Thanks for your explanation, tishaban. Cheers.

You're right! Whatever is high must come down to normal. RBA annoucing interest is a strategy as mainly due to China reduction demand on iron ores.
Of course there's chain reaction to other industries. As you said, it's just the beginning on the retrenchment. Housing prices will continue to hike up with more foreign investors coming in on lower currency and interest rate. But what i saw a phenomena is that building industries still remain conservative. Based on current property market, the demand is extremely high than supply now, builders calling market now. Ozzie gov is controlling property value in order not to let the bubble burst. If not, will end up even worst than US.
Of course Australia will start the brain drain again like 5 years ago and heading Asia (Thailand & Indonesia). Ozzie gov will continue to bring in more highly skilled immigrants.

This post has been edited by Nemesis1980: Jun 4 2013, 03:35 PM

Does mean safely to say that it is good time for us migrant to start migrating to Oz ? Thanks.

Before you think it is a good time, you have to consider the criteria to migrate over.

It is very tough to migrate over with the current immigration rules. I am preparing to score all 8s in IELTS to get sufficient points for PR :/

All the best to all of us. Cheers.

Yeah, based on current rules is tough but not impossible. If look back 10years ago, IELTS is not even compulsory.
Now i guess they just want to control people from non english speaking countries. I guess the main impact is from north asian (China,Korean, Taiwan, Japan...etc.)
Indian should be no problem as they're talented in adopting english language.
Anyway, wish you all the best my friend! You will getting band 8.

Thanks

Thanks. ACS(board of computing) has restricted the assessment from offshore by reducing the reduce work experience based on the education qualification. Many people in India that have 10 years of skilled experience with bachelor will gets 2 years experienced reduced and 4 years for diploma.

Will be having my first IELTS test in my life tomorrow and just fingers crossed

Just relax and remember to be alert especially for the listening exam

i am more concern with reading(bloody true,false and not given) and writing

Beware on the listening part. No rewind of recorder. I kena on this losing few points from there with their bloody accent challenge!
I think you should be no problem. Get the 8

Been practicing listening many times and the most annoying part is I could misspell the word they said.Hopefully not many difficult words in the conversation

You should have no problem with this. From my experience, the questions in the real exams are more direct and clear-cut compared to the practice questions. Your concerna with the reading exam should be with time management (the main problem in this section is the time constraint)

This post has been edited by darkhorse_86: Jun 8 2013, 04:51 AM

all done. writing part is the most concerning. no time to re-check the answer. hopefully don't have to do second attempt

My experience with IELTS is that above all, get used to the system for minimum downtime and surprises.

There is no genuine way to study for the test in my opinion. You either master the English language or get a low score. It is really as simple as that. Thus if you don't practice the use of English in daily life, well then, I've got bad news for you.

The only thing I find retarded is the 2 year validity period. Can't use for Canadian PR, have to resit.

Perth is Freezing Cold !!
growing up in Malaysia, i cant stand the cold weather there.
=(

I have been using English daily in these 4-5 years including 2 years in my workplace but is just the writing part i hate the most. Email(replyat least 50 emails per day) is the tool that we use in the workplace but I still can't do well in IELTS. Probably not creative enough to write the given topic? Or probably I am more confident typing using keyboard instead of holding pen

This post has been edited by hihihehe: Jun 9 2013, 02:53 PM

Good is the laid-back lifestyle
Drawbacks are the living expenses quite high e.g. Rental, parking, electrical appliances, food (Especially in Melbourne & Sydney)
One of the family of my relative, chose to come back M'sia afterall
Don't think that you can get your dream job with your qualification,
The property is extremely expensive in down town area, you might end up with bought a house at a very far location (suburb) can travel to work by train very early in the morning.

It isn't creativity that's the key, but contextual accuracy. Using the right words and correct grammar for the situation you're in.

To get this right, the best way to broaden your references. Newspaper editorials are excellent sources to reference if you want to get an opinion piece right.

Either way as long as you're well read you'll be fine most of the time. Scoring an 8 isn't really that hard.

This is my second month in Sydney now. Every other fellow I meet is a migrant, I think the majorities are becoming minorities soon.

Writing vs typing does make a huge difference, particularly in terms of flow when you have limited time. You do need to use English daily not just in your workplace however in my opinion, looking at what you wrote above is already an indication that you're not up there yet grammar-wise. Hope you did ok over the weekend.