Looking back at my two-year stay in Japan was inevitable now that the dust has settled. One of the many things that occupied my mind was how I regained my status as a mostly straight A student. From primary school until middle-school, I had obtained As in most of my subjects. You could say I had a stellar record. But it all changed in high school. I just couldn't cope with Add Maths and all the science subjects: Biology, Chemistry and Physics. My score for these subjects ranged from fail to slightly above the passing mark. Until now, I'm not sure if I was lazy or that I just couldn't cope with the way the subjects were taught.
For the first time in my life, I felt solidarity with the main character of Sailormoon, Tsukino Usagi because she always failed her subjects too haha. But it was also Usagi who helped me rally for the final high school exam, SPM. I would have panicked considering my usually dismal results. Thanks to Usagi's never give up attitude, I studied as hard as I could in the last few months before SPM. The final exam's grading system is as follows: Grade 1, Grade 2, Grade 3 and SAP (Sijil Am Pelajaran). From usually getting SAP for my overall term grades, I succeeded in obtaining Grade 1 in the final exam. The improvement in my results was enough for me. I was happy and grateful even though I only managed to get less than a handful of As.
Unfortunately, my academic performance did not continue its upward trend during my foundation and undergraduate years. I did not like Physics in high school but decided to do a degree in Physics because of my love of astronomy. I should have majored in astronomy but chose one of the difficult majors, theoretical physics. I really did not make good decisions back then.
Anyways, the consequences of those decisions were obvious. I had to repeat one semester during my foundation studies and another semester during my degree. My final CGPA was 2.4. This low CGPA did not really affect my job-seeking later on because I chose to be in the publishing field and I was proficient in English but it did haunt me.
Which was why I worked so hard when I did my Master of Arts in International Relations in Japan. Like I mentioned to my friend in Japan, I had to redeem myself for my poor results during high school and my undergrad years.With the exception of the first semester, where I got As for all subjects except one which I got B+, I obtained A or A- for all my other subjects for all the semesters. Unlike the university I attended here for my undergrad, the dean's list for my programme is only given at the end of the programme instead of every semester. It's a bit harder but I was determined to be on the list since I had never been on one during my undergrad years.
My hard work paid off and I made it to the dean's list. During my final semester, my CGPA was 4.0! This has never happened to me before either. I was one out of two from my programme who made it to the list. Being on the list was also cathartic for me due to the ups and downs I had experienced during the two years I was in Japan. I was also disappointed I did not receive distinction for my thesis but being on the dean's list somewhat made up for it :D
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