About Yelena

My name is Yelena Notche and I'm from Cameroon. I'm studying the Diploma for University Entrance at Embassy CES in Oxford,  and I'm going to share my experiences as an Embassy CES student.

The course:
I started at Embassy CES in October 2005 with the Diploma of English, which has been useful for developing my English skills. Because I wish to study International Business Management, I moved to the Diploma for University Entrance in January, which is more academic and includes preparation lessons for IELTS, Business Studies, Maths, Accounts, IT, etc.

We have lot of assessments and coursework. At the end of each term, we take exams which are important for university entrance. The teachers are experienced and qualified to teach international students; they try to make the lessons enjoyable and challenging.

Teachers also give particular attention to a student when necessary. A university placement counsellor guided me through the university application process and analysed my progress in every subject to ensure that the university's entry requirements are respected.

A typical school day:
07.15  Every day, I wake up, take a shower and then have my breakfast.
08.30  I leave the house. I live with a host family in the city centre and it takes me about 10 minutes to get to school. The first thing I do when I arrive at school is check my email for 15 minutes.
09.00 Lessons start. I have a short small break during the morning lessons, and then a break of an hour for lunch.
12.30 For lunch I sometimes have sandwiches or I go to a Chinese restaurant or noodle bar for a take-away meal, and I eat that in the common room of the school.
1.30 I have afternoon classes.
4.30 or 5.30, depending on the lessons: school is over. After school, I usually go to a book shop next to my school to skim some magazines, newspapers or business articles for about an hour in order to get some new vocabulary. After that, I go to the gym in the city centre but not every day. I'm quite lucky because all the activities (cinema, shops, clubs, pubs, gym...) are close to my house.
7.00 I have dinner and after that I start to do my homework. On this course, the third term is the most difficult one because we have a lot of coursework to give back and final exams to prepare for in just six weeks instead of the 11 weeks we had during the other terms.
10.30 or 11.00 I go to bed!

Some evenings, when there is an interesting school activity, a birthday or the departure of a classmates, I go out to a restaurant, pub, or cafe with my friends.

At weekends I usually go to the gym, study, watch television, go around the city with friends: I really try to relax.

What I really like most at Embassy CES is the cosmopolitan environment. I have friends from Korea, Japan, Nigeria, Iran, France, Colombia, and Germany. It helps me learn a bit more about different cultures and improve my English because together we can only speak in English.

The second thing is the friendly teachers and Principal, who are really sociable and ready to listen.

To sum up, I'm having great time here and I think that the Diploma for University Entrance is a complete, well-structured course for people who wish to go to British universities.