I usually don't watch school dramas unless there's a secondary plot that can convince me to watch them as they tend to be slice of life dramas centering around students and teachers. I actually had glimpses of the drama few years ago on KBS World but it didn't grab me back then. So when KBS World decide to reair the drama after about 6+ years, I might as well take my time to finally watch this properly.

School dramas tend to be also be a coming of age dramas where you see stories of kids learning about life and grow into fine adults. Master of Study was like this too, in fact at first glance the drama had some similar vibe with the likes of GTO and Gokusen dramas. Like Baekhyeon was a rebellious troublemaker whose only living family was his grandmother, Chandu was from a well-off family but he had zero interest in study, Pulip's mother runs a bar, Bonggu was often bullied by his classmates due to his appearance and Yunjeong's parents both divorced and remarried leaving her to fend for herself on her own. This and the fact that all five kids belong in the lowest class and the worst school just screams at you as a typical setting of a lot of school dramas featuring delinquent kids. But that's as far as comparison goes.

Something I like about Master of Study was the fact that aside from being a drama about a former delinquent trying to get five students from his former school to start studying hard to enrol into a very good college, the drama also include tips to help students to pick up some study skills to improve themselves. And it had a great message about how even the most problematic kid can bring about great achievement if you're patient enough to listen to them and guide them on the right paths.

Seungho as Hwang Baekhyeon was really a right call. He really played the role of a proud highschool delinquent who's rough in appearance but a softie to his grandmother to perfection. I really love his character so much, he's such a charmer. Whenever I see Baekhyeon cry or trying his hardest not to cry after being scolded harshly by his teachers, my heart really goes to him. Even more when his grandmother got really sick and Baekhyeon really broke down in tears. It was a pity that Seungho didn't get Top Excellence award for his performance as Baekhyeon back then because personally, I felt that he really performed well. I mean as much as the story focused on the Seokho trying to get the five problematic students to Cheonha, the main character that really carried the whole story was Baekhyeon. If not because of the conflict between Kang Seokho and Baekhyeon, a lot of things in the drama wouldn't have happened the way it has. As much as Seokho's intervention affected the attitudes of the teachers and students of Byungmoon High, Baekhyeon's growth and hardship do influence the other kids and special class teachers to also do their best in achieving their goals. And having both Kim Sooro and Yoo Seungho play the respective characters were really a good choice. Sooro and Seungho really made a pretty good combo together.

And I also love the character of Ms Han Sujeong played by Bae Doona. She's really a very good teacher to the five students from the special class. Ms Han's growth from being an English teacher who hasn't quite gain any respect her student into a very passionate teacher who'd go all out to support her students was really great. I really love the relationship Ms Han had with her students especially with Baekhyeon. Not to mention that the parallel between Seokho's relationship with his teacher and Sujeong's relationship with Baekhyeon and how that reflect on the way Seokho act around them, made the characters very relatable. As in, Kang Seokho seeing himself in Baekhyeon and that gave him the strong motivation to want to be a good mentor to Baehyeon and it was endearing to see how the two started to became close despite how much the two tend to clash with each other.

I love the fact that this drama showed how one could try making learning such an enjoyable experience and show that it's not impossible to achieve good grades as long as you have the determination to study hard to achieve it. Somehow now I felt like watching or read the original Dragon Zakura series. Because the story setting was that endearing.

While some may argue that some of the study method shown in the drama was pretty extreme and illogical, pay in mind that the story was about someone trying to get five students who needed to catch up on 5+ years worth of school learning in one year in order to score well on their entrance exams. That goal alone was almost impossible at first glance so if there's any way to even achieve such feats would be by using really extreme study methods.