study methods and the adaptive way to make use of your study resources. Some books are published by your respective university but some are from unprivate publishers like Oxford and Longman. These aren't a big deal because the syllabus wouldn't be so different. But I'd consider getting a similar one.

3. Students' wifi

Ok I learnt getting this the hard way. I end up over-using my family's internet data pool due to hotspot. The thing is, the wifi is always available but how do I use them?? Been stuck in that situation for some time. #newkid

I later found out that laptops and phones needs to be registered at Pusat Komputer before the students' wifi can be use. They will need your laptop to insert all those student's requirements for the public wifi but for phones, you can access it by yourself once they registered your ID in the system. You can ask your FELO (those adults at your residence area) how the system works there or anyone who might know about it.

Not sure anywhere else but in UTeM, wifi in campus auto-connects meaning no authentication approval is needed when using. However back at the hostels, you NEED to enter your student ID (nombor kad matriks) and password every single time you wanna use it. I didn't know that and thought smtg was wrong with the wifi bcos it was connected yet still no access...

Tips: Once you got that authentication portal open on your browser, bookmark it! You never know when that thing wouldn't wanna show up.

4. ATM machine

This is essential af. When you live 3000 miles away, you will need money for your food and student's stuff and whatnot. Figuring where are the available ATM machines in and off-campus will make your life easier. Also, know which bank they have for the ease of transactions.

In UTeM, the main campus have ATMs opposite of co-op at Pusat Persatuan Pelajar (PPP). There are ATM for banks like CIMB, Maybank, Bank Islam and Agro Bank.

5. Laptop

In universities, it's an obvious thing to be owning one. Many when I first came in, did not. They either didn't bring or have. If you're living close, this probably isn't such an issue. However, most Malaysian public university enroll students from all around the country so chances are many are living far. In my situation, thank God there's Raya break after a month so many started to realise the need and brought it along after that. But if you're coming in unprepared, there's always PC at the library.

Keep in mind, if you're not yet in uni or college do plan on sparing some money or make sure your parents have some to buy a personal laptop or notebook for your study purpose. There's also monetary help that you can get from your uni if you aren't so financially stable. Not everyone can afford so PLAN.

For your curiousity, the most used laptop brand in public university are probably:

#1 ASUS

#2 Acer

#3 HP

#4 Lenovo

#5 Dell

This is what I see people use around campus. Might not be accurate at all but the most frequently one seen is obviously ASUS.

There ya go a lil smtg I discovered in uni. It has been from my own judgement and experience, hope it helps.