The Bar examination is no doubt
the hardest licensure exam in the Philippines. There is no shortcut in taking
the bar and to earn the prestigious title of an attorney or a lawyer. It feels
like getting the ATTY. before your name is like finding a needle on a haystack
with different kinds of adversaries you need to overcome along the way. One has
to be prepared emotionally, intellectually, physically, financially and yes
spiritually, where you need to recite many novenas and personal prayers
especially when you find yourself mentally drained and too wasted due to lack
of sleep, stress and tension combined. I truly understand how a barrister feels
during the bar review. Been through some of them and I manage to find some
solutions to get over it. I have to share them for the sake of helping others
who might go through the same ordeal, although I must say every person is
unique and each has his own coping mechanism.
Problem: When time is a foe
With the loads of the review
materials that one has to study every day, one can literally go crazy if you
are unable to learn how to balance everything. You will feel 24 hours are not
enough to finish your coverage and there are times you spend the day worrying
too much for not having enough time to finish your target coverage for the day
and will realize the day ended without you accomplishing anything. That is so
frustrating since every minute counts during the review period. You need to
study eight subjects (Political Law, Labor Law, Civil Law, Taxation Law,
Commercial Law, Criminal Law, Remedial Law and Legal and Judicial Ethics). Take
note that each subject has its own sub-subjects (too many to enumerate) plus
you need to study outside the book for jurisprudence (decided cases of the
Supreme Court) and other special laws, which are all included in the coverage
of the bar exam. Seriously, six months of review for the bar exam after you
graduate from law school is certainly not enough and you have no luxury of time
to waste.
Solutions:
1.
Decide
whether to enroll or not to enroll in a review center early
Understand that after you
graduate you need to begin your review the soonest time possible. If you plan
of enrolling to a review center, it is best to make inquiries from different
review centers as early as February. It is effective to ask from the other bar
passers which review center they can recommend and ask for the review center’s styles
of teaching. Compare the schedules available for the review. Most convenient is
checking the websites of the review centers (almost all have their own websites).
Consider the place where you will stay and the travel time it takes in coming
back and forth to the review center.
You need to consider your budget,
too. Just a piece of advice, you need not go to the most expensive review
center to get assurance that you will pass. Going to a review center is
necessary, especially when you are a first taker, except of course if you are too
confident that you can overcome the bar with flying colors on your own by self
study. This is always a matter of preference and knowing your abilities and
weaknesses. But seriously review centers are helpful in providing you the
guidance on identifying the bar areas to focus on during the review for each
subject. They are also the convenient source in obtaining the most recent
jurisprudence that are significant for the bar exam.
Online review is also convenient.
You need not rush to attend the schedule provided by the review center and you
cut down the travel time in going there. You get to view video lectures at your
own convenient time and it’s like a one-one-one lecture as you watch the lecturer’s
recorded video that you can repeat on watching over again (you can rewind,
forward and pause as you take notes). You can also select video lectures by
topics, too and there is usually more than one lecturer available for each
subject so you get to choose which of them explains the topic better for your
level of comprehension.
2.
Organize
your own schedule
Organizing your own schedule can
be a bit tricky especially when you are attending a review center. To avoid
conflict, it is best to sync your own review schedule according to the schedule
provided by your review center. There are different ways to make your own
schedule. I find Atty. Ma. Tanya Karina Lat’s Bar Blues book very helpful in organizing my review schedule per
subject. It includes the different schedules used by past Bar topnotchers and
you get to choose which style you find best for your circumstances. I opted to
study per subject and divided the total number of days before the bar month for
each subject while giving more days to review for the subjects I find the most
difficult.
3.
Invest
in quality than quantity
Because you are likely to be time
constraint during the review period you must invest in quality reading. I
conditioned my mind that during my readings I will no longer have the luxury of
time to go back and read the material again. So I really focus each time I read
to ensure that everything is registered in my brain memory. If you feel sleepy,
don’t force it. Take a nap and once your brain is refreshed, everything flows
smoothly again.
4.
Choose
review materials with scrutiny
Do not hoard review materials. It
is best to scan through the pages of the review materials available for you and
compare which presentation is easy to understand. Remember, the law will always
be the same regardless of the review materials that you will use. Hence, you
should scrutinize the presentation of the material and determine which is
easier to comprehend. It is best to select one review material only and master
it. There are three areas that I consider a must from a review material. One is
a general reviewer (I highly recommend San Beda’s Red Book which is
comprehensive, accurate and concise), latest jurisprudence (the best
ones are provided by the review center as you will not have the luxury of time reading
all of the Supreme Court’s decided cases), and law doctrines and principles (I
find Lex Pareto the best). If you cover these areas you will certainly have
enough to answer for the bar questions.
On the side note: Make sure to start studying on your first year in
law school. You will not have enough time to read your textbooks again during
the review period. Your pacing is faster while studying the reviewers if you
have enough foundation during your school years.
Problem: Mental blackout, emotional turfs and stress
Mental blackout is too common,
especially when you are too stressed out and mentally drained. At some point
during your review you should expect to experience this anytime. It is very common
to find yourself reading the book and after going over through several pages
you feel frustrated that none have registered to your memory. The bar review can
also be emotionally challenging. It is common to feel a mixed emotion at the
end of the day, especially when you feel tired, frustrated for not
understanding a difficult topic, missing your loved ones, not getting enough
sleep, missed a meal, losing self confidence, worrying too much, etc.. This
stage of the review is made worse when you review alone or live in a place
where you have no one else to talk to. Tension can also build up and
misunderstanding among the reviewees happens. It is either you are involved in
the fight or you find yourself trying to arbitrate in between.
Solutions:
1.
Do
not go overboard - Know your limits
Mental blackout happens when your
brain is too tired and it is a sign of mental distress. This is actually a good
thing, just like stress, as it warns us that we are probably taking our body
beyond its limits. Once you experience mental stress it is best to give your
brain a rest. Sleep is the best cure for mental stress. It allows the brain
cells to recuperate. Break your monotonous routine of reading for long hours.
Take a short break, eat something to re-energize, stretch, go shopping, watch a
movie or visit a friend. Be careful not to get too carried away when doing
this. You need to get back to your review as soon as possible.
2.
Make
yourself physically and mentally fit
My favorite cures for mental
stress are sleep (I take at least an hour nap during the day) and watching my
favorite series that I download on my laptop (which usually take only 45
minutes than watching a movie that takes at least 2 hours to finish). I also
exercise at least an hour everyday by attending a Zumba class (this is the
beauty of attending an online review – I am in control of my schedule) and as
the bar month nears I do the dancing inside my room in a dorm only (since I
have to attend special review classes as the bar exam nears – mainly to update
myself of the latest jurisprudence). My fitness goal is to sweat out and keep
my circulation going. This brings more oxygen to my brain that enhances my
mental alertness and physical fitness after long hours of sitting and hundreds
of pages to read every day. Make yourself resourceful. You can always find an
alternative activity that will make you physically active in between your
review.
3.
Avoid
conflicts and maintain good social relationship
Relationship strains can be a
source of major stress during your review. Conflicts with friends, family
members and your partner should be avoided. You will be surprised how this can
actually cause you emotional and mental burden during your review. You will
likely be distracted, confused and out of focus. It is best to isolate yourself
from people with personal issues to avoid getting tangled with their problems. You
already have enough of your own to hurdle for the bar exam. Dismiss the distraction
and enclose yourself to your own world where your focus is how to pass the bar.
However, you need friends for support so it is best to maintain a good social
relationship with others, especially your fellow barristers. You can share
notes together and uplift each other’s spirits, laugh out the stress and keep
each other sane and strong.
Problem: Getting sick and getting behind your schedule
It is inevitable that at some
point during the bar review you will get sick. A good advice is learning how to
do everything in moderation to avoid overstressing yourself to the point of
getting sick. It is important to strengthen your immune system because getting sick
is a mortal sin among the barristers. Among the repercussions of getting sick
is getting behind your review schedule and honestly there is nothing you can do
about it while you are not in a healthy state – so focus on getting well!
Solutions:
1.
Do
not despair and panic
Once you are sick, then you are
sick. You cannot force yourself to study. Your main focus is to get well soon
enough. Once you are well, try to compensate for the lost time by adjusting
your schedule to cope. It may sometimes take sacrificing the nap that you often
do or adding another couple of hours a day for your study hours or skipping
your movie time. Do not panic and do your study routines as scheduled. Do not
spend precious time for worrying.
2.
Keep yourself
healthy
Take vitamin C and supplements to
make you strong against stress and sickness. Lack of sleep and stress are your
greatest foes that can make you fragile and susceptible to sickness (cough and
flu are the most common sickness among barristers). Always hydrate yourself and
eat healthy foods. A healthy diet and exercise are essential during this most
challenging time of your life. As much as possible stay away from sick people
and observe proper hygiene to ensure that your body is in optimized condition
in overcoming stress.
Problem: How to answer the bar exam
Every year the number of bar
takers is increasing. The implication of this is that the examiners will only
have shorter time to read and appreciate your answer. What you need to do is
make your answer COMPLETE, CONCISE, AND WITH LEGAL BASIS. It is indeed very
challenging when you need to be focus on your handwriting, make a mental margin
on your test booklet, analyze the question and formulate your answer and
writing it down without erasure all about the same time.
Solutions:
1.
Eliminate
the three paragraph rule
Our professors (and even some
review center lecturers) may have taught us how to answer bar questions using
the three paragraph rule, but with all due respect I find this no longer
practical or viable in the present bar exams. Answering in a single paragraph
consisting of 5 sentences at the maximum is probably more effective (which is
the style of answering I did after realizing that answering in 3 paragraphs is
disastrous). Based on the calculations of a respectable Dean – bar lecturer,
with about 7,000 plus bar examinees, a bar examiner has only about 2 minutes to
read per test booklet to finish on time within the 6 months period of checking.
With about at least 20 essay questions with additional sub-questions on each
number, the 2 minutes time frame will not give the examiner the luxury of time
reading a litany of answers from the test booklet.
2.
Answering
in one to two paragraph
Not all questions can be answered
in a single paragraph only. Make sure to exercise good judgment when to answer
in one paragraph or two since a single question usually has a main question and
a follow-up question at the end. You need to address all questions to satisfy
the examiner. Structure your answer in such as way that it is supported with a
legal basis. This is a must and cannot be dispensed with. One paragraph with
four to five sentences is enough. This is sufficient enough to give a concise
and complete answer but the difficult part is learning how to do it.
This is not an expert advice but
one that perfectly works well: Use the first sentence in answering the question
(ex: X is not liable for murder). Use the second, third and fourth sentence to
indicate the circumstances that make you dispute or agree with legal basis (ex:
The act of X does not involve the commission of any of the aggravating
circumstances as required by the Revise Penal Code.) The last paragraph should
be the conclusion (ex: In the absence of aggravating circumstances, X is
therefore only liable for the crime of homicide). While this looks simple as it
seems, this kind of answering works well in criminal law where you only need to
know the elements to know what crime is committed. I usually attack the
question by citing the elements (an examiner cannot question that since it is
provided in the law) and most of my answers in criminal law were only 3-4
sentences and I still pass. I answered in one paragraph in other subjects with
two paragraphs max occasionally.
I humble myself that I may be
wrong, but I feel strongly about this type of answering as more practical and
doing the examiners the favor of giving an outright answer (that is concise and
with legal basis). It does works and I passed the bar even if I departed from
the traditional three paragraph rule.
3.
Strategize
in framing your answer
This part is actually tricky and
I must admit one really needs to have a good command in English to get through.
You need to learn writing in direct and concise manner. Eliminate fillers, such
as words that are not really necessary to include in the sentence to keep it
short. To make your answer complete and essential use keywords that the
examiner will likely look for when checking your answer. I usually write these keywords
from the questionnaire and focus my answer towards them. It takes a lot of
practice and getting used to this style of writing that you learn the trick of
making your answer short. Grammar and good command in English is a must for
lawyers so if you think this an area of weakness, you need to spend the extra
effort to improve. A good trick is to answer the question by considering the
elements of the crime/offense. You will never go wrong with this and you need
not think out of the box.
Prayer helps you overcome all obstacles
Above all the strategies given
above, prayer is the best weapon that can help you hurdle the bar exam. Prayer
can make miracles happen. It can move mountains and most of all it can bring
divine intervention so you’ll have everything you need to pass the bar. You
need to couple it with diligence in studying, of course. As the adage goes “nasa
Diyos and awa, nasa tao ang gawa.” Make God your partner in every difficulty
and struggle you experience. He will help lighten the burden of taking the bar
exam and will provide you what you need to make it through. Hope. Trust. Have
Faith. Do your part and leave the rest to God.
