The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra

Ong Zhi Zhung

20 years old

from ASASIpintar UKM

currently a 2nd year medical student

Greatest Achievements

Top scorer of the Malaysian National Chemistry Quiz (K3M), Gold Medalist of Malaysian Astronomy Olympiad (MyAO), Gold Medalist of Kangaroo Math Competition (KMC), 1st Place in USM National Statistics Competition (NSC), Silver Medalist of Beaver Computational Thinking Competition, Silver Medalist of Kancil Science Competition (KSC), Bronze Medalist of Malaysian Computing Challenge (MCC), Bronze Medalist of Malaysian Computational Linguistics Olympiad (MyCLO).

This was the first time I attained an international-level achievement, in the International Youth Math Challenge (IYMC), winning the Silver Honor Award.

‘The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.’

My Story About Math

According to my mom, my interested in Math has been portrayed since I was four years old. I asked for an empty notebook from my mom, and I write the numbers from 1,2,3 … until 10000 in the book. Since then, “numbers” has become part of my life. However, to not add financial burden to my family, I didn’t attend any Math Olympiad lessons like other peers. Due to lack of exposure, my first Math-related competition that I joined is when I was already 14 years old (which is quite late compared to other peers). Surprisingly, I managed to get a silver medal in Kangaroo Math Competition. This ignited my interest in Math, and I started to actively participate in Math competitions after that.

This was the first time I attained an international-level achievement, in the International Youth Math Challenge (IYMC), winning the Silver Honor Award.

Why Medical School, not MATH?

To me, the nature of Math and Medicine are similar. Both involve problem-solving, where we find solutions to a problem. I enjoy every moment when I manage to get the right answer when I am doing Math questions. It is very satisfying. Similarly, in medicine, I as the future doctor will need to treat patients, helping them to get rid of diseases. I think the satisfaction that I can get by saving people life is much higher and it is really meaningful.

To be honest, I think I can perform better in Math than Medical field. That’s why I was on the horns of a dilemma when I was deciding to whether pursue Math or Medicine for my degree. I even get offered for a full scholarship to study Math, but eventually I have rejected the offer. This is because I hope I can use my knowledge to do something more impactful, which is to save people life. My parents encourage me to do whatever I want to do. They tell me that they will support me, no matter what decision I make. As a result, I entered medical school. Their support makes me believe that I can do it and I’ll strive hard in my Medical studies to not disappoint them.

After Med school, Still MATHS?

I can say that Math is still my favorite subject, even though I am already becoming a medical student. To not let myself regret, I continue to work on Math-related things despite being busy in my studies. There are actually not many competitions that I, as a university student (most Maths competitions are only open to primary or secondary school students), who is not from faculty of Mathematics (some Maths competitions are only open to Math-course students). However, to maintain my passion in Maths, I started to teach Math Olympiad (for primary and secondary students). Being a part time Math tutor, teaching something that is not medical-related, is not an easy task, but I really enjoy it. I am happy to guide my students, and it is very satisfying when I see my students started to fall in love in Maths, and even some of them manage to get excellent results in Math competitions. Also, I have created a YouTube channel known as “Mr Ong Talk”, where I share some interesting Math facts or problem-solving techniques on my channel (also my life as a medical student). Besides, if I am given a chance to participate in Math competitions (eg IYMC), I will definitely go ahead.

International Youth Math Challenge (IYMC) is an international-level biggest online math competition for high-school or university students from all around the world. It consists of 3 rounds, namely the qualification round in October 2021, pre-final round in November 2021, final round in December 2021.

I register for IYMC without hesitation after I have had a look on the past year questions. The questions are interesting, challenging and high standard. I wanted to challenge myself with advanced Math questions and thus give it a try. I didn’t expect to go far as it has been a long time, I didn’t revise back university-level Math. Surprisingly, I was notified that my qualification-round performance enables me to be qualified to the pre-final round.

My First International Achievement

After I was qualified to the pre-final round, I decided to work hard for this competition and try my best to qualify to the final round, so that my effort before won’t be wasted. However, I knew that the pre-final round questions are much harder than the qualification round’s. As a result, I started to spend more time, digging about university-level advanced Math. I have learned a lot of new thing and gain knowledge throughout my preparation. I felt that even if I didn’t manage to march to the final round, I will still be grateful due to the knowledge gained.

Eventually, I was successfully qualified to the final round. I’m really happy and unexpected that I can go that far. Since I have already reached my target of getting into the final round, I was no longer stressful and hence I enjoyed the final round competition. I did a good job in the final round, and again, out of my expectation, I got Silver Honor for the final round of IYMC!!

I am really happy to be able to make proud of the Faculty of Medicine and UKM and to prove that “medical students can also excel in math!” This unlocked my first international-level achievement, which has been my dream since young! Words can’t express how happy I am!

My Struggles

A common stigma is a medical student should study every day from dawn to dusk. Indeed, many of my friends in medical school, they spend most of their time in study and they seldom join any extra-curricular activities. This makes me seems like an odd one, not many people understand me. There are people who don’t think I can excel in my medical studies, there are also people who worry that my focus might be diverted from the medical field. These judgements occasionally make me to have self-doubt, doubting that whether I am doing the right thing, whether I shall give up doing non-medical related stuff.

Fortunately, I have very supportive parents. They always encourage me to follow my heart and do whatever I like. Their encouragement and motivation convince me to continue my active involvement in various fields and of course not neglecting my studies.

In order to be a good doctor in future, I will priorities my studies over my other interests. However, as long as I can cope with my study, I will continue to actively engage with competitions and activities that I enjoy. I envision myself in 5 years as a successful medical graduate and HO, who started to do problem-solving on the real patients, helping them to relieve from diseases. Making proud of the Faculty of Medicine and UKM by continue excelling in various competitions will definitely still be my important focus to strive hard throughout my 5-year medical studies. At the same time, I am looking forward to see my students graduated from school and enter universities, pursuing the course that they are interested in, just like me.

I wish to be a specialist in future (but for now I am still exploring which specialty I am interested in). I believe that in 10 years time, I can achieve my goal, or at least on my way, if I continue to work hard.

How do you envision yourself in about 5 years from now? 10 years down the lane?

Study is important, but it is definitely not all of your university life. Enjoy your uni life, just do whatever you like, make your uni life more colorful. Enthusiasm will drive you to success!

Not every medical students are tied with the stereotypical image of studying all day long without engaging in different activities. This has been proven by our 2nd year medical student, ong zhi zhung who had participated in the genius oolympiad competition and ven managed to win the 2nd place

How I balance my study?

I think time management is the most important skills. Being self-disciplined to not waste too much time on meaningless entertainment, especially during exam or competition period, is the key. Besides, I have the habit of pre-study before attending lecture. If I have enough time, I will try to go through all the lecture notes of all modules before the new semester starts, during the semester break. Pre-study allows me to be more focus during lecture, and I can understand better. I can also bombard the lecturers with questions that I am not sure during my pre-study. Most importantly, when it comes to competitions, I need a lot of time to prepare for every competition that I join. If I want to focus in my competition preparation, I will temporarily leave my studies aside first. In this case, since I know that I have already studied it one time before, therefore I will be mentally relieved and not be too stressful, also I can easily catch up my studies after my competition has ended, due to my pre-study habit.