Friday 31 October 2014

Immediately Send Work-report

The following are requested to send me reports of their work progress with SAT-II immediately they see this notice.

Fahim, Prachi, Raisa, Rakibul, Samiha, Rakeen, Shabbir, Tapojit, Sowmma, Tasneem, Saiti, Rafiuzzaman

Wednesday 29 October 2014

I hope all of you are fine - those many (and many are those) who feel left all alone - take strength from your own work. Everything is going to be fine. The rest of the world will rejoice when you turn a page. But no one remembers HOW we fought the case.  

My Schedule - Wed-Thu-Fri.

Today: working from 9 am till 1 pm [again from 6 pm till 11 pm]
Tomorrow: I will work with a few people [I will inform them personally] tomorrow from 7 am till 10 am,
The day After: 7 am till 11 pm 16 HOURS
Saturday: Want to see the rest

Sunday 26 October 2014

The "Made It" Syndrome - Adnan just mailed it today

Hello sir,

What I realized and still realizing is that, no one should say "Ah! Made it" after getting past a difficult task, but should rather say "Let's do it again". After completing a difficult course, like SAT or a difficult task like applications, students tend to think that that's the end of their journey, they have found heaven! This attitude always keeps them in low spirits all along the way and they think that their only goal is to somehow make it to the shore and that's all. Indeed, what students suffer during SAT, it is almost compared to slogging for university level courses, especially engineering. Facing the higher mountains in university will turn people suicidal, that is, changing the major which they had chosen. On the other hand, if people become masters of whatever they need to learn, they will feel much more at ease. So, in case you do not stress on this, never let your students say "Made it", but make them say "Let's do it again". Tell them to continue training even after they have reached their goal. Everyone must become professionals and stay professionals.

Adnan Ahsan
Texas Tach University

Friday 24 October 2014

Saturday Class Tomorrow

I only want to sit with a handful of the students tomorrow. Please notify me if you want to attend. I have already confirmed Samiha, Oni and Afsara. 

Thursday 23 October 2014

Urgent NOTE on School Uploads

Please read the following instructions carefully.
  1. Select the NAME-Phone-Email of your school counselor
  2. Put NAME-Phone-Email of your Teachers to your account.
  3. Ask 3 of the above whether they got the invitations 
  4. Finalize your Recommendations by mid-November.
  5. After you submit your CA - you will send RECO to your teachers for UPLOAD. 
  6. Ask school to upload all your O Level and A Level papers.
  7. Ask school to Tick-mark your Fee Waiver Box in the Counselor Account. 
And check everything regarding Science and Engineering by CALTECH:
Caltech Journal Science and Technology


Tuesday 21 October 2014

TOEFL Advice from Tahiyat

Dear Sir,

How are you? I am fine and hope to be the same with you.

My toefl score just came out last week. I got 116/120. 29 in each section: Reading, Listening, Speaking and Writing.

In writing, I wrote and extremely simple essay with no ornamentation whatsoever; I just made sure that every sentence is grammatically and structurally correct. 97% of them were simple sentences. The only vocabulary, I used was ‘unwonted’. Other than that, not a single fancy word did I use. But I made sure that the examples, I have (I made them out obviously) were very solid.

In speaking, I followed the guides toe-to-toe in youtube videos of ‘Notefull’. If you search by Notefull, they’ll give you guide to answer each of the speaking question in youtube. That helped me a great deal in spite of fumbling a bit; it’s not mainly how much you say or how correctly you speak; obviously those are important too but it is more about how strong an argument, you can present. Without it 29 would never have been possible in speaking.

For reading and listening, I practiced Barron’s and TPO. I don’t appreciate Kaplan, as I felt it is non-standard. Your students can practice ETS but it seemed too easy to me.

I hope these experiences of mine will come in handy for your students.

Thanking you,

Malik M. Tahiyat
2014 Local Secretary General
JCI Dhaka Cosmopolitan
Bangladesh

Monday 20 October 2014

Thou SHALT look into this Page

Samiha, Amreen, Rafiuzzman, Shafat Jamil,

Search for everything about Pankaj Misra - I am attaching a page about his writings:

http://www.pankajmishra.com/books/

And anything and everything from NEW Yorker - here is the link

New Yorker

Personal Statement - 10 Pages Mandatory - Task for Prachy


10 page personal statement is mandatory for everyone - by today midnight. 


Prachy, who is currently having a middle-eastern holiday with a formidable encounter with a highly misrepresented culture in the western media, is required to send me a huge report based on her first few days there. The report must be full of excitement, fun, openness, and of course, insight. I would also love to have some postage-stamps / postcards for our class. 

Friday 17 October 2014

Emergency Meeting Tomorrow

Tomorrow at 10 am there will be presentation on the TOTAL works of an accepted student. It is hoped that this presentation will change the way you have been trying to write your essay.

I will arrive at the class at 7.00 am - only the students who confirm appointment at 7.00 are requested to arrive at 7.00 am. The rest shall arrive at 10.00 am.

Do bring your laptops, logbooks, and a willingness to change the way you work.

It would be such an act of kindness if you would come to class after reading this:

World After Image of the West

By Pankaj Mishra

Sunday 12 October 2014

Literature SAT-II Class Tomorrow

About literature for SAT-II , I do NOT think that it will be very long or ambitious - I will at best spend TWO hours with this - I WILL take the class tomorrow at 8.00 and continue till 10.00 am.

Friday 10 October 2014

SAT - Tomorrow

Hello everyone. I must say that I had a good time with you in the last 3 months. I should also admit that my expectations were a little too unrealistic (if I am allowed to say so), and within this long-range 78% of you performed realistically. Of the 78%, a hefty 87% had been able to respond to my demand - although only 00.05% could maintain the level of aggressiveness in your works.

I am sure that in the coming weeks - this "aggressiveness" INDEX shall gain a proper height.

Give a GOOD SAT-I and SAT-II test tomorrow. 

And meet me on Sunday at 7.00 am.

Buy yourself 12 2B Pencils.

Does anyone have any idea on whereabouts of Tapo? Has he been lost to the elements? 

Tuesday 7 October 2014

Aftermath of Puja and Eid - SAT Exam Day preparations begin today

A very happy Puja and Eid greetings to everyone.

I hope you all had a good day of rest. Now that SAT exam is on the 11th - we are all set to give three more MOCKS - in the class. I also intend to prepare all of you towards preparing Financial Aid Papers.

Tomorrow WEDNESDAY we will have DOUBLE MOCK - NO ONE will be allowed to enter the class after 8.00 am. Otherwise come at 4.00 pm and give ONE test till 8.00 pm. Must inform by SMS for a 4.00 pm test participation.

As part of SAT Exam preparation -
  1. Make sure that you have regular sleeping time and wake up at 7.00 am everyday till the exam day. You will need to be in FULL Energy on the exam day. 
  2. Eat Judiciously in the next 3 days - more of 'healthy food'.
  3. Plan a Good and Heavy breakfast for the exam day - milk, bread, freshly cooked vegetable, and little meat. 
  4. Take a small bottle of water. Take a bar of Chocolate. 
  5. Be mentally prepared that you MAY have to wait 2-3 hours for the exam to begin. But if you arrive late at the exam hall - you will not be allowed to enter. 
  6. Carry 12 pencils, NO Sharpener, Eraser, CALCULATOR.
  7. Carry your Passport and Entry Card (Printed from your SAT Account)

Saturday 4 October 2014

Friday 3 October 2014

Pre-Exam Preparation

As part of your preparation send me a numbered points which you think should be addressed by me. I am also attaching the link that talks about the SAT Exam Day Preparation.
  1. Strong Breakfast in the Morning
  2. 12 Pencils of 2B Grade 
  3. One Eraser - NO Sharpener 
  4. Calculator
  5. 500 ml of Water
  6. One bar of Chocolate

My Day Today

I will be in the class between = 7.15 - 10.00 am
ABSENT between               = 10.00 - 11.15 am
Again present                       = 11.15 - 3.00 pm

Wednesday 1 October 2014

A report on Moby Dick - from Hasan Irtija - this items is especially for Tasneem to read and report

Sir, 

It took a lot longer then expected but I survived. In all earnestness it is my request to all who want to go into Cetology, please regard this book as your bible. In the last few hundred pages I learned more about whales to last me 10 lifetimes - their anatomy, bone structure, market value, usage, habits, legends, historical implications even cuisine (more information than I care to or am capable of storing in my brain). Leaving the few pages remaining for the plot Moby Dick is the record of human antiquity. Herman Melville  the writer, the philosopher and observer used his false prophet, Ishmael to set up a one-to-one lecture session with the readers. Every so often he would ask us, imply his opinion and wait for a response - "And what are you, reader, but a Loose-Fish and a Fast-Fish, too?"It is Melville's style that slowly intoxicates the brain keeping you engaged in this canvass of white and black. And those intricate phrases! My favorite being "the blackness of darkness" - so subtle yet so profound. 

Moby Dick is not a book for the masses. It is mentally taxing to the point that you feel physically exhausted. The words and chapters seem to drone on and suddenly without warning the leviathan attacks. A paragraph is more then enough to transport you to the deck of the Pequad. Imagine the howl from the crows nest "there she blows!" and instantly all hands on deck jump to their stations, tying up the mastheads, lowering the boats, fastening the monkey ropes and off, giving chase to that aquatic beast before it disappears into the unforgiving waters. As a reader I just stood there slowly taking in the micro-cosmic environment and again back to my reading desk. Time had warped.

Melville has a way of toying with the reader's cognitive ability. It maybe stimulation through an intricate net of philosophy and reasoning or down-hearted desperation while trying to decipher the origin of the thousands and thousands of references. Every two pages my hands darted towardsGoogle in frustration. It is surprising how flexible the sub-context is even when reading historical analogies. For example the English law entitling a portion of the whale caught to the Sovereign (the head of the King and the Tail to the Queen) remind me of the flaws of our current capitalist market system. Does it not resemble the Laws of Economies of scale. The Monopsony dictating the market; taking away the head and the tail and only leaving the bones for the small franchise owners to fend for their lives while the Rule-Makers, Dictators, Entrepreneurs lavish among their physical gratification.   

But what I enjoyed the most was the humor. A dark comic act resides with every blasphemy that Melville has created - I chuckled out loud when the Negro cook, when asked to stop the sharks from eating the whale carcass, goes and delivers a sermon to the sharks - it was Jim, straight out of Huckleberry Fin; shrewed and stubborn. To an extent I even liked Ahab, He seemed strangely repeatable on multiple fronts. I felt disturbed on how much I could empathies with this fictional effigy of "madness maddened." 

Contrary to my earlier statement I believe that Moby Dick is one of those books that everyone should read at least once, if not for enjoyment do it for the satisfaction that you have experienced a work that is going to be preserved for the ages to come. 

Today's Double-TEST Day - We Work Till 4.00 pm

  1. Students who are attending today: Zereen, Saiti, Tasneem, Silmee, Samiha, Rohit, Ishmum, Ahsanul Kabir, Shafat Jamil, Sowmma, Rakibul, Rafiuzzaman
  2. Students who are giving MOCK at home: Raeesa, Era, Rakeen, Shabbir
  3. Students who haven't Notified: Afsara, Tapojit, Fahim, Prachy, Adib, Khairul
  4. Afsara later notifies that she will be working on 2 Mocks at home.
  5. Fahim later joins at 12.05 pm.


Khairul has not participated in any of the MOCKs this week.