Finally after such a long wait, anxiety, struggles in preparing the applications and for interviews, and a couple of rejections! I have to say I am proud to have got accepted at ICL as the course is very competitive and at that time all my other applications had been rejected. It was practically either ICL or not studying my master's this year. I was so nervous as they took quite a while to make a decision and the interview took place during my undergraduate exam period.
The course requirement as published on their website is a 2:1 in my BSc in Maths which means getting an average score of 60% and above. However, during the interview they asked if I could get a 1st and made it my offer condition. Gulp! Would I be able to get my 1st class honours? I had not even prepared well for two of my eight courses. I never did the homework for those two courses and barely paid attention during lectures. How am I gonna get an average score of 70%?? Surely that means getting almost 80% in all my other courses to allow a lower score in these two. Gulp.
The 4 week exam period flew by as if it occurred within 4 days. After each exam I took notes of how I felt and tried to predict my final score. Damn, my average could be 65% if I got 30% and 50% in those two courses. Hmm, maybe I could have got 80% in this other course. And that other one too. Okay that could bring my average up to 70%. Well maybe I could fulfill my offer condition then. Fingers crossed.
My pass/fail list came out in late June and apparently I passed all of my courses!! God, what happened to that exam I thought I had got a 30% in?? To be fair all the other students said it was horrendous as the type of questions are completely different from the previous years. So the grades probably got curved and I got more than 40%. Well, great, then I must be able to get my first class.
When the results arrived I was confused by some of the results. One course which I predicted an 85% got a little less than 60%. I got 50% on that one I predicted 30%. Only one course I got more than 80%. So my average for this year is 68.88%. Taking into account my results from last year, my final award average is 69.88%! But... Fortunately there is this rule that allows 2% within the threshold to be brought up if more than two courses got 70% or more. So my final award is a First Class Honours! :D
I was in tears of joy as that meant I fulfilled my offer condition and could start my master's study at ICL this year! Yasssss!!
I then asked the registry to send a proof of my results to ICL so that my offer could be confirmed ASAP. Unfortunately, the letter says the award date is on 1 August and since it was still July, ICL could not accept the document and asked for it to be resent after 1 Aug.
So I emailed the registry again on 1 Aug but after a few days I didn't get any reply which got me anxious because they replied within a day last time. Apparently I emailed the wrong person.
After making sure the letter was sent, I got even more anxious because I haven't got any confirmation from ICL that they received the letter. Only after receiving it would they be able to release the CAS document which is required for me to apply for a visa. I actually have completed all the other sections of my visa application form apart from the CAS section, so as soon as it's released I could just complete the one part.
What's making me worried is that I had booked a return flight to return to London on 9 September. The visa application takes 15 working days a.k.a. 3 calendar weeks and I had not received my CAS letter yet! No! This wasn't good. I'm the type of person who gets worried by every little uncertainty. It made me really anxious as I would not like to change my date of flight again.
So after two weeks of anxiety, I finally received my emails yesterday evening. Unfortunately I just saw it this morning as I was really tired last night and went to bed early. So I hurriedly got to my laptop and completed my visa application. There are some parts that I'm not too sure about but whatever, I thought. Let's just finish this asap so I could book for my appointment. I know A Levels students have just received their results too so I might have to fight them in booking for a visa appointment!
And damn I was right. The earliest appointment date is Thursday next week and only 7.30 is available, which is impossible for me because I live quite far from the visa application centre. So I booked for the Friday and will be absent from school. Unfortunately that means missing my tutorial with the gr10, but I'll try and arrange for it to be moved to another day hopefully. What's more annoying is that apparently the CAS was ready on 10 Aug but I've only seen it on 15 Aug. I guess it's partly my fault too for not checking the e-service everyday, but I've been really busy and tired. I assumed from experience once the CAS is ready I would be emailed, but apparently not all universities do it that way. If only I had noticed earlier that my CAS was ready, I would have been able to submit my visa application earlier.
So this means I'm only allowing 12 working days for my visa application process. This will make me anxious again for the next month! However, if I remember correctly my application process for my UG visa finished two days earlier than expected, so hopefully that means I could get my visa and passport ready in time. But still there's no guarantee. Oh why do these little things always get me nervous?
What's more, I need to read a book in preparation for the course. In my busy schedule I have only managed to read 20% of the book so far. It is quite an interesting book but I just get so tired from work I don't have the energy left to read... Hope I could finish the book before the course starts!
Anyway, I am very pleased to announce that I will be starting my master's study this year! Thank you very much for those who have always supported me. You're irreplaceable. Please wish me luck with my visa application! Hopefully all will go smoothly and I could fly back to the UK in September.
Time to treat myself with some ice cream. Nom nom.
0 comments:
Post a Comment