The shortest routes to success
By far the fastest pathways to beginning a degree, Australian Matriculation (Ausmat) and SACE International are Australian pre-university courses.
Recognised by several universities in Malaysia and overseas, the similarities between the two Australian pre-university programmes lie in the fact that both are based on the Australian education system and the gradings are according to the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank. The minimum duration for both the courses is the same as well, which is approximately 10 months.
The differences are in the course structure (the amount of weightage given to examinations and coursework) and governing bodies of the two courses. While Ausmat is overseen by the West Australian government, SACE International is under the South Australian government.
Former SACE International student Daniel Abraham says that he would recommend the course over A-Levels. “SACE International offered a good blend of textbook material and practical work and was also cheaper than some other preuniversity courses. I pursued it because it is not purely examination-based, and I liked how the assignments and projects contributed to my final grade.
“The biggest advantage was the duration of the course, which is also why I suppose many students avoid pursuing it. Because it is all crammed into 10 months, much like a crash course, it was a stressful and hectic time, with deadlines upon deadlines.
“However, I think that the stress was eventually helpful since it trained me to be able to work under pressure and meet targets. It is the kind of stress that you can learn from. I ended up graduating earlier than my peers, which gave me time to experiment with jobs in different industries after graduating.”
A medical student, Diana (not her real name), pursued the express SACE International, completing her preuniversity in just eight months. She agrees wholeheartedly with Daniel and believes that SACE International offers a good balance between traditional study methods and newer ways of learning, especially for subjects such as mathematics and chemistry.
However, she also points out that because there was such a short time frame to cover five subjects, it can get hectic.
“What other students were taking two weeks to learn, we would have to cover in one week or less so there wasn’t much time to participate in extracurricular activities or do anything else. The upside is that if you work well under pressure, you may do well in the express course because it is completely focused on academics and you will not be distracted by anything else.”