My IELTS Journey

It all started with a dream of being out there overseas and having better chances of being compensated well as a professional nurse. Who wouldn’t want that?

Life as a nurse here in the Philippines is plain difficult. Sure, the job is very rewarding and there is no denying that. Yes...the thank yous we get from our patients is heart swelling. Unfortunately, the meager compensation and unpaid overtimes won’t pay for the growing bills and necessities of our family.

So primarily, a nurse aspiring to work in any English speaking country should pass the IELTS test. By passing, it means getting the band score required by your target country. Moreover, aspirants under the health sector can also take the OET or Occupational English Test as another option.

In my case, IELTS was my ONLY option because it's way cheaper than OET. ( I was informed that the OET test is now Php 25,000. It depends on the peso dollar exchange rate because it's $587 AUD )

The IELTS or the International English Language Testing System is an assessment examination that gauges the English ability of a candidate who needs to study or work in a country where English is used as a language for communication.

Thinking about it, it took me several months before I was able finalize my decision of taking the exam.
It was early 2017 when my friends and I decided to enroll ourselves to an IELTS review center in the city. The enrollment fee for the review was rather expensive, however it was the only review center that looked promising for us. Truth be told it was such a hassle to attend it because we were working at the ER during those times and we were always mentally and physically exhausted.

I remember drinking two to three shots of Kopiko 350 coffee just to keep myself wide awake during grammar review. We were not able to maximize the whole of our payment because of our work. I tried but it was really in vain.

During reading mock tests, my scores were incredibly LOW. I would have to skim passages and get nothing from doing it. It didn’t really boost my confidence in anyway, lest it only made me feel so afraid of the reading exam.  Attending review classes didn’t fit me...okay. I am an isolated case, I'm not generalizing. Some people, they do better in reviews and that's a fact.

Personally, I felt like I wasted my money over that review. Lecture videos and other materials were available online and could be easily looked up in Google and Youtube. In short, the whole review was a passing event in my life.

The only convenience offered to me by the review center was that they offered to book the exam for me. I pay them and they use their credit card to settle for the exam. By the way, IELTS examinations were payed only by means of a credit card during that time, and I didn't have one.

Anyway, I wasn’t confident to take the exam so.... I stalled. Months passed and things just got harder for me. I felt like nothing was really happening much with my career so I just needed to push through my original plan. So it was in November 2017 when I finally decided to take the test.

I figured out that I should pay for the exam first. The pressure of failing will get me to study hard, at least I thought that would work for me.The exam fee was freaking expensive! I don’t have the funds to do the exam over and over again. You take it once and that’s it. That’s what I told myself.

So, yeah.

I chose the British Council over IDP as my test provider because rumors have it that IDP’s IELTS exam is more difficult than British Council, but I don’t know how true that is. In terms of the testing fee, Academic IELTS with British Councils is worth Php. 10,270.00 while IDP prices at Php. 11,500.00. (These are updated rates as of August 2018).

There is also IELTS UKVI for those who are rooting for United Kingdom, and IELTS exam fee for that goes around php 14,000.

As for payment modes, they are now accepting online and offline payments. So, If you don’t have a credit card, you can pay thru their BDO account. During my time, credit/debit card payment was the only option they gave their examinee.

The process:

First, I visited the British Council website: https://philippines.ielts.britishcouncil.org/iorpsea/html/registration/showExamSessionListServlet.do

Then, I created my account. After filling-up the necessary information required,  I chose a date and got myself booked for an exam in Manila.

But before that, I already got myself a round trip plane ticket for the examination which was crazy because that should have come later after my test booking, but it didn't.

So, the pressure was on!

I needed to do this process by myself because I also decided to do self-study. I was not connected to any review center anymore so nobody can do it for me.

I had roughly two months to study for my exam. Again it was hard because I was always dead tired after every shift from Emergency Room, but I challenged myself to make time for reviewing.  

I would always think of the money I paid for the exam, it took me so long to come up with it. I can’t waste it anyway.

In general, I used two books in IELTS to learn strategies for the exam. Both materials were freely shared to me so I'll be kind to share it too in this blog.

Target band 7: I personally enjoyed reading this because the author's approach in communicating his message was so kickass. This will really give your spirit some angst. www.dropbox.com/s/dcz7wxcyox2y2l0/target%20band%207-1.pdf?dl=0

101 Helpful Tips for IELTS: This book is really lengthy but really infomative. It has everything you need to know about the test and the strategies. www.dropbox.com/s/qzx9ta5aff3kche/101%20Helpful%20Hints%20for%20IELTS%20Academic%20Module%20%28ebook%29%20%5B%3DRahil%3D%5D.pdf?dl=0

For practice, I used Youtube as my primary source for listening test. I did around a hundred listening test until I was able to hit the scores that I needed.

As for reading, I borrowed a reading material from my co-worker who used to attend review sessions at Niners review center. I tried to do reading tests during midnight when everybody was sleeping, and I see to it that I have rested a bit so I'd have energy to spare for reading. It's literally real pain in the neck, and that's no exaggeration.  

Seriously! The reading test was the most difficult part of the exam for me. It entailed  a lot of time management since there were three long passages to skim. I had kept a timer with me and strictly followed the 15-20-25 minutes rule by all means.

I have downloaded loads of infographics online, and practiced writing task one using those different graphs and tables. Task two on the other hand was free writing so I didn’t worry about it as much as I did with task one.

Well, as for speaking…talking to myself in front of the mirror helped a lot. And of course, I did that during midnight as well. I didn’t want my sister to catch me speaking alone, so I had to do it in the wee hours of the morning.

A week before the exam, the British Council sent me an e-mail confirming the final time and venue of the test.  They also mentioned the things to bring along like valid ID, Mongol Lead 2 pencils and eraser. They particularly mentioned not to bring a pencil sharpener. Only to find out that they would be providing a magic pencil and an eraser during the test day.

I am actually not so familiar with Manila roads. I am an all-time province girl and I admit I am so bad with directions. It was great that my accompany was really reliable, he google mapped in advance the locations of the exam so it was easy breezy on that part.

The day of the examinations came.

Saturday, January 20^th at British Council head office in Ortigas.  First day was allotted for speaking test.

Luckily, I was assigned to a foreign interviewer. Why lucky? Because I heard Filipino interviewers are critical. Their English standards are very high so they are unlikely to give you a whooping band 8 score for speaking while foreign interviewers are more on seeing if you can translate your thoughts into good English statements and that’s all, plain and simple.

Sunday was allotted for the other remaining leg of our IELTS test and it was held at Heritage Plaza Hotel near Mall of Asia. The exam went smoothly, although I had a little trouble with time keeping. We were asked to remove our  wrist watches (OMG)  and were instructed to use their provided timer that was flashed through a projector. Too bad I wasn’t wearing any contact lenses or a glasses and I was seated near the back part. The timer was blurry and I strained my eyes so bad I had a headache after the exam. Well, I got over it and somehow I pulled through! 

After a month and a half, my TRF (Total Result Form) was mailed to my home address.   Thank God, I stopped procrastinating. It was worth it.

Attempts of a Failed Dieter

It’s always DAY ONE of dieting for me. Day one of being overly conscious of all my calorie intake. Day one of psyching myself that my body goals are achievable 100%. Day one of eating clean. Always day one….after realizing all over again that I have grown way bigger than my normal self. After waking up to that delusion that I’m not gaining extra pounds for eating that extra cup of rice and eating that huge bar of snickers for dessert. All the guilt brings me back to day one.

I can’t count the times I felt rock bottom after seeing myself in photographs looking so huge and so round. I sometimes hate myself for being in this repeated cycle of dieting because it tells me that all my attempts are meaningless.

Believe me, I know the joys of being able to shed off that unwanted fat. The satisfaction of seeing yourself so fit in front of the mirror is very rewarding and you just want to go on with all the efforts to see more results. Danger is when complacency sets in,when you got the goal you've been working for. From there you suddenly lost your drive.  Maintaining is the very challenging part of diet.

From 73 kilograms last 2017, I lost 18kg and tadah! That was my pre-pregnancy weight. It was amazing! All thanks to jogging and controlled eating. With that I was able to wear my old clothes and shop for dresses without worrying if I’d fit or not. I'd take selfies without thinking about the double chins and pot belly. 

But I guess I got too close to comfort after that, I rewarded myself a bit by doing cheat days then I found myself swinging between 59 to 60 kilograms. Heck! It was rather frustrating to know that I was gaining again what I worked so hard to lose.

So, I planned to start from the very beginning but sadly I’ve lost my drive for it. It’s difficult to start, I have forgotten where and how I started and I can’t remember how I got myself into that disciplined routine.

Yeah, my mojo was gone and once again I was clueless on how to begin with my plan.  And I fall into this dead cycle of failed dieting.

What is the cycle anyway? Well it goes like this…

DAY ONE: I can do this! Cereals for breakfast. This is yummy, I am enjoying this. Easy peasy.  Fish and fruit for lunch... Early dinner and plenty of water. I did it!

DAY TWO: I can still do this, but I’m really starving. I am getting a headache already. My brain cells are starved I can’t think straight, I’m pacing out... What am I doing to myself? Hey girl you gotta do this. You've done this before.

DAY THREE: Gosh I lost .3kg...that’s all?? Just .3 kg for crying out loud!!  I’m so hungry. But calm down, you can do this…right?? Right??  > I'm having little doubts now <

DAY FOUR: I think of food first thing in the morning. I scroll down my Facebook home feeds and I see food videos. I watch them and it pains me.  I drool over my colleague's lunch box, wishing it has something great inside. This is nuts.

DAY FIVE: Nothing is happening!!!! Results a joke! I’m starving and I am so...so..so sad about it. Let this be my cheat day today, I’ve been DIETING SO HARD, I need to reward myself just a TINY bit.

DAY SIX: Shit! I ate too much yesterday. I weigh myself. WTF I’m back again to same weight I had on day one. I quit! I just want to be happy with my life so I will eat what I want. I don't care anymore!

DAY 7: WHAT HAVE I DONE?! I’m fat... I’m huge. My cheeks are chubby. I look so round. My belly is loaded. Why did I let this happen?? I need to start diet ASAP…effective tomorrow.

Then we go back to day one.

So yeah, I have been through this so many times and every time I try people around me thinks I am joking, the more it hurts because I am dead serious about this.

And they shower me with advises like, “hey you should couple your attempts with some exercise, it would really help.” 

As if diet alone is not a big roadblock towards my body goals, then I am suggested to do exercise... I’ve tried it too okay and it sores my body on the first day and I decide to chill on the second day then the rest is history. Why does it have to be this hard?

All I want is for me to return to my original shape so I can fully embrace the freedom and perks of being fit. It's easier to climb stairs without catching your breath right after, it's easy to squeeze your butt into a congested jeepney, I slip into narrow spaces just like that. I can have my photo taken beside thin people without the fear of looking so huge among them and most of all, I can get into my pants quickly without all the struggles of wiggling.

Currently, I am finding ways to get into that mindset of correct dieting and exercise. How to get back into that perfect momentum again and not back out once the craving and hunger caves in. How to? Well, I’m waiting for that epiphany that will strike me back to where I stopped...

Are you with me. LOL