PhD and past performance: Any correlation?

Recently, I received an e-mail from one of my friends. He is working in a corporate sector and planning of doing PhD. From his writing, I can feel that he is 150% sure on his chosen topic as he claimed to have more than 10years working experience in that particular area. He is also confident that he is qualified to enter any G8 (top uni ) in Australia based on his past academic performance. He is confident that he could complete his PhD on time (3 years) or may be less.

My replied to him: Good, you have meet the criteria needed to enroll as a PhD student and you have more than 100% confidence to start your journey but my advise is that don't be over confident! Based on my two years experience (in my horrible third year now..heee) , my personal opinion is that PhD does not really correlate with your past experience and academic performance. Ini hanya based on my observation and tak empirically tested lagi nooo...heeeee...

I have seen few people yang ada tip-top academic performance in their entire life (best student masa SPM, among the top students masa bachelor and master degree) need to go back after 1 year starting their journey. Ada juga yang kononnya expert in the area of study and have years and years working experience in that particular area but still struggling in their journey.

Ada juga, yang just have "so and so" past academic performance and have no working experience what so ever in their area of study tapi dapat complete on time. So, my conclusion: PhD does not correlate with any of these two factors.

PhD is not 100% about the topic that you are researching but more on how good/clever/smart you are in handling challenges in your life through out your PhD journey. To me, perseverence is more needed compared to confidence in your PhD journey.

Another thing, to those yang plan to do PhD, buang jauh jauh your ego , especially yang dah jadi bos-bos kat Msia. Doing Phd meaning you are going out of your "comfort zone". Sometimes you need to do things that you don't really feel like doing. You must always remember, once you dah ada tag student, kat sini, you need to live as a student ( ini untuk golongan biasa biasa le). No more luxury. Here, nobody care about your pangkat or status kat Msia. I am telling this because there are people yang susah nak adjust. Kena ingat pesan org tua tua "masuk kandang kambing mengembek, masuk kandang kerbau menguak". Kalau guna approach " cerdik tak boleh tumpang, bodoh tak bole nak ajar", you will end up jadi "kera sumbang"....heeeee

Adakah ini suratan???

Semalam dah plan, subuh ari ni nak start tulis chapter baru. Dengan penuh semangat kesukanan, bangun je subuh tadi terus on computer. Baru je start, dah ada warning yang my computer is subjected to hacker attack. At first tu I buat "derrk" je,tapi bila dah tak bole nak guna/nulis, hati pun mula panas. Gerrammm betul la....I plak kalau bab bab technical/virus attack dan yang sewaktu dengannya ni memang tak pandai.

En Hubby ku plak ,lepas solat subuh tadi, sambung tidor.Kejap tadi, dah kejut dia cakap problem nih.Dia buka mata sikit, then cakap "you jgn guna computer tu, nanti I tengok", then dia tidor balik dgn jayanya.haishhhhh...gerrrammm lagi...Abih nak guna computer mana???..laptop yang tengah guna ni, untuk tulis blog and Nina tengok Upin Ipin bole lah...dah sakit tua...risau plak ..kalau guna laptop ni, nanti abih plak semua file corrupted.

Laptop En Hubby, I tak pandai guna. Dia letak apa kebenda ntah, kalau nak buka leceh sikit..biasalah org lelaki suka bubuh benda benda yang melambatkan kerja..sebab they have time to waste..they can spend hours in front of their laptop.Lagipun laptop dia tu screen kecik. With my eyes muscle yang memang problem ni, mata I memang akan sakit bila guna laptop dia.

Hu hu hu....nampaknya pagi ni I tak leh nak nulis la. Sedih la...sebab otak dah plan , nak nulis. Lagi satu..harap harap , virus attack tu tak le teruk.. Itu le sesatunye laptop ku. Actually itu pun "sumbangan ehsan" my hubby coz my laptop (yang I guna untuk tulis ni) dah kena sakit tua..dah uzur benar untuk buat PhD work.

p/s: CT... bagi la I pinjam your MacBook Pro hadiah harijadi you tu......

Kalau saya jadi CT...

In January je, media kat Msia mesti report about CT. Her birthday celebration and the present given by her beloved husband. Pepagi morning ni, otak saya pun dah letih dok pikir ayat ayat cantik untuk my thesis, meh berangan kejap. Kalau lah saya jadi CT....

1) Saya tak nak la hadiah Mercedes dari hubby, saya akan minta kereta jenis lain..apa kelllasss pakai Mercedes...dah ramai benor org pakai Mercedes...saya minta la Audi ke....nak plak yang "topless"...haaaa..baru best!
2) Saya tak la buat bizness cosmetic...buat hapaaa...ramai dah org buat biz cosmetik..nanti mati kena bunuh plak..saya buat la biz "kindy"..saya buka kindy yang bagus with trained teachers untuk golongan biasa-biasa...Saya buka cawangan merata Malaya. Disamping tolong org, saya pun dapat good image...kan saya CT..kena selalu ada image tip top..
3) Paling korok pun saya buka biz baju...keluarkan baju baju yang sopan and kontemporari (betul ke perkataan ni..bantai je la) haaa...saya buat jenama sendiri...saya ambik designer Malaysia...budak UiTM kat ramai berbakat...mesti ramai yang nak beli baju saya...kat Msia kan ramai nak jadi CT...
4) Saya tak le beli handbag berpuluh/ratus ribu...saya beli umah kat Western Ostolia..saya sewakan kat PR or student PhD ...umah saya dijamin akan ada penyewa...sewa pun tinggi kat sini ...
5) Saya tak minta MacBook Pro untuk hadiah birthday...buat hapaaa...setakat nak bertwitter, laptop "cokia" pun bole..lagipun my staffs yang twitt kan..bukan saya...Saya akan minta beli kapal ..saya bole cruise bila saya boring...kat Mandurah baru ni ada di"sale"kan kapal ..1/2 juta...bukannya mahal pun...kalau kat Albert Hall dulu bole..tak kan kapal tak bole plak...
6) Saya tak le pakai tudung mcm tak berapa nak tudung tu...Image tu cam indicate yang saya tak berapa "ketahuan dlm hidup"..tak pasti apa yang saya buat..tak bole..tak bole...saya CT..saya kena tonjolkan yang saya yakin and pasti dlm apa benda yang saya buat including cara berpakaian...saya akan suruh designer buat image baru kat saya...image yang simple tapi indicate yang saya dah berada di class saya sendiri...

Nasib baik saya bukan CT...Allah tu Maha Mengetahui......ok back to work !

Menyampah...

Saya menyampah bila org menipu saya...
Saya menyampah bila org berpura pura tunjuk baik..
Saya menyampah bila org bermuka muka..
Saya menyampah bila org particular about pangkat and darjat..
Saya menyampah bila saya rasa menyampah ngan orang...

Lepak santai

This beach is about 15 minutes from our house. One of the city's most popular place untuk lepak to enjoy the sun bagi mat salleh kat sini le. Last sunday we went there. Of course not for sun bathing. Saje ...jalan jalan , cuci cuci mata...kan sekarang ni musim buka buka...wakaka...

Alang alang dah pegi, we all pun ambik kesempatan tengok sunset into the Indian ocean. Cantik sangat.....

7.1.2011

Dah masuk hari ketujuh ditahun baru. Not a good day for me. First, bangun lambat. My day usually start at 3am. Lepas sembahyang sunat, sembahyang subuh, read Quran then I start my PhD work. Tapi hari ni , 4.40am baru terbuka mata. Ngantuk betul. Kelam kabut bangun untuk subuh coz subuh abih kul 5.17am. Memang tak suka. Bangun lewat meaning my study time dah berkurang. Siang hari saya amat jarang berkesempatan buat kerja PhD. Kalau buat pun bukan lah untuk things yang perlukan tumpuan. Quality time for my PhD work hanyalah masa subuh. Ketika my hubby and my 3 children tidur.

Second, start je buat my PhD work, maka terjumpa le plak masalah baru. Rasa mcm ada yang pelik kat one of my variables in my model. Bila rasa pelik, kena lah plak make sure betul ke yang pelik itu pelik. Macam mana konpius and peningnya anda membaca mcm tu la jugak konpius and peningnya saya mencari. Stress level pun bertambah. Then, decide to stop kejap dari pikir bab ni.

Next, cari plak list brg sekolah untuk my 3 children. Kononnya nak beli awal lah. Only list for my little girl (kindy) je yang I jumpa. Lists for my 2 boys yang dihantar oleh pihak sekolah tak jumpa. But I remembered baca the lists and put somewhere in my study room. Pikir punya pikir , may be I dah terbuang masa I kemas my study table few days ago. Adoii...nak kena contact sekolah le plak. Stress lagi....

Dalam I sibuk dok mengemas in my study room, Nina plak sibuk "mengemas" kat ruang tamu. Rasa cam nak pengsan tengok creativity Nina mengemas. Stress lagi....

Sekarang dah dekat 12 noon. Kejap lagi my hubby and my 2 sons balik dari swimming class. Mesti diaorang lapar. Dari pagi kat pool. Lunch belum masak. Nak masak apa ari ni??? Stress lagi...

Half of the day, asyik stress je.. so now Pn Sri Stress nak pegi masak plak....

Azam & New Year

Entah kenapa kedatangan 2011 membuat hati berdebar debar. Most probably sebab teringat yang lagi 10 months complete le my third year. Banyak lagi kerja. Entah la bila nak siap. So far nampak macam "Never ending story" je. Ibarat macam driving. Baru nak masuk gear 4, dah kena reverse balik. Kalau reverse je tak apa gak, ni kekadang tayar plak pancit. Dah kena berhenti tukar tayar plak.

In the spirit of celebrating new year, moh kita cakap bab azam. Ramai betul yang buat azam. Dalam FB bole baca pelbagai azam . I am the one yang tak berapa pandai nak berazam azam. Dari muda sampai ketua, personally, I tak nampak sgt relevantnya azam to mylife. Masa muda, may be kejahilan about azam make me just ignore it. Bila dah kawin and bekeluarga, I rasa bertambah tak relevant. Coz what ever yang nak diazamkan tentunya ada banyak surrounding factors yang akan influence. Banyak benda yang nak kena timbang tara. Banyak hati nak kena jaga. Banyak responsibility yang nak kena fulfil. Ending up, I jadi org yang tak pernah kisah about azam. To me azam just like accessory dlm keta. Bukan penting untuk menggerakkan sebuah kereta. More kepada menambah the elegant look of the car. Or may be like cosmetic bagi org pompuan, tak ada real added value to kecantikan. Hanya bole hayal sekejap . Tak caya, cuba keluar umah tak pakai lipstick. Rasa cam tak lawa. Tapi bila pakai, walaupun tak cantik, tapi perasan lawa.... kah kah kah. So my personal advice, org pompuan tak yah beli cosmetic banyak banyak, mascara , blusher segala. Buang duit untuk beli hayalan..so berpada pada...heee.

Back to azam, to me , azam ni ibarat accessory untuk menyambut tahun baru. Teringin gak nak tau berapa ramai yg betul betul berazam untuk mencapai azamnya? How many plak yg berjaya achieve their azam? Jgn salah faham, tak salah nak berazam.. teruskan lah azam anda semua. Cuma, as for me saya lebih comfortable follow the flow of life and adjust to it.....

" It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change"- Charles Darwin.