Bilim –Central Asia
Offers the following services:
Free
• Consultation on all issues upon Education Abroad
• Open lectures on all admission issues to foreign universities
Resources of the library of Bilim Centre: (literature issued home – paid )
*presented by books and manuals of different publishing offices (Peterson’s, Barron’s, Longman, College Board, etc.)
*catalogues of educational institutions of the USA and different countries of the world;
*materials on preparation for TOEFL, IELTS, GRE,GMAT,SAT, LSAT examinations;
*reference materials on all issues of Education Abroad;
*various aids for individual learning of English language;
*belles-lettres in English with audiocassettes;
• English club – it’s a unique opportunity of communication in friendly atmosphere with native speakers
• Internet (40 minutes a day)
On a paying basis:
•Individual selection of the university abroad
•English language courses in Great Britain and the USA
•Experimental testing on TOEFL, IELTS
•Registration for TOEFL test
•Testing on English language for participants of “Erasmus Mundus” programme
•Execution of the documents for receipt of a visa: the USA, Great Britain, Shengen
•Organization of the trainings for Head staff of the universities of Kazakhstan, also for nominees of the award “Best teacher of the year”
• Programme for MS’C course students on «МВА», «Administration», «Economics» specialties
Education system in the USA
Higher education
There is no clear definition of the notion “higher educational institution” in the USA. Basically every educational institution realizing further training after finishing secondary school of so-called “post-secondary schools” can be called as “a college”, “a school”, “an institute” or even “a university” with the equal degree of possibility. Higher education in the USA – one of the most expensive thing in the USA.
Procedure of admission and selection of international applicants to higher schools of the USA depends on their prestige value.
Necessary documents for international students to enter higher schools in the USA:
-application form
-Essay-substantiation
– Reference letters
-transcript, copy of the diploma, copy of the diploma of graduation (translated in English and notarized)
-Results of the tests (TOEFL, SAT, GRE, GMAT and etc.) in accordance with the programme submitted by student
Accreditation. There is no Ministry of Education in the USA. Only one department deals with education. There is no license for educational activity in a habitual understanding of this word for us. Instead of it universities get accreditation. Besides there are many accreditation organizations and it is possible to get permission from one organization, from some ones, and it’s possible not to get it and work calmly. That is why it’s important to understand and to analyze this factor attentively while choosing a university. Accreditation influences on ratings, prestige and of course on quality in the university.
Colleges: local, technical and elementary education
This educational institutions offer education programmes compared with the first two years of studying at university. There you can get degree by results of 4 – year study. Also, peculiarity of the local colleges are that they offer general education courses, technical education and professional learning that give specialty for students. As their objective is to give opportunity of education for every desiring person, local colleges usually accept a majority of students who meet main requirements and offer extensive selection of subjects in comparatively low-cost of study.
Four-year colleges and universities
Although terms “college” and “university” are not identical, they are often substitutable in the United States. Usually colleges offer education programme that allow to get Bachelor’s Degree. Colleges can exist independently, offering exceptionally programmes of higher elementary education or to be a part of the university.
There are about more than 2000 traditional four-year colleges and universities, each of them has its own specific nature. College identifies its objectives, specialization and admission rules of the students independently. For example, humanitarian colleges place an emphasis on humanitarian, social sciences and languages.
Many funds and non-governmental organizations make peculiar report about “nostrification” of higher educational institutions “for example, “Carnegie Classification” where ranked all American universities”. Traditionally universities entering informal (initially football) club included to the number of best ones – Harvard, Preston, Yale, Columbia, Brown, Dartmouth, Cornell and Pennsylvania and etc.
Students must get determined number of valid units and pass required examinations to get Bachelor’s degree.
In distinction of the Bachelor’s degree Master’s degree oriented on designated activity in the USA (Music, Business Administration, Techniques, Pedagogy and etc. ). Persons who have Bachelor’s degree must pass study during 1-2 years, to write and defend “thesis”, knowledge of a foreign languages is demanded in the separate universities. Thesis can be observed as analytical report or statement of applicant for Master’s degree on his scientific work by chosen theme.
The highest stage of training of high qualified specialists are learning on Doctoral programmes, oriented on exactly designated learning and independent scientific research. Persons who have Master’s degree as a rule are accepted to doctoral candidacy, though in separate universities it’s enough to have Bachelor’s degree.
Assessment of the knowledge
Knowledge control is implemented during testing of the students, at least in two forms:
Systems of marks are usually literal, by first letters of the English Alphabet. At average marks at schools of the country are classified and characterized by the following way:
A – 15 % of students – constantly high level of preparation, deep knowledge and originality (excellent).
B- 25 % of students – level, higher than average (good).
C – 35 % of students – average level of performing the tasks (average).
D – 15 % of students – minimal level of knowledge (lower than average).
F – 10% of students – unsatisfactory results or complete unknowing of the academic material.
Level of academic progress marked as C as a rule is necessary to continue studying in pre-graduation period; grade B is compulsory for continuing study by graduate.
TOEFL
There is no one state education system in the USA, every state has a right to distinguish its structure independently.
TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) – standardized test for knowing English language (in its South American variant), passage of it is necessary for non English-speaking foreigners to enter universities of the USA and Canada. Results of the test is used in a number of other English-speaking and non English-speaking countries when enter university with English-speaking education.
There are some kinds of the test: paper (PBT – paper-based test) and internet (IBT – internet-based test). At the present moment last variant is considered as preferable at many universities as it includes tasks not only in reading, listening and written language, but also speaking and combined tasks.
SAT Reasoning Test (also «Scholastic Aptitude Test» and «Scholastic Assessment Test», word-for-word “School Reasoning Test”) – standardized test for admission to higher educational institutions in the USA.
Examination consists of three parts: analysis of the text, Mathematics and writing. Each of them gives balls from 200 to 800. All results are fold to 10. General result is formed by combining results of those three parts. Each large part is divided into three parts. There are 10 subdivisions including experimental and “equate” which can be in any part of three ones. Experimental subdivision is generally used for statistics and doesn’t influence on the final result. Test lasts 3 hours and 45 minutes, but taking into account time spent on pass out of the material and other administrative procedures it takes about four and half hours. Questions are divided into simple, average and complicated. As a rule, simple questions are placed closer to the beginning and complicated – at the end of the section.
GRE (Graduate Record Examinations) – test, which is necessary to pass to enter postgraduate studies, MS’C course or other pre-postgraduate course to universities of the USA and a number of other countries (including – Canada and Australia).
There are two types of the examinations. General test and subject tests: Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Psychology. General test restricts with academic programme on Mathematics, when Subject tests are compared with 3-4 course of the University by material coverage. It demands to pass only General test when entering on a majority of programs.
General test besides Mathematics includes checking of the knowledge of English language. Great attention is put on the word-stock of the student.
Maximal ball is 1600, 800 – for Mathematics and 800- for English. Pass grade is usually 50 %. If you gather in the amount of 800 so you can foresee on nomination. GRE test is estimated for students for whom English is native, but for all foreigners wishing to enter American post-graduate studies it’s necessary to pass this test.