1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

BAR EXAMS TIPS BY ATTY. JOAN DE VENECIA

Top 1, 2005 Bar Examinations

First: Make an honest assessment of the subjects you are

good at, and the subjects you feel you have an inadequate
foundation on. Adjust the number of days devoted to each
subject accordingly.
Second: Compact reviewers might not necessarily help,
especially for those subjects in which you are weak at, and
the morning subjects.
Third: Choose the review classes you want to attend. (I
enrolled at the law center but didnt attend most of the
lectures).
Fourth: Avoid unnecessary comparison to the pace of others.
We all have our own rhythm according to the laws of inertia.
Fifth: Perfect your handwriting and grammar.
Sixth: Write things down. I had so many post-its in my codals,
especially for Civ and Rem. It was like a mini-book where all
the important doctrines were jotted down.
Seventh: No need to memorize laws. If you must memorize,
memorize only the key words of important doctrines. Please,

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

dont memorize case titles and SCRA citations. Dont clog your
brain with useless clutter. Understanding is key.
Eighth: For the bar, short answers dont necessarily work. The
answer must be firm yet exhaustive. I did not cite cases nor
specific provisions, but just went straight to the answers.
Ninth: Updates on latest jurisprudence are indispensable.
Request that the updates come with short facts, because bar
questions are often facts-based.
Tenth: Always make time for gimmicks and relaxation to keep
you sane during the review.

Other Tips
1. Research on the Nature of the Exams
2. Determine your strong and weak points
3. Make your Strong points stronger, but focus most on
your weak points
4. Test Yourself

1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

How to pass, nay, top the bar exams

Last Sunday, I commented on the dismal results of the 2007
bar exams. I said that it was high time the Supreme Court, the
Philippine president and the law schools collaborated to
produce better lawyers. We concur, chorused many readers.
But the more pressing query of law students and reviewees
for the 2008 test is Can you give us tips on how to pass the
2008 tests?
Having taken the exams eons ago, I felt inadequate answering
the question. Besides, I placed only sixth. So I called someone
more qualified, 2005 topnotcher Joan de Venecia. In turn, she
summoned help from two other numero unos, Arlene Maneja
(2002) and Mercedita Ona (2007). Incidentally, Arlene comes
from UST, Joan from UP and Mercedita from Ateneo de Manila.
Here are their common tips.
Believe that you deserve to take the test. Forget the
times you botched up a recitation or failed an exam. Youre
past that. Believe that you have been allowed to sit for the
bar because you have a fighting chance to pass it. Cultivate
composure with that thought. Youll need it.
Make time for serious self-evaluation. Have an honest
assessment of the subjects you are good at, and those you
feel you have an inadequate foundation on. If you sincerely
believe that you do not have sufficient knowledge of a

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

particular subject, accept it humbly and know that you still

have a number of months to study for it. Adjust the number of
days devoted to each subject according to the results of your
self-assessment. A schedule is recommended to serve as a
guide as to how many days you can allot for every subject.
Have a study plan and be realistic about it. At the start
of the bar review, set aside all the materials you want to
coverall the books, reviewers and notes for each subject.
Make it your guide and pace yourself. People without a plan
either underestimate the workload or get swamped with
available materials; either way, they dont finish everything.
So too, organize your review materials. Time is of the essence
during the bar review. You cannot afford to waste time by
looking for misplaced review materials. Maintain eight
separate boxes or drawers for each of the subjects. This will
help you sort through your materials and decide which to read
during your pre-week.
Be realistic about your capabilities. People say they will
start afresh during the bar review study more, play less.
Thats nice but it rarely happens. So, in setting a study plan,
be kind to yourself. Give yourself time to attend review
lectures, to wake up late, to be lazy, to go out and to have
fun. The bar test is difficult enough without making yourself
sick because of unrealistic expectations.
Do not compare yourself with other reviewees. We all
have our own rhythm. Listen to yours. Bar preparation is an
individual task. It is ultimately your understanding of the law

1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

and its varied nuances, not how many readings you do, or the
laws that you memorize verbatim that makes the difference.

topping, the bar was in large part due to this. So, practice
writing neatly, legibly and fast.

Be physically fit. Try to get regular exercise. Eat nourishing

meals. Get enough sleep every day. Take vitamins and
supplements. Manage your stress. Remember, all your efforts
will be wasted when your body bogs down.

If you are a visual person write down your notes. This exercise
will aid your quest for a beautiful penmanship, and help you
retain the facts and the law that may be difficult to retrieve as
you store more information in your brain bank.

Use your time wisely. Sit in a review class or do personal

reading? If you know the subject well enough, refresh yourself
by attending review classes. If not, read up first. Review
classes assume a certain level of knowledge and, without it,
you?ll be lost during the discussion and waste valuable time.
Know that you still have the pre-week review for all those ?bar
tips? that most reviewers give.

Study smartly. Streamline. Codal provisions, a good

reviewer for each subject and updates on jurisprudence
should suffice. Master the basics. Understand the substance of
the law and how to apply it to given situations. Recall legal
provisions during your spare time. Listen to audio codals when
you travel.

Abandon all emotional problems. Inform your family and

friends about what you are going through in preparing for and
in taking the exam. Ask for their understanding and support.
The last thing you need is additional source of stress when
preparing for the bar is draining enough. Avoid all distractions.
Keep your focus.
Perfect your handwriting and grammar. Bar examiners
have to go through thousands of exam booklets, and they are
only human. As would any other normal person, they
appreciate, and understand more, an answer that is at the
very minimum, readable and logical. All three topnotchers
have good handwriting, and believe that their passing, nay

Ask for updates. Doctrines that you have studied in school

may have already been overturned or modified by the
Supreme Court or by Congress. Request your bar operations
team to include abbreviated facts in the updates, because bar
questions are often facts-based.
Pray. Pray. Pray.
A final reminder. There is no shortcut to passing the bar. If you
want to pass on the first take, you have to put in the hours,
and get yourself in the mood to study. Do not focus on things
you cannot control (e.g., bar examiners, kinds of questions).
Devote all your energies to studying and positive thinking.
Good luck!

1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

who will be taking the Philippine bar exams. This report is also
useful for law professors and law schools as this will help us
re-evaluate our teaching methods in order to effectively help
our students hurdle the hardest exam in the Philippines, the
bar exams.
The report starts out with these interesting observations:
1. With a relatively few notable exceptions, I observed a
deficiency in the examinees ability to express properly and
concisely their answer to the questions.

OBSERVATION ON THE 1980 PHILIPPINE BAR

EXAMINATIONS
FULL REPORT

BY JUSTICE

A. MELENCIO-HERRERA

The following are excerpts from the actual reports of the 1980
Bar Examiners submitted to, and released to the law schools
by, Madam Justice Ameurfina Melencio-Hererra, Chairperson
of the 1980 Committee on Bar Examinations. I have already
made a summary of this report and has posted it in this blog
in the post entitled How to pass the Philippine bar exams.
However I believe that law students and law professors will
gain more by reading the full report. Although this report was
made more than 27 years ago, the lessons that can be
gleaned are timeless and can still very much apply to those

2. Likewise, with a few notable exceptions, the analytic or

logical process left much to be desired.
3. Knowledge of the fundamental legal principles was lacking
in many instances.
4. Only in a few instances was there a command of the
English language.
Recommendation for consideration
1. The elevation of the standards of legal education and
instruction, i.e., a more intensive preparation in the legal
fundamentals necessary for the assumption of office as a
member of the Bar.

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2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

2. Require additional courses even in law school proper in the

fields of English composition and grammar for those who are
deficient in their ability to express and convey their ideas.

2. They fail to analyze and understand the question

thoroughly, where oftentimes the answer is found or
suggested in it.

Additional recommendation on the grading system

3. They base their answer not on the specific import or

meaning of the question but on the association they believe
the question has with a vague knowledge of the legal
provision that instantly comes into their minds. The results is
an answer given without reflection that obviously misses the
point or fails to obtain full credit.

The present grading system tends lo lay stress on competitive

performance. And yet, difference in decimal points could be
subjective and may not do justice to the competitors, Perhaps,
the shift should be towards the assessment of each, individual
candidates performance. I would categorize the candidates
performance into just three (3) classes, namely: (1) failure, (2)
passing and (3) outstanding without giving any grades in
specific figures.
Finally, the unknown identity of the examiners even among
themselves (except to the Chairman) until the final
submission of the candidates performance is to be
commended as a meritorious feature in the conduct of Bar
examinations and should be adopted as a norm for future
examinations. It is obvious that it insulates the examiner from
unhealthy representations on the part of interested parties
and it should encourage a more respectful attitude towards
the Bar examinations.
1. Very many examinees, to put it mildly, murder the
English language. Some are worse than high school
undergraduates.

4. There are few examinees who just do not have the mental
capacity for the law profession. Taking the examinations for
any number of times may only be an exercise in futility.
5. Handwritings of some are difficult to read or decipher.
Apparently, the examinees concerned do not make any
sincere or serious effort to make them readable.
The ink used spreads or the ballpen is too fine or light and
blue. Both make correction of the papers an ordeal to the
examiner who has to change his correction speed to very
slow.
6. Many examinees also need, aside from the English
language, a refresher course in logic. They give inconsistent
or conflicting positions in one answer and do not know how to
analyze problems.

1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

7. Many examinees do not follow instructions. Few give a
Yes or No, making the examiner guess just what they
mean in their vague discussion. Others copy the question first
before answering. Still others over several pages and making
correction difficult, or they write on both sides of the page.
8. Many examinees do not review their answers. Many
answers have been found lacking not only several words but
important ones as well which spell the difference between
correct and wrong answers.
1. Many candidates did not know specific provisions of the
Civil Code on Torts and Damages. This may be due to the fact
that the subject of Torts and Damages was not given much
attention in the basic law course and in the bar review
because in the past, this field of law was rarely the subject of
the bar questions. And yet, the importance of this branch of
civil law cannot be ignored considering that most civil cases
filed in our courts involved torts and damages. Our lawyer
must, therefore, be more familiar with this important branch
of civil law before they are allowed to practice. I respectfully
recommend that in future bar examinations torts and
damages be listed among the divisions of civil law to be
considered in the bar examinations.
2. Many candidates were familiar with cases decided by the
Supreme Court and some even mentioned their titles.
Unfortunately, however, a good number did not know the

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

fundamental legal principles enunciated in such decisions.

Considering that under the civil law system, which is the
system followed in the Philippine, the rules of law are found in
the codes, unlike the common law where the law is found in
the cases, it is evident that a knowledge and understanding of
the law as found in the codes is more important than a
knowledge of the cases. In actual litigations most cases are
resolved by the very law itself and the problem for the lawyer
and court lies more in finding the specific law applicable to
the case rather than find a decided case on which to base a
decision. Therefore, with all due respect, I submit that more
emphasis should be given in the bar examinations on the
knowledge of the law and the fundamental principles rather
on the knowledge of specific cases.
3. I agree that definitions and distinctions, enumerations and
memory work should not be the criteria in the bar
examinations and that all bar questions be in the form of
problems and cases. But may I suggest and recommend that
the problems and questions be based on codal provisions and
fundamental principles of civil law which law practitioners are
likely to face in their practice rather than extra practitioners
are likely to face in their practice rather than extra ordinary
situations that rarely confront our courts and practitioners.
4. A number of candidates could not write legibly. I found it
hard to read their answers and much time was wasted in

1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

deciphering what they wanted to say. Bar candidates should
be advised to write legibly.
5. Many candidates did not use the proper tenses. Bar
candidates should be advice to be more careful with their
tenses and try to aim at clarity in their answer.
6. Some candidates do not follow the numbers correlatively in
answering the questions. They jump over some numbers and
do not indicate where the answer may be found thus making
the correction more difficult, confusing and time consuming.
7. Some candidates have resorted to what they called
alternative answer by discussing both sides of the problem
and arriving at opposing conclusions. Considering that most
problems in the bar have to sides the appraisal and grading of
those alternative answer become more difficult. In my view
this should be avoided.
Except for some exceptions, the ability of the examinees to
present their opinions and thoughts on the questions asked
was creditable. There were misspelling wrong grammar and a
number of omissions but they are acceptable and not glaring,
considering the pressure on the examinees and the time
constraints.
What is apparent, however, is the general misconception of
the principles of taxation in relation to the whole context of

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

taxation, as well as its practical application especially in the

light of other applicable laws. Reading the answers, it seems
that the approach to taxation is divided into two approaches.
One is that taxation is a necessity and, therefore, tax laws
must be legal. Second thought is that taxes are burdens on
the citizenry and, therefore, must be considered illegal The
Method of teaching taxation must have been rather simplistic
with no aim to apply the tax laws on our day to day dealings.
As this was apparent, the undersigned tended to be more
lenient in her corrections of the test papers.
It is observed that using December 31, 1979 as the cut-off
date for sourcing the questions is rather restrictive and does
not give the examiner sufficient leeway especially in topics
where major changes, even on concepts, are effected by the
government. Since most of the students will be taking pre-bar
review, wouldnt April or May be a better date? At least
questions will be more current.
The procedure by which the test papers were given to us, the
checks and counter checks by the bar confidant and others
who were participating in the handling of the test papers to
maintain the integrity of the bar leaves nothing to be desired.
Full cooperation was given by them.
1. The 1980 Examinations, under the strict monitoring and
guidance of the Chairman, have succeeded in maintaining the
complete confidentiality of the identities of the BAR

1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

examiners. This was achieved by the adoption of the following
measures:
2. The poor grammar, limited vocabulary, redundancy and
unorganized presentation of the issues involved have a
caused a telling effect of the percentage of passing in
Mercantile Law.
3. The allocation of certain percentages on the number of
question given to each subdivision of the bar subject has
assured a uniform stress, thereby avoiding the concentration
of questions on a particular law or subdivision.
4. Despite the written instructions, a great number of the
examinees have repeated verbatim the facts of the case and
the question. This has wasted the examiners time and effort
in correcting the papers.
On November 16, 1980, there were 1,798 bar candidates who
took the examination in criminal law, out of this number, 594
successfully passed or 33%, while 1,204 failed, 221 of whom
are disqualified for having obtained a grade below 50%.
1. Substandard collegiate or academic training, resulting in
the insufficient knowledge of the law and its application; and
2. Inadequate command of the English language.

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

These observations may be properly shown by quoting

answers of a certain examinees to a question thus
propounded as follows:
Question No. 6(b) An accused was found guilty of double
murder and was meted out two sentences of reclusion
perpetua. How would be the accused serve the sentences?
Answer Both penalties must be served by the accused, and
he was electrocuted and died then it washes out the
remaining sentence to served by the accused.
Quoted hereunder is another question to which the examinees
concerned gave his answer as follows:
Question No. 11. Patrolman Cruz, acting under orders of the
Municipal Mayor, Who wanted to put a stop to the frequent
occurrence of robbery in Sitio Masukal, patrolled the place. At
about midnight, seeing three persons acting suspiciously in
front of an uninhabited house and entering the same, he
arrested them without warrant and took them to the municipal
building where they were detained in jail for about five hours
before they where released.
Patrolman Cruz was accused of arbitrary detention. If you
were the Judge, would you convict him of the crime charged?
Answer No. considering his possession as peace officer by
the higher authority to patrol the place where robbery are

1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

frequent. The one responsible for this is the Municipal Mayor
who order without warrant of arrest and the act of the
patrolman are in good faith believing to be a robbery entering
a house.
So the proper party liable is the Municipal Mayor.
Most, if not all, who obtained failing grades have different
unique ways of answering questions which only tends to show
either because of poor scholastic training or lack of
preparation not only in their collegiate or academic courses
but may also be traceable to their primary and secondary
education.
The majority of those who failed in the subject have also
manifestly shown their poor command of the English
language, such that certain examinees may probably know
the law nut they lack the ability to express themselves. The
results is that, one will find it very difficult to understand what
they really wanted to convey in their answer to the question
propounded.
As an example, I hereby refer to the answer of another
examinee to question No. 17. herein below quoted as follows:
Question No. 17 AA was the owner of a jeepney for hire.
When his driver was hospitalized, he hired BB as driver on a
temporary basis and entrusted to him the vehicle for

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

transporting passengers from Quiapo to Baclaran with a

compensation of P30.00 a day. BB never returned the
vehicle and after search the vehicle was found in Tarnate,
Cavite, About to be sold. BB was charged with Qualified
Theft and was convicted .
Appealing the judgment of conviction, defense counsel
contends that BB may have committed Esta fa but not
Qualified Theft on the theory that the position of the vehicle
was obtained with the consent of AA the owner, and
therefore, there was no illegal taking.
Decide the case.
In answer thereto, the particular examinees
following answer:

gave the

The defense counsel of the accused contention in untenable

assuming now that there is no illegal taking of the jeep from
AA. The owner but BB a temporary driver hired by AA
failure to return the jeep such vehicle as now ready to be sold
by BB have an intent to gain is theft cases as an element.
It may not be amiss to state in this connection, that there are
also hundreds of them whose penmanship is almost illegible.
Several examinees have made very unsatisfactory showing to
such an extent that there is one who obtained a grade as low
as 7% another obtained a grade of 11%; still some others

1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

obtained grades of 12%; 16%; 17%; 18%; 19%; 20%; 21%;
24%; 25%; 26%; 27%; 31%; 34%; etc.
Due to this very poor showing of a considerable number of
examinees, in order to avoid unnecessary waste of time,
money and energy and in order to give the students
concerned advice to shift to other course before it is too late,
it is suggested that before a law student is allowed to enroll in
the College of Law proper, he should first pass an entrance
examination, to be given under the supervision of the
Supreme Court. More or less, the examination to be given
should cover the following subjects: (1) Elementary Law; (2)
Logic; (3) English and Composition, etc.
It is further suggested that in order to afford bar examinees a
better opportunity to pass the given subjects, at least 30
questions should be propounded in each subjects and the
examinees allowed to answer a choice of twenty questions.
(1) The candidates should be required to write their answers
on every other line, thus leaving a blank space between lines.
This will facilitate correction, especially as many scrawl their
answers and there is abundance of poor penmanship. Beside,
almost all notebooks are less than half-filled so that there will
be no problem of pages to write on.
(2) Answer should be separated from one another by at least
two space-lines. This will facilitate identification of answer and

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

obviate the review (resulting in time consumed, which could

be otherwise invested in further correction) of questions
overlooked by the candidate or not answered at all.
(3) Unless there is a very imperative reason for requiring the
examiner to date every initial, this should not be required. Too
much time is wasted.
(4) A device should be adopted so that the examiner will not
have to write on two separate grading sheets. Instead
carbonized paper or similar duplicatory means, should be
used. This will eliminate errors committed while transposing
the grades on the second grading sheet, and more important,
it will save time. More than half an hour is consumed every
time grades of 25 notebooks are duplicated on the grading
sheet (or an average of more than three hours per 200
notebooks) time which could, instead, be spent correcting
notebooks.
It with be noted that no suggestions on substantive aspects
have been made because the writer believes that she is still
not in a position to suggest further development in that
respect.

I. Conduct of the Examination

1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

As far as I know there has been no word, whether publicly

made or circulated in whisper, of any leakage of questions or
even merely of the identities of the examiners. The story
going around, according to a law faculty member of the UST
and lecturer at the U.P. College of law, is that in the Bar
examinations there was only one examiner for all the
subjects: Justice Herrera herself.

That is not to say that everyone who received higher grades

demonstrated no language difficulties. It may in fact be
justifiably said that a commendable command of language is
the fortune of but a few of the examinees.

While this rumor may be laced with some humor, it points up

nonetheless the successful safeguarding of the integrity of the
examination.

Rule 138 allocates the combination of Legal Ethics and

Practical Exercise a relative weight of 5% in the Bar
examination. Because of the joinder of these two nonhomogeneous subjects, it has of course been necessary to
apportion the rather meager 5% between Legal Ethics on the
one hand and, on the other, Practical Exercise. In this years
examination. The apportionment is 70% for the first and 30%
for the other.

II. Showing of the Examinees

In Legal Ethics and Practical Exercise , 620 examinees out of
1,792 applicants (or 34.6%) obtained a grade of 75% or
higher. 1,172 failed to make the passing grade; included in
this number are 119 applicants whose grades were lower than
50%. Grades ranged from a high of 93% to a disquieting low
of 7%. A profile of grade-distribution is appended to this
report.
The examinees inhabiting the lowermost rungs of the grading
scale manifested not alone an appalling lack of knowledge of
the fundamental principles involved in the examination
questions but also an inability to logically string their thoughts
together compounded by an almost incredible deficiency in
language skills.

III. Other Matters

(a) Comment on the relative weight of legal Ethics.

In overall terms, therefore, the effective relative weight of

Legal Ethics is only 3.5% (this being 70% of 5%), and that of
Practical Exercise 1.5% (being 30% of 5%).
One question that may be asked is whether it is worth
examining Bar applicants in full subjects with effective relative
weights that, by mathematical calculation, would require
almost 30 points (in Legal Ethics) or some 67 points (in
Practical Exercise) to effect a single point differential in the
overall Bar examination average of an examinee.

1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

A more basic observation, however, arises out of a
comparison between Legal Ethics 3.5% and Taxations 10%.
The relative weight of the first is only a third of the second,
But we do know that ethics is bedrock matter to the
profession. While its articulation in codal or canonical form
may vary from time to time, the basic principles by which a
lawyers conduct must ever be guided are virtually
unchanging, if these are not at all unchangeable. On the
other, tax laws in particular undergo changes with rapidity
that leaves even the tax practitioners gasping in trying to
catch up, so that passable knowledge of tax laws now could
mean nothing after we no more than a few years. Yet, taxation
in effect is recognized in quantitative terms as three times
more important than legal ethics.
It may be a manner if looking at the conclusion of Legal Ethics
in the Bar examination, considering the feathery weight
allocated to the subject, as but a grudging concession to the
ethical aspects of the ancient and honorable profession of the
law.
May not a re-appraisal be in order?
(b) The Bar examination as a device to re-orient the educative
process.

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports

While passing the Bar examinations has not been conceded

by the law schools as an end in the educative process of a
lawyer, Dean Irene Cortes has noted that.
***what has developed in most schools is that it has become
the principal goal. The curriculum, method of instruction, the
review courses in the fourth year-all contribute to emphasize
this.
It seems from the observation of Dean Cortes that the
currently predominant stress in instruction has been a sort of
reaction to Bar examinations which have largely been a test of
knowledge of the laws content, with scant requirement for
demonstration of the applicants proficiency in analytical and
reasoning techniques associated with the exercise of the
profession of the law.
This caused-and-effect relation, so far productive of less than
ideal results, indicates that it is possible to cause a reorientation of the stress in instruction in the law schools by
institutionalizing the type of Bar examination that, to enable
their law graduates to hurdle the same, would compel the law
schools to shift their emphasis instruction towards techniques
rather than mere content. For instance, If it were regularly
made a part of the Bar examination questions involving
problem-situations to ask the examinees to identity the issue,
law schools would have to teach their students the techniques
in issue identification and not simply to know what the law is. I

1. Manuel, Mark Anthony N.

use this as an example because many examinees in Legal
Ethics and Practical Exercise went off-track in problem-solving
due to error in perceiving the issues.
The possibilities of the Bar examination as a device with which
to trigger off the orientation can only be expressed in general
terms here. Obviously, the fashioning of specifics will require a
detailed study.

2015 Bar Exams Notes | Bar Techniques and Bar Reports