Becoming a lawyer has always been my dream since I was in my teens, when technology became more advanced, television shows revolved around dramas in the courthouse and also the heroic barrister that solved many cases. It was what sparked my interest in studying law in Bellerbys, and to further pursue my law degree in university. As specific as it may seem, the study of law is actually very broad, as different industries have their own study on law, and also different types of professions that I can choose to strive for. However, I am determined to become a lawyer specialising in criminal law, as I have always been a huge advocate on wordplay and other than being a linguist, and this will be a challenging job opportunity for myself.

(Photo by: Family & I @ Changi Airport, SG)

There are only two main modules that we need to focus on here, as compared to having 5 main examinable modules in a semester, making learning a whole lot less stressful. On top of that, I would dare to agree that both education systems helps students in making new friends through school activities and also enrichment programs where we get to interact with students from other classes and even courses. However, expectations does not seem to differ far from back home as we are all still doing our very best to get into the best university that we can go to, and considering that the university that I am aiming for requires an overall of 80%, I will have to work as hard as I can to achieve the best results!

It is a known fact that tough times doesn't last, and it helps us to become stronger individuals over time, especially with the help of my classmates and friends, whom I've met through enrichment programs. 

(Pic by: SFL-2)

I have always been interested in the study of law, as I have been watching a ton of courtroom dramas since I was younger. After studying my foundation in law and politics for the 5th month, I have learned more than I ever though I would have, be it in the English legal system, the English politics system, political parties, or in contract law. I am even confident in drafting my own contract right now. It might be difficult to understand the cases initially, however, over time, we got used to it and it became second nature in understanding them. As our syllabus focuses mainly on the English legal system, contract law, and tort law, we do not get to research on criminal law, which is where my interest lies in.

We are taught in various ways, but what I found most interesting about the course is my law society enrichment classes. We are given the chance to engage in mock trials and also mooting which are legal researching and presenting our cases in a formal court situation, defending or prosecuting a case. I am still looking forward to every lessons as we get to learn more and more interesting lessons! 

(Photo By: Republic of Singapore Navy, on my Graduation from the Navy)

The learning of academic English had opened my eyes to a whole new world, as a native English speaker, I was relatively better than my peers in Singapore. However, I could not have been proven more wrong when I took my first lesson in English Skills 1. I did enjoy learning about academic writing and also the various essay skills as it did help me in this course where essay writing is basically the core of humanities. However, it did take some time to get used to the proper formatting, and application skills, and after that everything is better. 

I would not say that I am perfect, as there are still many fine tuning that I would need to do to perfect my English skills, and also the various skills that would help in my university projects, researches, and essays. We were given many essays to practice that it has somehow became second nature to research and write, be it a long essay or just a short compare/contrast or a cause and effect essay. One thing that has been essential to my learning progress is that I am in a class full of lively, and enthusiastic students who made learning a whole lot easier, especially because we would discuss the issues, help one another out, and solve problems together. As we all know that multiple heads are better than one!

Learning about Microsoft Excel is my favourite part of the lesson as I get to learn how to use excel to document data, which is a key organisational skill especially when I start working in an office in the future. I learned that also precision is key, if I were to input the wrong data into a cell, it can potentially cause a whole bigger problem later, which applies to my daily life and especially as a future lawyer. Although this may seem to be a small problem, I feel that it is necessary for me to fix this my carelessness before it develops into a habit.

The learning blog is also a crucial part of the CIT course, as we will be assessed on our entries, reviews, and the way we document our life. However, I find it restricting that we are only allowed to use Padlet as a blog platform, although it is user friendly and simplistic, it limits the creativity of users like myself who prefers to have more freedom in working. On the other hand, our creativity is only limited by our own minds, therefore I should always find my way through tough situations and never blame the system.

Our CIT class is held very formally, with Ms Witherby, our CIT teacher, going through step by step on the ways we should handle the task at hand. She also explains to us and help us understand the purpose of working certain ways, however I do find that she should also let us experiment on the assignments by ourselves, as human beings learns best when they learn through mistakes. At the end of the day, I am still appreciative of the effort she puts in to teach us as it has all gone well, with everyone coping fine.

(Photo by: Me, an example of our excel work)

This term's politics module focuses mostly on the UK political parties, and the pressure groups that aids the government in making critical decisions. I feel that this is a more in-depth topic of the previous term's UK political system, as we have to dwell deep into the ideologies of each of the political parties in the UK, their goal, successes and also failures. This involves an intense research process as we have to look for each of their policies during the General Election through their party manifestos and to compare and contrast the very specific figures involved. This is good as we will understand more about each of the parties and the economical statuses of the UK during certain time, a good example is the policy changes that the Tories made during the turbulent Brexit period. Our class would conduct our own research about specific parties, and then share our findings with one another as we agree that to be able to do well for this module, we will have to work together! Party politics have no doubt helped me to conduct more in-depth researches about topics and it teaches me that it is important to understand each and every chapters as to do well in it.

These modules have not just taught me about the skin-deep knowledge, but also the more important research and working skills that I will need to succeed in the future, although they differ drastically in topics, but we still require the same study skills. One takeaway that I have for the term so far is to never underestimate my ability to do well, as I was never academically inclined, I have to work twice as hard and so far, I bore the fruits of my labour through the good grades in exams. My perspective of law foundation have definitely changed from before I started the course, I used to think that it is impossible to score very well in this field, especially with my background, however, the learning skills that were imparted into myself through the course proved that nothing is impossible and the only limitation that will stop my own progress, is myself. With the aid of my classmates, whom we have all grown closer to over the past few months, it makes the tough journey a whole lot more bearable, or rather easier. We have a very helpful and selfless class who will go no end to make sure we understand the topics and lessons.