There's no money in my chosen profession. Only hype about prestige and honor. Had I took up other course like nursing, engineering or perhaps a computer science course, I would have been working some where else outside of this beautiful country infested with corrupt people. I want to go back to school and take a better profession. But I no longer have the luxury of time and money. I am now a father of two very young innocent beautiful girls who looked at me as inexhaustible source of money for their Jolibee, dresses and chocolates.
I had a cousin who took up engineering. He didn't have a license but have plenty of working experience. First, he struggled to find a jobs here in the Philippines who discriminate non-licensed engineers. Later on, after he was able to amassed a wealth of job experience and expertise, he was hired abroad by a British employer that paid him 10,000 Euro (650K Pesos) a month net of expenses. It was a job he did not thought to have. Thanks for his not having a license or he would have grown complacent and got stocked here in the Philippines just like most Filipino licensed engineers.
In my case, I took up the much hyped Accountancy course. I took the overly strict and difficult CPA board exam and luckily passed it in first attempt. "Wow!" I said to my self. "I am now a CPA and can get a good paying job " I thought. Three months after I passed the CPA board, I can barely land even a janitorial job. Accounting firms were so choosy of hiring neophyte CPA's who are "Cum Laudes" and graduate of so called "elite schools" and pay them barely minimum rates. After years of working as Accountant, I laugh to myself becoming a member of underpaid, under-appreciated and overly hyped profession.
So I thought of studying Law course was good academic advancement and so I went. After 5 years of reading crooked English grammars from law books, I happily took the bar exam and with God's grace I already failed the Bar exam twice. The budget to take one bar exam is about 120K pesos or more. I won't take the Bar exam this year for financial reasons.
I am now earning a salary enough to bring food to the table and give clothes to my family. Forget about a home or a car, even if my salary is doubled or tripled, I can still not afford to buy a house or a car.
So now what? I don't know. I guess I will just hang on for a while and if things do not improve here in Philippines, Canada, Australia or New Zealand sounds a good option to go. After all, my wife is an accountancy graduate too and I'm sure my daughters will easily adopt a new environment with their young age.
It's really sad to see our lives passed by right our very eyes while working here in Philippines. Its like paddling a boat hard enough with getting anywhere.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Checking and grading the bar exams
Last September 2006, more than 6,100 examinees took the Philippine Bar exam. Last April 3, 2007, the bar exam results was published after 6 months of waiting. 1,893 examinees or 30.6% of the examinees passed the bar. The other 4,294 or about 69.4% of the bar examinees did not make the grade. Good for those who passed, better luck next time for those who failed. Life must go on.
But wait, do you know how much it cost for a bar examinee to take the bar exam? For a person who earns 20,000 pesos a month, he needs to let go 120,000 pesos of income to review for 6 months. For a province-based person, he needs to rent a place in Manila for an average of 10,000 pesos per month or a total of 60,000 pesos. Plus a budget of 10,000 per month for meals and living allowance, this means another 60,000 pesos. Include the plane fare, communication and school supplies and bar exam fee of about 20,000 pesos, a total budget of 250,000 pesos is a fair amount. All of these you spent in order to take the bar exam and get the chance to practice law.
The sleepless nights, the deep anxiety and nervousness is part of the game during review. Then comes the examination month. The examination takes four days, 8 hours a day. Examinees tackle 8 subjects averaging 3 and 1/2 hours per subject. After that, the examinees go back to their old life and wait for 6 months for the results.
Then follows the checking and grading the answer-notebooks of 6,100 plus examinees. Each examiner has more or less 5 & 1/2 month or 22 weeks to check, grade and submit the notebooks to the Bar Committee. Let us say the bar examiner will give a full 5 days of checking per week at 8 hours a day, this would mean that he has exactly 880 hours to finish reading, checking and grading the 6,100 plus notebook.
880 hours divided by 6,100 note books equals about 8.5 minutes per note book. This presumes that the examiner does not skip a day in checking and works strictly 8 hours a day, five days a week in 5 and a half month.
Checking a notebook for 8.5 minutes that took an examinee to answer 3 to 4 hours is a quite challenge. If every notebook contains answer for 30 question, this means that the examiner has to read and grade every answer at 17 seconds flat. This calculation does not include the adding the total score per notebook. You add the hand written factor of the examinees combined with the inexperience of the bar examiner in checking notebooks because they are usually non-teaching professionals hand pick by the Bar committee. The time element alone makes quality checking next to impossible.
No wonder many of those who passed the bar wondered how the got good score in a particular subject knowing that he failed to finished answering all of the questions or just gave wild answers to difficult questions. No wonder most examinees cannot believe that they get low scores on the subjects that they mastered very well and get high score for subjects they barely understood.
But wait, do you know how much it cost for a bar examinee to take the bar exam? For a person who earns 20,000 pesos a month, he needs to let go 120,000 pesos of income to review for 6 months. For a province-based person, he needs to rent a place in Manila for an average of 10,000 pesos per month or a total of 60,000 pesos. Plus a budget of 10,000 per month for meals and living allowance, this means another 60,000 pesos. Include the plane fare, communication and school supplies and bar exam fee of about 20,000 pesos, a total budget of 250,000 pesos is a fair amount. All of these you spent in order to take the bar exam and get the chance to practice law.
The sleepless nights, the deep anxiety and nervousness is part of the game during review. Then comes the examination month. The examination takes four days, 8 hours a day. Examinees tackle 8 subjects averaging 3 and 1/2 hours per subject. After that, the examinees go back to their old life and wait for 6 months for the results.
Then follows the checking and grading the answer-notebooks of 6,100 plus examinees. Each examiner has more or less 5 & 1/2 month or 22 weeks to check, grade and submit the notebooks to the Bar Committee. Let us say the bar examiner will give a full 5 days of checking per week at 8 hours a day, this would mean that he has exactly 880 hours to finish reading, checking and grading the 6,100 plus notebook.
880 hours divided by 6,100 note books equals about 8.5 minutes per note book. This presumes that the examiner does not skip a day in checking and works strictly 8 hours a day, five days a week in 5 and a half month.
Checking a notebook for 8.5 minutes that took an examinee to answer 3 to 4 hours is a quite challenge. If every notebook contains answer for 30 question, this means that the examiner has to read and grade every answer at 17 seconds flat. This calculation does not include the adding the total score per notebook. You add the hand written factor of the examinees combined with the inexperience of the bar examiner in checking notebooks because they are usually non-teaching professionals hand pick by the Bar committee. The time element alone makes quality checking next to impossible.
No wonder many of those who passed the bar wondered how the got good score in a particular subject knowing that he failed to finished answering all of the questions or just gave wild answers to difficult questions. No wonder most examinees cannot believe that they get low scores on the subjects that they mastered very well and get high score for subjects they barely understood.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Bar Topnotcher in the Philippines
Since about 1913, the Bar exam in the Philippines is among the news maker in country. The highlight of every bar exam results are the names of Bar topnotchers and the names of their respective schools. Today, topping the bar exam means fame, honor and good fortune for the persons and their alma matters.
It is interesting to note that at least three bar topnotchers had become Presidents of the Philippines namely Manuel Roxas, Ferdinand Marcos and Diosdado Macapagal. In the Congress and the Supreme Court, hundreds of Bar topnotchers assume high ranks. What is more interesting is that, almost every bar exam, only three schools always get the highest scores for more than a century, namely University of the Philippines, Ateneo De Manila and San Beda College.
I have no doubt that the students of these three consistent top law schools are very bright, hard working and deserving to get high scores. I also have no doubt that these three law schools are the best of the bests.
One thing I doubt is the consistency of these schools to dominate the highest score of bar exam for nearly a century. There are about 80 plus law schools in the Philippines reading and studying the same law, the same books, the same author. For these three schools to consistently dominate the topnotcher list in almost a century is very hard to believe.
I heard that Bar exam in the United States Bar exam do not post the names of topnotchers. You only get a "pass" or "fail" grade. I'm sure the United States Bar has strong reasons not to publish topnotchers. And I'm sure among the two reasons are (1) to prevent fraud and taking advantage of the fame as topnotchers and (2) not to over hype the result of the exam because an exam score does not determine the greatness of a person.
Here in the Philippines, our constitution prohibits the congress to declare or grant "royal title" to anybody. But the Supreme Court has a way to beat that prohibition. They can grant "royal titles" to people by making them topnotchers.
Philippines has been known for corruption since the time of Bar topnotcher president, Ferdinand Marcos. A very rich corrupt family would not mind paying 100 million pesos to make one of their family members become a Bar topnotcher. An honest but lowly paid Supreme Court Justice cannot afford to buy a brand new Toyota Sedan in cash from his own salary.
Get the picture?
It is interesting to note that at least three bar topnotchers had become Presidents of the Philippines namely Manuel Roxas, Ferdinand Marcos and Diosdado Macapagal. In the Congress and the Supreme Court, hundreds of Bar topnotchers assume high ranks. What is more interesting is that, almost every bar exam, only three schools always get the highest scores for more than a century, namely University of the Philippines, Ateneo De Manila and San Beda College.
I have no doubt that the students of these three consistent top law schools are very bright, hard working and deserving to get high scores. I also have no doubt that these three law schools are the best of the bests.
One thing I doubt is the consistency of these schools to dominate the highest score of bar exam for nearly a century. There are about 80 plus law schools in the Philippines reading and studying the same law, the same books, the same author. For these three schools to consistently dominate the topnotcher list in almost a century is very hard to believe.
I heard that Bar exam in the United States Bar exam do not post the names of topnotchers. You only get a "pass" or "fail" grade. I'm sure the United States Bar has strong reasons not to publish topnotchers. And I'm sure among the two reasons are (1) to prevent fraud and taking advantage of the fame as topnotchers and (2) not to over hype the result of the exam because an exam score does not determine the greatness of a person.
Here in the Philippines, our constitution prohibits the congress to declare or grant "royal title" to anybody. But the Supreme Court has a way to beat that prohibition. They can grant "royal titles" to people by making them topnotchers.
Philippines has been known for corruption since the time of Bar topnotcher president, Ferdinand Marcos. A very rich corrupt family would not mind paying 100 million pesos to make one of their family members become a Bar topnotcher. An honest but lowly paid Supreme Court Justice cannot afford to buy a brand new Toyota Sedan in cash from his own salary.
Get the picture?
The kind of Bar exam in Philippines
The Civil Code of the Philippines contains more than 2,000 articles. The family Code of the Philippines contains about 200 articles. Not to mention the countless other special civil laws, Gods knows how many landmark civil cases resolved and decided by the supreme court. All of them are possible topics in the bar exams under the subject of Civil law.
Now imagine your self as a Bar Examinee in the Philippines. You read, studied ans analyzed these thousands of articles in Civil Law and jurisprudence only to answer an average of 20 to 40 bar exam questions. You answer the questions in easy with your handwriting in 4 hours. How many articles can 20 to 40 questions possibly tackle? Is 20 to 40 questions enough to and conclusive to determine if you have enough knowledge and learning of the civil law consisting of more than 2,000 articles and the thousands of existing jurisprudence in civil laws?
Chances are, this type of exam is a "hit and miss" kind of exam.
Secondly, bar examinees were given four (4) long hours per subject to answer a maximum of 40 questions. In that four long hours, the examination is more or less a story-telling test or script writing test rather than a test to measure knowledge of a particular subject. More often than not, examinees get good grade based on good hand writing, good English and good writing style rather than pure knowledge of principles and concepts of the law.
Why not the Supreme Court improve the bar exam by going multiple choice to afford a greater number of questions per subject? This way intelligent bar examinees with ugly handwriting will have a fair chance in passing the exam.
Now imagine your self as a Bar Examinee in the Philippines. You read, studied ans analyzed these thousands of articles in Civil Law and jurisprudence only to answer an average of 20 to 40 bar exam questions. You answer the questions in easy with your handwriting in 4 hours. How many articles can 20 to 40 questions possibly tackle? Is 20 to 40 questions enough to and conclusive to determine if you have enough knowledge and learning of the civil law consisting of more than 2,000 articles and the thousands of existing jurisprudence in civil laws?
Chances are, this type of exam is a "hit and miss" kind of exam.
Secondly, bar examinees were given four (4) long hours per subject to answer a maximum of 40 questions. In that four long hours, the examination is more or less a story-telling test or script writing test rather than a test to measure knowledge of a particular subject. More often than not, examinees get good grade based on good hand writing, good English and good writing style rather than pure knowledge of principles and concepts of the law.
Why not the Supreme Court improve the bar exam by going multiple choice to afford a greater number of questions per subject? This way intelligent bar examinees with ugly handwriting will have a fair chance in passing the exam.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
The Agony of Waiting
Imagine watching a live basketball championship game where the scores of both teams are even. In the dying seconds of the game, one of the player throws the ball to the rim that looks like its gonna be a score. Just before the ball hits the rim, a black out happened.
Then you call the office of the basket ball promoter and they answer: "Wait for six months for us to determine if that ball made it to the basket."
That is exactly the picture when you take the Bar Exam in the Philippines. It will take them six months to tell you if you indeed pass or failed.
In six months, the life of the examinee is suspended.
Then you call the office of the basket ball promoter and they answer: "Wait for six months for us to determine if that ball made it to the basket."
That is exactly the picture when you take the Bar Exam in the Philippines. It will take them six months to tell you if you indeed pass or failed.
In six months, the life of the examinee is suspended.
Thoughts of a Bar flunker
Bad news!
Less than an hour after the “bomb’ exploded, I discovered that I remained intact physically, mentally and emotionally. Yet, with my pride broken into pieces and my confidence totally melted, to live and move forward became meaningless. I could see the Bar exams like a monster teasing and taunting me after it hit me with a mortal blow. I was defeated.
After experiencing the most horrible 2 hours of my life, I went out from my room and announced to my family that I am taking the next Bar exam to come. After that, I felt my pride and confidence slowly reappeared within me like a newly planted seed, fragile and tiny, yet full of life and hope that I can conquer and finally overcome the monster Bar Exam that defeated me 2 hours ago.
I was mortally wounded yet alive. I was totally devastated yet hopeful. I will conquer the bar exams no matter what!
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