DURING NOVEMBER AND THE BAR EXAM

ATTEND OR LISTEN TO PRE-WEEK LECTURES. Pre-week lectures are important. This is where
experienced pre-week lecturers condense or synthesize the law and concentrate on the topics or areas
which are most likely to be asked in the bar examination. A law graduate does not have the degree of
knowledge of the bar subject and the intuitive feel for what are the important topics and probable bar
exam questions which an experienced bar review lecturer has. A bar reviewee who forgoes entirely the
pre-week lectures would be missing out on a vital area of bar exam preparation.

AVOID UNNECESSARY STRESS AND DISTRACTIONS. Some stress and nerves is unavoidable during the
review and exam week and in fact helps to drive you harder in your studies. However undue and
excessive stress and nerves is an enemy of the bar examinee as it results in lack of sleep and hinders
proper thinking both while studying and taking the exam itself. If you feel that you are unduly stressed
or worried, learn relaxation techniques like yoga and deep breathing. Prayer and meditation are
powerful relaxation techniques.

Ignore useless distractions. Usually rumors of who the examiner is become widespread during this time
and examinees worry themselves silly with the type of questions the rumored examiner usually asks and
with obtaining notes and materials written by or about the rumored examiner. This is just a useless
exercise which would distract you from doing what should be done: studying. All examiners are in the
main bound by an unwritten law that their questions should be on the basics of the law and on
significant jurisprudence. So just ignore rumors or information on the examiner’s identity and stick your
nose to your review materials.

The bar exam month features the annual frenetic paper chase by bar examinees. Examinees go on a
quest for the Holy Grail of the bar exams: the red or blue notes from San Beda or Ateneo or the UP
notes. These notes are supposed to embody the answers or even “leaks” of bar exam questions. This is
balderdash. I graduated from Ateneo and worked in the bar-ops. I know that the so-called blue notes
are simply compilations of probable bar questions with answers prepared by law students with a little
assistance from the faculty. While they are definitely helpful, you don’t have to wail and grind your
teeth if you do not get them. What is contained in the blue notes is more often than not also in your
bar reviewers and review materials.

One examinee I knew spent a lot more time looking for notes, tips, and leaks and compiling dossiers on
the rumored examiners rather than actually studying. He failed the bar five times and is now exploring
career opportunities with the CIA.

This 2018 Bar, the barrister finds himself faced with a dazzling and dizzying array of bar review materials
and lectures, such as “Last Minute Lectures,” “Chair’s Ponencias,” “Fearless Forecasts,” “Crucial Areas,”
etc. The barrister should be selective in choosing which of these lectures and materials to attend and
use. Otherwise he or she may learn the hard way of the Law of Diminishing Returns. My advice is that
the bar reviewee should stick to the lectures and materials provided by his or her bar review center.
GET ENOUGH SLEEP ON THE NIGHT BEFORE THE EXAM. This advice cannot be overemphasized.
Adequate sleep makes the mind sharper and allows us to recall what we have studied with facility. So
do not make the mistake of studying until the witching hour. The extra hours of study is not worth it if
you find yourself sleepy and thinking sluggishly during the bar exam.

You should hit the sack by 9 p.m. Do not panic if you find that you are unable to sleep. Just relax and
continue lying down in bed, at least your body will be rested. But do not make the mistake of standing
up and studying. In that case you will lack both sleep and rest, and the chances of a disaster are
multiplied threefold. Ron de Vera slept for only an hour the night before the first Sunday exam and for
only 30 minutes the night before the second Sunday exam of 2004. He placed second. (Lat et al., Bar
Blues, p. 85). Of course I’m not saying that you get only an hour’s sleep if you want to place in the top
ten, what I’m saying is that there is no need for you to call 911 if you find yourself unable to fall into the
arms of Morpheus.

I advise against taking sleeping pills. They often have the side effect of muddling up your thinking.
There was an examinee who, finding himself unable to sleep the night before the Civil Law exam, popped
a sleeping pill. He was able to sleep all right, but the next day he found himself unable to distinguish
between loco parentis and crazy momma.

REMEMBER TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS. Before you start reading and answering the questions, take the
time to first read and understand the instructions. Quite a lot of examinees in their eagerness go straight
to reading and answering the questions without bothering to read the instructions. This could be
disastrous.

NEVER LEAVE ANY QUESTION UNANSWERED. Even if you are clueless as to the answer to a question,
give it your best try. Never leave any question unanswered. The examiner may feel slighted if you do
not answer a question. He may think that you felt that the question was not properly crafted that is why
did not answer it. Moreover a blank response will get you zero while giving it your best shot could net
you 2 or 3 points which could spell the difference between flunking and passing.

MANAGE YOUR TIME WISELY. Many examinees spend too much time on the first part of the exam only
to find themselves rushing through the second part or worse running out of time and leaving some
questions unanswered. Learn to pace yourself properly. Taking mock bar exams will help you learn
how to pace yourself in an 18-to-20 question examination. Aim to answer at least ½ of the total items
plus 1 by the halfway mark. Thus if the exam is from 8 am to 12 noon with 20 items, aim to answer at
least 11 items by 10 a.m.

DO NOT BE FLUSTERED BY “SHOCK AND AWE” QUESTIONS. Those who took the 1991 Bar Examination
(like me) will never forget the infamous first question in Political Law: “What is the Writ of Amparo?
Discuss its constitutional basis.” Considering that the only Amparo we knew of was Amparo Muñoz
(the 1974 Miss Universe who won her title in Manila, if you’re a Millennial), the question had the effect
of a sneak punch to the solar plexus. I can still picture in my mind the bar exam room at MLQU, with
everyone’s jaw plunging to the floor in utter shock.
Of course, now every law student knows what a writ of amparo is, but back then in 1991 B.G. (before
Google), only a law student or law professor who had travelled to Latin America could have known of
this most extraordinary writ.

Other “shock and awe” questions include one which asked who the current president of the
International Court of Justice was, one which asked for the meaning of the acronym ACID (from a speech
of Chief Justice Artemio V. Panganiban), and another which asked the examinee to define the Denicola
test in intellectual property law.

“Shock and awe” questions were trending in the 2015 Bar. In Political Law, bar examinees were asked to
discuss the “evolution” of jus sanguinis under the 1935, 1973, and 1987 Constitutions. In Labor Law, the
word of the day was “equity of the incumbent,” an anachronism whose term of office had long ago
expired. In Civil Law, they were asked to define “depecage.” In Commercial Law, the shock-and-awe
word to define was “Jason Clause.” In Remedial Law, the examinees were confronted with the common-
law terms, “larceny” and “voir dire.” It did not help any that “larceny” was used in a fact-setting which
did not involve any unlawful taking of property but rather violence and sexual abuse, while “voir dire” is
a term that a Filipino lawyer would be unfamiliar with unless he is an aficionado of American jury trials.

The examiners’ penchant for throwing screwball questions put the bar examinees in a serious funk.
Many spent quite a bit of time accumulating a glossary of legal gobbledygook in the various bar exam
subjects instead of studying the fundamentals and important jurisprudence. I even heard a story
(probably apocryphal) that a law school engaged a lexicographer to beef up its bar ops.

This brought back memories of the 1991 bar examination. After the examinees were torched by the
Amparo question in political law, the succeeding preweek reviews were turned into a Gobbledygook
chase. The fad back then was the M&A (mergers & acquisitions) craze in Wall Street (remember
Michael Milkin and Ivan Boesky with his infamous “Greed is Good” mantra). In the mercantile law
preweek, we parroted terms like “hostile take-over,” “leveraged buy-out,” “white knight,” “junk bonds,”
and a plethora of other investment-bank junk rather, jargon. I think this was partly to blame for the
dismal pass rate of 17.81%. An examinee who flunked the bar “leveraged” his experience to apply for
and land a job in the M&A department of a leading investment bank.

My advice is that a bar candidate should not spend precious time burning the midnight oil with Black’s
Law Dictionary. A cost-benefit analysis would lead one to conclude that time spent on looking for and
even studying obscure legal nomenclature would only result in dividends that are well, de minimis.
Better to just study the basic legal principles and significant jurisprudence and encounter legal terms in
the course of such study.

Moreover, screwball questions are not really expected to be answered correctly by the majority of the
examinees (and even law professors) but are meant more to test the resolve and fortitude of one who
aspires to be a lawyer. Do not panic or lose hope if you do not know the answer to the question. Just
give it your best try and proceed to the other questions.

AFTER THE EXAM

DO NOT DISCUSS THE ANSWERS TO THE QUESTIONS. After you have taken a bar exam in a particular
subject, forget about it and concentrate on preparing and studying for the next bar exam subject. After
all you cannot undo what you have already written. Avoid discussing the probable answers and avoid
people who delight in discussing them. The time spent on arguing and discussing the probable answers
is better spent relaxing and preparing for the next exam.

Excerpted from “Advice to the Bar Examinee (2017 ed.)” at

https://juristsbar.com.ph/index.php/news/201-advice-for-the-bar-examinee-2017-ed