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I've been wondering whether I should bother learning some French and trying to gain points for second official Canadian language spoken (my first official language being English, of course) on the Canadian immigration assessment. The maximum number of points I could earn would be 8 (2 points each in 4 categories), but that would indicate real facility with the language and I doubt I could achieve that without having at least a year of college-level French behind me, possibly more. If I were to take a single quarter, it would probably be quite optimistic to hope for 4 points (1 point each in the 4 categories), but I suppose it's possible; more realistic might be that I could get 1 or 2 points. Since my current point total is right at the pass mark of 67, I am kind of paranoid about it, since if the government should decide to raise the pass mark for any reason, I instantly become ineligible and my whole application process up to this point would be forfeit (although they would have to give me my CAD$975 Right of Permanent Residence Fee back, and that's worth more US dollars now than when I paid for it in the first place, ha ha).
However, I am not sure if the cost-benefit analysis points to this actually being a good idea:
1. Cost to enroll in class at De Anza: $118.50 ($17/unit, basic fees, lab fee)
2. Cost of textbook and audio materials: unknown, but let's call it $100
3. Cost of the official language ability test I have to take to actually be able to earn the points: $295
So do I really want to pay $513.50 for a possibility of getting some points? ($128.38 per point if I got 4! If only I could just send CIC the money and buy them...) Now that I've written it down, I really don't think so. If I could be sure of getting the full 8, I would probably go for it. Damn it, I knew I should have started French classes as soon as I sent in the application. By now I would be quite proficient and could probably be pretty sure of getting a good number of points. At the time I thought "well, I wouldn't have enough time before this goes through to learn very much French anyway." And now look at where I am. Feh! (Granted, I would have also spent probably close to $1000 just for the instruction and materials in that time, so when you add in the exam cost as well, it's actually $160.78 per point. You can't win for losing! But they would all be in a lump, so the cost per point is more worth it in a practical sense for 8 points than it is for 1-2.)
However, I am not sure if the cost-benefit analysis points to this actually being a good idea:
1. Cost to enroll in class at De Anza: $118.50 ($17/unit, basic fees, lab fee)
2. Cost of textbook and audio materials: unknown, but let's call it $100
3. Cost of the official language ability test I have to take to actually be able to earn the points: $295
So do I really want to pay $513.50 for a possibility of getting some points? ($128.38 per point if I got 4! If only I could just send CIC the money and buy them...) Now that I've written it down, I really don't think so. If I could be sure of getting the full 8, I would probably go for it. Damn it, I knew I should have started French classes as soon as I sent in the application. By now I would be quite proficient and could probably be pretty sure of getting a good number of points. At the time I thought "well, I wouldn't have enough time before this goes through to learn very much French anyway." And now look at where I am. Feh! (Granted, I would have also spent probably close to $1000 just for the instruction and materials in that time, so when you add in the exam cost as well, it's actually $160.78 per point. You can't win for losing! But they would all be in a lump, so the cost per point is more worth it in a practical sense for 8 points than it is for 1-2.)