Rex raises the bar on legal education

MANILA, Philippines - Arguably the most difficult of all government licensure examinations in the country, the Philippine Bar examination is a requisite “rite of passage” to becoming a full-fledged lawyer. That is why each year, thousands of law students gather for four consecutive Sundays to take this national licensure exam for admission to the practice of law. But months before these bar exam candidates even get to the examination venue, the rigorous process of reviewing begins. And while program schedules, content, and delivery vary from one review class to another, the objective of helping bar examinees hurdle this qualifying test with flying colors holds true.

Now bar examinees, however, can look forward to something different. With the Supreme Court of the Philippines’ signing of Bar Matter 2265, otherwise known as Reforms in the 2011 Bar Examinations, relevant changes in the conduct of the exam will be put into effect. One of the more salient changes is the use of the Multiple Choice Question format — a first in the licensure exam’s more than 100 years of history — which, according to the High Court, shall constitute 60 percent of the grading system.

To allay apprehensions among bar examinees regarding this new development, Rex Book Store, Inc. (RBSI) has come up with the perfect solution. As the country’s leader in legal education materials, it developed the Rex MCQ Project — a training guide primarily intended to help bar examinees become more familiar with the new multiple choice question format of the test. “We commissioned eight noted law professors and bar reviewers — one for each bar subject — to help us develop the Rex MCQ Project”, said Don Timothy Buhain, chief operating officer of RBSI. “This new reviewer contains 100 questions for each of the bar subjects, specifically political law, labor law, civil law, taxation law, mercantile law, criminal law, remedial law, and legal and judicial ethics. What’s more, we also made sure that the presentation of the questions, as well as the answers, is according to the sequence of subject examination schedule in the bar exams”.

In the Rex MCQ Project, suggested answers were researched to aid the reviewee in self-checking his/her answers; the sources of the answers are also provided in the guide as reference. “Although it is not a comprehensive reviewer, bar candidates studying for exams will find this a very helpful and important study tool because of the qualitative questions crafted to meet their needs,” Buhain added. The Rex MCQ Project is now available in paperbound edition at all Rex Book Store branches nationwide.

Another exciting innovation in the realm of legal education that Rex will be introducing soon is the Rex Case Digest (RCD) Apple Application. Developed by RBSI for law students and lawyers, the RCD App will be available through iTunes and can be accessed using the iPod, iPhone or iPad. The free version enables users to access the entire databank of Supreme Court rulings on Civil Law cases upon downloading the RCD app. In addition, the app lets the users see the case titles, G.R. numbers, and dates of the cases for other law subject areas; to have complete access in viewing the full text of all these other cases, however, the user needs to download the paid version of the RCD app. With the paid version, the user also gets to enjoy additional features, such as font size selector, a built-in search function which lists the top 20 cases containing the key word/s typed, in order of relevance, and a bookmark function which provides fast and easy reference to cases at the click of a button. For iPad users, the RCD app also features a choice of landscape or portrait orientation.

“We are very excited about this new product, which will allow Rex Book Store to leapfrog straight into the digital technology arena as far as legal education is concerned. The Rex Case Digest App is definitely an integral tool for anyone undertaking legal research, because it gives users quick, easy, and convenient access to Supreme Court decisions through their portable gadget,” Buhain expressed.