Sunday, November 25, 2007

Studied Indifference.

In 14 days or approximately 848 hours later, my life as a relaxed, free-wheeling student will come to an end. Forever. Goodbye to getting up at noon and languidly lazing away the afternoons. Hello to 40 years of getting up at the crack of dawn and heading home after dark. Like E. said, it really does put things into perspective, before we groaned so loudly that the auntie on the train glared at us. Well at least I get paid. Hooray.

In the meanwhile, there's a little inconvenience known as the Bar Exam or PLC exams as they call it to get through first. Which is really a terrible bore as exams always are, the older I get the more I detest it. Because to me, it's always just a test of how well you can flip through the stacks of notes during the span of two to three hours, hopefully mix and match the issue to the answers and try to smoke ones way through while hoping for the best.

This exam will be no different, apart from the fact it comprises a whopping six subjects, voluminous stacks of muggers that make one weep when attempting to plow through it for the first time and determines whether one actually gets called to the Bar as an Advocate & Solicitor of Singapore; the modus operandi remains the same. Go in, sit down, read, flip flip flip, scribble and smoke, come out, moan and hope to have passed.

Not that I have much of a choice, the level of preparation goes down with each passing exam and for the current one, I still haven't touched Conveyancing at all and a quarter of the useful albeit very dry Civil Procedure. And when I say touch, I mean reading the stuff for the first time. Thank god for weekends.

Seriously, this is one of those times I wish I could just zip on ahead, say 12 days into the future, secure in the knowledge that everything that's needed to be done has already been done. It remains a pleasant daydream of course, enough to while away the time. On a wholly unrelated note, I finally found the missing wedding ring after a desperate two day search that involved rummaging through the rubbish bin (don't laugh, the last time I lost it, it was mixed up with tissue paper that I then threw into the bin much to Sean's chagrin), moving dusty cupboards all in an attempt to find the elusive ring.

Which I finally found in the pants pocket of my freshly washed laundry. I'm horrible I know, what kind of partner/husband loses his/her wedding ring not once but twice. Terrible. For now, I'll probably just do like Aileen says, wear it all the time. Or put it in a box, a habit that never lasts more than two weeks at most. Sigggghh. Back to more yawn-inducing notes.

7 comments:

Jonathan said...

All the best for the exams! - no fun cramming for the 6 (is it still 6? - me out of touch there) papers to be taken over the next couple of weeks - hopefully you will get a chance to take a short break before descending into the legal salt mines to toil for the foreseeable future :p

sinlady said...

have you served your one year of pupillage yet? when you are a lowly paid slave to hot shot overpaid and underworked lawyers? Work life is just full of awful choices!

Just curious - what area of law will you practice in?

Aelgtoer said...

Jonathan: Thanks, I kinda need it. Lol. Yep, it's still 6 subjects, unfortunately and probably the heaviest combination I've ever sat for my entire life. That said and done, it's also probably the most unprepared for exams. I don't think 'reading for the first time' is exactly 'cramming'^^. But we make do.

Oh and no unfortunately, there's no such thing as a short break as far as the Firm is concerned. Exams end on friday the 8th of Dec, back to the Salt Mines on Monday, 10th Dec. >< *Whip Crack*

Sinlady: Noooo, I haven't lol. Though I can't decide if that's an entirely bad thing. Strictly speaking it's 1 month of pupillage, 6 months of PLC(the course we need to pass) and the remaining 5 months of Pupillage. So I still have another 5 more months of peon-ship to plow through.

Lol, what choice? Though I wholly agree with the lowly paid slave part. Everyone knows pupils are cheap labour. But a raise would be nice, what with all the rising costs for Chicken rice, bread and the ack 7% GST.

I'm in Litigation now and it's probably the area i'll practice in for the foreseeable future. Not too hung up over Criminal Liti, more inclined to Civil/commercial liti.

Partly cause I'm not a very compassionate person by nature and i think one needs a measure of that in order to mount a proper defence for your client in criminal proceedings regardless whether he/she's actually guilty.

Anonymous said...

Nothing to look forward to except the end of PLC and the day when I get overpaid and underworked.

Aelgtoer said...

Boo, at least you get a nice long break first before going back and have the rest of the gang for company! :P

Jonathan said...

"I don't think 'reading for the first time' is exactly 'cramming'^^."

That reminds me of a disastrous dinner party I held once where people erm walked out halfway, with one of them saying, "I've got exams on Monday, need to go back and study". I had to stop myself from saying, "Sister, if you haven't started, why even bother"...... :p

Aelgtoer said...

Haha you sure it wasn't the food? Lol kidding, but yep the 'I Need to Study' excuse is one you hear so often it gets stale sometimes.