TAKING A MASTER

It's been a while since my last blog entry and my fingers are itching to churn out words once again. Having no other familiar outlet to release this urge, I return to my abandoned blog to resume my writing and to further update my online diary that will be read most often by no one but the future me. It doesn't sound so bad despite how I put it.


So the first semester of my MPS studies have been completed and it turned out better than I had expected: the people I met, the things I've learned, the experiences experienced... it was well worth the months I was there. Results-wise I did a lot better than I had expected. At least I could write in the sms I sent to my dad that I topped the class. It was hardly a win but at least I did my best and I was lucky enough to be able to reap the rewards. 


Others were not so lucky.


I felt that while it was important to be active in class, it was more important - at least for me - to participate and be involved in with your classmates, your lecturers, the lessons and the assignments. Back when I was studying for my undergraduate degree, I only "performed" when it came to presentations. Speaking in public, presenting my thoughts was a skill acquired during my late secondary school years. They have brought me far, given me confidence that would make me do relatively well academically. I'd never thought that it would also help in securing good results for my Masters. 


You see, most of the time the lecturers for a Masters programme here in Malaysia don't really want to fail the students. They are not there to be tested; they are there to gain knowledge. And they can do that by doing assignments, group or individual, and by reading a lot and through discussions with course-mates. Exams are a formality, at least concept-wise. It is hardly a good measure of how 'good' a student is by for the lack of a better measuring system, the Malaysian government is content to be contented with what works now. 


I gave my all in my assignments, but it wasn't the 'assignments' that were the hard part... it was making the other group mates commit more to the assignment than what they can (or want to). 


Managing people is hard and it gets really hard when they are not the same age or wavelength as you. If they are older, you have to plea to them, carefully selecting the right words to convince them to do this or that, if they are younger, you will hear the words 'chill' a lot and on the night before the submission deadline, do not expect to get any sleep at all. Everyone works in their own mysterious way and sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn't.


For two of my closest friends for this course, it didn't work out as well as they thought. I am glad that we are all going through to the next semester without having to retake any of the papers but having seen them work so hard for their assignments, I really wanted to be happy with their results, like I am. But that's just the naive me talking. Besides, they have probably forgotten about the results by now. 


And now on to the dissertation. I must read. And read. And read now...