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Is Law School Worth It in the Philippines? A 4th-Year on Leave

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Image is AI generated   Updated October 2026. This post is my personal experience plus publicly available figures. It is informational only and not legal advice. For a long time, my life was measured in codal provisions, case digests, double-shot coffees, and the pressure of pushing toward the Philippine Bar. I treated law school like a marathon where stopping wasn’t an option. Except, I stopped. I’m now on indefinite leave from law school, in my senior year, for a few personal reasons. My law books and case outlines/digets are stacked in a corner and I’m honestly undecided about going back. What I can do from here is look at the profession without the panic of recitations. This post covers what I found on bar odds, starting pay and AI, and where I’m unsure. Is the Philippine bar getting easier? Not easy, but the numbers are better than they look in your worst month of reviewing. 5,594 people passed the 2025 bar, a 48.98% passing rate , compared with 37.84% (3,962 passers) in 20...
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7 Focus Strategies for When Your Brain Refuses to Cooperate (A Student Guide)

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Image generated by AI Originally published: July 2014 | Last updated: October 13, 2026 Some study tips are born from standard productivity theory, while others are discovered purely by accident when your brain decides that staring at a blank wall is infinitely more appealing than reading a single paragraph of text. If you have ever stared at a massive textbook or a screen filled with legal codes for hours, feeling entirely paralyzed while your attention bounces wildly between ten different tabs, you know how exhausting standard advice can be. Telling someone who is deeply distracted to just focus harder is like telling someone with short-sightedness to just squint. Instead of fighting your brain's natural wiring, you need a system that works with it. Here are 7 highly effective, implementable study strategies using modern day tools to help you lock in when focus feels impossible. 1. Externalize Your Working Memory With a Digital Brain Dump When your head is cluttered with a million...
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Location: Philippines
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5 Factors to Consider When Choosing a Law School If You're Working

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Are you holding a 9-5 job but thinking of upping your value by pursuing a law degree? Or you simply want to add more challenge to change your home-office routine? You have finally decided to pursue law and today is the perfect time to pick the law school that will make that possible. Choosing a law school can be a bit daunting if you don't know where to start and this is all the more true if you want to find one that will compliment your work life and schedule. Previously, law schools in the Philippines require incoming students to take an entrance exam, then an interview.   The PhiLSAT or the Philippine Law School Admission Test was conceived to make law entrance exams mandatory for incoming law students before they can enrol in any Philippine law schools. It was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2019.  To aid you in your law school hunting journey, here are 5 crucial factors you need to consider if you plan to work and study at the same time. 1...
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5 Tips to Self-reviewing for the Bar Exams

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The 2017 Philippine Bar Exams results will be released soon and I am sure,  the thousands who took it are all excited to see the outcome of their labor. It is inspiring to hear stories of bar passers who made it through sheer hard work and perseverance despite the odds. Last year, one new lawyer used to work as a janitor in a government office. Another is the story of a father dad who self-reviewed and passed the bar at the ripe age of 69 which brings me to the topic of self-review. This post is all about that. If you chose to self-review, these 5 tips might be helpful. 1. Make a study plan and stick to it Get an overview of the bar exams coverage by checking out the Bar exams syllabus.  Make an inventory of your resource materials and create a timetable to serve as your guide. It is hard to put everything into writing but believe me, putting a time period will give structure to your self-review schedule. Set weekly and monthly goals depending on the time l...
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5 Why's You Quit Law School

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I left law school many times but only to return when the humdrum of my daily work-home routine gets too predictable.  I love the challenge of being pressed for time when I am studying (not really ;P). I am sure, if you are a law student who at one point thought of quitting would identify with any of these 5 reasons. 1. Change of heart At one point, you might feel that becoming a lawyer is no longer a path you want to take. You might have another passion you are just dying to pursue. This happened to me at one point. When this happens, it helps to take a break for the meantime rather than push through with it only to give up permanently after you have spent so much money, time and effort. After working as a legal assistant, there was a time when I told myself I don't want to do this kind of work for the rest of my life. I had a burnout that time so I took a semester off. After a while I missed law school and came back. It is like a love and hate relationship for me...
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5 Reasons Why You Haven't Met Mr. Right Yet (If You're a Single Female Lawyer)

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I believe dating is both an art and a science. You get to be good at it when you put those theories in practice. It is not about the quantity though, it is more on being able to deal with different types of people and getting lessons from these experiences.  I am proud to have earned a masters, heh, which made me an expert in this topic.  If you happen to be a single (female) lawyer who has less luck in finding Mr. Right, this post will definitely help you avoid scaring off potential men. As much as possible, avoid these 5  pitfalls. I count a number of lawyer friends well into their early 30's, still single. One was a friend from high school.  Of course, the cupid in me  offered to sort out the dating messes they have gotten themselves into. We watch each others back through night outs, blind dates and stealth privacy in our cars in case of 'emergencies' if you know what I mean. Some of those friends might probably have a fit when they read t...
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Dadivas de Villanueva v. Villanueva, 54 Phil 93

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"The law is not so unreasonable as to require a wife to live in marital relations with a husband whose incurable propensity towards other women makes common habitation with him unbearable...xxx" My dears, this case happened even before World War 2, think 1927-ish era.  Nevertheless, the story seems familiar, in fact, this is still good case law as it is still cited in one of my Remedial law books.   Villanueva v. Villanueva G.R.  No. L-33352 Facts The wife (Aurelia Dadivas de Villanueva) files for support against the husband (Rafael Villanueva) to obtain separate maintenance as she decided to live separately from the marital home (a month before filing this case) due to the husband's cruelty and repeated infidelity with other women outside their marital ties. The wife also wants to obtain custody of their 2 younger children, aged 10 and 9 as well as reimbursement of attorney's fees incurred for this case. It appears that during the ten years prior to the ...
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