2022 Bar topnotcher bares secrets in topping law licensure exam
MANILA, Philippines — Many aspiring lawyers never pass the Bar exam, but for UP graduate Czar Matthew Dayday, the friends he met along the way helped him in his journey to be the topnotcher in last year's law licensure exam.
Dayday is just one of the 3,002 who passed the exams, with results just being published on Friday by the Supreme Court.
"I'm feeling really good. It's still a bit of a shock," he said in an interview with Inquirer.net today. "I mostly prepared really by studying every day."
But besides studying, he dilligently stuck to routines and schedules laid out in his calendar — including what time and date he should finish dealing with his subjects.
"Mostly, what I think really worked for me is studying with my friends. I have these group of three friends that I really study with every night," he added.
"What we would do is maybe around 8 p.m. or 9 p.m. we would go on Zoom together and we would just study as a group so that at least it feels like we have a group of people who would keep us accountable."
In a separate interview with ANC, he said that he was in denial at first when he heard the news. Even joking that "there must be another Dayday who took the test."
As far as he is concerned, he just wanted to pass since future employers and clients will never ask about their rankings. "Once you pass the Bar, you're all equal as lawyers," he added.
"I just wanted to pass, honestly."
He finished with a rating of 88.808%, besting the rest of the Bar passers.
'Always ask questions, be open'
Like many others, he dreamt about being a lawyer at a very young age in high school, admitting that lawyers were often portrayed as cool problem-solvers in movies and television.
But as the years went by, he quickly learnt that things were not exactly how they were portrayed in the media. But like in the movies, he knew that he could help people in difficult situations.
Asked about what advice he could give to aspiring lawyers, he said that they should continue working hard, be open to experiences, have curiousity and eagerness to know and always ask questions.
"I think for me the primary point of advice that I would like to give to aspiring lawyers who will be taking the Bar exam is really to trust the process. Because really, to me, I am really a firm believer that we are essentially what we repeatedly do," he said.
"All of the small things that you do every day gradually accumulate. And the results are simply what happens because of the things that we do every day. I think the best advice I could give is to always be open to learning and growing as a person. Because that's really how you become the best person that there is," he added.
Four other UP students are included in the top five in the Bar, namely: Erickson Marinas (88.7666%), Christiane Cregancia (87.9667%), Andrea Jasmine Yu (87.7750%) and Kim Gia Gatapia (87.4250%).
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