My Own Two Cents To Passing The Bar Exams… In Three Days.

Who would prepare for the bar exams for just three days?

I would agree to anyone saying five years, to include the four years in law school, would be a fair bet. But right now, that’s not going to help. If you’re taking the 2012 bar exams and reading this, you only have three days left to prepare, so sober up and steel your nerves.

 Take Stock Of Your Guns. 

When you’re fighting your biggest battle in three days, you had better know what you have in your arsenal to strategize your assaults with.

How’s your knowledge of the Codal provisions of the law?

I know by now you would have clearly understood the importance of knowing the nuances of the Codal provisions, or if you’ve been playing it down, go over them: phrases like motu proprio; on motion; with prejudice, etc.etc.

How’s your handwriting skills?

It covers not only your penmanship (legibility), but includes the ease by which you do it, or your comfort level doing it. I say this because I remember I did not pay so much attention to it: I thought I wrote fairly legibly.

I realized there’s more to what you think when you factor in the tension of “the moment.” I labored to scribble my memorandum and legal opinion with frozen, frigid, and stiff hand so bad I wrote by strokes of the hand, instead of by the wrist.

So psyche yourself up to that moment and write to settle your nerves.

How’s your health?

The bar exam demands a triple A bill of health. Convinced? You better be, for the simple reason that anything that goes wrong with your health will inevitably affect your chances, your performance if your gunning for the top post. You can Google how to physically and emotionally prepare for a strenuous exam like the bar exam that suits your lifestyle and personality. There’s NO one-size-fits-all approach to this.

Certainly, a sedentary dude would require a different exercise regimen from a sport buff.  Remember, you can’t drive a square peg into a round hole. If your stubborn gung-ho little brother inside you would want to dare challenge this, for goodness’ sake, not this time.

How’s your English; your language skill?

Even with MCQ made part of the bar exam, there’s still a sizable percentage left to essay type, for a good and understandable reason. Surely, this one, just like the first, should have been made part of 75% of your preparation.

Stick to the experts’ advice of keeping it concise, not sinuous or winding, but DIRECT to the point. Be considerate to the examiners going through thousands of test papers, so your verbiage will likely punish you. 

This time, BREVITY & SUBSTANCE is the name of the game.

Deal With Your Demons.

Having assessed your readiness or lack of it, it’s time to draw up a fight plan. Most of it has to do with dealing with your demons.

Most if not all of the demons you have to deal with are those of the above in which you feel seriously wanting.

This time though, practical approach will deliver results than any of those written grand winded protocols to beating or slaying the bar. There’s no time for it.

What you have is what you go with!

If you're enrolled in a review, you might want to listen intently to the reviewers: there's a reason they're paid, they have the craft and experience. Overtime, they have developed a cunning knack at predicting what figures in the bar exams. 

No matter what happens, the odds of you preparing for the right questions are decently in your favor when you trust what these sage men & women say.

I want to add, to square off with the right questions, you have to understand the objective of the bar exams: to prepare a would-be lawyer in his first year of practice. Certainly, a tyro lawyer would not be entrusted with a complex merger and acquisition case. So keep your head on the surface, that's where the fish are likely to hover.

Take note of the keywords to aid the inherent handicap in everyone's memory. Endeavor to understand the provisions than memorize. When you memorize, you answer to a specifically framed question that it's difficult to fit the answer to the same-substance but rephrased question. When you understand the provision, you recognize the question in any form it may take, so you apply the right answer.

First things first. Focus on the subjects as they come in order. Political Law and Labor should be your cup of tea this week, and so forth and so on.

Embrace your English proficiency no matter how bad it is. The point is: Don't make issues against yourself. Keep your sentences short and active-voiced (subject-verb combination) for easy understanding. Mind your subject-verb agreement.

Stay away from highfalutin terms if you're not sure you have attained that level of language sophistication. You misjudge this, it will backfire on you.

Listen to your reviewers, they must have taught you how NOT to irk an examiner checking your paper: Write legibly; keep your sentences brief, but complete and direct; organize your thoughts before you work your pen; stick to the structure, i.e. (1) categorical answer, (2) cite the law on which you base your answer, (3) conclude. 

That way your answer flows along the conditioned mental landscape of the examiner. You disarrange that, and you create a friction that could set off your examiner.

If all else fails, and you don't know or remember the laws or provisions that the questions call for, turn to your common sense. A lot of our laws are an aggregation of common sense ideas that respond to changing demands of civilized society. If we have the Dangerous Drugs Act, or the Cyber Crime Law, it's because modern society developments have necessitated their enactments. 

No matter what they say about resting early on Saturday to wake up fresh and alert on Bar day, there's no guarantee you'll get a good night sleep. The feeling of anticipation & excitement will likely disrupt your sleep pattern. 

Deal with this, do not feel diminished just because you barely slept. Be up early, do your routine morning rituals (whatever suits you). If you anticipate to take energy drink on bar day, make sure you have tried it days before to accustom your system to it. 

For barristers coming from the provinces, the examination room can be intimidating and overwhelming. Metro barristers are in huge numbers and they come in droves. There's a chance a few of them will be assigned to the same room. That's advantage to them, because that settles them faster, while it unsettles you and widens your imaginary island. 

Be in the room early. Look out for lone barristers who may be in the same situation as you are. Greet to shake off those butterflies in the belly. You are your own man now, but be quick to recognize opportunities to liaise or coalesce. As they say, there is strength in number. 

Bar comes like clockwork, but before that there's alway a chance to suit up to the battle. Believe me, whatever you think of your state of preparedness, you have done just that.

Pen your thoughts in the pride of your family, your city, your country. Go get them!

                                          PRAY... PRAY... PRAY... Good luck.