Category: Chronicles

I picked up a copy of my first year examination results at the faculty office today and boy, was it a surprise for me. While I already knew that I had passed all my papers, I did not know the detail results until today.

Overall, I averaged slightly better than a B+ and I am happy with that result. According to my lawyer friends, averaging a B+ is supposedly a good performance for Law school though it’s not something that I’m quite accustomed to. Hehe.

But the shocker is that I obtained the results that was opposite of that which I had expected.

I was worried about passing Tort since I only managed to cover less than half the syllabus and had trouble answering the paper as it was my first ever Law paper. I actually ended up getting an A for this known killer paper instead. Go figure. I have no idea how I accomplished that.

I was super confident of acing Contract as I had managed to answer that paper well (or so I had thought) but it actually ended up being my worst paper with only a B- to show for it. I must have misread the situations and identified the wrong issues. I was so sure that I did well.

Terbalik pula.

Consti was a wildcard that was quite difficult to predict and was another killer paper. I hardly had time to prepare for this paper as it was already at the end of my exams and my brains were saturated and I was depressed studying it. I ended up with a B+ for this emotionally charged paper.

The other two papers – I got an A for Islamic Law and a B for Malaysian Legal System. Studying Islamic Law was a lot of fun but I have no idea how I ended up with only a B for MLS, a simple expository paper that was supposed to be a walk in the park.

Overall, I am quite happy with my results and I am going to reward myself by buying a new DSLR (Pentax-K30) this evening, just in time for my family holiday next week. But since I didn’t get a majority A result, I won’t be getting myself a prime lens too. I’ll leave that for next year.

I hope that I can bring up my CGPA next year with more As.

Update: I up sold myself to a K30 with a blue anodised body!

Today, I met someone else who is taking law out of personal interest and not for monetary reasons – a medical doctor with an MBA who has no passion for medicine. Although I’m not quite in the same boat, it is good to know that there are others who are doing law out of love and interest.

Personally, I like law a lot but I love engineering.

My type of personality thrives on beating a system, any system. As an engineer, I get to hack solutions to many convoluted problems. However, I often bump up against legal issues that I lack the expertise to handle. Hopefully, getting this law degree will help me hack better solutions.

While I am doing this for fun, I do intend to take this seriously. Honestly, I have to if I do not intend to squander all my hard-earned savings away. I intend to take five law modules this year, covering Tort, Contract, Islamic, Constitutional and the Malaysian Legal System.

My plan is to study all the topics by May and to work towards the exams in August. This means that I have about a month for each module. Looking at the reading list, I don’t think that I’ll be able to squeeze in any more Banks, Bear, Gibson, Reynolds, or Stephenson next year.

(A million voices just cried out in pain)

PS: Fortunately, I’ll be able to fully claim my tax deductions on books and fees for the next few years!

To be honest, I signed up for the Bachelors of Jurisprudence programme at University of Malaya without an inkling of what it entailed. I did it simply because I felt like it was the right thing to do.

So, I was in for a bit of a surprise.

I took a peek into the auditorium this morning and saw a room full of all sorts. The B.Juris programme is an external programme for, largely, working adults with commitments and families. There were people from all walks of life there, including some who came with their kids in tow.

This is the first time that I am in a situation where the students were not really students and it was quite interesting. Seen from a different angle, this is another interesting opportunity to network.

Personally, I’m hoping to have some fun while learning law. It’s also useful to have some friends whom you can call from the police lock-up.

PS: I think that I might be one of the only people in the room who has no interest in becoming a lawyer of some sort, which seems silly considering the amount of money that I’ll be spending on the programme.