If you have been on the interwebs since early to mid-2000, then you surely have a Multiply account, and you must know now that Multiply is going the way of Friendster and is closing down their social network aspect effective December 1, 2012. Since my Multiply has been witness to my early photography as well as my (best) angsty blog posts (wrote about heartbreak, the Bar and job-hunting there), I've been downloading my content. The blog has been exported to a private blogspot while the photos are taking time to download thru Multiply's downloader because of the 1MB plus sizes of some. To download content, log in to your Multiply, go to My Site, then below your name and profile picture are the links "Download Media", "Export to Blogger" and "Export to Tumblr."
I can't believe it's been five years since I took the Bar - and it has gone through a lot of changes, i.e., multiple choice questions, moved to November then now October, moved the venue to UST. In the spirit of Bar fever, I'm sharing my Multiply Bar memoirs.
Bar Memoir #1: POLI!
Poli, oh, Poli. I kept thinking and telling anyone who'd give a damn that if I should fail the bar exams, it's because of my *projected* DQ grade or really low grade in Poli. During the review, everyone kept saying, "Study PIL, study PIL," (EDIT: Because that year's Chairman, J. Azcuna was an expert on PIL.) and subjected me to numerous hand-outs. Some I read, some served as decorations on my desk. I had a feeling that the examiner won't dwell on PIL and the equally-famous writ of amparo but the praningazoid that I was, I spent the last few hours of Poli review time memorizing PIL terms.
Surprise, suprise, only a couple of questions on PIL and no writ of amparo! I was so tempted to leave the room and leave La Salle halfway through the exam (some people in the other rooms did, according to my classmates). So I prayed hard that the examiner would be considerate and lenient... and would take note of my neat handwriting and margins and minimal erasures. :P
Prayer answered:I have been told that professors mellow with age and, in the campaign slogan of the elder George Bush, become "kinder, gentler" as the years pass. And then I learned that my subject had one of the highest passing rates, at almost 65 percent, where the overall rate for all the subjects combined was 23 percent. I didn't realize how much I had mellowed, how much I'd aged. (Or maybe now I think like a ... parent!)
In Political Law and Public International Law, I can say that the candidates' ability to express themselves was satisfactory and that there were only a few who I felt were hopelessly unable to put their thoughts to paper. I also do not share the lament that their mastery of the English language has declined. If at all, my problem was that some examinees loved to use so much Latin that I was tempted to ordain them into the priesthood. The true problem was not language but attitude: that a lawyer had to use archaic expressions as if the function of words was not to reveal but to conceal. (But concealment is the virtue of the season, heh?)
Finally, the low overall passing rate does not mean that the 2007 examinees were inferior. The appreciation of answers, that is to say, how the answers are graded, depends largely on the philosophy and approach of the examiner. In my case, after more than 20 years of teaching, I am resigned to the limits of exams as a gauge of genius, and I often remind myself that, in reading an exam answer, I am looking basically for a Salieri, the Austrian imperial composer-able, sound and competent—and should exalt if, along the way, I discover the lyric, the uplift, the spirit-soaring of a Mozart.
~Of course I don't know my rating yet and my grade in Poli, but still, very much grateful. :D
N.B. I got a good enough grade in Poli, given my state of sanity before, during and after the exam. :)
Bar Memoir #2: Labor
So. Atty. Joan's comment kinda pressured me to continue this series.
In the words of Att. Areiz, "I can say Labor has been a fair exam." I guess any exam after Poli would have been "fair" for me because Poli really threw me off guard. The questions in Labor were basic and objective, i.e. No. 5 Discuss the legal requirements of a valid strike., No. 11 a. A rule, when is retirement due? b. When is retirement due for underground miners?, and all the 20 numbers (with sub-questions ha) were worth 5 points each. I think being with the Labor Law team of the Acads Committee for two years served me well, (or was it that Poli has "desensitized" me by that time?) that I just wrote and wrote and wrote. I would read the question, pause for a moment and then write. I didn't bother to double-check my answers, I just wanted the exam and the first Sunday to be over and done with.
Pero huwag ka! (what's the English counterpart of this phrase? But beware?) Labor is last year's killer subject, with only around 1.5% getting a grade of 75 and up. Also, it was one of the subjects wherein the disqualification rate was adjusted from 50 to 45. Yes, I am very much curious about my grade in Labor.
Moral of the memoir: Treat all subjects as killer subjects. And join your school's Academics Committee.
N.B. I got a line of 7 in Labor, my second lowest score. I used to love Labor Law in law school, I've hated it since the Bar haha.
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