I am done with law school! Four enjoyable years are over and I miss the SUSS School of Law already. I am happy with my final score considering I was simultaneously working full time, growing my company and fulfilling my duties to my family. My sole stain on my transcript would be that particular social work module which I had to take in my first semester. Other than that, I managed to score at least a B+ or a 4.0 GPV for every law module. I graduated (or is waiting to graduate) with a second upper honours.

Looking back at my journey, I think I could offer some advice to the new students of the SUSS School of Law. I have 10 tips for you as you embark on the journey which yours truly has completed.

 

Tip 1: Do not harp on your TMA scores

TMA stands for tutor marked assignments (I think). Seriously. You get back your TMA and it maybe says 70 marks. Your friend gets 71. Do not ask the marker why is there a 1 mark difference. All you need are the comments that are on your script. The marker of your TMA would have given you some advice. If you see very little advice, then perhaps your script is rather strong to begin with. Some marker comment more than others. That is to be expected. Sorry to sound like Donald Trump but that is common sense that different markers will have different styles of marking. When you are doing the TMA, give it your all. Do your best. Once it is over. There is nothing you can say that will change your grade. Not that I know of, of course. Even if you could appeal your TMA grade, would the effort be worth your time? Even if you topped a particular TMA, it is likely that someone else would top the next one.

 

Tip 2: Sharpen your axe

We are all honing the skill to be able to:

a) Extract the holding from a case
b) Apply it to issue and the fact pattern of the matter before us
c) Write the piece of advice to the client in a succinct manner

Every module is the same. You are doing the same thing. You are just improving your skill as you move along. It is akin to sports. Roger Federer has hit thousands of backhands but even up to his retirement, he was still trying to improve his strokes. For me, I have been lifting weights since I was 18 years old. I will turn 44 this year. I am still looking to improve the way I perform certain lifts. All you need to know is that with every assignment and every module that passes you by, you are honing your legal skill. You will never reach the end because a knife needs to be constantly sharpened. If you take the perspective that you have a long legal career ahead of you, then you would realise that the four years in law school are but a minuscule portion of your long and illustrious path.

 

Tip 3: You will get better as the course progresses

I have had juniors commenting that they find it difficult to write like how I am writing. That is obvious. I have been in law school for longer. Someone in 4L would write very differently from someone who just entered law school. If that is not the case then something is seriously wrong. An accurate comparison would be to take my work when I first entered law school and put it up with what that junior wrote for the first assignment. It is likely to be of similar standard. I truly believe that if you follow what you are asked to read and do what you are asked to do, you will improve. The course is designed to do so ONLY IF YOU FOLLOW IT.

Progress is slow and gradual. Consider this. If I did 25 pull ups and you could only do 5, your first instinct would be that I trained the pull up consistently and gradually made improvements. You starting at a maximum of 5 pull ups would similarly make gradual improvements. You will improve my increasing your max pull ups by a single repetition every few weeks. You will get to 6, 7, 8, 9 and so on… You get the point. Your mind is like a muscle. It needs to be trained. Progressively it will improve with consistency. It is like wanting to lose weight. Eating one healthy meal out of an otherwise unhealthy diet is not going to help you lose weight. Similarly, a person who has been eating healthy binge eats for one meal. That is not going to make him gain weight. If you want to lose weight, you know that eating clean and healthy every meal will eventually cause the weight to fall off. All you need to do is to stick to the diet plan.

The good thing about this degree course is that the plan is already drawn out for you. All you need to do is to stick to the plan. Stick to it and you will get better.

 

Tip 4: Always try your best

Do not think that because you are going to use your pass/fail option, you do not need to study for a module. You still need a minimum grade to clear the module. However, whatever you do, you need to try your best. Do not say that you do not like a particular subject and then you will not bother to work on it and if your grade is poor, you can use the pass/fail option. Remember that you are following a plan (what did I just say for tip 3?). If you are following a plan and are sharpening your knife, should you not do it constantly over the duration of the whole course? What makes a particular subject so tough that you can elect to disregard putting in any decent level of effort? If seniors mention that subjects like Equity are difficult, that is their take on the module. I personally enjoyed Equity and felt that it was one of the more palatable modules.

Have the mindset that you will never use the pass/fail option. Anyway that option exists when exigencies in life crop up and affect your ability to prepare well for the examinations. Maybe illness might cause you to not be able to prepare adequately for an examination. Then such exigencies might warrant the use of the pass/fail option. However, to consider using it on a module without even trying your best is something that I cannot accept personally.

 

Tip 5: Do not argue with the lecturer. If you do, you had better win.

The lecturers have been dealing with the fields they are lecturing for a long period of time. Well at least longer than you as a student. If you disagree with the lecturer on how he or she graded you, that is just from your perspective. Your arguments would always seem sound to you because you made them and you are agreeing with yourself. If you want the lecturer to consider your point, tell it in an amicable manner. You can have an opinion as to certain matters. Like I personally have an opinion on family violence and I think amendments to certain provisions should be made.

Here is the article where I expressed my thoughts: https://www.justfollowlaw.com/what-is-family-violence/

I made this point when my lecturer asked for opinions.

However, challenging the lecturer as to the interpretation of a decision is a different matter. I am not saying that everything has to be taken as gospel truth. However, when you want to make a challenge, you had better be able to back it up. So you better do extensive research and your reasoning had better be sound. If you manage to argue your point and the lecturer is convinced, you will be remembered. Positively.

 

Tip 6: Network

No man is an island. You need to know the people around you. When I first entered law school, there was no law interest group. There was nothing that I could attend that I could get to know my seniors. There were some events where you would get to know law firms, especially those that are hiring. You should go for some events.

However, I think the best way to expand your social network would be to join sports. In particular, the Law Fraternity Games. The games bring together the three law schools and Law Society. You will get to network with other students from different batches and also with lawyers from the Law Society team. Getting to know more people may benefit you in more ways than one. You will get to know lawyers from law firms who are willing to offer you a training contract. It would help you greatly if you know your opposing counsel when you undertake cases in the future.

But more importantly, well to me at least, getting to know more people is just the normal thing to do. If you shy away from speaking to people, how are you going to advocate for others in the future? I think I will remember all the law fraternity games that I played and all the sporting tournaments which I joined. I may remember my team mates more than my classmates from a particular module. I can remember what I participated in the early 2000s when I was an NUS student but I cannot remember what was taught in class.

 

Tip 7: Sacrifice (but consider if it is worth it as well. For that little bit more?)

You will have to sacrifice to complete this degree. Time is a limited resource and you will need to allocate this limited resource to the pursuit of your law degree. You might have to tell your employer that you cannot sacrifice weekends to work on special projects and hence forsake promotions. You may also have to miss certain social events as you clear your assignments.

However, sometimes you need to consider whether the sacrifice is worth it. The threshold is 3.5. If you are below 3.5 and want to become a lawyer, then you better make more sacrifices because you are clearly not putting in enough effort or you clearly do not have the aptitude for this. Both instances point to you exiting the course. If you are above 3.5 then you will need to consider whether you need to sacrifice more to get your CGPA to hit 4.0 and above. If you are ok with your CGPA being in the 3.5 to 3.99 range, then you can ease off the sacrifices as you are on track for what you are ok with. I had to make that decision as well. But the question which I posed to myself resulted in a very quick conclusion. Since the SUSS School of Law started, there has been no one who has obtained a first class honours. The best class of honours is the second upper class. Since I am comfortably in this range, do I want to study harder to try to obtain what has never been obtained. The immediate answer was no. There was nothing I could do to change the class of honours that I will be receiving. Hence I purchased the game Diablo 4 on the Playstation Store and got my buddy Kester (my batch mate), to meet me online. He too concluded (albeit two semesters after me) that there was no chance of obtaining anything more than a second upper class.

 

Tip 8: Remember the goal

The goal is to hit at least a CGPA of 3.5. This allows you to take the bar exam which will eventually allow you to be called to the bar. You are not here to join competitions. If your grades is not up to the mark, you should be prioritising your grades over extra curricular activities. What is the point if you win some competition but you cannot be called to the bar?

It is common sense but sometimes sense is not that common…

 

Tip 9: Some modules down the line are easier to score

You will encounter certain modules in the course which can help you to pull up your CGPA. Namely the two family law modules. I got 5.0 for both family law modules. If you are in year 1 and 2, just stay the course and remember that you will encounter modules that can help you to pull up your CGPA. Do not strategise too much because the reward for you paying your dues is just up ahead. Moreover, by the time you reach year 3, you would have sharpened your knife really well. I see some people skipping modules only to have to take them later down the road. You end up with semesters having to take modules without your batch mates. This is a huge disadvantage and you will have to study alone unless you network well and can form a study group with your juniors. You may end up loading the skipped modules in year 3, hampering your ability to focus on family law, which historically helps some students to pull up their CGPA.

 

Tip 10: Find a good study group.

This is important. Very. You need positive people around you to influence you positively. You too should be a positive influence on others. I study with people who prepare for every discussion. It shows up in the grades as well. The people who I study with, namely Kester, Kenley, Elaine and Jonathan all got second upper honours. Well Jonathan has yet to graduate as he is doing the LLB course whereas the rest of us are doing the JD course so he still has to clear some electives. There are no freeloaders in our discussions. Everyone comes to the discussion prepared and we are all in the discussion with the intention of scoring in that assignment and in the examinations. We meet up before the exams on campus to do the past year papers together. We would find an empty classroom and sit down for the exact number of hours to try to finish a past year paper. We did that to simulate the examination itself. This is akin to you going down to the race venue to familiarise yourself with the surroundings before a race. That is what track and field coaches would do. As I explained before, just like training a muscle and running a race, the examinations are about training the brain to think legally and executing what we have trained in an examination.

 

Well I hope that comes in useful for any new students of the SUSS School of Law.

Always stay positive. You will get better.

 

Yours sincerely,

Daryl