It’s an eternity when I have a notebook page full of doodles of my full name and signature.
A big yes. Honestly, I never thought I would even qualify since I did not graduate from UP nor did I graduate with latin honors. I did put a lot of effort in my review though.
According to the book ‘Grand Mannerisms’ published by the UP law for its centennial celebration, there is a 7% chance of passing the LAE. Unlike any other law schools, many students take the test nationwide so you have to work to be in the top 200 of the batch to secure a slot.
I think it worked in my favor that I just finished my CPA boards when I took the LAE. My mind is in tip-top shape in test taking. I have LSAT books I got from booksale and I practiced answering logic games. This is a tricky part of the test but once you get the hang of it, you’ll find it easy later on. You can also find online abstract reasoning quizzes. I read some tips bout this test since I think this is my weakest point. The reading comprehension and language part is nothing fancy. Same as college entrance tests but bit harder. There is a math part though and I was devastated because I can’t distinguish the difference and remember the names of triangles. Hahahaha. I enjoyed the GI part, it pays to be a well-rounded person. Also, read a lot. Last part is the psych test where I was asked to choose which shape I like best. Make sure that you are consistent with your answers because they tend to repeat their questions.
Read fast and answer as fast as you can. There are some parts I was not able to answer so I did shotgun method. :D If you can afford it, I suggest you enroll in a formal review for it helps in conditioning your mind. But nonetheless, you can pass without the help of one. LSAT books and online practice would suffice just as it did for me. Keep your eyes on the goal! You may check pex for more tips and prep techniques :)
I read your question again and what I said here doesn’t seem to be the answer you were looking for but just the same, I hope you were able to read between the lines :))
I realized I have fourteen office days left. After that, a few days of vacation and bang! I’m back to school.
I am excited and very rattled at the same time. I know all my life this is what I have been dreaming about and now the hodgepodge of feelings is getting in my nerves. I felt like I needed a well-deserved vacation first. A day in the spa, or a trip to post card perfect destinations to ease the tension but hey, ain’t nobody got money for that? My projected book expense is enough to push me to go on a forced diet (which is, like, hitting two birds with a stone).
Also, everybody in law school warned me to get a head start on Javellana vs Executive Secretary if I don’t want to be insulted come recitation time. As expected from a crammer, not a finger was lifted for this arduous task. I still like to sleep, eat and do nonsensical things before I take another step in the ladder of education.
Well that’s about it. This is my way of cleaning the cobwebs of my abandoned blog.
I am so bored today. Bored with work. Haha. Let’s make today interesting. Happy Holy tuesday! :)
Flame is not eternal. It is not self-existing, never self-perpetuating and obviously, not self-reliant. It needs something— something that will fan the ashes that was once flame back to a burning, passionate and consuming fire again. This then, explains the posts (and maybe the lack of it) and to a few, the apparent demise of this struggling blogger.
While I wrote those first few lines I was surprised that there is this certain feeling of relief or of fulfillment I experience whenever I crack the keyboard and convey my thoughts in a matter different from straight forward business-like. I thought blogging days will be over since I am currently busy earning my own bucks, seated on a swivel chair and doing the same boring banal procedures day in and day out.
It is in this opportune moment that I say to you that I just finished drafting my unofficial (because I have not tendered it to my superiors yet) and heartfelt resignation letter. A few would say that this is premature for a fresh out of the oven graduate, virtually inexperienced, and worse, helpless in the professional arena for the lack of anything heavy on the CV to boot. But as for me, this is a momentous milestone deserving of celebration. This is the time I turn my back on corporate opportunities and the ever ensnaring dazzle of saying I earn my own money with a smug face. This is when I gamble my promising present for an unsure future that has been the elusive dream of many but only a few had the nerve to fulfill. And I’m fervently hoping, praying and most of the time, begging, that I would become one of the few victorious.
I’m giving up the art of crunching numbers for my ultimate dream of becoming a lawyer.
Not that my current profession is inferior to what I am planning to pursue in the coming years, but that I regard it as my personal higher calling. It will always stay as the hollow part of me, something that will haunt me in my sleep, until I fill it.
For months I have been swimming in deep thought, thinking of my options, coming up with plans A, B, C, D, and who else would know with what letter I will end with. I am scared of not landing a slot in topnotch institutions I thought can only be the object of one’s greatest fantasy. But after some reflection, I realized that more than anything else I am just scared of being just stuck to where I am today.
Don’t get me wrong, my job is enjoyable albeit repetitive. I have formed strong ties with my workmates even with my bosses and have developed a sense of pride with my company. I just have not imagined myself doing this for the next decades, years, or even the coming more months. Even the extreme joy of the fifteenth of the month or the last day of the month will not suffice.
But right now, after the wildest of my dreams finally came true, after a day or two of felicitous walk in the moon, the weight of the burden I am now to carry sent me shooting straight back to Earth. I am scared, in fact, the most scared I’ve ever been in my life. I saw my grim half a decade walk through the road less travelled.
It is the overwhelming fact that I could be seated beside the next Senator, or Chief Justice, or President that doomed me to inferiority, thinking that the admissions committee could have made a serious blunder by accepting me. The thought that I will be one of those who will see, but not arrive at the destination rattled every inch of my being. In the simplest terms, I’m most likely the one who will see history in the making but never will be the history—I’m the one predisposed to be kicked out.
And then my inner Obi-Wan-Kenobi came to my rescue. Better a failure than the one who failed to try. Shoulda, woulda, coulda is more unthinkable than accepting the fact that I was never good enough. I could sing ♫♩ I did my best, but I guess my best wasn’t good enough ♪♬ after all this madness. I can find a deeper sense of purpose while I’m in there and probably I’ll be emotionally mature enough to accept defeat when it comes. And maybe, just maybe, after the me against the world drama, after the universe’s conspiracy against me, I might too, wear my Sablay and become a full-fledged lawyer.
“Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It’s knowing you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.” -Atticus Finch
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird put it well and clear for me. So yes, I am signing up for the battle. I will learn the law in the grand manner.
Of course! Don’t doubt yourself. Many MA students made it already. You can too! :)
Happiness is drawn from a single piece of pie. If you get too much of yours, others lose their share.
Hi thank you so much stranger! :)
Coming up with a decent blog entry if I have the time. But I have to say that I am extremely proud of UST. For now, cheers! All glory to God! :)
I wasn’t planning on doing this, knowing that I could have learned new concepts by the time stretch that I write this. And I don’t have a decent keyboard to begin with but anyway, I am doing it. I’m writing for the sake of documentation purposes, because someday I’d like to look back on this blog entry and see how much precious my feelings were before I finally made it to the roster of CPAs.
Today could have been the day that I will regret what I have done since the day I stepped into college. I should have finished that financial accounting book triple times over so that I can answer questions even with my eyes closed. Or the day I went to watch Maroon Five or saw a film instead of poring my eyes on thick handouts from my review center that I haven’t even finished and yes, that’s in a ‘matter-of-fact’ voice. But no, looking back, I know this would happen and I am ready to face the dire consequences. After all, I am a human, not a robot who can’t operate on an ideal capacity. Well, even robots don’t.
The pressure is through the roof for us, but I am glad that God has instilled peace in my heart, the only thing I will ever need for tomorrow and the three days coming. Some corner in my mind I believe I am ready for this, that I have seen worse back in my college years. But you know, when it’s your time to take the seat and shade some boxes, everything’s different. I like applying Murphy’s law to everything that can possibly happen.
I do not want to prolong this anymore, for I like to get some sleep now. To my loving friends on the internet, I hope for your fervent prayers.
To my family who has been there all the way, and to my friends, and to everybody who has helped me get here, thank you so much. And to the Lord God Almighty who only wants the best for me, I trust in Your will.
By GOD’s grace I claim, I will be a CPA on October 15, 2012. :)
Fast forward to October 15, 2012. I hope I can just sleep through this.
Hi there. This is too much, saying that I have been working my ass off really hard because I feel insufficient and inefficient every single time. But thanks for wishing me the best. I hope to say the same thing to you on specific terms, but for now, may you also excel in your endeavors. :)
Yeah, it’s the Michael Phelps serving. Didn’t finish the whole thing and I feel like I’m good for a week. Fun day with JPIA sibs (complete attendance, mind you), Fred and Ate Clarens. And it’s freeeeee! Courtesy of the rich yuppie Ate Clarens. Now I should consider applying at JP Morgan & Chase, thinking it’s easy for her to stash a couple of thousands to treat us for no reason at all. Or it must be love then? Now, back to regular programming, board exam in 33 days.
I must admit that I enjoy wondering when and where I will die, what will be the cause of it, and how it is going to happen. Am I the lone sadistic one? Apparently not, I’m not the only one who isn’t afraid of it anyway.
If the heavens would be so nice, I’d like to die of an inoperable disease, you know, the one where you know how much ticks you have left. If that happens, I will be given the chance to tie all the loose strings I have recklessly created all throughout my existence. That way, nobody’s going to complain that my life is such a bore that I didn’t even dare finish what I started. No one can claim that I haven’t fulfilled my promise yet, or I still owe them a couple of coins and I haven’t paid yet. Before I die I’ll make sure I’ll settle my outstanding accounts first (if there is any) because I don’t want to die and be in their memory forever just because of my unpaid debts. The last thing I would like to be smeared is my credit standing. Kidding.
The coolest part of it is that I can engage in deep thought on what should be my famous last words. Can’t go for the teary-eyed “Goodbye, I love you” because I don’t like to be mainstream. Another fun part is that I can plan my funeral —I can choose my casket, the dress I should wear, the songs they should play, and the pictures they should put in my tribute video. It will be better than planning for a birthday party, because this time I’m sure people will show up, come flood or high waters.
But I know that the most comfortable part of it is that I can have proper closure—say goodbye to my family, relatives, friends, and make ammends to those I have wronged. It would be very hard for them, for the most part, but thinking it over, it’s better than not having one at all.
But life doesn’t work that way. Death comes in an unexpected day in the most inconvenient time. He grabs you during sleep, or childbirth, or a good speech, or even on a plane on your way home to your family. As much as you’d like to tell him “Not today”, chances are, he won’t listen.
Today, I realized that the stakes are high that I too can die anytime soon. Like Sir Robredo, and like the lady in my review class, I am not invincible. Who knows? I could get run-over by an eighteen-wheeler truck on my way home.
For me, today’s message is to live life with love. Everyday could be my last and the ultimate things I would like to leave are acts of goodness and gentleness. And the hope that I would have a life well-lived by treating every single day as the last of it. Everyday should be an act of making peace with the world and with God. This day, I understood that now is more powerful than someday, because I might not live enough to make it there.
Let it be that what I do every present day be something I will be mightily proud of when it’s my time to look from the clouds.
Hi. I do not know who you are so I cannot decide which major suits you better based on your personality and/or skills. You should be asking Economics and Financial Management majors instead on the nitty gritty of their chosen paths but I do have some superficial knowledge on both majors since I took both subjects. As I understood it, Financial Management is studying more on financial structures. At what price should a stock be priced, how many bonds should a company issue, and at which investment should the company put its money on are some of the question it longs to answer. Economics, on the other hand is more on studying the market —its behavior and possible responses to changes in variables. Practicality wise, I cannot tell you which gives you a better edge when it comes to job hunting. But on a personal note, I find studying Economics more enjoyable since I find supply and demand more useful over WACC computations in FinMan.
