Breaking age barriers: 62-year-old aces Bar exam on first try

MANILA, Philippines — Age doesn’t matter does not only apply to relationships, but also in one of the hardest exams in the Philippines. 

This has been proven by 62-year-old Rosula Calacala, one of the 3,812 examinees who passed the 2023 Bar Examinations. She passed the licensure test for lawyers on her first take. 

Calacala might be two years above the minimum age, entitled to 20% discount on medicines and some food, but she proved that she could still keep up with people barely half her age. She is one of the oldest Bar takers this year.

“I’m 62 years old passing the Bar, can you imagine that?” Calacala said in an interview with the reporters on Tuesday.

“I took the law school only in four years without a failing grade,” she added.

She entered law school at the age of 58 at Northeastern College in Isabela and took the Bar in September. 

Calacala was an accountant by profession which she had been practicing for 40 years before she decided to enter law school.

When asked what advice she would give to other law hopefuls with the same age as her, she responded: “Take the risk.”

“Just take the bar, you do not know your future,” Calacala said. 

Dedicating everything to God

Unlike most successful examinees who mentioned their desires to help their families or loved ones, Calacala’s next mission after passing the Bar is different.

She mentioned that her children had already graduated. According to Calacala, what is left for her with this “blessing” of passing the Bar, is to serve God. 

“I will serve my God,” she said crying while surrounded by the members of the press.

The Bar passer also shared that it was already late when she realized that she wanted to “enter lawyering.”

“Sabi ko noon eh, paano kung hindi ako nag-take ng law before? E di sana noon attorney na ako,”

(What if I didn't take up law before? Then maybe I'd be an attorney by now.)

“Bakit ngayon lang? dapat noon pa,” she added. 

(Why only now? It should have been earlier.)

Meanwhile, amid her Bar victory, Calacala was asked what would be her celebratory meal after nailing the exams.

"Ay lechong baka!" she said.