Posts tagged with academics

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December 26, 2008

Exhausting holidays

After not being able to blog for more than a week, I always find it difficult to restart. The dilemma always is, do I start with the present or do I chronicle down the unwritten past days, chronologically? Do I just dump all the pictures in a blog entry or do I go write down a decent journal entry to go with it? Petty things, I know.

Needless to say, the past weeks has been, for me, my most exhausting holiday season, yet, for reasons I have already mentioned, and some not. For almost two weeks prior to Christmas, I’ve been having activities every day, coming home past midnight, waking up early the next morning for another full day of tasks. When it was all over, I just dropped dead on my bed and the next thing I knew, I had slept for almost twelve hours. And then it was Christmas.

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October 24, 2008

A break from provisions

Our last final exam is over! By the fourth hour of our marathon written exam in Constitutional Law 1, I was so drained and my right hand was already really exhausted from all the writing, I just ranted off my last answer without much prudence in citing provisions. I barely cared anymore. I wanted it done and over with.

I won’t be online for the next few days! I shall blog again when I come back to Manila. See you all!

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October 23, 2008

One extra afternoon to memorize

Our final examinations in Constitutional Law 1 is divided into two parts. The first part is an oral exam, where we would be asked, individually, to answer a handful of random-picked questions by reciting, in verbatim as much as possible, the proper provision from the Constitution. That meant we had to memorize the entire Constitution. The second part of our final exam is a five-hour written test.

The oral part was set for today. When I got to school in time for the exam, I was secretly hoping by one way or another, I would get a few extra hours to study more. I’m a hopeless crammer like that. To my disbelief, after two hours of waiting for our professor, our class president announced that the professor forgot all about our oral exams today, or that he claims that there was a misunderstanding in the schedule. So we all agreed to have it re-set for tomorrow, together with the five-hour written exam.

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October 21, 2008

Three down, two to go

I’m now struggling to memorize the constitution for our last final examinations this Thursday and Friday. I’m done with Persons & Family Relations (Civil Law), Legal Method (Statutory Construction), and Criminal Law 1. And for more, I even had to take a Political Science 14 final exam last Monday.

Last Saturday, my blockmates and I went out for lunch after our Criminal Law 1 final examinations. It was as if we didn’t have any more examinations left. Well, there were four days before the next one, so we thought it wouldn’t hurt if we would eat, drink and be merry for one afternoon.

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October 16, 2008

I still want it

As a freshman, your first final examinations in law school can really make you think about your commitment to studying the law. I’ve never experienced an end-of-semester final exam season this exhausting and stressful. Long hours of reading, series of sleepless nights, prolonged isolation from your non-law school friends and other activities really makes you ask yourself if it’s all worth it.

One night, I wanted to read all about the global economic crises and other collateral local issues but alas I had to read about how estranged spouses should settle the dissolution of their conjugal properties. The other day I wanted to go with my colleagues in the student council to this dialogue with the university president but I had to read about how adopted children can rescind their adoption.

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October 9, 2008

Perennially distracted

I can’t seem to fulfill my plan to isolate myself and become a law school monk. Every once in a while I can’t help but turn the TV on and watch some entertainment or some shows off CNN. I would sigh at how pathetic some news commentators, short of sounding like capitalist paid hacks, spin the news of the global capitalist crisis into something barely positive. Every morsel of positive detail is being used to salvage the perception of capitalism’s inevitable collapse. It’s like everyone’s in denial. This was bound to happen because of this system’s inherent characteristic. France, Iceland, Singapore, Japan, even the USA is on recession. Those who speak of free market policies have suddenly now shut up and allowed state intervention to bail out greedy private financial institutions. What happened?

Okay. So even if I turn the TV off and go back to studying, I still end up losing my focus. Every half an hour or so I would get up from my study table and walk around the house trying to do something else. More often that not, I’d end up just playing with Tisay and watching cartoons with her.

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October 5, 2008

Do not disturb

Allow me to be a monk for the next two weeks. I shall maintain a degree of separation from all those that will just distract me from my purpose. I shall turn off my cell phone for most of the day, unplug the wireless internet router, and just stay at home or at the library to study. My academic disposition is not very good, my midterm averages for some of my subjects are below 3.0, and as such, I have to take major and extra efforts to ace my exams and ultimately pass my subjects. Mastering hundreds of statutes, provisions, case doctrines and jurisprudence and many other rules and procedures, by reading through thousands of pages is daunting.

I’ve never felt so pressured to study for final exams. I never realized how fortunate I was as a high school and even an film student, when a night’s worth of studying, or even relying on stocked knowledge for a final exam would suffice. Ah, those were the days. I never knew how good it was till I stepped into Malcolm Hall.

I know I will laugh at this entry when I’m in my higher years in law school or when I’m about to take the bar, if I pass all the hurdles that is. How pathetic of me to rant like this for my first final exams in law school.

[The picture to your right is of my block's after our final lecture class with Ms. January Sanchez (2004 bar topnotcher), our professor in Legal Method last Saturday morning]

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August 18, 2008

Would you allow me to be selfish now?

“Natutulog ka pa ba?” I forget who asked me the question. I got asked the same thing around three times last week. “Yun nga ‘yung problema eh, natutulog ako.” It’s so sad that I’m blaming sleep for the lack of time I need to do everything I’ve committed myself to do. There just isn’t enough waking hours to do them.

I’ve never felt so depressed over grades. I was never that much of a grade-conscious person. As long as I pass and I know for myself that I’ve learned well, I’m satisfied. Last week I found out what my mid-semester average was. In spite of all the sleepless nights and the effort, it wasn’t enough. I failed big time. The fact that I was second lowest in my block made me feel so much worse. That day I went straight home from class and sulked. The week left me so tired and I am met with a failure.

Inggit na inggit ako sa mga blockmates ko when they study in the library in the afternoons, or when they come to class ready and discuss among each other issues and cases one after another in attempt to review what they’ve read. I wish I had all the time to commit myself to the great demands of law school. When I see my blockmates talk about the lesson, I want to walk out because I barely know anything anymore.

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August 3, 2008

Puro na lang sakit ng ulo

I’ve been having really bad and recurring headaches almost every day the past weeks. Wala nang bisa sa akin ang paracetamol. I don’t know what to take anymore. I tried paracetamol and ibuprofen already. Barely works to relieve the pain. Undoubtedly, it is caused by stress.

All these headaches gets me into thinking sometimes, what if I wasn’t in the student council? What if I didn’t join the fraternity? What if I didn’t get myself involved in so many affiliations and commitments? What if I didn’t go to law school? What if I just didn’t care about how the government is run? What if I just cared about myself? Life would be so much less stressful. I could surf the net all day, watch all the movies I want to see, go to all places I want to go, spend all the time I want with people dear to me. What if, what if. Not that I’m regretting anything at all. It’s just that it amuses me to think how much stress I would have spared myself had I not gone the path I have tread. But then I wouldn’t be me.

Anyway, somehow related to student council stress… Geez, spare me from all these student council politicking! What a waste of time, indeed. I have my own constituents who expect me to respond to pressing issues. I’m disappointed some of my councilmates talk as if they’re the only ones whose constituents are aggrieved or will be aggrieved. We were popularly elected with the platform of expedient and responsible responses to issues of national concern. Failure to do such is a disservice in itself. I cannot allow the exaggerated ranting of some councilmates to stop us from exercising our mandate. It’s not as if they weren’t heard out or their points considered. It’s so sad that some of us have assumed bad faith against each other. Imagine being called evil and fascist. Hay, try staring at the fascism of Arroyo’s police force in the face! We substantially followed our collectively prescribed procedure. I still hope things could be threshed out amicably. Grabe lang. As public information officer, or the “final arbiter” in statements, palagi na lang akong dehado sa gitna ng party friction ‘pag may statement, kahit sinupaman ang proponent niyan, red, blue, yellow, white, whatever. Whether I release the statement or not, one party would be staring negatively at me. Ang sakit sa ulo.

In the meantime, I would like to prepare for my first midterms in UP Law.

On an irrelevant note, I got new lens for my DSLR! I’ll try to start taking photographs again.

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July 16, 2008

Still daunted

There has to come a time when I should move on from the overwhelmed phase and just push through with the tasks required of being a law student. But let me just say it again, and rant for the last time (I hope), that the amount of material we have to read every day is just overwhelming. A few days ago, I got myself my copy of 700-pages long worth of reading materials to be discussed for two subjects within just two meetings. Is it even possible? I spent almost an hour sorting them out and stapling them. I didn’t finish reading them before class. I ended up making a blunder in front of our Constitutional Law 1 professor.

A few days ago, in Criminal Law 1 class, it was a lazy afternoon after lunch break and I was so sleepy from reading the night before, that I didn’t realize I snoozed of for a few minutes. It wasn’t until my seatmate nudged me that my recitation card was picked and the professor has been looking at me and has called my name twice already. Fortunately, I was able to pull the recitation off. But still, that was embarrassing.

At least, going through the experience with a set of wonderful blockmates saves it. Everyone, especially the very diligent ones, is very helpful to others, (like me, hehe), who are sometimes left behind with the lessons because of, well, various reasons. And all the lunch-outs, night-outs and karaoke indeed do a lot to boost one’s morale after a depressing performance in class.

There’s now so little time to do any other leisurely things, since I also have my tasks in the University Student Council, and my other affiliations, among my priorities. Which, explain why I haven’t been blogging, nor blog-hopping, or anything else leisurely for that matter.

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