Creating my schedule always feels a bit like a puzzle, and a bit like a guessing game. First, I consider my other obligations—work, clinic, organizations, personal life—so I can look at how much time and energy I will be spending outside of class. Second, I look at how much potential work the class will have—is it a paper class? Is it a Bar class? How much reading will there be? To do this, I talk to friends who have taken the course already. But the amount of work a class takes me, might be different than my friends.

Additionally, I have a concentration—International Criminal and Human Rights Law—so it guides my class choices a little more than some of my friends who do not have a concentration. Beyond the general requirements that all law students must complete before graduation, I have additional course requirements to complete to round out my education within the concentration.

I chose my concentration because I came to law school with a pretty good idea of what kind of law I wanted to practice, and this has not changed after two and a half years of law school. This way, I get to take classes that have to do with my chosen field.

While my concentration guides my schedule a little, it does not fill all of my credits. With my remaining classes, I take classes that cover popularly tested bar topics, classes that sound interesting, and classes that I will wish I had taken upon graduation. It is easy to fill my schedule and be busy with classes, extracurriculars, and things I love to do.

As a 1L, I was unsure of what to expect from my first set of law school final exams. I studied for several weeks and made sure I understood the major concepts from each of my classes. I left each exam satisfied that I did my best to put down my thoughts in a clear and succinct way. However, I knew that if I wanted to improve and feel more confident, I would need to make some changes. After receiving my grades, I have now updated my study process to ensure I am more prepared for each of my exams. This semester, I would like to implement my new plan in order to get even better grades on my exams at the end of the term, which includes giving myself more study breaks and prioritizing my mental health. Additionally, I plan to use various techniques – such as handwriting outlines and study guides or going over class notes – to ensure I have grasped the information from each class.p

I spent winter break resting, clearing my environment and mind, and spending time with friends and family. I visited local places such as the LA Zoo Lights and Universal Studios.

I also worked on planning a trip for June, giving me something to look forward to this summer. I tried several new cafes and restaurants around the LA area. Though I did not allocate much time to law school itself, I found winter break was a much needed pause from the semester and left me refreshed to return this spring. I look forward to seeing what the future brings and have promised myself to work even harder to earn good grades.

Law school exams are hard, and they were just as hard this time around—as expected lol. I’ve come to realize just how important study groups can be during exam season. It’s always nice to have a couple of classmates to be able to bounce ideas off of and work on practice problems together.   

After exams were over, I spent my winter break visiting Northern California and catching up with friends/family. Breaks are great opportunities to slow down and unwind for a bit.   

Most notably, I was able to visit Hearst Castle, located about four hours North of Los Angeles. I love paintings, and the castle (once a home to the Hearst Family) is full of works from Egypt, Greece, and Rome. A great place to visit!   

As a 3L, with the Bar Exam right around the corner, I also took the opportunity to do some light (emphasis on light) review of outlines, flashcards, etc.   

I am still in disbelief that law school is almost over, one more semester to go!  

Happy New Semester!

After a month-long break from school, coming back to campus is so invigorating! Especially, when coming back to a schedule filled with subjects I’m very excited to learn about – something you can easily do at Loyola!

My Fall 2023 semester was very demanding, pushing me more than any other. I tend to focus on practical and lecture classes, making both the exam season and the preceding period, filled with papers and presentations, quite nerve-wracking. I had a tough Criminal Law exam, but overall, I am very happy with my grades and how much I have improved after my last semester.

During my winter break, I travelled back to Brazil to spend a month with my family. It was amazing and I had so much fun! We had a family trip to the northeast of Brazil, where you can find beautiful beaches. This was the best beach I’ve been to: warm and not-so salty waters.  I highly recommend it!

 

 

This is a picture of a very famous tourist place in Downtown of Porto de Galinhas, Pernambuco and our hotel at Cupe Beach.

The quality time I shared with my family was such a gift. This was the first real break I gave myself after starting Law School. I took time off from all activities – a TRUE vacation. I steered clear of law-related activities, focusing only on planning my calendar and organizing my weekly study schedule.

Having down time and a mental break from all demands of Law School/Bar Prep made a lot of difference. This true vacation, a blend of relaxation and family time, has not only recharged me but also given me a renewed zeal to embrace the challenges of law school. I feel ready to conquer this new semester!

 

Taking an informal poll of my peers, I found that the first year class has mixed feelings about the length of winter break. While many said “it wasn’t nearly long enough,” others shared they were ready to come back and start the “law school routine” again. I think I fall somewhere in the middle.

 

In the days after the final winter exam, I slept, and slept hard. Then, I cleaned. It felt glorious. I felt a little bit of the holiday rush, having completed no shopping before exams ended, but overall, I shared my exhaustion with my family and they understood. In the final two weeks of break, I started writing an article for the Sports Law Association about the NFL’s Arbitration Clause and immersed myself in the hunt for a summer internship. Let me take a moment to applaud the Career Development team at Loyola Law School- they are incredible. As an older student out of practice with resumes and interviews, my counselor answered every email I sent promptly and with excellent guidance. For most of us first year students, this time is exciting, anxiety-inducing, and uncertain. It is exciting to consider the range of possibilities of applying our knowledge to real-life legal situations, and of course, we are anxious without knowing for certain where and with whom we will work.

 

If I had one recommendation for first year students over break, it would be to rest your mind. It felt great to perform contemplative practices like cleaning and exercising. I am also glad I took time to consider what kind of internship I want to try this summer and recognized I will have multiple opportunities to apply what I learn.

Welcome back Loyola! I love the start of new years and new semesters because it feels like an opportunity to reset and start anew. This is especially so if you’ve had an unwelcome experience with exams. Exam season is always stressful, whether you’re a 1L, 2L, or 3L. You never really know if you’ve studied enough, and curved exams can be your friend or your enemy. This past fall semester, I had two exams to worry about: Business Associations and Law of War. Both terrified me for different reasons. No matter how much I studied, Business Associations felt extremely difficult to master and had a vast amount of information to remember. I studied for about five hours for five days straight and with each passing hour I felt even more unsure of how much information I could retain. In times of crisis, I like to vent and get advice from friends, and in this case I reached out to a friend who had taken the course in the past with the same professor. She told me that I should not worry so heavily and that the professor’s exam was fair. This alleviated some tension for me and in the end she was right! The exam was difficult in some ways but in others it was fair and covered exactly what the professor had discussed.

 

Law of War on the other hand was troublesome because it was a take-home exam and I had no idea what to expect. While I did study I did not feel the need to overstudy because I would have access to my notes. This exam turned out to be the opposite of what I had expected. The professor had informed us it would be about two hours and we would have eight total hours to complete. I ended up taking six hours. Granted, I spent some time going over the material but nevertheless I was amazed at how long it had taken me to respond to the questions. Ultimately with exams you do the best you can with what you have. Sometimes you have a week to study, and other times a few days. No matter the situation, it’s important to focus on doing what you can do and not comparing your study methods, or grades to others.

 

The best part about finish exam season is getting to take a break! This winter break I was able to spend time with the people that I care about and take small trips to Nevada and Yosemite. Nothing compares to reconnecting with your life after focusing on school for months!

I’ve been bilingual for most of my life, having learned English and Tagalog as a child, and learned Spanish as a teenager. And if you ask me, law school feels very much like beginning a new foreign language from scratch at the age of 23, in a remarkably competitive environment.

 

It rewires the way you think slowly and somewhat subtly, and this transformation becomes more apparent when I visit home and am not always surrounded by my fellow law students or others in the legal profession.

 

The random ‘legalese’, the way my brain analyses things different immediately, how much more attentive I am while reading fiction because of months of reading casebooks; two and a half years later, I notice just how much my mind has adapted to the intensive study of law school.

 

Being able to go visit my home country this past winter break – one more time before I embark on my final semester and take the bar – was a worthwhile refresher on why I began law school to begin with, and also helped re-immerse myself in the other languages that faded away after months of learning the language of law school.

 

I wish I could talk to my 1L self now and tell her not to be so stressed about how fluent everyone else seems.

 

I think she’d be content to find out that the language of law school that seemed so intimidating in that moment, she would eventually learn to better comprehend and use with time and repetition, just like she learned the other three languages in her arsenal.

I spend a lot of winter break resting and doing things that fell by the wayside during the semester—cleaning, reading books, spending time with my family, walking to favorite coffee shops, seeing friends, and just doing nothing.

 

My free time in law school is incredibly valuable to me. And my free time has become more important to me the busier law school gets. Law school reminds you how wonderful the simple things are. Spending a morning reading a book may sound boring to some, but—once you’ve studied for days on end for a five-hour final—it’s heaven.

 

Also, my family and friends are used to me going a bit silent in our group chats and on the phone during the semester, and especially during finals. During break, I can actually spend time with them—going to lunch with my grandparents, walking the dog with my sister, grabbing drinks and dinner with my friends, talking to my parents on the phone. This is rejuvenating and important time for me to remind myself that I’m a person—not just a student.

 

When talking to my friends, they do similar things that rejuvenate and refresh them. Everyone is different. To some people, my version of winter break might sound so boring and like a waste of my free time. To others, it may sound great! Everyone has to do what works for them in law school because we are all working very hard and deserve to spend time doing what brings us joy. That way, when the spring semester starts, we’re ready to dig back in and get back to work.