My iBook was supposed to have her birthday on Christmas 2010. She never made it to her 5th birthday as she crashed last night. As there is no Apple Store in the 2 cities nearby, I am left with no choice but to let her have her peaceful P54,000.00 death.
I named her Putong Puti because she was white (Puti) and because I wanted to be constantly reminded of my family through our business at home (food business, hence Puto) when I was in Cebu. When I enrolled in Law, I stuck a "LAWYER" sticker (that Kamais and I stole from National Bookstore) on Putong Puti so I'd get reminded of my aim every time I see Putong Puti, that I needed to be a lawyer.
I was not the type who used the laptop mainly for gaming and movie watching purposes. I had the desktop for that. Instead, I used her for school. Since first year law, I have painstakingly searched and downloaded reviewers, reviewers that no one at school seemed to have any interest of having. Instead of reading my textbooks, I relied on reviewers. I survived 3 years of school with good grades because of Putong Puti.
A few months ago, I decided to study for the Bar, instead of studying for my College professors. I started collating and editing reviewers from different schools so I'd have a set of edited notes that I planned on relying on for the review proper.
The other day, Tuesday, we had our Commercial Law Review midterm exam. Because I spent too much time online playing Bakery Life, I only studied for the exam a day before schedule. The exam covered Nego, Insu, and Corpo, and it was in MCQ format. Someone had already told me to buy the Sundiang's Commercial Law Reviewer because it contained most of what Atty Moslem covered in class. But because I had a fixed thought that I was to rely on school reviewers, I didn't buy the book and read my collated reviewers instead. When the exam came, it was pure RECALL-TYPE MCQ. 30 days. 180 days. 6 months. 1 year. 3 years. 5 years. I got them wrong. Valid. Void. Voidable. Recissible. Can be Ratified. Some of them I got wrong. I counted about 10 mistakes (the results are not out yet), and most of them involved numbers. In a 30-items 3-points each exam, 10 mistakes is more than death, it's murder to the highest level.
I honestly thought that the exam was going to cover cases, as illustrated in Abad's MCQ fact sheets, instead of MCQ that called for recall of numbers. ;( But I can only blame myself for not giving any attention to numbers. How could I have been so foolish as to assume what would come out in the exam? I gave myself the usual BAROPS, the misleading type. ;)
The night after the exam, I decided that if I would continue with the same study format that I was using, great chances were, I'd never have any chance of passing the Bar. Exam pa nga lang kay Atty. Moslem, bagsak na, how much more sa Bar. So I vowed to stop using reviewers from schools and to rely on the "requisite" reviewers instead.
See, the problem is, I have never read Jurado, the very basic reviewer that every law student should have read since first year. I never finished reading Miravite. I never read a page of Albano. Or Riano. How much more with Domondon. Or any other book reviewer. I consider myself the lone student who passed her subjects by not studying at all. ;) Since first year, I mainly relied on UP reviewers for coverage, memorized using Ateneo's reviewers, and studied ABQ using Silliman's arranged ABQ. I SURVIVED ON SHORTCUTS. No textbooks. No book reviewers. Since first year.
I would very much like to lecture incoming first years on the mistakes that law students should avoid. I certainly became a master of those mistakes after almost four years of practice.
The night after the exam, Tuesday night, when I decided to use book reviewers, I placed my collated notes in a box and planned on storing them for good. And then last night, Wednesday night, my laptop, Putong Puti, crashed, bringing with her to heaven, all my files of school reviewers.
Thinking about it now, I should not mourn her death too much. This could a blessing in disguise. Now that I cannot have access to those reviewers, I am left with no other choice but to rely on those uberthick book reviewers. I now have dates with Jurado, Miravite, Domondon, Riano, Sundiang and Villanueva (I've to buy pa), and the rest of the gang. With force and intimidation.
If there is one thing that the school reviewers helped me MUCH MUCH with, it is seeing the big picture of the law subjects. I am not a lover of objectives. I am a lover of case problems. I cannot memorize a single provision and retain it for a month. I understand the concepts instead. If it wasn't for the UP reviewer on Taxation, I'd never have understood a thing about Taxation because every book that I had on Tax focused on nosebleed definitions. But now that I have seen the bigger picture, it is time to focus on the details. Dates. Definitions. Latin Phrases. Et cetera.
As I am saying goodbye to my beloved iBook, I am thanking her for the blessed years that we shared together in shortcutting law school. Her death will be a great loss, as I never plan on using Macintosh ever again. Goodbye, Putong Puti. Thank you.
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How I made a shortcut of law school:
1. I have never read a Labor Law textbook. Not even the very basic Azucena pair.
2. In Civil Law, the only textbooks that I finished reading were on Persons and Family Relations, Property and Succession (because I liked Atty. Calala and Atty. Mamowalas that much). I have never read any textbook on any other Civil Law subject.
3. In Political Law, I have only read Cruz' Political Law, Constitutional Law and Public International Law textbooks. No textbook read in any other Poli Subject.
4. In Remedial Law, I was able to finish 4 textbooks in Evidence - 3 Francisco and 1 Riano - (because I wanted to excel in the eyes of Atty. Magi, my love). I mechanically went through Atty. Gubat's Criminal Procedure textbook. None read for Civil Procedure.
5. In Commercial Law, I have read De Leon's textbooks, and other than those, none.
6. In Taxation, I have read a few chapters of Aban's Basic Tax for Atty. Muti's Tax 1, and no other textbook.
7. In Criminal Law, I have read Reyes' Book 1 only.
8. In Legal Ethics and Practical Exercises, no textbook read.
- I have not read any textbook reviewer except Miravite and Nachura (never finished both)
- I walked in the halls of the College for almost four years thinking I could survive on shortcuts. Now that it's only months before graduation, I'm singing... it's too late to apologize... it's too late..