Five students who participated in the recent Joint Admission Examination for Macau Four Higher Education Institutions (JAE) were asked by The Macau Post Daily yesterday about their results and exam performance, with most saying that their performance was acceptable.
Four of the interviewees are aged between 17 and 18, while one male interviewee, surnamed Wong, is an electromechanical engineer in his thirties. The street interviews were conducted in the area between Avenida Horta e Costa and Praça do Tap Seac.
Wong, who spoke with The Macau Post Daily via WeChat, said that he graduated from the University of Macau (UM) in 2008 and has been working since then. Speaking of the exams, Wong pointed out that he did not find them challenging as he has been working as a private mathematics tutor and that the most difficult subject for him was Chinese, but was quick to add that he performed above average overall.
Further elaborating on the main reason why he applied for the Bachelor of Arts in Chinese-Portuguese/Portuguese-Chinese Translation and Interpretation at the Macao Polytechnic University (MPU), he said it was because he wished to work as a public servant in the future, where having a certification in Chinese-Portuguese translation would increase his chance of application. Distance, Wong pointed out, was the primary incentive for him to choose MPU over other universities, as his current engineering company was very close to it.
Meanwhile, a student surnamed Ng said that his first choice was studying at the University of Macau (UM) as an Electromechanical Engineering student. He described his examination result as average and advised junior students who take the exam in the future to be more diligent.
When asked the question of how the pandemic affected their perspectives of the JAE, Ng and another student surnamed Chan told The Macau Post Daily that they have put more effort into the exams due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Chan has applied for the Applied Physics and Chemistry degree at UM, and noted that he performed very well in the exam. However, Chan also underlined that the examination subjects did not necessary reflect the skills required for his major. While mathematics and physics were relatable, Chinese, and English, he said, have little to do with Applied Physics and Chemistry.
The last two students, surnamed Cheong and Cheang, said that the pandemic did not affect their decision to study in Portugal. According to a new agreement between Macau and Portugal, the JAE result can be referenced for the application to 15 universities in Portugal, including the University of Coimbra, University of Lisbon, and University of Porto. However, the students, who both want to study Law, also said that the examination content did not specifically relate to their prospective major.
A student walks in Avenida Horta e Costa after school yesterday afternoon. Photo: Rui Pastorin
