Woo! (Assignment Results)

After two months of waiting, I've finally received the results of my distance learning course. I passed! And, I didn't just pass, I passed with distinction. The instructor said that it was "a very good job and among the best I have read. Well done!"

I'd managed to convince my boss to send me on a post-graduate certification earlier in the year. At the time, I didn't realise that we had a training budget, and that the cost of the course was just over double the budget, but he didn't say anything, and it was approved.

The course itself took place over 16 weeks, with a module out every two weeks. There was no time pressure other than the end-of-course assignment, which worked out both good and bad for me, because I found it difficult to study after I finished work, but it did mean that I ended up doing a lot of reviewing towards the end of the course, when I was on holiday in Singapore.

I worked on the assignment for a total of four or five days (yes, on a two week holiday). I was confident I'd do well enough to pass (the pass mark was 16 out of 20, with 1 being the highest possible score), but I was worried that I'd missed the point of the assignment or focussed on the wrong issues. In the end, I deemed it complete three days prior to the deadline and booked tickets to go to Langkawi to relax, much to the relief of my boyfriend who'd been patiently suffering away in Singapore, waiting for me to finish.

Even then, I ended up fretting, and ended up spending 20 minutes revising a sentence in the executive summary of my paper while at the hotel.

And, fine, all right, there aren't any grades other than a pass or fail, unlike the first iteration of this course. But, given the instructor's remarks, I think it's safe to say that I did an awesome job as the paper was "well-structured and written, with a clear focus on the key issue" and my analysis was "consistently authoritative and accurate throughout".

So, yes, I am delighted. I have been interested in the subject matter for a number of years, I put in a serious amount of effort, and to get comments like that on a paper I wasn't 100% confident about is incredibly uplifting.

(Also, I'm Asian, and we like getting good grades.)