Cloud Nine,
anybody?
The new month's certainly started off well
enough.
My motto had always been to keep expectations low so I could end up doing better than I expected. But this time I did pretty well, with an overall 8.5 and 7+ in all the bands. Best of all, I got a perfect score in my reading, though writing was 7.5 (when I secretly expected an 8+) and I scored 8.5 in both speaking and listening.
So this means that I have cleared one part of the skilled migration requirements and can go ahead with my occupational assessment, with English language testing off my worry list, thogh a better pic wouldn't have been the worst thing I could do.
Its been difficult gathering the course outlines of all the subjects I took at the various universities in different parts of the world, though I had some help from my cousin in the UAE who arranged for all my docs on that front.
I still haven't decided completely which assessment body to lodge my case with as this needs more analysis.
Most importantly, I'm just not getting down to my studies and the stress level is rising fast.
My motto had always been to keep expectations low so I could end up doing better than I expected. But this time I did pretty well, with an overall 8.5 and 7+ in all the bands. Best of all, I got a perfect score in my reading, though writing was 7.5 (when I secretly expected an 8+) and I scored 8.5 in both speaking and listening.
So this means that I have cleared one part of the skilled migration requirements and can go ahead with my occupational assessment, with English language testing off my worry list, thogh a better pic wouldn't have been the worst thing I could do.
Its been difficult gathering the course outlines of all the subjects I took at the various universities in different parts of the world, though I had some help from my cousin in the UAE who arranged for all my docs on that front.
I still haven't decided completely which assessment body to lodge my case with as this needs more analysis.
Most importantly, I'm just not getting down to my studies and the stress level is rising fast.
Hats Off...
It was good that I made a fuss about having
to send in my photographs without a cap. Sara from the IELTS administration
just called in to say that she took another look at my pic and has approved it
for dispatching the results.
That's after I talked to a very professional and courteous lady in the British Council with immaculately refined speaking skills in both native-Brit and khalis Urdu - Sadia But, managing the British Council information center.
She called back a few minutes after I made contact on the toll free number and told them that I was intending to send them the bill along with my photographs.
Sadia promised me that she would get down to it and that she was quite sure that it wasn't prejudiced, when I explained to her that I had said "thank you very much but I'll keep it on" to the nice test administrator who had advised me to take off my cap before going in for my speaking interview. After all, the cap (topi) is an integral part of my religious and cultural identity, as important to me as my self-respect.
Now all I have to worry about is the actual test result and the overcharged cap-less photographs on my table. I just pray that it's Rs. 200 and not 12,200 that's been wasted this time around (plus Rs. 10,000 on the previous test).
That's after I talked to a very professional and courteous lady in the British Council with immaculately refined speaking skills in both native-Brit and khalis Urdu - Sadia But, managing the British Council information center.
She called back a few minutes after I made contact on the toll free number and told them that I was intending to send them the bill along with my photographs.
Sadia promised me that she would get down to it and that she was quite sure that it wasn't prejudiced, when I explained to her that I had said "thank you very much but I'll keep it on" to the nice test administrator who had advised me to take off my cap before going in for my speaking interview. After all, the cap (topi) is an integral part of my religious and cultural identity, as important to me as my self-respect.
Now all I have to worry about is the actual test result and the overcharged cap-less photographs on my table. I just pray that it's Rs. 200 and not 12,200 that's been wasted this time around (plus Rs. 10,000 on the previous test).
I said it all
No, I'm not losing my religion, as much as
you'd imagine from my previous post (I said too much, I said it all...). And
I'm not so big on REM either, except for this very sticky song.
Well, I lost at least five listening
questions to my lack of concentration and love for drifting thoughts. The
reading was sharp, and I finished my writing just in time, going over each task
and finishing satisfactorily.
My preparation was a little half-baked, as
I did not do an all-important practice test beforehand and this cost me quite a
few on the listening as I still hadn't oriented myself properly to pay
attention. However, watching 'Australia' with my folks over the last two nights
paid off as I could easily make out that Australian accent in one of the clips,
though I still missed one in that section while I was gloating.
This Ramadan's tasbeeh and ziarat of Bhaiji
Bhai probably had a lot to do in taking me through this paper (as usual, I was
fretting like a nervous cow). But I still can't be sure I'll make it.
Now I just have to send in two photographs
without a cap, since they decided that they needed to add in that requirement
for me in addition to all the other instructions. I'll probably send them a
bill for the photo shoot as well, since this was not mentioned previously.
Pay attention,
not registration fees
So unless I'm really starting to enjoy testing again and
again to show them I'm at least as good as I really am, I need to pay attention.
Listening
1 - Scan the questions and
calculate what kind of answers you need to listen for. (Is it an address? Is it
a word or a number? Is it a noun, verb or adjective? etc.)
