The Analyst Down Under

It was good that I made a fuss about having to send in my photographs without a cap. Sara from the IELTS administration just called in to say that she took another look at my pic and has approved it for dispatching the results. That's after I talked to a very professional and courteous lady in the British Council with immaculately refined speaking skills in both native-Brit and khalis Urdu - Sadia But, managing the British Council information center. She called back a few minutes after I made contact on the toll free number and told them that I was intending to send them the bill along with my photographs. Sadia promised me that she would get down to it and that she was quite sure that it wasn't prejudiced, when I explained to her that I had said "thank you very much but I'll keep it on" to the nice test administrator who had advised me to take off my cap before going in for my speaking interview. After all, the cap ( topi ) is an integral part of my religious and...

No, I'm not losing my religion, as much as you'd imagine from my previous post (I said too much, I said it all...). And I'm not so big on REM either, except for this very sticky song. Well, I lost at least five listening questions to my lack of concentration and love for drifting thoughts. The reading was sharp, and I finished my writing just in time, going over each task and finishing satisfactorily. My preparation was a little half-baked, as I did not do an all-important practice test beforehand and this cost me quite a few on the listening as I still hadn't oriented myself properly to pay attention. However, watching 'Australia' with my folks over the last two nights paid off as I could easily make out that Australian accent in one of the clips, though I still missed one in that section while I was gloating. This Ramadan's tasbeeh and ziarat of Bhaiji Bhai probably had a lot to do in taking me through this paper (as usual, I was fretting like a nervous co...

Unlike the last time I sat the IELTS, now there are online resources that prepare candidates for the test. I received an email from the IELTS around six days to a week after submitting the application at the branch. It reads: Dear TAAHA ABDUL LATIF Thank you for registering for IELTS with The British Council. Please note that we have received your application form and payment slip. Your registration status is confirmed now. Following are your test details: Customer Reference Number : ommitted - Name : TAAHA ABDUL LATIF Test Date : 25 Sep 2010 Test Centre : KARACHI Test Module : AC Date of Birth : 1981-01-09 Gender : Male Passport/CNIC No : - ommitted - Payment Date : 2010-09-15 Your Correspondence Address : - ommitted - You...