The Analyst Down Under

I've been studying so hard, I am now pretty sure how I should have studied from the start. As with all things me, its come to me a little late or just in time to a millimeter, with no space to spare. I got my hygiene factors in place early enough, thank God, carving out a study place where I can sit and study in a suitably conducive environment, or I would be lounging around like I was last time all around the house until just a month before the exams. The managerial level syllabus has refreshed some important planning, management and control techniques that can be applied to studying for the exam. However, simplicity is key rather than a complex schedule that was pretty time consuming just to manage. A block chart manager, with a line for Completion, Each of the subjects, and Weeks is the main planning and control tool. Completion chases weeks and each of the subject lines, divided in area by each part of the syllabus, is shaded. In studying for each part of the sy...

With just Rs. 46 left in the bank, I've never been so happy about having all my money chugged down a juicer before. The online transaction finally went through though not as smoothly as I would have liked to keep Monday mornings fresh and breezy. As soon as the ICAA received my application, they processed the payment, which was of course unsuccessful, despite my repeated reminders to notify me when the payment would be processed. I immediately attempted to activate an online session with my bank after talking to service adviser who advised me to call back within the next 3 hours (i.e. 12 pm PST and 6 pm Sydney) as soon as I had opened a 'window'. My bank had problems activating a session and only on the second inquiry did I realize that I only had internet processing for my other bank account - Dawoodi Hardware. I tried to transfer funds from my salary account to the business account thorough internet banking but the captcha's somehow never seemed to be right and I dec...

I had sent in my Pre-Application Skills Assessment (PASA) to the ICAA last Friday, but it isn't being processed until the coming Monday at least. It took Pakistan Post's Express Mail Service (EMS) about two days to reach Australia and another four days for Australian post to finally deliver it to the postal box address on the form. Tracking the package was not a problem, as both Pakistan Post and Australian Post provided tracking summaries of the package. Another risky undertaking that saved at least me Rs. 1,200 from an exchange service or a fat half-lie at my bank was that I included my VISA card details on the form for payment. I've sent them three emails so far to tell them that they will need to advise me the exact time and date of payment so I can activate an online session to be able to complete an online transaction. This is a potentially costly risk in case it doesn't work out, as I would have to pay Rs. 1,200 plus the local exchange rate for AUD, which has inc...

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...