The Effects of Trials

This is just a random conversation which took place in Kamar 1, Bilik 7109, Blok 7, Akasia.

Lay(with headphones on): Nages, I'm glad that you are my roommate.

Nages ( also with headphones): err....Why suddenly?

Lay: We should take time to show how much we appreciate the people around us. :D

Nages: Well, a Secret Recipe wont hurt to show how much you appreciate me.

Lay: And now is the time you blast your music and pretend nothing happened.

Nages: Swat la you. (aiyo!)

IELTS

Well, in short,

IELTS is the International English Language Test System whereby students intending to go to Europe or Australia for tertiary education have to sit and prove we are able to read, write, listen and speak in English. Irony is always those who barely and hardly ever use English score higher.

Anyway, there are four main components. Mainly, Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.

In Reading,

Basically you will be given three passages. If it’s a killer question you will have four passages, each consisting of 10 questions. It’s basic comprehension. Most people practice the ‘See and Scan’ method. Well, it is basically just scanning the text for the answer by reading the questions prior to reading the text. I didn’t follow that. I read the whole text, fell asleep, read again and then proceeded to answer. Well, either way, you will have plenty of time in the end,, so what he heck? Just read the passages. They are all interesting anyway, and always a source of good, viable information. At least, I learnt from one of the passages that

‘A slight pain causes itchiness and a slight pressure causes a tickle!’

You only get stuck at the True or False or Not Given part. Differentiating True and False is like differentiating a girl and a guy in a class, although nowadays some may have difficulties in that due to ever-changing sexualities. But, differentiating between False and Not Given, my my. I hate it. I never got that. All I assumed after tones of practice was that if you think you can find it in the passage, and it doesn’t contradict a given statement, then its NOT GIVEN. If you can’t find it, but it does contradict a given statement, then its FALSE. Well, my assumption could have been correct as I obtained band 9 for this section.

Next will be Listening.

First you need to get a hand of their accents. British and Australian accents are fine, but an Indian accent, OMG. Sometimes, you just have no idea what are they saying. And you need to take care of the capitalization of your answers. Sometimes, you need to star with a capital letter, sometimes no. How to determine when, NO IDEA. Best clue, follow the example. If no examples, trust your gut feeling. If it’s the start of a sentence, Capital, if its in the middle of a sentence, c’mon, you should know, if not rewind back to basic grammar lessons. It wasn't that difficult when compared to my daily exercise in class. The ones we did in class were beyond anything, for they were talking in speeds equal to that of the light. The real one was cool. I scored 8.5. :D

Writing.

I hated this. It's not that I can't write, I can, if not there wouldn't be a blog. But, it was just damn bloody confusing. Especially when the question says, 'To what extent do you agree'. I was under the impression, if that kind of question comes out, make it into an argumentative essay, choose a stand, dun stand on the fence. But then, as time went by, a lot of rumours came in, saying this and that, and finally I was just too confused. I remember, on the day of the test, I was telling Naggy,

'I really hope a discussive essay comes out, just like this (showing our book), regarding televisions...it would be easy. Just list down all, discuss and end it'

Haha...guess what??? That was the question! OMG! I was like WTF??? Wow, God really heard me! Haha...At least I was glad it wasn't a typical argumentative. I love argumentative essays, you get to voice out your opinions in a better way with more conviction, but then, I was too confused to pray for that question. Anyway, I got a pathetic band 7. I was expecting 8 for what I wrote, but maybe, I wasn't up to par with what the IELTS standard. Well, I'm just grateful for I always got band 5.5 or 6 in school. (pathetic right?)

Finally, Speaking!

My favourite! As I love to speak, and mind you I am in Toastmasters! Well, I have been speaking in English from the very beginning of me learning how to speak. We never spoke in Tamil at home, it was always English and even my grandparents spoke in English! The whole family to be precise...there was a time my cousins and I will only converse in English. The whole speaking test lasts about 15 minutes. A one to one test, the examiner questions you while recording the whole conversation. I don't really remember my topic, but I think it was something to do with advertisements. Sorry, I can't really remember, especially my part 3. It went ok, not so well. I, well, I expected a higher band, but hey, I got only a 7.5.

Biro Tatanegara 2010

Well, as students under a government scholarship, we all have to attend this course which is regarding our beloved country. There's a test at the end of the day, and you have to pass it or you can just wave goodbye to your friends who will e flying off to their destination countries from KLIA. It's a five day course, and is usually held in camps, but I was lucky, for mine was held in a resort.

It was held at Bidara Puteri Beach Resort, Tg. Kelling, Melaka

As usual, the busses left Akasia and Cendana and headed to Melaka. Honestly, we all had no idea where we were going to except for the clue, Tg. Kelling. Besides that nothing, not even if it's a NS camp, army camp or whatsoever. Even our pak drivers didn't know, and as always they were expecting to send us to a camp. We reached Melaka, drove by the coast, passed by our very resort where we were suppose to be staying, went further in searching for the camp. Finally, the pak drivers realised we were no more in Tg. Kelling but heading to BAndaraya Melaka already, and decided to call the BTN manager. And then we resumed our journey back the way we came to this resort. Our pak drivers went asking, 'Why is their BTN being held in a resort?'

Well, no complains from us.

The happy faces all registering at the reception. There was a rush to get roommates as it was six to a room, and we had the pleasure to choose who we wanted to live with. We left around 12 but reached around 4.14pm, stopping for awhile at Seremban to pray and have KFC.

So, what we did there for 5 long days??? Mornings, as in early mornings we had some exercise. First day was cancelled as it was raining so we all went back to sleep. Second and third day, we went to the beach. It was so nice to have a morning walk by the beach actually. Very serene and calming. Then after that we have classes at 8 till 4, with occasioanl breaks in between for morning tea, lunch and evening tea. It wasn't really classes, but more on talks or ceramah about our Malaysian Constitution. Basically, only the most important parts of the constitution is discussed.

This was where our ceramah was held.

Later we were grouped into different groups and had latihan dalam kumpulan, also regarding our country.

In the evenings, we had riadah. First day, we had volley ball match-guys versus girls. By the way, it wasn't only INTEC's PMC students, but also pharmacy students from IMU who are actually ALM6 students and also students from MIAT-Malaysian Institute of Aviation Technology going to Russia. Well, the girls won!!!

Then we had ceramah and games at night from 9 till 11+. So that was our routine for the week. Seems boring right? Nah, actually we had tonnes of fun. We got to go the beach every morning!!! Slept in an air-conditioned room, with real comfortable beds and had hot bath every morning when I woke up with my feet numb. Even the classes were fun as I learnt a lot about the constitution, but actually, I already knew the constitution. I came out with the same level of knowledge.

Jumping in joy!!!! 10M3

Actually, the bond with my classmates got stronger through this trip. I mean, most of us stayed together and the guys room was beside ours, so we hate late night talks too. It gave us a thought on how we might be living when we get to Ireland later.

Finally, the photographer gets some rest and jumps!!!

I love my phone as it really does capture the very best moments of my life!!!