Jankaulu.blogspot.com: Studying at UM 35 Years Ago

Saturday, August 15, 2026

Studying at UM 35 Years Ago

35 years ago, studying at UM was very different from today. If students wanted to find information for their studies or do an assignment, they could not simply open Google. In fact, there was no internet. Finding one piece of information could take days, sometimes even weeks. The library was our heaven.

I once fell asleep between the bookshelves in library (bahagian kapal selam). Finding reference books was not always easy. Many times, we had to reserve a book because someone else was already using it. We also had to know how to use the catalogue cards. The catalogue was in a big piece of furniture with many small drawers, filled with cards arranged according to the Dewey Decimal System. If you got the number wrong, you could walk around the whole library looking for the book. When you finally found what you wanted, kembang hidung, it felt like finding treasure.

Today, UM has a new library, which must be much more modern and advanced. I can only imagine how different it is compared to the library we knew 35 years ago.

Kena Salin Membantu

And sometimes, once we found useful information, we went straight to the photocopy machine. Not just one copy. We made extra copies for our close friends too. In those days, if you had a friend who was good at finding information, you would happily follow along and share the materials. Salin membantu. Gituew.

We did not have WhatsApp, Google Drive or email to send materials. We carried our knowledge around in photocopied papers. If one friend had a useful book, another had good notes, and someone else knew where to find another reference, we simply shared. That was how we helped one another.

Lecture Notes Were Like Gold Mines

Lecture notes were like gold mines. My lecturers would usually “bring back” news and information from all over the world. They read a lot, including newspapers from different parts of the world, and shared what they had read with us in the lecture hall. So even though there was no internet, we could still get new information quite quickly.

In many ways, our lecturers were our Google. If we wanted to know something, we asked them. We listened carefully because we knew that we could not simply search for the information again later.

We Wrote Down Almost Everything

We would write down almost everything that came out of the lecturer’s mouth. That’s why we could remember where the lecturer coughed, where he laughed, or where he made a joke. We even remembered which paragraph it happened in. He he he.

Our notebooks were very important. Some students had beautiful handwriting, while others had handwriting that only the writer himself could understand, sebab kena tulis cepat. But somehow, during examination time, we suddenly became experts at reading our own handwriting. “I wrote this, so surely I can understand it.”

Friends Were Our Search Engines

And when a friend came to class with some new knowledge, we would open our eyes wide and think, “Wow, how does he know all this?” Suddenly, we thought he was very clever, very knowledgeable and very impressive. Naturally, we wanted to be his friend until the end of the world. Sampai kiamat. He he he.

We depended on one another for books, notes, information and even encouragement. Sometimes we would sit together and ask, “Have you studied this chapter?” The answer would be, “No lah!” Then both of us would laugh and continue studying.

The Joy of Finding Something

Perhaps because information was not so easily available, we appreciated it more. After spending hours looking through books, catalogue cards and shelves, finally finding the answer gave us a special feeling. “Yes! Found it!” It was a small thing, but it gave us great satisfaction.

We also learned to be patient. We were used to waiting for books, waiting for photocopies, waiting for examination results and even waiting for friends who were always late.

Masa tu waiting was simply part of life.

A Simpler Life

Life was much simpler then. We did not have smartphones in our pockets. We did not have social media to check every few minutes. We did not have endless notifications. When we studied, we really studied. When we talked to our friends, we really talked. And when we laughed, we laughed together, not through a screen.

We learned to read, compare, check and think. We could not simply copy and paste macam sekarang. We had to understand what we were reading.

35 Years Later…

Thirty-five years have passed. The way university students learn has changed as technology has evolved. I know this because I work at a university and have seen these changes for myself. Today, my students can search for information within seconds. They can read books online, watch lectures, communicate with friends anywhere in the world and even use AI to help them learn.

It is amazing. But sometimes I wonder if today’s students would understand the excitement of finding one book after searching the whole library, or the happiness of receiving a useful photocopied article from a friend.

Masa Telah berlalu…

Masa telah lalu… The world has changed, technology has changed, and the way we learn has changed. But the memories of those university days remain…the library, the catalogue cards, the photocopy machine, the lecture notes, the long hours of studying, the friends, the laughter and all those little moments that we never thought would become precious memories.

No Google, no Wi-Fi, no smartphones, no AI. But we had books, lecturers, friends, curiosity and determination. And somehow, we survived. More importantly, we learned.

Those were our days. Masa telah lalu… tapi kenangan masih ada. Yang susah dulu, itulah yang paling manis kita kenang sekarang.