THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO BAR REVIEW

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
I. Preparing for Bar Review:
First things first
So you're buying Bar Review Materials
Misconceptions
Things to consider
Materials that you MUST have
Book critiques
To enrol or not to enrol
Where do I study?
II. Bar Review proper
Do's and don'ts
Suggested study styles
Suggested study schedules
The truth about 1st reading, 2nd reading and pre-week
Recreation and other non-Bar matters
III. Filing your petition to take the Bar
IV. September
Should I be booked in a hotel for the Bar?
The Day Before
D-Day
Before the exam starts
During the exam
How do I answer questions?
The Morning After

THE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO BAR REVIEW

INTRODUCTION
So, you're taking the Bar for the first (and hopefully the only) time.
 Bar review is ideally a time for synthesizing and consolidating what you
have already learned in law school, as well as for integrating new jurisprudenc
e and newly-enacted laws. (Although in many cases, it is about learning certain
things for the first time, and atoning for past sins.)
Chapter I.
PREPARING FOR BAR REVIEW
FIRST THINGS FIRST
(1) Assess your strengths and your weaknesses. You will have to be very honest
and very humble when you do this (and believe me, it IS a humbling experience),
but there's no other way to do it.
(2) Organize all your law school materials (i.e., books, reviewers, notes, memor
y aids, cases, etc.). Inventory all the books and materials you have and assess
whether they are already sufficient for bar review purposes or if you need to a
cquire (i.e., buy, borrow or photocopy) new materials.
(3) Draw up your budget.
(4) Visit the bookstores and browse through the available law books. Skim throug
h the books that appeal to you at first glance, and see whether you feel comfort
able with the idea of reading that book for the duration of review. Don't buy o
n the mere say-so of other people. You don't want to be stuck with a book that
you'll regret having spent good money on.
(5) Draw up a list of the materials you want or think you need. I recommend hav
ing at least 1 commentary (for certain subjects, there is no single book that is
sufficient for the Bar), 1 reviewer, and of course, the codal.
(6) Draw up a Bar review schedule / timetable.
(7) Make your purchases / acquisitions.

SO YOU'RE BUYING BAR REVIEW MATERIALS

A. MISCONCEPTIONS
(1) The shorter/thinner a book or reviewer, the better. Many reviewees t
hink that the thinner
the book or reviewer, the better it is for review. The main reason for this is f
inancial: a thinner reviewer makes for cheaper photocopying costs.
However, if you think that the thinner it is the faster you'll finish it
, think again. This may be true for certain books or reviewers, but not for all
. Justice Feria's 2-volume work in Civ Pro on the outside looks more daunting t
han Justice Regalado's 1-volume Remedial Law Compendium for Civ Pro. But surpri
se, surprise, I enjoyed reading Justice Feria's book (yes, I finished both volum
es) and finished it in half the time than if I had struggled through Justice Reg
alado's book. (Struggled being the operative term.)

(2) The more books you read, the better. Not necessarily true. In certain case
s, you may just succeed in confusing yourself. For the purpose of the Bar, reme
mber that less is more: one book carefully selected and read exhaustively is bet
ter than two books read hurriedly and haphazardly. Of course, if you have the c
apacity to read several commentaries at a time, or if you want to cross-referenc
e various texts to settle a confusing point of law, then by all means, feel free
to do so.

B. THINGS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER WHEN ACQUIRING BAR REVIEW MATERIALS:

It is important to choose your materials carefully for the following reasons
:
(1) Time. Remember that you only have a limited time to review. You therefore
simply cannot (and will not want to) read every book and reviewer available on e
very Bar subject.
(2) Finances. Unless you have a fairy godmother (or awfully generous parents or
sponsors) and can therefore afford to buy all the books and photocopy all the m
aterials you want or need, you have to pick and choose.
(3) Reader-friendliness. Because we each have a limited capacity for studying in
a day, it is important that the materials you read are engaging enough to susta
in your interest and keep you reading on. Choose materials that are bobo-friend
ly, with a font size and layout that is easy on the eyes and on the mind.
(4) The author's credibility. Of course it goes without saying that there is no
point in buying books or photocopying reviewers of doubtful credibility or comp
etence. You will not want to end up learning outdated laws, repealed jurisprude
nce, or legal opinions that have no basis in law.

C. MATERIALS THAT YOU MUST HAVE:

(1) A reliable outline for the entire subject matter. Outlines are essential be
cause they will provide the framework or mind map for storage, retention and ret
rieval of information. If a comprehensive outline is not available, then outlin
es per topic (e.g., Persons, Oblicon, Property) will do.
(2) The codal. (Need we say more?)
(3) At least one reliable commentary on the subject matter.
(4) At least one reviewer which you can transfer your notes to.

D. BOOK CRITIQUES AND THE AUTHOR'S CHOICE PICKS

During the course of review, I realized that I am generally uncomfortabl
e with question-and-answer type books. From my experience, the available Q-and-
A type books do not make for good retention because they do not have a structure
and flow that facilitate easy retrieval during the exam.
Political Law
Given the breadth of political law, there is no single text that is suff
icient to cover all topics. I therefore had to resort to various materials depe
nding on the topic I was studying at a given time.
Outline: V.V. Mendoza's Political Law Outline
 Barlongay's supplementary outlines, esp. Public Officers
Book: Congressman Nachura's book Political Law Outline is generally good, but i
s not comprehensive enough when it comes to Public Officers, Election Law, and I
nternational Law. Also, certain parts of the 2000 edition were not updated. Bu
t by large, it's a must-have.
When to read it: Second reading.
Reviewer: RAM notes. But this was last updated in 1996, so you will have to p
lug in
the new laws and new decisions.
Public Officers: The Bar Ops Pub Off reviewer. Authored by Calica and Lat,
based on Prof. Barlongay's outline and lectures.
Election Law: I will have to shamelessly plug my reviewer. I finished this
in May 2001, while reviewing for the Bar. Since there was no Election Law comm
entary sufficient for my purposes (and I couldn't quite understand the subject),
I made my own outline and filled out the details. Of course, it helped that I
had the A-98 reviewer and Prof. Barlongay's lectures to build on.

Codal: The Constitution (of course! Don't leave home without it.)
Local Government Code
Election Code and other related laws (You can read either Rex bookstore's compil
ation of Election Laws, or Access Law's Election Law compilation by Commissioner
Haydee Yorac.)
Labor Law
Outline: Prof. Disini's labor law outline
Books:
Title: Labor and Social Legislation
Author: Alcantara
No. of pages:
When to read: 1st reading
Review: The best!. At more than 1000 pages, it may seem daunting, but su
rprise, surprise, it's an easy read, and so much better than Azucena's 2-volume
work. A must-read for your 1st reading.
Be warned though: the book's table of contents is not comprehensive, and
the chapters lacks sub-headings, so you may get disheartened when it seems that
a chapter seems to go on forever. (This is particularly true for the chapter on
Termination and Dismissal.) You will notice eventually however that he follows
a definite framework; only the headings are missing. So take the time to put in
your own headings; it makes for easy retention of the concepts. Also be warne
d that at certain points in the book, he includes landmark cases, only for you t
o find a couple of pages later on that such cases have already been superseded b
y more recent jurisprudence. Can be annoying, but that doesn't detract from the
fact that this book is comprehensive and well-written.

Title: Everyone's Labor Code

Author: Azucena
 No. of pages:
When to read: 2nd reading; pre-week
Review: After Alcantara, Azucena's Everyone's Labor Code makes for a goo
d second reading. It is mostly codal, with a summary of the salient jurispruden
tial points per provision. If you transfer your Alcantara notes to this book (w
hich is a good idea), this book can serve as your pre-week as well.

Civil Law
Balane's Succession
I didn't like Jurado's Civil Law Review, comments to the contrary notwithstandin
g. Jurado discusses the Civil Code in the order of the provisions, not according
to any topical or thematic grouping. It worked for my other batchmates, but no
t for me.
Taxation
Outline: Prof. Ricalde's outline
Books: Aban. Recommended by Prof. Rachel Follosco, and is an excellent
read.
I attempted to read Vitug during my first reading, but plodded through it becaus
e of the heavy language used. Vitug, I think, is better suited for 2nd reading,
when one already has a grasp of the basic concepts.
Commercial Law

Books: Villanueva. A surprisingly good read, initial impressions to the contra

ry. His discussion on Securities is outdated, though, due to the recent enactme
nt of the Securities Regulation Code.
Miravite has a lot (and we mean A LOT) of errors, which is a shame since his dis
cussion of the subject matter is very reader-friendly and easy on the brain. If
you want to test your proficiency in commercial law by spotting the errors, the
n this is the book for you. Otherwise, always cross-reference this commentary w
ith the codals, or with another commentary you trust. Don't say we didn't warn
you.
Check out Sec. Nani Perez's Commercial Law books. (Jun-Jun read
them.)

Criminal Law
Books: Reyes. Still the best book to read, esp. if your foundation in Criminal
Law isn't good. Book I is a must-read.
Regalado Criminal Law Conspectus
Very difficult to outline because the discussion is choppy and not wholistic. (
It is, after all, merely a compilation of significant jurisprudence.) I was ini
tially excited about this because it has the latest cases, but the enthusiasm ev
entually wore off the farther into the book I got. He uses the same style as in
his Remedial Law Compendium.
Sandoval's Pointers in Criminal Law is a fun read, although it does not include
some of the minor penal code provisions which have been asked in the Bar on occa
sion. Must be read only after one has gone through the entire Revised Penal Cod
e at least once. Ideal for pre-week.

Reviewers: Ortega Notes

Remedial Law
For Remedial, make sure that you master the codal provisions. Make your
own tables and diagrams for better retention.
Civ Pro
Justice Feria's 2-volume work is THE BEST!!! (Why didn't they come out
with this when we were taking up Civ Pro?) Well worth the cost (P 840.00 per vo
lume, hardbound), and the time expended in reading it.
Crim Pro
Agpalo. Exhaustive, according to Prof. Tony Bautista. Didn't have time
to read through it, though, since I was busy working on the Crim Pro reviewer w
hich we were putting together at the time.
Evidence
If you studied conscientiously enough while you were taking Evidence for
the first time, a review of the codal provisions should be sufficient. The jur
isprudence has not changed much.
Spec Pro
Sadly, there is no sufficient text for a thorough, comprehensive discuss
ion of Spec Pro. So again, I must shamelessly plug my reviewer. Authored by Je
ssie Abrenica and Tanya Lat, this reviewer was put together while we were taking
Spec Pro under Prof. Bautista.

Ethics and Legal Forms

For Ethics, Ma'am Vyva's pre-week reviewer is very good. So is Atty. Ba
utista's Ethics book which combines ethics and legal forms.
Prof. Te's legal forms, which he prepared exclusively for Bar Ops '99 and
which he has been updating regularly since then, are an excellent read. For be
st results, study the forms simultaneously with your review of the salient provi
sions of Civ Pro and Crim Pro. You will get to see the legal provisions as they
are applied in actual practice, thereby reinforcing comprehension of the theori
es behind the provisions, and retention of the legal phraseology used.

TO ENROL OR NOT TO ENROL

A perennially-asked question is whether it is wise to enrol in a bar review cent
er or to just rely on one's own efforts and just self-review. It is a serious q
uestion, considering that the cost of formal Bar review ranges from P 9,000.00 (
UP) to as much as P 15,000.00.
Before deciding whether to enrol or not, ask yourself the following:
(1) Is there anything that I can get from the review center that I do not alread
y know or which I cannot get from other sources (e.g., books, hand-me-down notes
, jurisprudence)?
(2) Will the time spent listening to lectures benefit me, or will it just slow m
e down?
(3) Is the bar review center which I am considering reputable, credible, and val
ue-for-money?

WHERE DO I STUDY?

Chapter II.
BAR REVIEW PROPER

A. Suggested Study Styles

(Tanya's subversive study style is appended to this file.)

B. Suggested Study Schedules

THE TRUTH ABOUT 1ST READING, 2ND READING & PRE-WEEK

A spaceship, when it blasts off, is bulky and long, well-loaded with fue
l and provisions. As it consumes its provisions, it ejects the portion of the s
paceship that is no longer needed. It continues to do so, until upon re-entry i
nto the Earth's atmosphere, when it is reduced to its core, i.e. the shuttle con
taining the astronauts.
Bar Review should pretty much be the same way. During first reading, yo
u are bulky: you do extensive reading, resorting to the codal and commentaries.
You then summarize and condense this information into notes which you annotate
onto your reviewer or text for the second reading.
The text which you use for your 2nd reading should be more compact than w
hat you used for the 1st reading. It should also contain your previous notes so
that there will be no need for you to return to your 1st reading text, except p
erhaps for portions which you need to refresh yourself on. Distill this informa
tion further into an even more compact form, say memory aids, an outline or mnem
onics for pre-week.

C. Do's and Don t's

D. Recreation and other non-Bar matters

Chapter III.
FILING YOUR PETITION TO TAKE THE BAR
What are the requirements for filing my petition to take the Bar?

Chapter IV.
SEPTEMBER
A. Should I be booked in a hotel for the Bar?

B. The Day Before

C. D-Day
Before the exam starts
(1) Bring your comfort stuff (e.g., favorite jacket, favorite pen, favorite choc
olates).
(2) Bring medicines for just in case.
(3) Go to the examination center early so that you can settle in and acclimatize
.

During the exam

(1) Skim over the entire exam so that you have an overview of the number of ques
tions being asked and the coverage of the topics involved. That way, you can pr
operly budget your time.
(2) If you cannot answer a particular question, MOVE ON to the next one. Just m
ake sure to leave adequate space for the question you've skipped.
(3) Do not sacrifice substance for brevity.

How do I answer questions?

D. The Morning After

(1) Stop thinking about the previous day's exam! Resist the temptation to find
out the answers to the questions. Remember: you can't change the past, but you
can still change the future.

TANYA'S TIPS
(1) For your first reading, start with the subject which you are least confident
with, moving your way up to your strongest subject. That way, if you run out o
f time, you have gained enough mastery in all subjects to ensure that you will n
ot be disqualifed in any one subject.
(2) Go for depth rather than speed. It is better for you to go slowly (for the
first reading), but understanding your subject matter very well, rather than to
breeze through your materials but only understanding the concepts superficially.
(3) Always focus on learning new things for the day. Your mental state is very
important to the quality of your review. If you approach your review with enthu
siasm and interest, you will be more productive and energetic. If, on the other
hand, you view review as a bore or as a chore that needs to be grappled with, y
ou will find yourself doing just that.
(4) Do not rely on other people's notes. Make your own.
(5) Notice how it's easier for you to remember something which a lecturer said,
or something which you wrote down rather than something you merely highlighted?
It is said that the more senses involved in the learning process, the more likel
y you will retain the information. So go for a multi-sensory approach as you re
view for the Bar.

HOW I STUDIED
The traditional way of studying for the Bar has been to focus on each su
bject, in isolation from all the others. So 2 weeks of poli and nothing else; t
hen labor, and so on and so forth.
However, while preparing for my Review, I noticed that certain topics ov
erlap into different areas of law: crim pro overlaps with crim and the bill of
rights; spec pro requires knowledge of succession; forms overlap with remedial.
If you break down the different Bar subjects, you will find the following compo
nent topics:
I. Political Law
* Structure of Government
- Legislative
- Executive
- Judicial
- Constitutional Commissions
* Bill of Rights
* Other constitutional provisions
- Principles and Policies
- National Economy & Patrimony
- ESTACS
- General Provisions
* Local Government
* Public Officers
* Election Law
* Administrative Law
* Public International Law
II. Labor Law
* Labor Standards
* Labor Relations
* Social Legislation
III. Civil Law
* Persons
* Property
* Oblicon
- Obligations
- Contracts
- Donations
* Succession
* Land Titles & Deeds
* Private International Law
* Sales
* Torts & Damages
* Credit Transactions
* Agency & Partnership
* Sales
IV. Taxation
* General Principles
* Income Taxation
* Donor's Tax
* Estate Tax
* Local Taxation
* Real Property Tax
* Tariff & Customs Code
* Tax Remedies
* Court of Tax Appeals
V. Commercial Law
* Corpo
* Nego
* Insurance
* Transpo
* Special Laws
- Securities Regulation Code
- Banking
- Secrecy of Bank Deposits
- PDIC Law
- Warehouse Law
- Mortgage
- Letters of Credit
- Trust Receipts
- Insolvency
- Intellectual Property Code (but not included since 1998 Bar)
VI. Criminal Law
* Book I (Fundamentals)
* Book II (Specific Crimes)
VII. Remedial Law
* Jurisdiction
* Civ Pro
- Basic Provisions
- Modes of Discovery
- Appeal
- Provisional Remedies
- Special Civil Actions
* Crim Pro
* Spec Pro
- Estate Proceedings
- Adoption
- Others
* Evidence
VIII. Ethics & Forms
* Code of Professional Responsibility
* Code of Judicial Ethics
* Rule 139-B
* Forms
- Motions
- Initiatory Pleadings
- Contracts
- Others
Rather than study for the Bar according to the specified fields of law (
i.e., poli, labor, etc.), I decided to outline my study schedule according to t
opic. I figured that by doing so, I could be more efficient because: (1) I wou
ld avoid double-studying caused by overlaps; (2) I would be able to correlate th
e overlapping subjects with each other, thereby enhancing the learning process;
and (3) I would have a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter be
cause the correlation would provide me an overview of the subject. I also figur
ed that this would be a prelude to actual law practice, where of course things a
re never as neatly compartmentalized as they are in law books. So I came up wit
h the following groupings:
A. Public Officers
Civil Service
Ombudsman Law (R.A. 6770)
Admin Law
Quo Warranto (Civ Pro: Special Civil Actions)
B. Criminal Law (Books I and II)
Bill of Rights
Criminal Procedure
Forms used in Crim Pro
C. Persons
PRIL
Succession
Spec Pro
Estate Tax
D. Evidence
Modes of Discovery (Civ Pro)
E. Transpo (Commercial)
Torts (Civ)
Insurance (Commercial)
F. Donations (Civ)
Donor's Tax
G. National Economy & Patrimony (Consti)
LTD (Civ)
H. Loc Gov
Local Taxation
Real Property Taxation
I. Mortgage (Commercial)
Mortgage (Civ)
Foreclosure of Mortgage (Remedial: Civ Pro, Special Civil Actions)
J. Banking (Commercial)
Bank Deposits (Commercial)
PDIC Law (Commercial)
Loan (Civ: Credit Transactions)
K. Insolvency (Commercial)
Concurrence & Preference of Credits (Civ: Credit Transactions)
Payment by Cession (Civ: Oblicon, Modes of Payment)
L. Property (Civ)
Forcible Entry (Remedial: Civ Pro, Special Civil Actions)
Foreclosure of Mortgage (Remedial: Civ Pro, Special Civil Actions)
Partition (Remedial: Civ Pro, Special Civil Actions)
Expropriation (Remedial: Civ Pro, Special Civil Actions)
Lease (Civ: Credit Transactions)
M. Judicial Department (Poli)
Code of Judicial Ethics (Ethics)
N. Remedial Law
Forms

Admittedly, certain subjects cannot be grouped with any other. Labor fo

r example really stands alone. So does most of Tax. But otherwise, it is possi
ble to find overlaps in the other subjects.

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