IELTS result

Finally the IELTS result is released! Here is my result:

Listening: 8.5
Reading: 8.5
Writing: 7.5
Speaking: 6.0 =(

Total: 8.5 + 8.5 + 7.5 + 6.0 = 30.5
Overall band score = 30.5/4 = 7.625 ≈ 7.5

Here is the reference of band score:

9. Expert User - native speaker level of the language.

8. Very Good User - excellent command of the language, a few mistakes only

7. Good User - handles language well, some inaccuracies, communicates adequately

6. Competent User - reasonable control of the language, difficulties with unfamiliar

5. Modest User - adequate in own area, difficulties with complex structures

4. Limited User - adequate only in familiar areas, difficulty understanding expression

3. Very Limited User - problems communicating, limited communication abilities

2. Intermittent User - many difficulties, basic information only

1. Non User - understands a few isolated words only

I am quite satisfied with the overall performance despite the poor response rated for my speaking test. However I can't recall much regarding the experience during the tests.

I tried my best and stretched my ears to the max during listening test. However I couldn't catch up the fast conversation by some speakers with thick British accent in one of the parts. I have got some luck to score well in reading test.

Although 7.5 is lower than 8.5, it is still considered as a relatively high band in writing. I think I did pretty well in that paper as I applied a wide range of vocabulary and structures of sentences in appropriate ways. I wouldn't have achieved this band if I did not force myself to pick up the habit of blogging and intensive writing since I failed to score well in SPM.

The examiner who conducted my speaking test was very professional. She is a woman of more than 60 and has a perfect pronunciation. However, she looked very unfriendly, serious and strict. I tried my best to give my best answer for every question or task given, but I just couldn't escape from the fate of getting such an unacceptable band. In fact, if I obtained a band higher than 6.0 for speaking, even by only an addition of 0.5, the overall band score would be 8.0 or higher! =)

In conclusion, IELTS test is interesting and exciting. Every candidate needs to pay full attention to focus on every test after a certain period of training and preparation. Having boosted with confidence, a little luck is still desired.

IELTS

In case you don't know what IELTS stands for, it is actually the abbreviation of International English Testing Language Testing System.

First of all I would like to critic my previous IELTS lecturer once again.

Disclaimer: If you have been following my blog for a certain period you could notice how intensely I have been criticising many aspects of my current college, but that doesn't mean I was showing my sheer hatred towards KTT. In fact, I'm concerning the issues that annoyed me, and having an urge to share it with my nearest people. I could have ignored all the flawed, the preposterous one happening around me. But after all I felt it might be better to voice my dissatisfaction and disappointment in order to let myself out.

I had never seen such an irresponsible lecturer in the sense that she had cancelled 90% of her classes since I enrolled in A-Level program 6 months ago. Just imagine I was supposed to attend 2 lectures per week, but I ended up by having less than 5 lectures during the six months. If this doesn't sound shocking, listen to this one: she had fled away all in a sudden with some money that students paid to purchase IELTS reference books! Seriously it can be considered a crime. Consequently, a new IELTS lecturer is taking her place now, bringing both great news and bad news, where there is a resurgence of IELTS teachings but we have to pay for another IELTS reference book of a different version.

Back to the title, all of the scholars in preparation to travel aboard to India, Polland, Czech Republic etc. for tertiary study in medicine or dentistry have to pass certain cut-off points depending on the university we apply. IELTS includes four main tests - reading, listening, speaking and writing, with the achievement of each represented in band form ranging from band 1 to band 9.

I had a listening test in this afternoon and I find it challenging to recognise and read the British accent. I take IELTS more important than any other subjects I'm taking now.

The lecturer

Having the top scorers among the international Cambridge A-Level candidates in the world, I thought one of the best colleges in my country, yet maybe also the smallest in size, Kolej Teknologi Timur to have experienced and excellence lecturers but I soon doubted about their credibility to give lecture to the students who will soon pursue advance study in different critical fields at oversea.

Yes, according to the seniors this doesn't appear to be the fundamental problem, and you might find me grumbling against trifles, because the students here could have been depending on themselves to pass the AS and A2 examinations with flying colours. It doesn't matter to have "good" or "bad" lecturers. However in my point of view this has contributed to an intensely unhealthy learning style. Students and lectures should be interactive to enhance understanding. What's the point of repeating the texts in the text book word by word to us? Let alone the sleep-inducing tone, grammatical errors and the way she was speaking English, especially when pronouncing the terminologies. Try to listen to the pronunciation of "mas" in BM and at the same time understand that she was actually trying to say "mass". I'm not going to pinpoint which lecturer I'm complaining about, and I don't mean to degrade the lecturers here, but it is saddening to know that the better lecturers are in charge of bringing the students undergoing 1 year programme up.

I will be going to my first Biology lecture later. I hope it won't end up disappointing myself again. I promise myself not to disappoint my college too :)

Good bye and good luck!

Today is my last day staying here before I embark on my new journey after rotting for about half of a year. Soon, I will surely be missing everything, my friend, my family, my hometown, my blog and even my annoying Internet connection :p

Good bye everyone around me, my next post might be sharing my college life in Kolej Teknologi Timur, Sepang. In this afternoon, I had just known that there are three India-bound seniors from my secondary school, SMJK Keat Hwa are still taking the Cambridge A-Level in the small college whereas the other two Indonesia-bound seniors have already graduated after finishing their 1 year programme and currently applying their university respectively. I feel rather relieved that some one had promised to take care of me :D

Thanks for supporting my small blog no matter you have just read any single article and got what I'm trying to convey, correcting my mistakes made during blogging, or giving appreciative comments to show concern towards my thoughts. Special thanks my cousin as well as my role model, who had granted me enormous inspiration to start blogging, and also the Recomers, Melzie and Henry for often leaving your footprints here and sharing your piece of mind. Thanks my friends :)

I would like to say sorry if you find that you could have been spending your precious time to read something more meaningful in the other websites rather than reading my posts. Sorry if my redundant English had contributed eye sore to you. I'm struggling in the stage of improving, now and always.

A good luck to everyone and myself, in the future undertakings. Good night :)

My favourite teacher

Every average student would have been taught by at least forty different teachers before entering university. We might have different views towards different teachers respectively, whether it was hatred because he had caned us, or loving because she did take good care of us. If we are to point out our favourite teacher, there won't be any absolute answer since everyone has his own perspective towards the teacher's characteristics that favor them. Well, I pay my tribute to my tuition teacher, Mr. Peter Lim.

Mr. Peter had been teaching me since I was in form two. He is indeed the most hardworking tuition teacher I've ever seen. Unlike other teachers who photostat the grammar exercises from some reference books, Mr. Peter used his own hands to type all the exercises, not by using computer but the classic typing machine. He would intersperse several small pictures within the notes given to make it looked interesting. Another great example is that he would examine every word and the sentence of essays written by his students carefully. He would spend his time telling us our mistakes one by one when he was giving back our essay books. My school teacher was totally different - she marked our essays by underlining the sentences without correcting it, leaving puzzlement among us.

I was pleased by Mr. Peter's unique teaching style, his class would never get bored because he always raised his volume to maximum accompanied by various facial expressions while teaching. Sometime he would share his anecdotes to delight the class. Being a retired school teacher, he was experienced in educating his students as well as handling disciplinary cases. At the same time, he was a indulged reader showing concern towards the general global issues besides having different hobbies such as mountain climbing, jungle trekking, fishing, cooking etc. He had developed certain philosophies about life and always reminded us to be noble, moderate and accept anything that had happened in order to stay happy.

He never raised the monthly tuition fee, it was cheap, only RM25 per month in comparison to the average monthly fee needed to pay for other similar tuition lessons which were normally in the range of RM30 to RM50. He told us having teaching as his satisfying job, it doesn't matter to think over how much he could earn :)

I cherish the moment he was still teaching me. I should have made full use of the time to absorb his teachings and attain proficiency in English to meet his expectation. By the time we left him to take SPM, he had decided to stop teaching temporarily for a year to rest after teaching diligently for decades.

Factors contributing to academic success

What are factors which are related to academic success in high-school students?

Undoubtedly there are plenteous high-school students who have excelled in academic success in our country, occupying the headlines of the newspapers whenever the results of local public examination such as SPM is released, holding their result papers with of a sting of A1s. They would be then awarded scholarships whether by our government, the private agencies or even the foreign companies and colleges. However such glamour is not given but earned. It is even amazing when some of the students with unwavering determination have achieved their academic success despite facing poverty or disability after struggling against the stumbling stones for a long term of time. Back to the title, to some people, academic success could be defined as being able to do well in the examinations. However in my humble two cents the narrow scope should be widened to being able to analyse, synthesize and evaluate the information as well as applying them in the daily life.

The main factor contributing to their academic success is surely family support especially from the parents. To most of the parents in my country, academic success is the only aspect their children need to take care in order to secure their bright future. They have realised the significance of securing a certificate in a university is far more better than the other way such as finding a job after leaving the high-school, which had been done by some parents. Knowing that their children may be discriminated by the tight competition among the students of whole nation, they rather to send them to tuition classes repeatedly for years. They also try to cultivate the children's hidden talent via enrollment into various lessons ranging from piano lessons, dance lessons to art lessons. Normally if there comes the family problems such as divorce or relation break off, the student might find himself difficult to focus on his study. There are so many cases where students having family problems were psychologically affected and eventually surrounded by discipline problems, let alone academic excellence.

Apart from that, self-discipline and will power play a decisive role to every student who wishes to succeed academically. Self-discipline is the ability to get yourself to take action regardless of your emotional state. Therefore students with no self-discipline would often get distracted from their study. Getting engrossed in playing online games is one of the most popular examples among the high-school students in recent years. They don't know using time wisely in order to strike a balance between work and play. Under self-discipline one would regularly revise what he has learned to maintain a tenacious memory. By doing so he needs not to burn the midnight oil during the examination weeks. Procrastination is the thief of time, therefore smart students would not procrastinate their homework without necessity too. Someone that has a strong will would have a greater endurance towards the hardships faced along his school life. He would have planned his future and strive hard by persevering obstinately and indomitably. Having set in mind about the key to success, high-school academic success appears to be just a part of the undertakings.

Conducive environment remains crucial to mould a student towards academic success. There are many students who don't own a conducive studying environment had unfortunately forsaken their study. Maybe they are raised in rural area which is always lacking of teachers and books. Maybe they have to work while attending high-school to ease the financial burden of their family. It is clearly shown the importance of the factor in a Chinese ancient story where a single mother had migrated for so three times, just to get his small son a better place to study. Actually having adequate money to purchase text books, pencil box with simple stationery, a chair to sit, a table to lay your arms on it and responsible teachers, is considered conducive. A number of high-school students benefits themselves by using Internet to obtain extra information associated with what they have been learning for a better understanding. At the same time, some students don't even own a dictionary and have to rely on limited source of information.

In a nut shell, high-school students are teenagers who serve to be the pillar of our country in the next decade as well as the new workforce. Our country should not neglect anyone of the new generation. Their demands and problems should be taken care and solved after proper consideration. Besides excel academically, high-school students should also pay much attention towards the general issues happening every now and then. Most of them don't really bother about the global issues just because it has nothing to do with their study. By the way, one should not follow what has been taught in the text books blindly but applying suitable suspiciousness whenever coming across new information and being able to relate his own thoughts.

Speaking

I seldom speak English. There is no one around me that I can speak with, except myself. I have got used to the broken style while speaking since I was small, therefore I believe I will probably tend to say something foolish like "Yesterday I eat", "He do the job" or "They are my friend" while conversing with the other native speakers. Writing and speaking are definitely two different aspects. You don't have the margin of time to think what's going wrong, especially the grammatical errors, in what you're saying. One of my friends once told me : "Think in English, speak in English, you might see the difference." However learning languages often comes harder to me in comparison with the other subjects. I have spent a lot of time to jot down the definition of the new vocabulary but my memory strength is just disappointing. Maybe I do remember it but it doesn't come to my mind when I'm going to use it. I'm having a low understanding in phrasal verbs too, causing my English to be unnature and immature. My speed of improvement is not capable to begin my life in college. I have to overcome this fatal stumbling stone.

Blogging

I've made it, posting an article in English, sharing mostly about the current issues ranging from education to social life on every single day for a month, which means that I'm now going for my 31st post.

The basic motive of blogging at the early stage is intrinsically based on my promise made, feeling that it is a must to write more. Although sometimes I found it is hard to keep the promise, somehow I started enjoying blogging soon after that. I've realised that to keep a blog interesting and attractive, you don't need fancy stuffs like popular rock musics or chaotic skins, it just needs to be reader-friendly by conveying your ideas or opinions clearly and directly. Suitable images of photos that pertain to the article would be eye nourishing too :)

How is the improvement? Well, I don't think I've improved much. However it is not fruitless, not at all. Since I started blogging I had to access different websites that I had never been visited, searching reading materials in order to get inspired to share some of my two cents in my blog. It had always amazed me when some hidden statistics were revealed. Frankly, it has indirectly widened my vision towards the informative sources in Internet.

I'm not sure if I will be maintaining one day one post in the coming days. However after blogging in such way I've gained my confidence in writing and maybe, speaking :D

Thanks for always supporting my small blog :)

SPM

“We want to streamline this as it will also be an easier way to determine the awarding of scholarships.”

Some 450,000 students sat for the SPM exam last year.

Muhyiddin said teachers would also be able to focus better if students were only allowed to take up to 10 subjects because they would not be burdened with teaching other subjects.

“Parents also will not have to rush their children for too many tuition classes.”

On the grading system, Muhyid-din said instead of giving students 1A, B or C, their grades would include A+, A and A- from next year to make it more effective in deciding who was most qualified for a scholarship.

(quote from The Star)

I have put the quoted phrases in bold as I found they are arguable. I wonder if the government did pinpoint the real flaws existed in the previous SPM exam system, analyse deeply and then make the decision wisely.

• Easier way? Even if the subjects are limited, the problems remain unsolved if there are still a bunch of candidates with a string of A1s under the artificial low threshold to score an A1 for each subject ( except BC ) . The JPA will be in hot soup again, just imagine that there are possibly more than two thousands 10 A1s scorers waiting for their deserved oversea scholarships, yet not to mention the bumiputras and the poors to be taken care.
• Focus better? If they really mean it, why do we ( non-Malays ) need to study Pendidikan Moral ? It is utterly useless!
  
• Tuition classes? Normally students who attend insane number of tuition classes just don't know how to manage their own schedule. They follow the tuition teachers blindly, but it has nothing to do with taking more subjects which don't really need tuition. It is subjective and depends on the students. Some students don't need tuition at all.
  
• Grading system? Well, what is the difference between getting 10 A1s and getting 10 A+s? I thought the term CGPA will be recommended when I saw grading system. To really make it more effective in deciding who is qualified for a scholarship, improve the grading inflation is the only way and once it is really tough to secure the A+, I believe no more candidates will consider taking so many subjects.

There will be another change soon, which is now debated hotly. Perhaps the controversy arose when the JPA scholarship had not been distributed evenly is the main reason to push the government to make the decision of limiting SPM subjects from the year 2011, but what is the motive of changing English to a must-pass-subject which is as same as Bahasa Melayu, to secure the SPM certificate? This is a stepping stone to bring the deteriorating command in English back from the edge but I don't hope to see that another artificial threshold is created again after finding that there are just too many who can't make it.

Reading

Except those needed to score in "literature part" in English papers when I was in secondary school, I didn't read any English novel since I was small. I didn't like to write essays in English until I had realised that my poor command in this language was worse than any average standard three students in Singapore when I was form four. I started my efforts to pull my level back by writing more often but it was already too late. Luckily I managed to score an A1 in the English paper for SPM due to the low threshold in getting that so called excellent grade (almost half of the candidates in my school got grade A) , but miserably I got B4 in the GCE O-Level. I'm the particular person if I'm going to put the blame on someone.

Reading in English was just too far away from me by then. But I think it is still the best way to acquire the literacy by ourselves and reduce the redundancy made while writing, therefore I bought an English novel in this afternoon. I guess I will spend the following time in reading my first-buy-English-novel :p

troublesome ENGLISH

Well,this is my first post in English since I had just been blogging in Chinese via friendster. What triggers me in doing so? Hmm, the main reason is to improve my English. I am always fascinated by the way people express their ideas or concepts by using such a good command of English AND the most important one is, they can convey whatever they think precisely and spontaneously which I can't. I'm NOW having big troubles even in constructing a sentence in English, I mean, the words,the phrases can't come out naturally and of course, when it comes to speaking, it will be even worse. I think many of my friends as well as those who have been undergoing a long term of Chinese-speaking-environment will have to face this problem also. My teachers always tell simple English will do, but I believe that when it comes to certain extents it will appear to be not appropriate enough. My cousin did advise me to take a look at some people's blog, for instance, Lim Kit Siang's blog. I find it useful though. Apart from that, I spend most of my time in visiting recom,the worldwide Malaysian students network. By going through the threads, to be specific, the debates on the latest issues like the unfair treatment towards the applicants of JPA scholarships, the contradictory posts that raise controversies, the ironic facts that reflect the truth of our national society, I can merely scratch my head and think: Oh my gOsH! my level of this international language is extremely low. Okay,whenever I take a seat in a cinema from now on, I will try not to rely on the subtitles shown to catch the words spoken by the native-speaker-actors with the "lightning speed" (yeap, for me it is) and soon I will surely be very lost in the mist of stories -___-lll Anyway, it is a type of better training for me,better indeed. I'm one of the typical Chinese-educated students which means, my sentences will sound weird to those who are English-educated. Problems exist to be solved! I hope that I can overcome what I always fear - speak, write, and think, IN ENGLISH =)

*For those who are encountering the same problem, let's give our best shot in improving it!