When PDT was over.....

Finally, my 4.5 months journey was going to an end, which meant a good news on one hand and an uncomfortable feeling on the other hand. Why? As I would not have to sleep late at night dealing with assignments as well as self-studying, I can definitely spend more times doing other activities as opposed to learning, haahaha. However, since I still had to wait for almost 2 weeks long for the IELTS result, surely it made me difficult just to stay calm before knowing the score. 

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So, what happened with going back to the office? A bit awkward if I could say. I've met lots of new colleagues also a new boss, but fortunately, the same job hehehe making me feel like entering a new office back in early 2011 when I firstly came to this place. Meanwhile, I must have dealt with what so called "jet lag" with this new routine as well, although I still have to start commuting at a similar time, going home at 5 and then arriving around 1.5 hours later seems too hard for me. I've really missed heading off from IALF at 3 and so seeing the sunlight when arriving home, absolutely I do miss accompanying my daughter to enjoy the afternoon just in our neighborhood :( And for sure, I am about to lost my comfort zone during the PDT with an enjoyable learning, a cozy place to study (a.k.a. resource center) and off course great classmates.

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Well, I must admit that these 13 people with their own uniqueness have completed this journey. The duo Phd students, Mas Toto and Mas Agus are like our role models regarding their skills, abilities and also experience, hopefully we could be like them as we reach our mature age hahaha. Another "mature" student is Mas Cahya, the one who got an unconditional offer long before our course ended up, lucky u! no more worries about what the IELTS would be hehe. Our class leader, Mas Bram, is the energetic one organizing our outside-class activities such as munggahan and other eating out moments. He also intended to arrange our video performance for the end-of-course event, but, unfortunately the IALF management didn't give us permission. Pandu, together with Mas Toto and Mas Bram, were my partners in speaking study group in which we each other criticized and gave and received many inputs and constructing comments, these meant a lot for me, guys! Rizky, those showing me how to go home by train from Sudirman Station, is a reading master and thus we called him Reading Wicaksono hahaha. Cahyo, Rizky's BFF I suppose because they will go to the same state, Adelaide, and come from the same institution, is the one who often sends "wrong" messages into our WA group haha crazy! Thariq, the youngest guy in this class, a businessman wanna be but trapping himself being a government officer currently, is the hilarious one. Puji, mr. cheerful, is those never looked angry or sad, thanks for reminding me to avoid saying "but I'm not sure" in every discussion hehehe you now it is unconsciously said :p  Mas Danang, my ex-colleague, is the calm one, I've almost never seen him in a hurry, indeed he did his presentation in an attractive way; thus although exceeding the time limit, he still got good grade, unlike me hehe. Lastly, the women, Putri whose has a British accent is very fluent in speaking and able to stay calm even when given an unexpected topic, amazing! Mba Wulan, coming from Binjai makes her being called "miss Binjai" by Mas Tohari. She is also the funny one with a unique dialect and a well-organized person. And, Novi, another young guy in this class, was the only one who disappeared in the event in Decanter haha. She was always copying the weekly timetables for me, Putri and Mba Wulan, thanks!

Us...at the closing ceremony, 9 Oct 2015

By all of the ups and downs we have passed, I would undoubtedly miss those moments. I hope Allah will allow us to have such a reunion Down Under and ease our study as well...aamiin. Don't forget also with our wonderful plan in the future, Hotchkiss and Partner Consulting Firm hahaha

6-7th week: Battles before Deserving a Holiday

Yeaaa...I am writing this post in my early holiday. During the last two weeks of my course in IALF, I would say that it was not that easy to pass through because I had to pass the third practice test in week 6, as well as do the IELTS pre-test and submit my 500-word essay draft in week 7.

The practice test was going like the previous, but I felt unfocused during the listening session and it resulted in a remained constant score compared to my preceding. Similarly, I thought that my writing also showed a decrease huhuhu. But, at least it was over right? and hopefully there will be an improvement since then. Moreover, as days went by, I also realized that I should regularly practice for the task 1 writing, I think it's getting harder now with a variety of the questions and thus the sample answers.

How about the pre-test? Honestly, I did no preparation for this one. But, surprisingly it made me feel relax during the test. I just tried to enjoy doing the listening and reading tests. Hehehe, so it might be true that doing something for pleasure could benefit more.

Lastly, the essay assignment, which I initially thought as a hard one, was ended up. I should admit that I really enjoy the writing and the research but not for the short time-limit. It was stressful to finish reading the journals, making the annotated bibliography and also writing the essay in the given time. But, one thing I thereby learned is that having an adequated annotated bibliography would definitely help you easily and quickly accomplishing the writing. I proved it. Thus, it becomes a good bridging into my future assignments in uni, in sya Allah. And alhamdulillah I got a good feedback from my teacher yet "there are still a few structural problems in the first and second main bodies" he said. It will be my another homework for the rest of the holiday because it may be too early to revise right now. Hope the holiday could be a refreshment before starting the second half of the course. :)

       

5th Week: Dealing with Paraphrasing and Summarising

Let's talk about what I have done in this week. We got so much new knowledge also experience, which were mostly about writing skill. Paraphrasing and summaring...yaa we all know and must be already familiar with this tasks, but I then realised that it was not as simple as my previous thought. How come?

Parapharasing...mainly, this technique becomes essential for referencing someone's writing. In paraphrasing, we only restate the paragraphs (or sentences) in a different style. Otherwise, we would be considered to do plagiarism if we just copy the sentence although we put the citations. At the same time, we should retain the same meaning. 

While, in summarising, we would deal with reducing unnecessary details and examples yet stressing the key information in order to have a quick and easy understanding. Before doing this task, a note-taking is suggested since it helps us getting the key words as well as the main ideas.

Both of them are very useful, I think, as in our future study we will get many books and also journals to read so these techniques will enable us to grasp their substances. Furthermore, it will help us coping with the assignment which is mainly writing tasks. I really should thank the teacher for introducing me the proper methods...hehe. In fact, the teacher also gave us  an assignment to summarise an article which was due on friday. To finish this task, I did reading first, making note, drafting and ended up with a proofreading by my classmate. I also got some comments from Putri, and finally it triggered me to revise some parts.

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4th Week: Road to Practice Test 2

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So many things happened this week, the 2nd speaking practice test on Monday, doing CC-Seminar, receiving assignment comment, as well as having 2nd practice test on Friday (usually IALF conducts practice test once in every two weeks). 

Well, I had no preparation for the speaking test, even though I have already seen in the timetable that we would occupy the language laboratory on Monday :D. Consequently, I still felt bad with my performance. However, I realised that I seldom practice speaking, apart from the class activities so I plan to increase my speaking-practice activities since then. 

That's why I seriously did a rehearsal, a day before having the CC seminar. I thought this would be a good opportunity to improve my speaking skill. The seminar was done relatively smooth because luckily I got such a great group which each member considered this seminar as a sharing session, so there was no reason for being challenged, nervous and so on. We, therefore, had an exciting discussion and definitely I should thank Barbara for giving us this project since we got so much useful information helping us to cope with transportation matters in Australia, etc without doing research for that topics. 

Next, I also obtained comments for my one-sided essay assignment. The teacher pointed out on my language which, in some parts, still need to be improved while overall he gave me a relatively good grade (Alhamdulillah :)). However, it motivated me to do more writing exercises and keep improving my writing skill.

Lastly, we had our practice test again huh. As usual, I was struggling with the reading and listening as well while surprisingly I have finished my writing tasks, unlike the first test (although I am not sure with the result). I hope that the more we have practice test the more well-prepared we will be for the real battle.

3rd Week: Reflection

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In this week, I experienced getting the first practice test result, finishing cross-cultural studies assignment also attending the one-on-one consultation with the teacher. 

The test result was relatively similar to my predictions, hehe. I had many comments from the teacher on the writing tasks since I have not finished both. It's ok, I will consider this as a part of my journey in learning. For the task 1, actually I knew from the teacher that the main points are having clear overview and reporting key features (also making comparison between the figures), while previously I also thought that paraphrasing the question would mark point. Moreover, the supporting data should be provided as an important element of task achievement. In contrast, the teacher's comments on my writing task 2 slightly relieved my regret since I thought earlier that I will lose a lot of points. In fact, according to the comments, I still had several positives regarding the ideas also the structures. Similarly, my reading still needs improvements, especially in speed and skim reading ability, also in coping with different types of questions. Otherwise, I was surprised with my listening result. Alhamdulillah...yet I should do practicing more, especially in the listening conversations, discussions, also lectures. I have borrowed an IELTS book from the library and copy some podcasts from my friend. Let's practice harder!

Recently, I have finished my group task in CC. Later on, we will have presentation session with the other class member. It will be challenging because would be prepared for any questions. Next week should be the end of this project, hi hi hi hopefully.

Lastly, I also had a one-on-one consultation with the teacher. He asked some questions about my strengths and weaknesses in learning English, and give me some advice to boost my skills. He wondered why I'm not confident with my listening skill while my previous result showed relatively good. I explained that my critical point is listening to conversations also lectures (including his lectures hahaha). I revealed that sometimes I cannot fully understand of what he said and just try to guess :D.

That's all :)

2nd Week: Challenge

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Hosh hosh this week I have been struggling on writing tasks. The teacher gave us materials also tips in order to help us dealing with our essays. It became an enlightenment for me since I still got bad writing score on my preceding IELTS test. There are some tips to boost my writing skill, like creating daily journal of our study, summarizing the articles we read, and surely we still have to read (whatever english -written sources) as many as possible to grasp various topics. This will help us have a habitual writing, thus it will be easier doing the writing part on IELTS test.

So, what I have been doing? Yaa, since 2 weeks ago I have intended to have blog-posts in english as often as possible. And the result is, I already had 2 posts in english hehe ...seems a good start yaa :) Well, I think I will continue this routine, just keep writing even in a simple topic.

Then, how about my speaking? Actually, I feel bad in organizing my speaking into simple and to-the-point sentences. Sometimes I take long time just thinking way to tell others. Besides, I also have a problem at lack of ideas when discussing a particular topic. Correspondingly, I should put solutions over these different problems. First, I should practice speaking regularly in order to make me easily expressing my opinion then it should increase my fluency also. Fortunately, last week I did have my turn in our group discussion (GD). We used the interlude between EAP classes to have our first GD which involved three of my classmates. Taking only around 30 minutes, we just gave our opinion about historical building we recently visited. According to my mate, I was fluent enough when speaking, but I still had trouble in speaking systematically. Hahaha I could not agree more :p. Next week we are going to have the second session. Second, regarding my limitation on some topics, the teacher has been asked us to read articles, journals or other references. It is better to have several short readings than struggling to accomplish just one thick book. Oke, I prefer to have the simple articles first and then improve to the more complex ones.

Beyond the EAP classes, Barbara class was also challenging for me. We were given a class assignment, deciding one topic regarding to cross-cultural syllabus then doing a research on it. We have chosen "accomodation" as our research topic. Then, we should submit the outline and after she approve it we will present our topic to other-class member, in the next 2 weeks. Yeah, I will enjoy it yet it must be very stressful thinking of the presentation :( Hope all is well...

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Finally the second week was ended up with IELTS practice test. Initially, I tried not to be so serious about this test and consider this as a way to know our study progress. Nevertheless, I felt a bit frustrated as the test was over. I have not finished my writing on both tasks :((( . I also felt bad with the reading part :((( So, I am prepared for any of the teacher's comment at Monday T.T

First Week of Studying

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Since beginning of the last week, I have been free from office job...alhamdulillah :) How come? yes, fortunately I got a chance to learn english for IELTS purpose at IALF Jakarta. This is part of Pre Departure Training (PDT), the first milestone after awarded the AAS (Australia Awards Scholarship).

So what happen at this first week? Fantastic! hehehe First, the PDT is not just studying english, but also filled by other skills, computer skill, learning skill and cross-cultural studies. It seems to be a complete package making me become well-prepared for studying in Australia. Second, we normally start the class at 9 am except they add particular subject such as computer or cross-cultural and finish at 3 pm, so it means more times for playing with my daughter after finishing the classes.

The EAP class (english studies class) is the core course. It provide me some theories, techniques, also practical skills in handling reading, speaking and writing part. In addition, I am also pushed to be familiar listening english from native, it sounds challenging, right? hehe. The cross-cultural class gives me introductions to Australian culture, and the first one was how to shake hand with Australian style hahaha. Lastly, the computer class seems to be way out of finishing my essay-work effectively.

Well, the first week was gone without a heap of assignment papers. But, let's see in the upcoming weeeks. Hope it will be exciting.