How To Take The Bar Exams: Preparing For the Review

photo: trcc.commnet.edu

By now, thousands of law grads are starting to buckle up for the review. It’s the same every year. Thousands line up at the gates of La Salle, hoping that they will become lawyers. No one really knows the exact formula on how to pass the bar but the Supreme Court is making efforts to make is less like a lottery.

Before I took the bar, I asked for tips from friends who have already taken it. Not tips as in leakage, no? Tips as in advice. Anyway, I am passing some of the tips as someone may find these useful.

Preparing For The Review

First, ascertain if you need to enroll in a review school or if you can just review on your own. Me, I NEEDED to enrol myself in a review class. One advantage of enrolling in a review class is that they issue you materials on things you may have missed during your school days. Plus, they give you updates on law and jurisprudence.

For working students, you need to decide if you are going to take time off from work for the review or you work and review at the same time. This could be tricky as you may need lots of time for the review. It is however, not impossible. I know of several friends who were working while they reviewed and they passed naman.

Next, determine if you will be staying at home or will go off someplace else. There were a lot of distractions at home and since I can’t study in a noisy place, I needed to go to some place quiet. I stayed in a dormitory with some friends who are also reviewing for the bar. Of course there are advantages and disadvantages in this. Staying home means less expenses, hot home cooked meals, and free laundry services. Meal time for us at the dorm then was hard because we either: go eat out, have Aristocart deliver food to us, or subsist on noodles, chichiria and biscuits. It was then that I discovered that isaw is also good as ulam (good times). Good thing that two of our friends would have family come over and visit on weekends, bringing lots of food (thanks ed and vince! I still remember those mouth watering siomai). One advantage in studying with friends is that you can pace each other and you can discuss points in the review.

Just before you start your review, draw up a calendar on how you are going to divide your time to the bar exam subjects. Take note that you need to review on eight different subjects: Constitutional law, Labor law, Civil law, Tax law, Criminal law, Commercial law, Remedial law and Legal Ethics. You determine how much time you need to devote per subject. Me, I made my schedule in such a way that I will go thru my books twice. Two weeks per subject starting April and on August, second reading na. Oh, and I made a list of the subjects I am medyo confident at (ehem!) and those I am less confident with. I started reading on the latter and finished with the former. You wouldn’t be able to exactly follow your schedule but at least you can see how you are progressing. Just take my advice on the calendar.