I decided to go to University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil law. I was admitted in the Faculty's most prominent section where all graduates with latin honors are clumped together.
 |
| UST Faculty of Civil Law - 1A |
bject. It seems like my classmates were scared as hell, so I was pressured to obtain review materials. I managed to read the preliminary title of the Civil Code a week before classes start, but that was all, and finally decided to enjoy my last few days as a normal human being.
Everything came in a surprise. I was a Political Science student but I didn't expect to read this much. We also have lots of readings in college but not this much. I was shocked with the number of pages in the annotations and numbers of cases to read, memorize provisions and recite.
 |
| Readings for Prelims |
The whole semester is a battle between what I've read and the professor. Everyday is recitation day! I read the whole night, studied in the morning and cram every word in my brain until that very last minute and stop when the professor calls your name.
 |
| Sometimes, you just want to give up (Rona. Peace! Lablab haha) |
Once the professor starts shuffling the class cards, there is silence, no one dares to breathe. I don't know what my other classmates do, but I pray not to be called or to be called on topics I know or even if called at the most unfortunate moment, I would be able to answer a thing or two, or not to humiliate myself. Once the batch of chosen ones is complete, you will hear long sighs of relief.
 |
| When sleep knocks, sleep. XD |
Some recitations last for 45 minutes to an hour or you can stand for the 2 hour period. Professors sometimes ask very long questions or very tricky questions, or provisions that I have not memorized or cases I haven't read. Humiliation is common. Sometimes, out of fear, the mind goes blank, or because of the lengthy question, I forget the premise or some facts. I was once a victim of these unlucky events, like being asked to recite on a case you have not read despite reading all other cases. Sometimes, due to the number of cased and almost similar facts, you end up shuffling them. In other words, you end up not knowing which case is which. I even ended up making up my own facts because of the fear of answering nothing, but I ended up humiliating myself even more.
 |
| Caught in the Act of Cramming |
Your mood after recitation will depend on how great you are or how you sucked on recitation. But sometimes, just getting through a recitation could bring you great relief, no matter how much you screwed it. The fact that the class is over and that you could finally sleep defeats the idea that you think you will not make it alive after recitation. Every after class just makes you want to eat something good, chat and laugh with good friends, drink a cup of coffee on your own whim and sleep to your heart's content. You could dream on, but this is not entirely possible. After class means you need to prepare for the next subject - sometimes, an even tougher subject. You cannot dilly-dally in eating. You have to maximize time as much as possible.
I never realized until then how much time I had back in college. I cannot even rest without guilt on my precious weekends. I recover the sleep I lost on Saturday afternoon after my Criminal law 1 class. At night when I don't have any appointment with friends, I quench my thirst for social network because my mind goes blank and it doesn't want to do anything. But of course, guilt pops in, I ignore them all and start panicking on Sunday night and mourn over the time i wasted on sleeping and chatting. Sundays are for household chores, and I try to do them all before lunch for me to start studying for my lessons the next week. When laundry is not yet necessary, which within 2-3 weeks after my last laundry, i just run away. I bring all my study materials to my friend's place or in a coffee shop and stay there till evening. And that's the moment when I start panicking.
Exam is the most awesome of them all. Why? Because when that moment comes, I forget how to study. Rather, I do not know how to study anymore. I don't know how I'm going to study everything. I can stare at them all day but I cannot read them all. My mind starts panicking and I end up studying bits and tiny pieces of everything, trust my stored knowledge on the day of the exam, and ask an almost impossible prayer to God that I would somehow pass the exams. I still have to find out how to study during exams because cramming won't work in law school. Which is a big adjustment for me because I'm a great crammer ever since.
After exams, I prefer not to talk anything about it. In fact, I'd like to pretend that I did not take it. I don't like hearing others' answers and get sulky after realizing I was wrong or I answered differently than the others. I get depressed and distracted easily so I'd rather not talk. I go straight home, study for the next exams.
I managed to pass all my prelim exams somehow. It's not that high as my other overly academically proficient classmates but I am very thankful that I passed all of them, even those subjects I thought I flunked. I don't know how these happened since I was not able to study well due to my father's presence. So I really do not know if I should give an advice on that because I myself don't know how i passed despite that half-baked studying.
Final exams was a bit unlucky for me though because at the most unfortunate time, I got sick. The half-baked studying became 1/4 or maybe less and I do not know if I could pass any of those subjects. We have a month vacation before the second semester ends but here we are, waiting in agony for the final grade and find out whether we maintain the scholarship, be on probation or debarred.
There goes the repetitive and nerve-wracking six months of my life which might drag on to unknown years but hopefully i could get it in 4. But think positive! I have one semester down!
 |
| Wishing happy law school years with this class. :) |
