At the west end of Poland the British Council Exam Centre has it’s seat in Gorzów Wielkopolski at 11 Składowa street. It is run by the Macpherson English Language School.  Once you have set foot in the school you feel as if you were on the British Isles. There are no ordinary classrooms but England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. The guard standing by the entrance resembles the one next to Buckingham Palace.

MACPHERSON has English language courses at all levels and for various age groups. They offer language trainings for institutions and companies as well. Teachers in Macpherson are professionally zappy. As one of the students said ‘They teach effectively and interestingly. It makes you feel like speaking English.’ They are also demanding but as another student put it: ‘classes are so engrossing that one does not notice the flow of time. If the teachers are demanding it gives us extra motivation’.

Our centre colleagues try and do all they can to ensure exam candidates enjoy the best possible exam conditions. Once, while conducting a routine check of a hall for the listening test, it turned out that the Gorzów bugle call that is sounded every midday could be heard extremely clearly there. According to the timetable the test was due to finish at 12:10. To sort out the matter the exam coordinator paid a visit to the President of Gorzów Wielkopolski. What she heard officially was that nothing could be done about it. However, she was directed to the bugle call operator. The latter moved forward the hands of the clock and in this way for one day ‘midday’ in Gorzów Wielkopolski was at 12:10.