Bawss1:


Got it. Having someone in Calgary to help with your landing is totally understandable. From there you can position yourself to take opportunities as they present themselves.

I am one of those people who are biased in citing Ontario as the place to be when it comes to IT. True, Toronto is a heck of a busy place to live in with the fast pace of life like one would find in any commercial hub anywhere these days. Thing is, it is very competitive in terms of IT jobs and this is unmatched by few places in the country except, say, Montreal.

Another place in the province that is growing as an IT hub is the Kitchener-Waterloo region. It doesn't have as many opportunities as Toronto but it is steadily growing its clout. The plus side is that it is still offers a calmer pace of life unlike Toronto. [s]Also with all the schools in the region babes full ground[/s]

I myself do not care much for big cities and their bustle, I generally stay away from Toronto ...except on the weekends when it is time for owambe For me living in the K-W region is like the best of both worlds, enjoy a calm city life and when it's time to switch it up the 6ix is just an hour away.

mikkyphp:
Please note recruiters here like to see 2 things:

1. Work Experience in your chosen field(Big Data/ Analytics/ Data Science)
2. Relevant Industry

Recruiters will contact you based on these two. When they call you they will need you to demonstrate expertise and talk about projects you worked on. Also expect more of that and technical tests in the face to face interviews.

simiolu1:


Big Data... But you would have to pick Python, R or both as a programming language.

Dejav:
Ginfor Big Data Analytics

Dejav:
If you are into IT and planning on coming to CA, don't think twice as jobs full Toronto especially for developers. Just polish your LinkedIn profile, Not exaggerating but I get contacted at least once a week just from LinkedIn.

Lansky:
You can find the IELTS info, docs, vids and other stuff here:

http://www.mediafire.com/folder/60f3l4ste67tr/IELTipS

*The Cambridge books still uploading...currently at 27%.

All the best.


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Lansky:
Hi...I'll just upload everything tonight and post a link HERE to either Dropbox or some other file sharing site. About 3-3.5GB. I'll also attach a cover note that contains the online courses.
It's more efficient than responding individually.

Lansky:
God is good!

L - 9.0
R - 9.0
W - 7.5
S - 8.0

Sharing my story cuz of how I've learnt from others in this thread. Mine will take a peculiar route and I'll update the house.
However, for now I'll share how I studied for IELTS with the hope that it might help someone too.

Listening: Practice a lot. Get a hold of the Cambridge Books 1-12 and even 13 and do many practice tests. Practice concentrating cause my mind wandered sometimes, usually in between sections or at the beginning.

After a lot of practice, find out which of the listening question formats gives you a hard time then focus on that one to get better. Mine was the section with a question and multiple choice long answers. I jonsed a lot answering these type of questions during practice.

In the hall, don't touch the headset during the test or bend too low. Doing so will either interfere with or block the Infra-Red signal and you'll hear a scrambled sound instead of the test. I wrote all my answers in ALL CAPS; I couldn't risk small caps as my handwriting is terrible.


Reading: Get a hold of the Cambridge Books 1-12 and even 13 and do many practice tests. Although it's the GENERAL we are writing, I practiced a LOT with the ACADEMIC as it's harder/complex. When I did practice GENERAL, it was a breeze. Also, time yourself as you proceed.

After a lot of practice, figure out which type of questions you suck at and focus. Mine was T/F/NG or Y/N/NG - I failed them hard - especially when synonyms were used in the questions.

Finally, I read the entire passages during practice for both Academic and General. However, before my test I tried the skimming and scanning technique, and it worked too

In the hall I answered in my question paper first then transferred to answer sheet later cuz of my bad handwriting. I finished Reading in 30mins then I revised my answers or the ones I skipped and transferred my answers in the last 30mins. I answered in ALL CAPS too.

Writing: Honestly, this was definitely the hardest for me - I am not a fan of long story.

Firstly, I finished an official free (for 1 month) IELTS LRWS online course *** even though I can't remember how I learnt about it. I also did the RoadtoIELTS that comes after you pay. Thirdly, I did a short video course *** downloadable via torrent - it taught me how to plan the different types of essays. Popular free IELTS websites also helped me too. Like L & R, it goes without saying that you should practice a lot.

Now when it comes to practicing, I think the best approach is to first UNDERSTAND the Writing marking criteria for both Task 1 and 2. The criteria for both is similar but only differs in Task Achievement vs Task Response respectively. When you understand the criteria you can give them what they want abi are looking for. (Same goes for Speaking).

Second step is to practice (TIMED) a lot with the criteria in mind. For writing (and speaking) it's hard to know your standing since you can't get immediate answers like L & R. What I did was to pay someone online ***, who claimed to be an official IELTS tutor, to mark some of my practice tests (Did same for speaking). Doesn't cost much. So say you have 3 weeks to your IELTS exam, you can write 4-5 letters and essays a week and get the last one in every week assessed. Practice with pencils or biros - basically whatever you prefer to write with during exam.
If you can't write an essay everyday, at least practice planning an essay everyday (i.e, Intro, Paragraph 1, Paragraph2, etc , Conclusion).

In the hall, every minute counts in Writing. If you are going to ease yourself during the test, it's best you do it during Reading cuz it's probably the test you'll finish on time. They won't let you out of the hall during the chill period between L & R, or R & W. I lost about 2 mins in Writing while running to and fro the bathroom . As globally advised, spend 20 mins on Task 1, and 40 mins on Task 2 (you know Task 2 carries twice the weight). For each Task, quickly plan before you start writing.

The moment I started writing, I wrote down the different ways to show 'Grammatical Range and Accuracy' so that I remembered to include them (i.e. Simple/Compound/Complex Sentences, Modals, Tenses, Adverbials, etc).
In Task 1, one mistake I recall was mixing up indentation with skipping a line between paragraphs. I corrected the mistake in Task 2.
I didn't do well in Task 2 as I wrote well below 250 words: 220 ish words if I recall correctly. Also, my handwriting is pretty bad (like Doctor type) so I had to slow down to be legible which also added to the pressure. I also recall my conclusion paragraph was poor as I was tense, rushing and looking at the clock.



Speaking: I semi-covered speaking in the Writing section. To reiterate, UNDERSTAND the Speaking marking criteria and give them what they want. Cambridge Books 1-12/13 has Speaking tests too.

You already know about giving extended but on-point/topic (don't digress) answers in Part 1, speaking beyond the stipulated 2 minutes in Part 2, using Part 3 to further give them what they want and finally that lying is okay .

The free (for 1 month) online course *** helped. YouTube videos, free IELTS websites, RoadtoIELTS. I also paid someone, who claimed to be a former IELTS examiner, to interview/assess me; He gave me pointers/feedback and the session eased my tension - don't even understand why I was tensed about a Language I've spoken all my life .

To conclude, practice for L & R, understand criteria and practice for W & S, know your weak areas and improve them.

While I understand that we all want to get this PR sorted, please consider your schedule and book a date that will give you time to study/practice wella. Like if you work full-time, part-time, run a biz, married, single, run a family etc schedule your test accordingly. In hindsight, I nearly made the mistake of registering in another City for the test cuz my own City had no space for a closer date - I would have performed poorly.

*** I'm not sure about the rules as per what is considered advertising so I'm not mentioning any links. However let me know and I'll email them to you. For the Cambridge Books I think they are available via torrent even though I copied via USB from someone in my City.

...and I said I'm not a fan of long story.
Cheers