Gabra

Pagi td aku diserang gabra bila dapat emel dr UoL berkenaan dgn registration/induction. Ada dua info, satu secara am & satu lg dr Electronics Dept. Bila belek info dr dept, ternampak plak tarikh exam.

Huhuu... the 1st semester exam will be on Jan 12, 09... rite after Christmas holiday which I'll have a very special guest from Msia. Got to remind myself, strictly no last-minute study so that I can really enjoy the holiday. Belum apa2 lg dah gabra kn...

Lama giler dah tak exam betul2... kali terakhir exam masa kursus BTN, tp tu tak kira sbb baca pun sepintas lalu & mana yg sempat je. Tak dpt byngkn menelaah pelajaran bersungguh2. In fact, I cannot imagine myself as a student... & a hardworking one!

Tp yg ni exam betul2, menentukn sama ada aku dpt Master atau tak... klu tak lulus, kene re-sit. Kene extend study. Huwaaa... tak dpt balik Msia. Gabranya. I should have know better lah kan since I'm the one who chose to further study abroad & by course.

Ptg td Saira dtg ofis... since dia fly Sabtu ni, mmg terserlah ke'gabra'an dia. Well, as she said even though how much she feels that she doesn't want or ready to go rite now, it's too late to back off. Klu bleh sekalipun, nanti apa kata boss?? Tu lah dilema pekerja yg cemerlang mcm kitorg ni. Isk...

I believe everything happens for a reason. God knows best. I strongly believe you can do it, Saira. Two years later or maybe more... (I mean it with a good reason) you'll be back & happiliy bragging about your experience studying in US ;-). Believe me... hehee...

& I'm also trying to believe in myself.

IELTS Result!

I did it. I got band 7.0 for IELTS! Yeehaaaa...!!! Yabedabedu! Anyway, I took the result yesterday. Now the English part which I think the hardest part dah selesai. That means I don't have to resit the exam, pay another RM530 and feel nervous anymore. That means I can fly to UK! I just have to proceed with the U applications and pray I'll get the offer...

Lega... I was so nervous before getting the result... not really, more to piss off maybe because the so-called online IELTS results service not function as it supposed to. Pastu, I had a doubt, betul ker result kuar 31 Januari? I tried to call the British Council, with no luck... no one answered the phone. Carik plak dalam internet... tak juper jugak. At last, I drove to Wisma Selangor Dredging... and I guess you know the rest...

Aku puas hati lah dengan result aku... especially tang speaking.. keputusannya which is 7.0 tak lah mendukacitakan walaupun aku rasa aku quite merepek masa test tu. I hate making silly mistake, I'm glad I didn't. The lowest band of the 4 elements is 6.5 - Writing test. But 6.5 isn't bad at all dgn tahap writing aku yg camni. For Reading and Listening, I got 7.5. So, overall I'm really happy with the result. Yang penting I got more than 6.5 for overall result and all 4 elements are more than 6.0. Syukur, Alhamdulillah.

Masa carik kat internet tarikh bila result kuar, I found this one blog. Tuan punya blog tu pun amik IELTS hari yang sama dengan aku, cuma lokasi berlainan. Hari ni aku check dia punya blog, wow she got 8.0 band! However, she was a bit frustrated with her Writing test result which is 7.0, just like me the lowest one of the 4. Like she said, maybe they were pretty strict. So, 6.5 for my Writing test tu memang ok sangat with the overall result of 7.0 if compared to her. Tetiba rasa mcm bangga lak... heheee...

My experience on IELTS

I'm too lazy too write actually... I guess all the distractions to my focus lately were over since IELTS is over, for now... (hopefully it's really over). I even too lazy to surf on Internet. But since it isn't everyday or every year we have the experience on sitting the IELTS exam, I think I better document it while it's still fresh.

Ok, IELTS is divided into 4 elements:

1. Listening (30 minutes of 40 questions + 10 minutes transfer time)
2. Reading (1 hour of 40 questions)
3. Writing (1 hour of 2 essays)
4. Speaking (11 - 15 minutes)

Most people said Reading is the hardest element due to the length of passages itself. My friend told me, generally we cannot finish reading the whole three passages. 1 hour is just not enough. I've practice doing the test, and to my surprise I had 10 minutes left. So, I guess my reading speed is just fine... I have no problem to read the whole passages and answer the 40 questions. It just my comprehension that I should be worried about then because the passage is very confusing as well as the questions. I do think that the Reading test is tougher compare to Listening. However, I was more nervous on sitting for the Listening test since we can only listen to the record once... Once we miss the answer, then we just have to forget it. I'm afraid if my ears don't function very well during the test. My friend told me that at British Council the Listening is done by using a headphone for each candidate... to my surprise I guess BC don't practice that anymore... guna speaker jer. I became more nervous then because sebelum ni practice guna earphone. Dah lah orang kat belakang aku selsema... macam2 bunyi yg keluar. Fortunately, during the test, the girl behind me was paying attention too and the annoying sounds disappeared. I think 4 soalan dah sah salah since I missed the answer or became confused with the answer.

Then, we did Reading test. I didn't feel really nervous because I knew that I don't have to be afraid if I missed the answer... it just a matter whether I could find the answer in the given passage or not. But I did feel nervous at the beginning because I was desperately needed to go to the wash room. I had raised my hand but I've been asked to wait for my turn. So a few minutes after the test started, I couldn't focus until the lady escorted me to the wash room. After that, lega rasanya. I thought I've wasted nearly 10 minutes. However, I managed to have 5 minutes left before the time was up. Some would say that we have to find the keyword since it's hard to finish reading the whole passage. But for me it was hardly any keyword, at least as I understand. For example, in the fill-in-the-blank question they used the word 'clear' and then blank... we might try to find the word clear in the passage so that we can fill in the blank with the right answer. No, there was no word of 'clear'... instead in the passage they used the word 'distinct'. In the question, they used the word 'very small', but in the passage it was 'tiny'.

Writing test was OK. First essay, we had to summarize the given table at least for 150 words. I was relief to see the table because I think summarizing a line chart or something similar is more difficult. The second one was an argument. We had to write the second essay at least for 250 words. No, I didn't count the words... I guess nobody did. Agak2 jer lah... 3-4 paragraphs might consist 150 words, meanwhile 4-5 paragraphs will be more than 250 words. I never practice for Writing test before but not just I have good reading speed, I have good writing speed as well. But of course, if we have been given extra time, we should capable of writing better essays. There was no time to draft your essay, at least for me... I just wrote whatever came into my mind at the moment. So the challenge is thinking as fast as possible and write it down as fast as you could.

After the Writing test, we were allowed go out from the hall and took our belongings and had to be ready 1 hour before the scheduled Speaking Test. I heard one girl told her friend that she couldn't manage to answer all the questions in the Reading test. Tak sempat katanya... and her friend agreed. So I guess, yes... many had a problem of reading the long passages and answering the confusing questions.

Last but not least, the Speaking test. Now I understand why paper-based TOEFL doesn't practice this test. I don't think it's practical and it's time consuming. I had to wait about 1 1/2 hour before my turn just to have 15 minutes session of speaking... I was lucky enough though. Ada yang turn dia pukul 4 pm! They did asked to have the test sooner, but the time is fixed already. I think there were 8 rooms, maknanya ada 8 penilai, but still since ramai yang going to take the test, sampai pukul 5 lah kot. Waited for 1 1/2 hour made me feel a little bit sick... I lost the mood already. I managed to answer all the questions and I did manage to speak about the given task for 2 minutes but in my mind I did say to myself, "Apa yang ko merepek kan ni Labu...".

After the exam, I walked to KLCC. I wanted to reward myself with something, and that something was Hayley Westenra's CD. I went to Tower Records, asked the guy about the CD... the guy answered, yes they do have it. Turned out, it was already sold out. :-/ Takkan satu album je yang depa jual. Yer lah kot sebab memang takde langsung. I didn't bother to find the CD in other music stores.

Now I'm counting the days... about 12 days before I get the result. Isk... tak sabarnya. Then, kalau rajin I'll drop a few tips on the exam.