We try our best, chasing the dreams
We seek for passions, embracing our youth
After a relaxing winter break, we moved onto a new semester called Graduation Season.
It is a time that blends hopes and disappointments. It is a period that melts together sweat and tears. It is a moment overlapped by dream and reality. Over 1800 days and nights, each presentation records every discussion and idea, and each piece of homework holds every second spent. After three years, all their happiness and sadness turn into letters of offer from top universities all over the world, handed to every Grade 12 student earnestly.
From last September, Grade 12 started research. Application began since October, followed by steps to upload documents and prolonged waiting. Vicky Shao from 2019 Class said, “At the beginning of application, we got into groups by pairs researching requirements and deadlines of one school that attract us. Then all the results were posted and shared with the whole class.” This cooperation saved everyone’s time and let people focus on learning about their dream schools and programs.
Meanwhile, interviews are also a challenge during the application. Speaking of interviews, Will Yang in Grade 12 said, “I felt quite frustrated when first saw all those weird questions. Then I realize they were generally related to my program and the fundamental knowledge needed. That’s where I found them interesting and learned that recruiters did not want to know how many actual gas stations are needed for a population of 300,000; they sought our capacity of critical thinking and knowledge application.”
Application is a challenge for all Grade 12 students without doubt. While preparing their own documents and profiles, students are required to maintain a high academic level. The main reason is that to be competitive for popular programs of the best universities, the average across five academic course needs to reach at least 90%, including English 12. However, all Grade 12s need to compete with native speakers from BC, Canada and it is extremely difficult to receive a high score. Therefore, every member of this class pushes themselves at maximum effort for maximum averages possible.
If we say profiles and interviews makes an applicant competitive for their dream schools, then IELTS provides an opportunity for he/she to be considered. Practicing the four components simultaneously, including listening, reading, writing and speaking, became a daily routine for them. Morning reading, questions during break times and discussions during the evening study built up their foundational knowledge and stairs leading to their dream schools.
“Though the basic IELTS requirements are 6.5 with no band less than 6.0, most Engineering and Computer Science programs and the best Business schools require much higher language scores. Sometimes they even ask for a 7.5 overall score.” Willian Garcia mentioned, “Personally I think the hardest part is writing. We’ve got a perfect English atmosphere at school, so listening and speaking improves relatively fast. We improve our reading from daily classes as well, but writing apparently requires the most practice. ”
Luckily, all the sweat and tears paid off! Before offers released in March, 38 students of Jiaxing Senior High British Columbia Offshore School received an average of 4 offer letters each and over 150,000 CAD (approximately 7,500,00 RMB) scholarships overall. Many of the offers are from famous schools such as the University of Toronto, the University of Melbourne, the University of Birmingham in Britain, the University of Warwick in the UK, etc.. We also had offers from Queen’s University, the University of Alberta, Concordia University, McMaster University, the University of Sheffield, the University of Leeds and from all over the world.
Who doesn’t hesitate about the future?
Only ourselves knows we chase the dreams we have.
On the way to the future, we run, chasing our dreams.
by Grade 10 Jewel, Grade 12 Vicky