Canada’s skilled worker point system includes points for language
proficiency, which can be proved either through a letter or through a
standardized test. I decided to go for the standardized test so that
it wouldn’t be a potential hiccup in my application. The most
convenient option seemed to be the IELTS. I did that test today.

The IELTS wasn’t difficult, although the writing section was somewhat
tiring. I had just enough time to do a little composition and
revision. I’m reasonably happy with the quality of the essay that I
wrote. The speaking test was a lot of fun, too. The questions asked
happened to be related to a topic that I’d read a lot about lately, so
I not only had a strong opinion, but the facts to back it up. ;)

W- and I enjoyed joking about the test preparation. A website I
checked out last night advised strategies such as using “high-quality”
words in the essay portion in order to impress examiners. “Apropos”
was one such “high-quality” word proposed by the website. Although
I’ve been teased about my vocabulary before, I don’t do it to sound
educated, and I refuse to use the word “utilize” when “use” is fine.
We had much fun making up sentences with lots of buzzwords and jargon,
though! (Should be good preparation for IBM! ;) )

Random Emacs symbol: c-nonlabel-token-key – Variable: Regexp matching
things that can’t occur in generic colon labels,