Ask An Experienced Education Advisor in Malaysia What to Study after SPM or IGCSE O-Levels

What to Ask the Best Education Advisor About What to Study in Malaysia after SPM or IGCSE O-Levels?

Written by EduSpiral Consultant Services For more information contact 01111408838

After SPM or IGCSE O-Levels, there are many different pathways for you to choose from and sometimes it can be confusing. Students who are not sure of what to study after SPM or O-Levels can contact EduSpiral Consultant Services to help guide you to choose the right course and university.

Choosing the best possible course to study is a very important decision to make, and often a challenging one.  For some people, choosing the course is simple as they have always wanted to be a brain surgeon or a dentist or an engineer.

Many students in Malaysia tend to choose their course based on what their parents or relatives recommend, rather than on what they are good at or really like to study. The end result is that a lot of Malaysian students discover that they have started on courses that may be unsuitable to them after studying a few semesters. Worse is when they start work, they find that it is not what they like.

When choosing a course students need to choose based on your personal strengths and your career goals. Let the experienced counselors at EduSpiral Consultant Services take you step-by-step through the choices.  If you are not sure what to study, do ask a trained counselor and always make decisions based on evidence and facts. The decisions that you make now, can change your life forever. You can contact us for a free career test to help you understand yourself better so that you are able to make the right decision.

You might also be interested to read:

• Choosing the Right Course After SPM or O-Levels Increases Your Chances of Getting a Good Job & Salary in Malaysia
• Study Options After SPM
• Explore Your Study Choices After SPM
• Best Diploma Courses in Malaysia at Top Colleges & Universities
• Entry Requirements for Foundation, Diploma & Degree Courses in Malaysia
• How to Choose the Best Private University or College in Malaysia that Fits Me?
• Study Courses that has High Job Demand in Malaysia
• Top 20 Courses to Study in Malaysia that has High Job Demand & Stable Salary
• Top 10 Best Courses to Study in Malaysia
• Malaysia’s 28 Top Jobs in Demand in Future with High Salaries

For more information on how to choose the right course with high job demand, contact 01111408838

Please fill up the Form below and I will WhatsApp you and provide you with sound advise on how to choose the best private university or college in Malaysia to study at. If you do not give your mobile number or full name as in IC, your query will not be answered. Our knowledgeable & experienced counsellor will send you a message on WhatsApp & provide assistance from there.

Ask a Knowledgeable & Experienced Education Consultant to Help you Make the Right Choice after SPM or O-Levels

Choosing a course to study after SPM or O-Levels is not a science, it is a process

in finding out who you are and what you are good at. An experienced Education Advisor would be invaluable in assisting you to choose the right course. Students need to talk to the right education counselors so that you get the right information to help you in making this life-changing decision.

Ask the right Education Counselors. Would you ask a Doctor on how to repair your car? Or would you ask a mechanic for medical advise? Although this sounds ridiculous, but many students do listen to advise from young and inexperienced counselors from universities, colleges or agents’ offices.  Talking to an experienced education advisor would help you to navigate through this confusing time of choosing the best course that fits you.

Experienced education counselors are able to analyse your interests, personality and exam results to help you make a list of possible courses for consideration. EduSpiral Consultant Services staff have more than 15 years experience in counseling students. Having worked in the private education industry, we have in-depth knowledge of each private university and college in what they are good at.

EduSpiral Consultant Services has worked with our partner universities and colleges for many years while the counselors at the private universities or agents’ offices change every few years therefore they would not have the in-depth knowledge of the courses and the university that they are working at.

Help! I don’t know what course to choose to study at university- what do I do?

It is important to choose the right course to study – you don’t want to waste your time and money on a

course you don’t want to do (or end up dropping out of). To help you decide which course is right for you, make a list of courses that are of interest to you.

Is it a subject you have already studied? For example, maybe you loved the English subject and you read novels for pleasure in your own time. You can consider Teaching English as a Second Language, journalism or Mass Communication. In addition, you don’t have to do a journalism degree to become a journalist – many degrees are considered!

Maybe you’ve always been interested in computers and the internet at home, and enjoyed maths at school, so are considering a degree in computer science, a course subject you probably won’t have studied before. Experienced education counselors are able to analyse your interests, personality and exam results to help you make a list of possible courses for consideration.

Looking at your results in SPM or O-Levels could help you to decide which course you would be good at. If you are good in Maths & Physics then you can consider Engineering courses. Having good results in Chemistry, Biology & Maths, you can think of a career in Food Science, Pharmacy or Medicine. Talking to an experienced education advisor would help you to navigate through this confusing time of choosing the best course that fits you.

Many students after SPM make the mistake of just listening to advise without verifying whether the information given is true or not. In addition, just because you have heard or seen a lot of advertisements by a particular university, doesn’t mean that it is the best in that course.

Many of the course counselors at the universities are paid by the universities to get you to register there, so their main motivation is to get you to register, not to help you make the right choice.

You should also ask yourself if you would still be interested in that subject for a further three or four years – enough to motivate yourself to work and research independently? Remember, you are going to work in this career for the next 50 years after graduation, therefore, you should have a high interest in the course.

The course that you choose should also have a job demand for you after you graduate. Choosing a course that you are passionate about without job demand and you may end up being jobless. Look for statistics and research to support whether there is a job demand for your future career in Malaysia. Here at EduSpiral Consultant Services, we do our research on the job demand for the careers in Malaysia, Salary Reports, and universities so that we can advise our students based on facts and evidence.

Now why would you want to talk to EduSpiral Consultant Services when you can contact the private universities directly? Well, EduSpiral Consultant Services staff have more than 15 years experience in counseling students. Having worked in the private education industry, we have in-depth knowledge of each private university and college in what they are good at. We have worked with our partner universities and colleges for many years while the counselors at the private universities or agents’ offices change every few years therefore they would not have the in-depth knowledge of the courses and the university that they are working at.

What am I good at? What am I not good at?

An undergraduate degree course in Malaysia lasts three to five years – that’s a long time to spend studying something which you don’t enjoy, especially at a more intense level! First of all ask yourself what you have enjoyed studying at secondary school in Malaysia.

Your SPM or O-Level results will show what you are actually good at. Having good results in Maths, you can consider Actuarial Science, Accounting, Computing or Finance courses. Having narrowed down to these courses, you can go for the Foundation in Arts for 1 year before really choosing which one to study for your degree.

Alternatively you can also think about subjects you definitely don’t want to study at university level and which you can’t wait to say goodbye to. Crossing these off will make your list of options smaller and less overwhelming.

Your parents and friends would also be able to give you an idea of what you are good at. Looking at your hobbies and interests would help to narrow down the list. Your hobby in drawing could open the possibility of choosing design courses.

What qualifications do I have already?

You may already have an idea of the area you want to study and find a career in, which will have dictated what subjects you’re already studying at school. However it’s good to look at the qualifications and grades you have (or are predicted to have) to see what you are already eligible to study. Some students want to study medicine but in their SPM results, they only managed to get 5Cs. To study in medicine, one needs to have at least 5Bs including the science subjects. Students need to be realistic in choosing their course of study by looking at their actual results.

If your actual results do not meet the entry requirements for your particular course of interest, then you may need to consider other options or to resit the SPM or O-Level exam to get the necessary results.

What are my interests?

If you can’t think of an academic subject which you’re especially strong at or one which you would want to pursue at university-level, think about your non-academic interests outside of school. It’s likely that you’re much more passionate about these but you’ve never even thought you could study a course related to these (or pursue a career in this area).

Your hobbies, interests and which clubs & societies that you have joined in secondary school would give you some idea of what you are good at. These, together with your actual results would contribute to your decision-making process in choosing the right course of study.

New courses are being created all the time to prepare and develop talent for growing industries, such as animation or computer game design. Projects, events and knowledge related to these interests can all contribute to show that you’re passionate about this area and eligible to study on a course which can prepare you for a related career.

In other cases there may be several routes to your dream career, some of which may allow you to study something different before transferring or. Talk to those who are already working in this area to see how they got to where they are now, including what they studied (or even what they wish they had studied).

What do I want to do for my career?

You may have a clear idea of what you want to do for a career which makes choosing a course to study

easier, particularly if you want to become a doctor or lawyer. You can search our articles section to see if we’ve already written about your dream graduate career and how you can achieve this.

When making a decision about your career, it is important to take into consideration the average salary. Starting salaries in Malaysia is about RM2800 to RM3000 for most careers while starting salaries in Singapore is about SGD2714. Although starting salaries is generally the same level for everyone, what you do in the following years of your job will determine how much higher you would get.

Therefore, it is also important to choose the right university that would equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to move up in your career. Many students make the mistake of choosing the cheapest university for their studies and then later realise that they cannot get the promotion or salary increment because they did not get the skills needed. English is one of these skills that most students do not take seriously about its importance for promotion and salary increments in future jobs.

Think about it, if you are unable to write a report or email in proper English or do a presentation smoothly, how would you be able to become a manager or CEO eventually?

How to Choose the Right Course to Study after SPM?

It can be confusing to choose the right course after SPM or O-Levels. You should carefully think about what are the options available to you. To choose the best course that fits you, you need to consider the following:

• Look at your results – what are your best & worst subjects, and which subjects are your favourite?
• What are your interests & hobbies?
• What is your passion?
• Job demand for the career of choice. There is no point in choosing a course out of passion and then graduate to find out that you cannot get a job in that field.
• Salary of the career of choice
• Discuss the budget for your studies with your parents. There is no point in choosing a course like Pharmacy or Medicine, if you cannot afford it.