Make or break: My

freshman law story

To say that my first year in law school was the hardest thing I ever
had to accomplish would be an understatement

Anna Isabel C. Rodriguez

Published 9:50 PM, Jun 22, 2014
Updated 10:19 PM, Jun 22, 2014

The business of a law school is not sufficiently described when you

merely say that it is to teach law, or to make lawyers. It is to teach
law in the grand manner, and to make great lawyers. - Oliver
Wendell Holmes

I celebrated on the day that I found out I passed the University of the
Philippines ' Law Aptitude Exam (LAE), but I had no idea what
exactly I was celebrating for.
Amidst warnings from those (un)fortunate enough to have already
spent time in the hallowed halls of Malcolm, I welcomed the
adventure I thought law school was going to be. I just passed the
LAE and nothing could rain on my parade certainly, admittance to
the prestigious UP College of Law was a feat in itself.
Then, law school started. You soon learn that there is nothing more
grueling, more disastrous than the life of law students struggling
with their first year.
Not for me
I honestly did not think Id ever end up in law school, nor did the
scores of people who were so unabashedly surprised when they
found out I was in UP Law. At a young age, I had decided against it,
much to the chagrin of my lawyer father who loves what he does for
a living and lives for what he loves doing. And sure, Suits made it
seem fun and sexy but law always appeared to me to be such a
strict, rigid, and unforgiving profession.
But then, I one day found myself - a lost twenty-something
graduating from college with no plans nor any inkling of what to do
with my (now very imminent) future. When my father suggested that

I take law entrance exams, I did so not because I wanted to be a

lawyer.
Today, that is not true. A year in, hundreds of cases read, and a
dream job replaced with dreams of a legal profession later, I
daresay: I may want to be a lawyer after all.

Hardest part
To say that my first year in law school was the hardest thing I ever
had to accomplish would be an understatement. There is little to no
time for anything else in your life and most days you find yourself
racking your brain, wondering why in the world youre staying.
Nothing really prepares you for the grand manner. The reality of it
isnt so grand.

The normal load for freshman student is 18 units. A unit would

mean an hour per week; so a 4-unit subject would translate to 4
hours of meeting per week, or 2-hour sessions twice a week.
Eighteen (18) hours of class a week do not seem like much
considering that, on a "light school day, you would have only a 2hour class and, on a heavy day, you need only to attend 3 classes.
But to prepare for a 2-hour class means having to read at least 20
assigned Supreme Court decisions, on top of legal provisions,
annotations and commentaries. One case can take from 7 to 30
pages. But you have 18 hours of classes per week, did I not say that
already? Easily, youre just reading from the time you leave your last
class to the time you head to your next class the next day. All this
doesnt even factor in classes where the good professor allows only
hand-written notes to be brought to class, or weekly quizzes on how
well you have memorized law provisions, word for word, which, to
hurdle, youve got to garner at least 90%.
Law school subscribes to the Socratic method. There are no
lectures or explanations, just recitations. Nothing is ever explained
to you in class, you are expected to come in, know your material,
and recite on it flawlessly. Basically, the professor picks a random
class card and the person called is made to stand and answer a
barrage of questions to test how well he understood the material if
you forget the answer, you get a 5 (which means you failed for that
day); if youre asked about the one topic you didnt read about, thats
also a 5; if you cut class because you didnt finish reading and you
get called, thats also a 5. Yes, it rains 5s in Malcolm and when it

rains, it pours. This is especially troubling given that to stay in the

college, you need to maintain a certain grade, one that gradually
goes higher the longer you stay in the college.
This year, out of the 200 something freshmen students enrolled in
UP Law, there were more or less 60 students who have been
dropped from the rolls. This is not counting those who failed the first
semester and those who left the college voluntarily.
No sleep
The first month in, I slept an average of 4 hours a night (6 if Im
lucky!) and I was downing around 4 cups of coffee per day. It was on
the third day of non-stop reading that I started really doubting what I
was doing and the tears finally came. It was 6 a.m. on a beautiful
morning after a long night of studying and I was having my first cup
of coffee. I was dreading the day to come there was a pile of
readings due that afternoon that I havent gotten to. I was tired,
stressed, and sleepy. I felt burned out, run into the ground and it
wasnt even a week in. I wanted to cry. Just when that first tear was
about to drop, I thought to myself: crying would take 5 minutes, I
could finish reading a page in the same amount of time and so, I
finished that page instead.
Later on that night, there were no pages, just tears.
Sacrifice to learn

Thats pretty much what law school is: a sacrifice to learn. Through
all of this, you also learn to persevere. That glimmer of hope, that
small slither of light which shines through the darkest of days, can
get you through so much. Og Mandino did say, Failure will never
overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough, and
this has never been so true.
In between piles and piles of readings, arduous recitations,
countless sleepless nights, and so many tears, I learned about the
law and I learned so much about myself. Mans resilience and
propensity to carry on has always amazed, but never would I have
ever imagined that I would find this in myself.
I have since believed that never in my life have I gone through
anything more gut-wrenching and fulfilling but at the same time I am
thankful for it every single day.
I celebrated on the day that I found out I passed the Law Aptitude
Exam, like how I celebrated when I found out I made it through this
school year, like how I now celebrate after every exam, quiz, and
recitation and now I know why I do this. Law school makes or
breaks you.. and if youre still swimming, there is much to be
thankful for. - Rappler.com
Isa Rodriguez is a law student and social media producer at
Rappler.

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