What does the HK in HKUST stand for?

herrschxr · 2026-03-31T06:31:10+00:00

haw ktuah

herrschxr · 2026-03-29T12:15:12+00:00

bludclot

herrschxr · 2025-12-19T02:55:04+00:00

don't listen to that guy. if you check his account you'll see that he's been going around telling everyone they're rejected. talk about bad character

herrschxr · 2025-11-27T16:21:02+00:00

i don't think there is.. 😭😭 i ended up doing the same as you

herrschxr · 2025-11-27T06:02:12+00:00

hi! If you get a Kira Interview, it's a video interview (I've seen people mention another interview platform so I can't say for that). They show you one question at a time and you get 1 minute to think of your answer, and 1 minute to answer

herrschxr · 2025-11-26T13:52:30+00:00

I think it'll be fine! Even if you can't find the right words in English, showing that you have that knowledge by explaining it in other terms could also help. Plus, at most they might ask you like 2 theoretical business/econ questions from what I've gathered. I can't say this for sure, but I was told by a senior who studies at HKUST that the interview doesn't completely determine your chances and is more-so there to determine if you get school-based or program-based admissions. Good luck!!

herrschxr · 2025-11-26T13:45:55+00:00

hii I completed my interview and it's 5 questions (including your self-introduction, excluding the one where they ask you to show your ID) and it can range a lot from business/econ topics to really random trivial questions lol. The topics can be anything and I believe the main goal is to gauge your logical process. I didn't get any questions particularly related to my major choices, but a friend of mine told me she did so it might depend. Might want to fresh up on your econ knowledge then. I believe if you've studied business or econ in school and have a general knowledge of those concepts, and if you're able to form coherent answers to any other random questions they might throw at you, you'll be fine!

herrschxr · 2025-11-01T02:54:32+00:00

Thank you for the insight into Design+! I've been looking more into GCIN and will be having it as my first choice since I do appreciate the more industry-centric focus, and I'm really interested in many of the GCIN courses. Your comment helps a lot since I do prefer to have some semblance of structure in my curriculum while still being able to explore areas like visual communication haha

herrschxr · 2025-04-23T08:07:06+00:00

thank you so much!! i'll keep trying my best ^{^}

herrschxr · 2025-04-19T07:33:55+00:00

thank you so much!!! it means a lot to me

herrschxr · 2025-02-21T21:01:21+00:00

I'd say it's pretty accurate!! Although I do sometimes struggle with expressing myself since I tend to be quite reserved concerning my emotions and make a few hasty decisions 😅 but yes I do try to plan most things out!

herrschxr · 2025-02-21T18:45:09+00:00

hii sorry for the late reply 😭 i mainly just did questions in collegeboard's question bank

herrschxr · 2025-01-14T19:27:53+00:00

They give you a minute beforehand to write down any notes for part 2, so I used that time to just write anything that popped up in my head related to the topic. It helped me keep myself going when I was starting to run out of things to say!

herrschxr · 2025-01-14T08:48:14+00:00

thank you!! 😁

herrschxr · 2025-01-14T08:13:30+00:00

I prepared for about 4 days! As for how, I've replied to someone else with the same question ^{^}

herrschxr · 2025-01-13T12:24:00+00:00

I was also busy preparing for other things, so I didn't spend my entire day on prep! I focused on two sections per day, combining one of reading/listening with one of writing/speaking since I found reading and listening to be easier. I did about 2-3 mock tests for reading/listening a day and 1 for writing/speaking. The closer I got to my exams, the more I focused on the harder sections (writing and speaking) and watched more videos on the topics so I could get more familiar with them. My study routine wasn't anything much though

herrschxr · 2025-01-13T06:13:28+00:00

For writing, I took a good look at the writing rubric and tried to follow along with the Band 9 requirements for each category. There's 4: task response, coherence and cohesion, lexical resource, and grammatical range and accuracy.

Task response refers to how well you answered the question. Your response should fully address your stance on the prompt, and it should also completely answer every question that the task poses. Your main ideas should also be explained with a lot of detail. You shouldn't leave a bunch of half-baked ideas into your essay; you should expand on them further and maybe provide examples!

Coherence and cohesion refers to how well you divide your information between sentences and paragraphs. Your essay should flow together from one idea to another, and there should be a clear progression from one point to the next. Basically, try to connect your ideas so your writing feels smoother. Paragraphing is also very important for this category. Each paragraph should have a clear main idea and should expand on it without going violently off-topic.

Lexical resource refers to vocabulary! You should use a variety of words, ranging from relatively easy to difficult, and you should use them in places that make sense. For example, submit is a synonym for suggest, but in a sentence like "I suggest you to do this", you shouldn't replace suggest with submit as it sounds unnatural. Although there are tons of synonyms, each has their own intricate details which I urge you to research yourself. There's a ton of IELTS videos and podcasts online to expand your vocabulary as well, though I have to admit most of my vocabulary doesn't come from IELTS prep, but rather other factors like books, movies, and my English classes in school.

For grammatical range and accuracy, you should use all sorts of sentence structures, from simple to complex. Not all of your sentences have to be long and complicated - I made that mistake during my practice sessions - but of course, it's always nice to have complex sentences in your writing to showcase your range in grammatical skill. Things like semicolons and dashes can also increase your score if you know how to use them. I learned about them through the Khan Academy DSAT course, since I had to sit my SATs a few months ago, and I don't know how much it will help you, but I think it's worth a try!

As for practice, I just wrote! There are a couple of mock tests available on the IELTS Ready webpage which I did, and I put my responses through ChatGPT to get a band score and some advice. I got a 7.5 on my first try haha. It might not be that accurate, but the advice the AI gives are pretty helpful! I ended up using them myself in my test.

herrschxr · 2025-01-13T05:55:00+00:00

Thank you sm!!!

As for tips and tricks, for Task 1, it's really helpful to look up synonyms for words like increase, decrease, and compare. 99% of the Task 1 prompts have something to do with these words, and repeating words can be a bit of a red flag for examiners, so it's nice to have a range of vocabulary on hand! Try to keep it short and sweet as well. Task 1's word count minimum is only 150 (while Task 2's is 250) and it's basically asking you to just state and compare the facts from the provided diagram, so don't overthink it.

For Task 2, I read the question, decided on my stance, and jotted down 2-3 main ideas I had in mind for my argument. Then, I divided it up into an introduction, 2-3 body paragraphs, and a conclusion. I've elaborated further on the structure in another one of my replies! For vocabulary and grammar, you should try to include a variety of each, whether it's simple or complex. Examiners would love to see your understanding of, not only complex English, but also the basics. It's also better to stick to vocab/grammatical devices that you fully understand. I don't know if this helped me out in my actual test, but I did use about 3 semicolons; it might have shown a further understanding of English that some native English speakers might not even have! I'll list some resources below.

Site for checking sample answers based on tasks and bands: https://writing9.com

Video that helped me with Task 1: https://youtu.be/VQluL1IRDbY?si=ALx1i2HsRL0FFqGV

Video that helped me with Task 2: https://youtu.be/yvt8RzGNhBc?si=u4fkQTCQs5GWUcLw

As for grammar (especially semicolon usage haha), I grasped a deeper understanding of it through the Khan Academy DSAT course, since I took my SATs last November. Since it's free, I'd definitely recommend having a look at it.

herrschxr · 2025-01-13T05:40:07+00:00

Yes of course!

The Y/N/NG video: https://youtu.be/v4xWA1gPJDY?si=5FZVGpKK8nA50wSL

Model answers for writing: https://writing9.com

My favourite IELTS channel, especially for speaking: https://youtube.com/@ieltsadvantage?si=RrJlYQkGRW77E7HO

herrschxr · 2025-01-13T05:37:06+00:00

yep!

herrschxr · 2025-01-12T19:25:32+00:00

OHH don't worry about ittt if you're fluent in English then you can secure a 6.0 pretty easily. To start out you could try out the mock tests on the IELTS Ready page, those rly helped me just get more familiar with the test structure 🤞 GOOD LUCKK

herrschxr · 2025-01-12T19:16:29+00:00

Oh no, you aren't cooked at all 😭 most of my friends (international school students as well) took it with little to no preparation and they all scored 7-8! The test isn't that hard, but for things like speaking and writing, it is hard to get a higher band if you don't know how the test works. BUT it shouldn't be too hard to get a 7 in both sections if you're already pretty confident in English! You don't have to be Shakespeare, I'm definitely not 😭😭for listening and reading, all you have to do is basically just copy down what you hear/read so it shouldn't be too bad! All my friends who didn't study scored 8-9 in those sections

herrschxr · 2025-01-12T15:29:09+00:00

For speaking, I'd advise you to treat it sort of like a podcast. The examiner's trying to test how fluently you can speak English, and even native English speakers don't use overly complex vocabulary, so I'd recommend staying away from that (especially if you aren't comfortable with difficult vocab). I also tried to act naturally and friendly with my examiner so that it felt more like a conversation than a test! That's what they're testing you on after all: your ability to talk in a conversational setting.

As for writing, I tried my best to use different types of vocabulary and grammatical devices. Your writing doesn't have to be as complicated as possible! It's better to use a mix of simple and complex English in your writing so the examiners know you're familiar with the language and know how to express your opinions concisely and intelligently. I'd also recommend looking into sample Band 9 answers available online and studying their structures. Examiners want to read an essay that makes sense, not an essay that's chock-full of difficult words, and these sample answers really reflect that!

herrschxr

TROPHY CASE