MEXT Scholarship Journey [part.3]

The Waiting [part.1]

The document screening part is the most dangerous part of all the screening process. The first gate and also the cruelest part. This part pruned thousands of applicants to just several hundred people from my country, especially mine. I don't know about you guys, but in my case the education section employee in the embassy told me that if the documents are correctly printed and served accordingly to the rules which are clearly written on the website, everything should be okay. I have no more questions. Before I left the room "'Till we meet again" I told her. Smiled she replied "Good luck".

Document Screening Result, June 8th

Let God do the magic. There were 165 people who passed the document screening. I saw my name on the list. Never thought this could happen. Can't believe my eyes that my number showed up. I screamed with joy in my room. So the next step is the written test.

Written Test

The written test consists of 2 tests which you will have to take, Japanese and English, based on which certificate you gave in the language proficiency documents. If you gave JLPT certificate (min. N2),  you have to do the Japanese exam, but if you gave TOEFL, you will only have to do the English test. For example, if you gave TOEFL certificate, you will do the English exam and during the Japanese exam, you just have to sit, write your name and ID, and wait 'till the exam ends. So boring.
But wait, there's more! Even if you do both, only the highest score will be taken into consideration. So if you are good in both English and Japanese, you can do both even you gave either only TOEFL or JLPT. Although Japanese language proficiency is not a problem until here, the ability to communicate in Japanese will give you better opportunity to 'befriend' the Japanese interviewer and of course it will beneficial in the long run during and after your study in Japan.

The Preparation

I gave the TOEFL iBT certificate from last year, so I simply only have to take the English test. Nothing much prepared for this step, I simply used my time to browse for all possible labs and professors. The only preparation was collecting the previous years exams and do it within the time frame as good as I could. There's nothing much to do after the document screening, just pass the written exam and then get the LoA.

The Exam, June 15th

It started in the morning in the embassy so people from other cities have to come a day before. No need to dress up, I just simply wore my Polo shirt with jeans and thin grey jacket. I arrived at the embassy 45 minutes before the exam started. It began at 8 AM but actually 30 minutes before, the re-registration has begun, so please don't be late.

I made a new friend there during queuing. He just graduated from Korea using their govt scholarship and now hoping to continue to PhD in Japan. [Why so much PhD pursuers around me, huh?].

My cousin told me that her friend was there taking the exam too and asked me to take a photo of him. She told me that he will sit beside me. So I came into the room and sat beside a boy. I simply took a picture of him and sent it to my cousin. "It is the wrong person!" she replied. "He sat beside me" I replied. Then all of the sudden I realized, that I have 2 sides, left and right. She didn't mention which side! So then I made my 3rd and 4th friend. Sadly, the one I took the wrong picture of didn't make it further.

This year, the English exam took the first round. During the exam, I looked around me and heard some people who gave N1 certificates, and some of them graduated from overseas like my new friend did. Oh God, I feel so small and insignificant... We exchanged contacts after the exam in case of emergency because one of them live in the other city which takes 2 hours by plane and the other one around an hour by train.

The Waiting [part.2]

This time, the waiting time was not so long like before. The result announced on June 23rd. There was no development on my pursue of the professors, I can't find anymore which matches my topic. Sad.

Written Test Result, June 23rd

"Congrats!" said my cousin. She got the information from her friend that my number was on the list of those who passed he written exam. Actually I was not so worried about this, but why did I hadn't receive any email? I can't believe until now that I was so stupid waiting for the email. It announced on the embassy's website!! Damn. Yeah, confirmed kill. 57 people made it.

The next one is the interview. I'll continue it in the part 4...