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.

Abolish examinations?

I can still barely remember the title of continuous essay I chose to elaborate on while taking English paper during SPM examination in year 2008. It was asking for the advantages and disadvantages of examination. I thought I had given my best shot and expected to score a satisfying result, but I had to face the fact that my essay could only rank B4 in the 1119 paper (it is the English subject of GCE O-Level examination) when the result was released.

Based on what I read, examination was first introduced in ancient China when the emperors required a system to evaluate the nationwide scholars. Their knowledge of history, their personal virtue and capability in handling or solving problems such as military dilemma and economic crisis would be heavily tested within continuous days, restlessly. Passing the exam was a prerequisite before scholars are awarded the authority of managing a designated mission as "cabinet member" or what has been famously known as "guan", the court officer who was involved in judiciary decisions. During that particular period, serving the government under the emperor's name was the ultimate ambition of every man. They had no choice but sit for examinations.

After centuries, examination is seen to have assimilated into different nations. It eventually becomes one of the most common evaluative measure conducted to different groups of people in various ways, but with a similar objective. Examination has always been hotly debated for its disadvantages as what is happening recently in our society of Malaysia. Policy makers announced it is the time to reevaluate this measure as it seems to bring more harm to students. At the same time, people are suggesting the need to modify the flawed education system by reintroducing a relatively dynamic learning method under an atmosphere that appears to be more conducive and less stress. The most possible outcome is that one or more significant examinations would be abolished.

In my opinion, straight to the point, examination is a system that was well practised for a long term of time before people could really find out its harm. Further analysing would tell us the colossal and accumulative stress does affect the students adversely. However I believe moderate stress is the best motive force that keeps our pace in track when we own a target to achieve.

Another thing we concern is, how are we going to handle the problem of a large number of fresh graduated primary school student with "unknown potential" in their enrollment of secondary school? Apparently there must be a final exam such as UPSR to do this job.

PMR might seem less significant, thus it would most probably be abolished. However, when we reflect on the benefits of taking PMR, candidates can actually find out whether he should prepare himself to pick up subjects of art stream or science stream. Having prepared in PMR, students can be mentally prepared to sit for SPM too.

Examination in Malaysia has been mechanized and doing not-so-good in its quality control. It can be improved, but not easy though. I am wondering why the policy makers do not prefer to modify it before getting rid of it.

Whether there will be a real abolishment or not, this is the critical moment whereby people's concern has finally brought about some stirred movement in the cabinet. However, this is also the moment when a considerate attitude is needed to reach a compromise, or else the latest generation of students in Malaysia will get trapped in the uncertainties in their fate.

If the government does take care of this issue so much, do remember to reevaluate the recognition of Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) of Chinese Independent High School and tune the huge injustice gap existing between the preuniversity programmes.

I remain positive to receive the next news.

The controversy

Since it was announced that the grading system is slightly changed to introduce a higher distinction namely "super distinction" for SPM, I had been wondering how it would result in a different outcome regarding the proportion of candidates scoring the so called perfect result in a particular subject or all of the subjects taken, which have been limited to 10+2.

A grading system is like a measuring tool. It is designed to measure something. It should be moulded and calibrated considering the main aspects - is it too long or too short to measure the full size of the object? Is it sensitive enough such that smallest division used is helpful to give a reading including the significant figures needed? Can it be used to measure different objects, and give a comparison of them? A bad tool is not meant to be a bad tool as it might still be useful to measure other objects of different requirements. Applying the same analogy, I soon realised the new grading system is not competent enough to calibrate the candidates nationwide from the same batch in a credible and sensible method.

The SPM wouldn't be so important if it hasn't been included in the main consideration taken into account while the government department such as Public Service Department or other party such as National Bank is going to determine scholarship winners. Therefore SPM result is often related to these scholarships because they are closely linked. To maximise the chance to qualify oneself as the applicant and at the same time secure such scholarships, scoring a perfect result is necessary. It could be scoring all A1 based on the previous grading system or all A+ based on the current grading system. These are so called "perfect result" which would guarantee you, or at least it is very hard to deprive your chance to secure the scholarship provided by government. This is why candidates used to take more insignificant subjects, leading to improvement made to the examination system whereby maximum number of subjects taken has been limited. However, the flawed remains flawed until today due to the lack of transparency as some parties are still seeking for explanation for the unsolved yet prolonged problems, or even some conspiracy as mentioned by others.

How if there are too many perfect scorers? I didn't expect to know there is a large number of "perfect" scorers nor did I believe it if approximately 90% is the official threshold as reported. I'm not certain whether the number of candidates who managed to score A+ for any subjects is almost equal to the figure of the previous batch of candidates, however and still, there is something very obvious and provoking - the steep gradient between Chinese subject and any other subject. All of that is just playing with the normal distribution. Apparently it is not hard to set a threshold with the marks needed as the responding variable based on the proportion of the distribution required artificially. For example, if we want only 8% of those, let say 10000 of them who take a particular subject to get an A+, we can easily determine the threshold of the marks needed for the A+ by considering the lowest marks obtained by the candidates in the 8% of distribution. We might question how if the overall performance has greatly declined and what other changes should be made. In this case, a smaller proportion can be selected, for example, 5% or lower. Therefore, this flexible method is not applied blindly, but considering all the possible situations with a fair solution.

It has been a known fact that the "hardest" subject appears to be Chinese subject. In case you don't know how "hard" it is, you can ask any of your friends who were sitting for SPM in 2009 and could proudly tell you he or she had gotten an A+ in that subject. I don't have an official figure nor statistic for this, but it is fairly easy to spot the flaw when you heard there is only one hundred and more candidates scoring A+ nationwide, while a school could have equal number of candidates achieving the same result for any other subject. Why is the percentage of proportion scoring A+ for Chinese is less than 1% while other subjects can have relatively high percentage such as 8% or even more than 10%? All we need is an explanation.

Put the grading system of SPM aside, I would like to share some of my views towards the distribution of PSD scholarship. I used to think it is the best to give away the scholarship to the best brains. However when I further reflect on this issue, I think of wealth gradient among the people in our country and the way our government is trying to minimise gradient. We can't let the people in poverty to stand in the tight competition alone, that's why some policies such as free tax or extra subsidy are introduced so that they can have a better living condition, although it is still considerably terrible. This issue would be less controversial if everyone understands that. However it is not easy to protect everyone...

[To be continued...]

Untitled (You may suggest one.)

Perhaps I shouldn't have concerned too much. Perhaps I should respond to all unpleasant sight by just a smile, and stay happy because it actually favors us. No criticism, no so called "harsh comments" or "inappropriate action". Perhaps I shouldn't have placed my perspective of views in equal to those, which in turn would easily spark some misunderstandings. Perhaps I should be one of those saying: "Aiya, like that one la, why care so much?" Or perhaps I should just remain silent, be your obedient students and get focused in term of academic attention, score a string of As in examination, or try to secure the top in the world award to appease them before flying to India, then leave here and be happy ever after.

But I don't. To refrain myself from the urges to share something neglecting its fact as either positive or negative has been something more difficult than to keep my mouth shut. Some people don't understand the fascinating and intriguing part we could indulge ourselves in during arguing against a statement or topic by contributing constructive thoughts, and have a great assimilation of others' thoughts, so that things can eventually end up obtaining a valuable outcome. Curiosity and sense of accomplishment are playing a main role. People tend to lost the interest concerned in the sense that he doesn't prefer to share his very personal piece of two cents could be a result of flawed environment he was being brought up. For example, the repeating cliche during constructing an essay without really trying to inject some fresh ideas whenever possible, could curb his sharing ability.

When something has been done with a large margin of improvement, I speak. When I saw something flawed or wrong, I speak. Before I speak, I do something which most of the people don't, that is I reflect on whether I'm trying to contribute to, or encourage the flawed or to the wrong. At the same time, we can't dispute the fact if we don't stay in the flawed, we are the ones who face disadvantages. It can be a hard time to balance everything during this stage, but this is what prepares us to have equipped all of the traits needed in order to push ourselves to a further level of aptitude in the future.

We can choose to show indifference towards the flawed, because of "it is none of my business, as long as I happy, it doesn't matter." or "I can't do much to change that, don't let myself to get into trouble, so just let it be." Here is a question to think: Are we entitled to do so? And here comes a good lesson to learn - to be able to achieve the goal with minimum arousal of less significant circumstances which might in turn lead to a complication that may defeat the purpose of the initial intention. Expect the unexpected and accept the unacceptable. Which one do you choose?

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.

Examination (part 2)

Most of the people find themselves tiring of having the annoying school examinations. It infiltrates the students' life by exerting enormous pressure towards them. The parents are practising kiasusism which is meant by " refrain from losing especially in term of academic ", they send their children to the tuition centres all the way without concerning much about their favor and freedom. Some of my friends even needed to attend more than ten tuition classes per week while preparing for SPM. How stuffy could their life be? This is an unhealthy phenomenon indeed. They had been allocating too much weightage on the examination grades. There had been many cases where the candidates suddenly burst into hysterical screaming while having their exams, which could be attributed to the invisible burden they ought to face all along the time.

Honestly, I enjoy examinations instead of terrifying myself about it. You are given a period of time to prepare yourself and you shall make full use of the time in order to give your best shot in the coming examination. You have the golden chance to test how much you've absorbed, how deeply you've understood and to which extent you've achieved. I love the free essay parts, all the ideas can have their own ways traversing the sentences. I don't like the teacher to deduct my marks for accusing that my points are slightly digressed. I would like to condemn the teachers who won't consider the answers that are not appearing in their marking scheme. In fact they are just lazy to check for the acceptable answer one by one.

I would never try to force myself to burn midnight old, flipping those reference books at the last minute. If it did work, perhaps I shouldn't "waste" so much time in doing daily revision. Despite of doing the same thing just before a few minutes examination started, normally I would only take a deep breath to relax myself. Somehow I feel that it is better for a candidate to sit down and pray silently at that moment.

Examination

It has been three days since I started my blog. As the promise goes on, I will be squeezing my brain once again at tonight. Normally I'll find something that inspires me in recom but the topics left are seemingly too tough for me to express my point of view in English. Suddenly I think about examination, it will be interesting for me to write indeed.

Many people did ask me for the secret to score a string of A1s in this examination. Well, I'm not trying to reiterate the cliche or general statements such as 99% of perspiration and 1% of inspiration, unwavering determination, full commitment etc. However I may share some of the less abstract ways to improve your performance during the examination.

First and foremost, do not burn midnight oil during the examination weeks. Well, as we know, lack of sleep and tired mind will affect your performance adversely. It is definitely not worth to cover just a few more topics but you are emotionally distracted when answering the questions. Secondly, try to make short notes that could be able to recall you the complicated mathematics concepts or the chronology of the history stories. Read it before you enter the examination hall, it can act as a kind of confidence-booster too. This way comes handy when there is really a bunch of points or facts you need to memorise. In fact you can even draw something inside your short notes, it works! In addition, I would advise you not to discuss the questions immediately after you have submitted your paper. It is because you might lose your confidence once you have spotted some of your answers are wrong. ( Actually I didn't obey this during the SPM weeks, I wonder if I could still handle the next paper IF I knew my points of essays were really digressed :p ) Apart from that, utilize the time allocated for each paper by checking the answers. I would like to mention the subjective part where there will always be cases about losing the marks for the entire question just due to a tiny error in using terminologies. Besides, do study the format used in the particular subject rather than spotting which question will stand a higher chance to be asked. Last but not least, stay relax and refrain from getting nervous to tackle the exam questions =)

For the examination such as SPM, you will have to prepare yourselves for about two years therefore you definitely want to answer the questions at your best performance. I hope the advice above will help. All the best to the dedicated candidates of the coming SPM! Keep in mind that SPM appears only once in your lifetime! ( You don't hope to take it twice, do you? :p )