The blog is dead! Long live the blog!

Hello knowledge seekers!

This is just to let you all know that Tony has started a new weblog for the 11 June IELTS cohort.

It is: ieltscommunity20

website: www.ieltsfight.blogspot.com

Let's hope that they are fighters!

He has already invited Firas, Khawla, Maha and Ahmed to join the next weblog. Anyone else is most welcome to join us. Please comment below.

Regards

Blogmember

thanks

salam to you all,

I have read all your nice e-mails and i was so excited and happy to know that such good people are always there for support.

I was really frustrated and disappointed, but now i feel better and will follow Mr. Tony's advice to process my application with these scores if possible, if not i will try to take the exam again( last choice ).

as Ahmed said to live a good, peacefully life you have to fight as hard as possible to achieve your goals. It is seemed that all Palestinians are destined to fight all their life and i am sure that we do have the courage to fight back and succeed.

regards to you all,

khawla

my results

good morning all,

I am very sorry to announce my bad results to you all, however, I should do this since I promised to do it, and I hope that no one ever would get the same.

listening:6 ( 5 on Tuesday )
reading: 6.9 ( 6 on Tuesday )
writing: 7 ( 7 on Tuesday )
speaking: 7 ( 7 on Tuesday)

overall: 6 !!!!!!!!!!

now, the problem is not only the overall results, but that I needed band 7 in all four skills to fulfil the condition for immigration.

I am ready to read your comments regarding this e-mail, and I will appreciat them no matter how passive they are going to be.(please do not tell me to repeat it because I will not do it again).

I will try to contact my brother in Canada to know if anything can be done regarding the overall points, and I am ready to hear any suggestion from you side.

regards,
keep in touch.
khawla.

,

My exam

Dear all,

First of all, I want to thank Ahmad for his invitation, sorry I missed it as I was preparing for yesterday's IELTS exam.

Now, my feedback on Yesterday's IELTS exam for those who are scheduled for next week:

Listening test: It was easy at the beginning, but at the end, I was shocked to notice the tape ended and I missed the last conversation! I guessed few answers.

Reading test: was good, 1st two paragraphs were about hotels & headings, last one was about environment.

Writing test: Essay was about whether schools need to give more time for Arts, Music, writings, if we agree or don't agree. (I felt good about this subject, but somehow, it was difficult for me to start the introduction)

Letter : was about a friend who want to stay in your house while you are away, instructions & some suggesting to spend good time

Speaking : The lady was nice, the test was very positive, I felt good while speaking & my 2 mins. test was about a good thing happened in my life (not bad & not complicated)
Note: the examiner kept asking me short questions and I was answering non-stop so she would smile and say, " that is enough, we will move to another topic".

That is a brief of my exam, I hope that I will score well.

Hearing from you,

For Khaola & the other, please tell us your marks.

Regards,

Maha Hanna

Ivetation to Alwahda mall

DEAR ALL,

I will be so happy if I met any of you dears in Alwahda Mall which it should be open tomorrow 31st of May.I am the mechanical consultant for this project, I spent about thirty months to do all air conditioning, and fir fighting and plumbing works in addition to that the mall has very complicated control system.I know you are not interesting with the systems, but you are interesting with shops. the mall is consist of Basement which occupies by LoLo Hypermarket (it will be closed till med of June),ground and first floor have a different shops like mother care, mamas and babas which is anew UK trade mark in Abu Dhabi Damas is also there, in second and upper second floors its amusement area (still closed)and mainly very nice seating area and food court. offering good food variety fast food, Arabic food from Beirut restaurant and Chinese food,don't worry about your cars there is a special car parking building consist off 10 floors.
I am waiting you at afternoon please call me on 050 3292343

back again

salam my colleagues,

this is me again after one week peeping to you in a new restful face.
sorry i was not able to write to you because i promised myself to give her a nice time to forget all about IELTS.

Now, first of all i would like to congratulate FIRAS for his achievement, and hope that others will do the same if not more.

secondly,regarding my exam and as HELAL said to MAHA the listening was difficult, while reading was not compared to the test done on Tuesday by Mr. Tony, it was much easier. the writing was also OK, i mean it was not very difficult, while speaking was. i think that the most theoretical subject was given to me; it was about computer and its effects ( bad and good), and part two was about a local newspaper i used to read........!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, i want to tell you that i do not read newspapers that much, especially local newspaper????????????? i do not know that they can be read, anyway i made up (actually i lied) and came up with something that might have attracted the examiner's attention .

finally, you are kindly invited to read the second e-mail which would be about the final results of EILTS next week.

Congratulations to Firas & a note to Elkhadir

Hello Firas,

I am from IELTS Community19, I read your message & I am happy for you. I hope we all could achieve good results. My test is on next Saturday.

As for Elkhadir:
I contacted Hilal who is from our class and did the test last week, his comments are as follows:

- Listening test: very difficult
- Reading test: difficult to a certain level
- Writing : was better than the two above (letter was about volunteer for a good cause, essay is about invention whether good or bad)
- Speaking: was good

Now my question to Firas:

Could you please let us know the two writing subjects asked during your IELTS test? Please reply.

I shall post my comments straight after my exam for the rest of the IELTS community19.

Best regards to all of you especially to Tony.

Maha

Firas' Spaceship Took Off and Landed!

At the start of my space journey to the planet 'IELTS' , 15 other spacecraft had merged with the 'British Council' space station to charge their 4-section fuel tanks. I remember that day -2nd, April, 2007. We had received a formal 'welcome' from the 'Captain' of the space station. He questioned us regarding the fuel level everyone needed to accomplish his mission. Most of the astronauts answered that they needed Level Seven. Among them, I only needed Level Six. Later on, I asked myself "all these astronauts speak English, so what is the factor that determines my English competency among them?" The answer was to raise my spaceship fuel level and challenge these astronauts to be the first one who takes off on the 'IELTS' mission. We had all listened to the captain's instructions regarding how to lift the tank's four-part fuel level, in order to go back safely to 'Earth', and tried to implement them when we landed on the planet 'IELTS' on 12th, May, 2007. Finally the results came out:

1- Listening: 6.5 [Final Tuesday Test Level was 5.0]
2- Reading: 6.0[Final Tuesday Test Level was 5.5]
3- Writing: 8.0 [Final Tuesday Test Level was 7.0]
4- Speaking: 8.0 [Course Speaking Test Level was 7.0]

Overall IELTS Band: 7.0

'IELTS' will definitely measure your competency and highlights your weakness points as well as your power. The 'captain' said it once, "only truth hurts". I was expecting higher bands for the 'Reading' and 'Listening'. Now I know that I have to implement more effort on the 'Reading and Listening' sections, but hey! I made it! I succeeded! I have flown back safely to Earth!

Thank you 'Captain Tony' and many thanks to all my spacecraft mates for making this journey so pleasant and successful.

Standing by for YOUR IELTS mission reports.

Firas Shaker

Re-posted from ieltscommunity18 blog by Blogmember in tribute to a fabulous achievement.

Firas, we salute you!

See, fellow cosmonauts, how Firas raised his performance in the actual IELTS exam. There is no secret, it was sheer hard work on the weblog; on the websites; in the 'trenches'; in the classroom and hours upon hours in the British Council Learning Zone. Firas gave himself a two-week lead-in from finishing the IELTS prep course and then taking the actual exam. I feel this is the optimum strategy; it gives enough time to digest and apply the course material; you can extend your practice in the Learning Zone/on the Internet and you do not have too long a gap to lose your 'edge' before tackling the actual exam. Firas did not follow me blindly into the IELTS 'trenches' - he realised that what the 'captain' said was based on sound previous experience and Firas played the IELTS 'game' magnificently.

Firas has done it, you can do it as well!

Captain Tony

fateful date

Good evening ,

I would like to know if the three classmates succeeded; and how was the exam ?

Thank you .

Dear Fellow survivors,

Today is our last session with Tony for the IELTS Preparations, I want to express my deep respect and satisfaction regarding Tony's proficiency and his honesty towards us and his work.

Thanks Tony for your efforts, hopefully, we do not let you down with our marks.

As for you, dear fellows, are you satisfied? I am quite sure that none of us is ready for the exam but maybe we can score good band otherwise, we should take time to do more revision and repeat it.

I wish you all a good start of the day and see you in the evening.

Maha Hanna

Do Not Forget To Bring Your Original Passport

That is right! One of the students was dismissed form the exam due to this reason. could you imagine?

Thank you Khawla and Tony for the great feelings of yours and my wishes to all of "Ielts"candidates to pass the exam with the marks that they are willing to score, or even higher.

I forgot to mention two things which are:

1- Your application form that you filled on the day you registered for( Ielts) course will be placed on your chair, so DO NOT Panic! You are not required to bring any photos of yours. Bring only the passport.

2- The learning zone is a very vital element for making you " ready" for the exam.

As for the question "if i had any problems with the exam modules"? The answer : Who ever tried the learning zone modules and tried to practise the problems given in the associated books given to us for the course, in addition to "Web sites addresses given by Tony," will see that the exam will run similarly to these modules.
3- One day, 'Napoleon Bonapirt' been asked "Whom do you afraid of?". He answered: the EXAM.

I should not cite Napoleon's example as he was French. Perhaps Tony will cite with another English leader or an artist.

All the best.

Tony,

Iam going to the"British Club'' to workout and then will be watching the great match at 6:00 Pm. They have a big screen there.

Tips For The Exam

Dear Ieltsmates,

As I promised last week to give some information and advices regarding the exam, here are some of them:
1- DO NOT FORGET TO BRING YOUR ORIGINAL PASSPORT.

2- Be there at 8:00 o'clock. The entrance to the exam hall will start between 8:15 to 8:30. During this time you will have the chance to check your seat number, relax, see your classmates, have some tea or juice and eat some snacks _ already provided in the waiting hall for free_ and you can go to the toilet as well.

3- Sit on your chair and take a deep breath. After some time, the fear of the exam's place and environment will have dwindled.

4- Approximately; at 8:40; the instructions of conducting the exam will be declared by the exam's supervisor. You will be asked if the voice is adequately loudly or need to be raised up. LISTEN CAREFULLY TO THE EXAM'S INSTRUCTIONS AND REFLECT THEM ON YOUR ANSWERING SHEET. IT IS RELATED TO WRITE YOUR NAME AND SEAT NUMBER IN THE ALLOCATED PLACE ON YOUR ANSWERING SHEET.

5- At 8:55; the listening exam module will be distributed to you. The exam's supervisor will instruct you not to turn the paper over until 9:00. It is a battle, so you can turn the paper over to see its contents, but remember: you are not allowed to be caught.
6- Finally, the exam will run as you will have run it with Tony on 22nd May. The listening will be followed by one hour for the reading and another hour for the writing. You have to remember Tony's advices and recommendations to answer the questions.

7- The speaking module will be conducted later during the same day on the British Council and you will be given a paper to inform you about your attendance time to the BC. DO NOT FORGET TO BRING THIS PAPER WITH YOU FOR THE SPEAKING TEST AS IT WILL DETERMINE WHICH ROOM NUMBER YOU ARE GOING TO CONDUCT THIS TEST AND WHO WILL BE YOUR ASSESSOR.

All the best for all,

Firas

Excuse me... What is the problem?

Hmmm

The final week looms. The 17 individuals who comprise ieltscommunity19 face their last week of three hour torture sessions. Some observations from my side:

• this is a very passive class
• there seem to be no leaders
• there is very little student-student interaction
• everybody is very dour and glum (look these words up)
• I am getting lots of negative vibrations and unhappy, worried, grumpy faces
• some people seem to expect an instant solution for all their IELTS deficiencies
• the weather is hotting up, tempers are getting frayed and the pressure is mounting

This will be my final post on this weblog. I am fed with getting no response from such a 'wet' bunch of self-absorbed individuals.

Go out and enjoy your weekend. Don't worry, the course will be over before you know it.

Tony

Well, if this does not generate any response, then you truly are a lost cause...

Do not forget to bring your Insight into IELTS book on TUESDAY 22 May for the timed testing ( I have the audio CD - I bought my personal copy).

On Monday and Tuesday you will be expected to produce a Task 1 AND a Task 2 writing within the 60 minutes, otherwise you will crash in the actual IELTS.

WRITING

Hi Khawala,

I read your message and felt your frustration but it happens. I believe this type of experience is good at this time because it gives you the determination and the focus not to repeat your mistakes during the exam inchallah!

Tony is giving us good instructions to follow, we need to practice more and get more feed back about our improvements.

Have a nice day.

Regards,

Maha

task two writing

good morning all,

I am writing regarding the task 2 which done yesterday.
It was an awful experience which I Will pray to GOD not to occur to me or any of my colleges in the actual exam.
I made a lot of mistakes:
* I did not use the planning strategy
* I spent almost 13 minutes on introduction since I did not know what to write.
* I did not colour my writing with some personal experiences, my background, or any events happened in my society.
* I run out of time, and eventually I did not check for any spelling mistake.
to be honest with you I do not deserve more than 5 or 5.5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

however, I think that I did well ,hopefully, in task one.

please try to avoid these mistakes as much as you can.

now, I am planning to bring the case of writing method again today in the classroom.
and hopefully Mr. Tony will find it a good way and aprove it for IELTS.

The English Football Premiership

Hi Tony

I just want to say ' Congratulations' to all 'Manchester United' fans, whose club celebrated winning the Premiership yesterday. As a matter of fact, I did not see the actual game, but I read about it in the ' Khaleej Times newspaper.'
After joining the 'IELTS course,' I decided that I will read only local English language newspapers and believe me, it HELPS A LOT!

This weekend, I will try to write about my IELTS exam experience which I went through on 12th May. The latest students might read and benefit from it.

No worries! Have courage. There is nothing to be afraid of.

All the best

Firas

Try Globish
Dear All,
Its worth to read about Globish,I am writing to support who is agreed with Globish if he do not mined ,please give attention that Globish is not a language ,it is a simple communication channel between different nationalities with a very limited vocabulary and simple rule.I believe that most of the people who are studying English aimed to get the essential bases to be good enough to start their overseas studies or lives in other hand a few student they are planing to study English Literature or Poetry.however English language is one of the most important live languages, but many nationalities are fighting against spreading this language,some of them having this attitude because of their jingo,like German,some of them following this strategy because they have competing history with UK to control the the old and new world since last few centuries like Franc,others they are against English due their cliquish system like eastern Europa, while other countries set against English language due to it is reminders them of the black history period when UK was occupied many countries and utilized them in undignified way like Libya and Syria.Globish is not belong to any nation it is developing of English language to be more simple and effectiveness.Globish is the result of French effort on English language which will give a universal meaning.

hi tony

hi tony
thank you for this weblog, I just make my registraion

Inspiration time

Need inspiration?

Go to www.ieltsdream.blogspot.com

ieltscommunity4 - was an amazing, amazing weblog

and read:

• the many student IELTS feedback reports
  
• Mais Al Bassam's amazing story (see below)
  
• Dr Rashid Saleem's majestic band 8.0 IELTS model essays
• a weblog that keept active for a period of 4 months

That is how a weblog can be a dynamic force and students can help each other.

Ah well, I will remember the Mais Al Bassam high achievers for years and years to come.

How will YOU measure up?

Why not take the trouble to talk to me, and the world?

Tony
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Dearest Sir Tony, I DID IT :)

Dearest Sir Tony and all my concerned Friends,
I did it, no one can imagine my happiness right now, I cant stop crying. Words really cant express my appreciation and respect to you Sir, this is all as a result of the efforts and the hard work you spent on us.God bless you, I really want to say much more but my feeling and emotions right now are blocking the words.
Sir, Yasmeen mentioned once and I will say it 100,s and 1000,s of times, that you will stay in our minds and thoughts forever . I really admire you Sir .You are my Hero.
My great friends, Yasmeen, Ashwaq, Mohammad, Jithu and the lovely Mubaraka ,and all the rest, I really appretiate all the support you gave me during and after the course may allah bless each and everyone of you and inshallah I see you all with a bright future .
My results were as following:
Listening: 7.5
Reading: 7.0
Writing: 7.0
Speaking: 7.0
OVERALL BAND: 7.0
Thanks God :)
MAIS.

posted by maisalbassam at 2:09 PM
[There were 12 comments - just CLICK on the 2:09PM link above]

Gird those loins!!!

Blogmember [Tony's alter ego] says to redouble your efforts and squeeze the maximum out of these precious last two weeks.

It is an incredible feat that not only have 17 out of 17 attended each of the first six lessons, but punctuality and attentiveness are of a very high standard - bravo!

So this weekend you'll be reading a lot and listening to an extensive range of Native speaker English - your receptive skills (i.e. reading and listening) will make or break you. Tony has the measure of your productive skills (i.e. speaking and writing) , but cannot work miracles on your underlying fundamental grasp of English and how you use it. You have to 'play the IELTS game' and tell them what they want to hear and read what they want to see presented in the appropriate IELTS writing formula.

We'd like to hear from some of the April 2007 class who have just taken / are just about to take their IELTS exams.

Also this blog needs support apart from Maha, Khawla and Ahmed! Don't suffer in silence! Let's hear from you!

Blogmember is waiting impatiently!

Many thanks for yesterday

Dear Tony,

I would like to express my special thanks for the thourough explanation regarding the essays in general. I am happy to finally understand how to present a strong & convincing introduction and hoping that I can apply it during my IELTS exam.

I will be extremely happy to benefit from your great experience and get similar information regarding the body & the conclusion of an essay so we could all follow and hopefully achieve good band.

Thanks again for your efforts.

Maha

ALIF AFYAA AYONI

This is an Iraqi (slang)_ for the person who eats a very tasty dish.

As the Iraqi fellows in the class/ or your respectful wife_ whom she knows what she is doing _ will explain, the words mean:
Alif = Thousand
Afyaa = Health
Ayoni = Dear
As well, you may add (Toney) in the end.
As soon I saw your post, I have decided to post my wishes immediately, quoting Khawla's method to use Cambridge dictionary " Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today."

So,next time you have my invitation to visit the same restaurant.

Yours sincerely

That was the weekend that was...

Monday looms...

All those good intentions...

Complete the well-known saying: "The road to hell _____________________________________".

Don't relax too much, you guys!

For the four Iraqi gentlemen in the class - I enjoyed one of your celebrated dishes over the weekend - the famous mazgouf and it was an amazing culinary experience!

See you tomorrow or, better still, today, on the weblog!

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow (to quote Shakespeare)

Tony

AKA the Bard of Watford

Writing Errand

Dear tony

It seems you have got an interesting class which its students are hungry to learn and ready to digest.'quote'
During the last week, I was practicing the reading skills. A trial to score the highest marks within the time allowed. So far, I have not achieved the goal that Iam aiming to. I think, I need to try variant and several strategies. This weekend I will publish a writing task and enquire you to evaluate it if possible. I will visit the learning zone this weak and hope to see you there.

New Students:
It is working hard, studying hard and reviewing Tony's three days lessons during the weakend. This is the way out of the Ielts exam. so, keep it up and try to get the benefits of the Weblog.

Good luck