Bar Passer No. 6862
Exemplary Passer No. 631
Hello everyone! I am finally back with a new blog post, and guess what? I have finally passed the Bar exam, and unexpectedly, with flying colors, since I made it to the List of Successful Examinees with Exemplary Performance or examinees who got a grade between 85% and 90%.
I will write about how I reviewed for the Bar exam, hence, the title. I decided to write this blog post since I figured that some may be curious about what I did during the Bar review, though I'm not sure if this could help. But I'll try. Just a disclaimer though, my routine may or may not work for you, so you could just treat this post of mine as a reference. Here it goes.
Review center(s) I enrolled in
I enrolled in Jurists Bar Review Center and ChanRobles Internet Bar Review.
As for Jurists Bar Review Center, I highly recommend this review center since all its lecture videos and materials are updated. In case anyone asks, I chose the Jurists Online program, the one which costs Php 15,500.00. The other review program at the time I enrolled, which was Jurists Combo, costs Php 26,500.00.
This may already be outdated, but here is the comparison between the two review programs of the Jurists Bar Review Center:
Since I didn't need some features of Jurists Combo, I chose Jurists Online instead. Also, I prefer to watch online lectures anytime without having to wake up at 8:00am for the live lectures, and I can also watch videos at any speed I want since I usually watch videos at 1.25x or 1.5x speed. This feature is also available in Jurists Combo, of course, but I didn't want to stress with the thought that I have to wake up for the live lectures even though I have the choice not to, so yeah. For Jurists Online enrollees, these online lectures are usually available the day after the live lectures, so Jurists Combo enrollees are always on time with the lectures.
But in terms of coaching, if you really want to have a video call with your coach, I suggest that you choose the Jurists Combo instead, which is now called the Jurists Online Plus. The coaching program of Jurists Online only involves communication through email. With this, there are coaches who are only limited to just sending the email for assessment on the mock bar exams, and that other questions are only forwarded through text message (they reply fast BTW, props to this), but I heard that there are coaches who will reply to emails on other queries by the enrollees.
As for the ChanRobles Internet Bar Review, I enrolled in this review center since I got a full scholarship because I graduated as Top 3 among my batch in Law School, and the review center gives full scholarships to those who are among the Top 5 graduating students. To be honest, I haven't really used this since Jurists Bar Review Center is my primary review center, but all I can say is that some of the lecturers in ChanRobles are also lecturers in Jurists, plus ChanRobles gives a lot of tips on how to answer bar exam questions well, so you're also in good hands in this review center.
If you really want to have updated lectures, I highly suggest that you go for Jurists instead. Caveat for ChanRobles though, even if you have a full scholarship, you still have to enroll separately for the pre-week lectures and materials, which I overlooked since I didn't check their emails well. Haha. Also, I suggest though that you join a Facebook Group for Bar exam takers, since the members, although you may not know each other, are of great help.
References I used
Here are the references I used during my Bar review:
Remedial Law
- Primer-Reviewer on Remedial Law by Riguera, Volume 1 and 2 (2020)
Legal Ethics
- UST Golden Notes 2020
Commercial Law
- Reviewer on Commercial Law by Sundiang-Aquino (2019)
- Commercial Law Review by Villanueva (2018) - supplemental only
Criminal Law
- Criminal Law Reviewer by Campanilla, Volume 1 and 2 (2020)
Taxation Law
- Tax Made Less Taxing: A Reviewer with Codals and Cases by Ingles (2021)
Civil Law
- Civil Law Reviewer by Jurado (2019)
Labor Law
- Everyone's Labor Code by Azucena (2018)
Political Law
- Outline Reviewer in Political Law by Nachura (2016)
- The 1987 Philippine Constitution: A Comprehensive Reviewer by Bernas (2011) - supplemental only
If there are any more updated versions of review books though, or more updated references, I suggest that you should go for those books instead.
As you can see, I also bought Bar Questions and Answers from Central Books, but I only skimmed through these and I didn't finish them when the revised Bar syllabus was announced.
I also bought flashcards from a Facebook seller, but I wasn't able to use them in studying for the revised Bar syllabus. These may be useful for a normal syllabus though, so you may check it out.
If you're curious about the references I used when I was cramming for the revised syllabus, here are the ones that I used:
The Law Pertaining to the State and Its Relationship with Its Citizens
- As for Constitutional Law, I used Atty. Glydel Shialyn D. Urbano's personal reviewer which she posted in our Bar Help FB group, so all thanks to her for the comprehensive and well-organized reviewer which was of great help for my cramming
- As for International Law, I used Atty. Fretti G. Ganchoon's handouts posted by Jurists
- As for Labor Law, I used Dean Cecilio D. Duka's last-minute handouts posted by Jurists
- As for Taxation Law, I used UST Golden Notes pre-week
Criminal Law
- Campanilla notes - check Judge Campanilla's FB page every now and then for these notes
The Law Pertaining to Private Personal and Commercial Relations
- As for Civil Law, I only skimmed through Jurado
- As for Commercial Law, I only skimmed through Sundiang-Aquino
- I've read Arellano notes, but I didn't think it was complete enough for me, which is why I decided to skim through my main references instead
Procedure and Professional Ethics
- Rules of Court codal
- New Rules on Civil Procedure and Evidence (codal)
- UST Golden Notes 2020 for Legal Ethics
- Skimmed through Riguera reviewer and notes
Study Schedule
More or less, this is how my days went during my Bar review. For the morning routine, I pray first thing in the morning, and to be honest, after that, I just scroll through social media for about 30 minutes to 1 hour, until I decide to finally start studying. Sometimes I skip social media scrolling altogether if I oversleep like when I wake up at 9:00am. As for my free time, this is where I watch YouTube mainly for ATEEZ content and Netflix and Viu for Korean Drama, play Superstar ATEEZ, and much other random stuff until I eventually fall asleep. To be honest, this free time goes on for 2 to 3 hours, so it's an unhealthy amount of wasting time, but at least I still passed despite this bad habit. Haha! As an excuse, this did help with my sanity all throughout my bar review though.
For studying, it would be nice if you have a study playlist to listen to while reading, but it's definitely up to you since we all have different learning styles. But for me, I listened to piano versions of my favorite KPOP songs, and when I got fed up with them, I added more songs.
I take breaks in between reading and I use a modified Pomodoro method. What I did was that I study for about 45 minutes to 1 hour and take a break for about 15 minutes to 30 minutes. There were even times when I study for 1 hour and 30 minutes straight and take a break for 30 minutes. It's really up to you.
As for the target readings, I am usually able to finish at least 150 pages every day, but it's fine if you don't follow this. I can say that I am a fast reader, and I read fast because I want to read my references at least twice or thrice during my Bar review. I kinda have a problem with my memory sometimes since I still forget stuff even though I've read them a lot of times already, so I tried active recall at some point, so I guess it worked, although it kinda consumes a lot more time. I give more weight to finishing my target readings rather than the number of hours I should study for the day, so if I actually finish reading my target number of pages before the end of my study time, I stop reading for the day regardless of how many allotted hours I have left for studying.
As for the lectures, I make it a point to finish all of the scheduled lectures for the day so that I can really stick to my reading schedule, since if lectures are scheduled for the day, watching those lectures is the only thing I do for that day.
As for the overall Bar review schedule, I followed the schedule provided by the review center, which is by Jurists in my case. So my schedule was in reverse, in such a way that the last subjects to be taken are the first ones that I study, and the first subjects to be taken on the Bar exam are the last ones that I study. You may then adjust the number of days per subject accordingly as to where you need more focus, or where you might need to read more. Back then, we were also advised to reserve at least one day break per week, but to tell you honestly, I only imposed very few break days all throughout my Bar review, which is kinda unhealthy, but at least I still managed that since I have my own free time every day, so it's all good.
Final Word
Before I end this post, I would just like to say that despite all these tips you might read from me or from any other Bar exam passer, the most important thing to remember in reviewing for the Bar exam is to be consistent. My pace all throughout my Bar review was steady, and despite being tired at some point, my desire to reach my childhood dream is what kept me going. Back then, I always made it a point to avoid being behind schedule, which I successfully did, since I made an attainable schedule for myself. The Bar review was really stressful since I always wanted to be on schedule. Behind all these, I kept being frustrated about wanting to finish my target readings for the day, but there are really times when I couldn't attain those targets, so I just minimized the number of pages to read for the day, and this is perfectly okay.
Once again, all these things I did during my bar review worked for me, but I don't know if they will work for you. So ultimately, the greatest tip I could give future Bar takers is to stick to your study habits. You have survived Law School and graduated through studying with methods that work for you, so stick to that, and adjust them accordingly for the Bar review. It will be an advantage though if you're a full-time student like me, but there are also a lot who were able to pass despite being working students, although they applied for study leaves so that they could focus more on the Bar review.
But anyway, I hope that this blog post has helped you in some way.
Best of luck with the upcoming Bar exams!
kumusta ka na diyan....ayos at nag blog ka pa rin...
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