ok. let's do this. (right i know i have cardiac arrest to do but you see jaybeep, ini padahnya sik nak set deadline)

let's say you want to work in aus. ok i know at least 2 people who want to stay behind and work in guardian / open a big healthcare one-stop centre, but let's say you just want to cabut. i'm offering you my ops cabut: australia. (if u want ops cabut: uk i can also give you the winzip file of dizzying info.)

there's a lovely flowchart here but i cant seem to cut and paste it here (re: noob) but ok, the reason i'm doing this, seriously, is to arrange it properly in my head enough to act upon it (gosh knows i've been talking no actioning for the past couple of months).

there's either a stream a or stream b process to doing this, stream b being the faster route, but as it always happens i think we fall into stream a. you'll be streamed in when you send in a form for 500 aussie.

once they've said ok, then you go take ielts. again. bloody thing expires after 2 yrs. subang here i come.

then the stage one exam. 2 mcq papers of 2 hours and 100 questions each. these will encompass pretty much everything we learnt over the 4 years... from chemistry to pharmacology to calculations. twice yearly, in march and september, only in london, auckland and all australia. $1400 for aus-based, $1600 for the rest.

you fail, unlimited tries. if you fail one, you just have to resit that one within 2 yrs, if not then you gotta take the two again.

you pass, you can start prepping for migration. 5 years grace to do this.

now for stage 2. you'll be interviewed after you've settled down in aus. so you've to get your pr by this point, or at least a visa. (note to self: read up on immigration later). then supervised practice starts, basically pre-reg all over again. about 2000 hours but may go down slightly depending on your interview. minimum hours: 20/week; max 45/week. so different from what i just did over labour weekend...

better to do community to boost chances of passing stage 2.

about a quarter into this pre-reg, you sit for the national forensics, ethics and calculations (fuck.) exam. only in australia, $150.

about 3 quarters, til the end of pre-reg, you can sit for stage 2. this is like the big bang. 3 parts. practical, oral and written ($1950). apparently oral is the killer. something about a lot of aus-grad-and-trained malaysians couldnt get through this. let's hope our english speaking background makes the difference...

unlimited tries, again, but if we dont manage this within the 5 years of passing stage 1, we'll have to start from the very beginning, again.

and then pass = apc certificate. license to practise. start thinking about the uk if you decide aus is not ultimately what you want.

apc website

immigration help

and a little pop quiz


i dont know, really. for one thing, i remember being so naively happy when i sat for (?) drug delivery systems. this is the last paper i am ever going to sit. in my entire life. no more studying. you dont know how exhilirating that thought was. and now i'm going to put myself through this all over again. i really, pathologically, do hate exams. and this is going to be much harder than malaysian prp.

which brings me to the next thing. pharmacy is easy in this country. you can just sit and drink coffee and still be a pharmacist. and i was never the go getter of the class. but i cant stand this anymore, this stagnancy, this lack of meaning. but am i tough enough to go?

the pay is getting shite. i need financial freedom to do the things i really want, and i need to sever myself from roots to find out who i really am. as it is i'm letting myself be defined by parents and circumstances, i'm not defying gravity here.

so how. skip the 3 yrs, or wait it out?

march or september. next march seems like too soon, next sept seems like too long (if you dont want to wait out the 3 years). and this requires a lot of tightening of the purse strings, and time...

and this means i'm really forsaking malaysia. am i ready?

i want to go because i want to be free of parents. and chinese expectations. but do i want to do this as a pharmacist? can i do this as a pharmacist?