Statistics on the 2014 Bar Examinations
(Part 3)
by
Thads Bentulan
thadsbentulan@gmail.com
Cost of the bar
Wait, do you even
know how much a provincial candidate spends for taking the bar?
Let’s see. Knowing
the success rate is only 10%, that is, your probability of failure is 90%, you
go to Manila in June to attend Manila’s best review school and rent a room for
yourself for maximum concentration. Round trip air ticket, that’s about P8,000.
The review fee is about P33,000. For
best concentration, you rent a unit for P15,000 per month for 6 months, that
P90,000.
You want to obtain
the bar materials from other schools. Assuming photocopy charges of P700 per
subject, that’s P5,600 per school; for the bar materials of the top three
schools, that’s a sum of P16,800. Of course, you want to buy your own review
books on top of the bar materials, assuming P2,500 per book, then that’s
P20,000 for eight subjects of the bar.
Now sometimes you
want new textbooks because yours are outdated. You may had 30 texts in law
school. Say, instead on renewing all your 30 textbooks, you only renew 6.
Assuming P2,000 each, that’s a sum of P12,000. Photocopying of last minute exam
tips, let’s say P500 per subject, that’s P4,000.
There are also special
coaching and lecture sessions conducted usually in hotel conference halls,
during the bar exam month itself, and that should set you back at least P2,500
per subject, a total of P20,000 for the eight subjects.
How about food?
Assuming each meal is P100, that’s P54,000 for 6 months. Sometimes you relax
with friends having pizza once a week or a buffet lunch, assuming you spend
P500 per week, that’s P12,000 for 6 months.
Your cellphone calls
and texts, about P1,000 for each of the 6 months, that’s P6,000. Your internet
costs about P1,000 per month, that’s P6,000. Your transportation, two taxi
round trips per week, P200 one way, about
P800, and bus trips about P200 per week. That’s total transpo P1,000 per
week, that’s P24,000 for 6 months. Laundry is about P300 per week, that’s
P7,200.
Now, probably once,
due to a family emergency, you go back home for three days. That’s another
round trip ticket of P8,000. Don’t buy new clothes.
Add miscellaneous expenses
(like staplers, tapes, ballpens, birthday gifts, celebrations, etc) of P1,000
per month, that’s P6,000.
And the grand total
is: P327,000!
You maybe tempted to
ask: But even without the bar, you spend for food, laundry, transpo, cellphone
anyway? Yes, that’s true. But previously, you had a job and that funded your
daily expenses. Now, you are on office leave without pay, or had resigned from
your job. This means, you really need to have the cash amount of over P300,000
to pay for your personal expenses for six months.
And, by the way,
have you forgotten your family? What are they supposed to eat, or how to pay
for the aparment rent, the tuition of your children, their school projects,
their transportation and school allowance, while you are reviewing? Assuming,
your wife is working you would still have to allocate money from your end
because it is unlikely she can afford those tuition fees and school projects.
Let’s say, your family had a P50,000 monthly budget, and you have to allocate a
small sum of P25,000 a month as your counterpart, that’s P150,000 for your
family back home.
Therefore, overall,
for the six-month ordeal you need to have around P450 or close to half a
million pesos to support yourself and your family while you are not earning
while preparing for the bar exam.
You didn’t realize
it was that expensive? You might say my estimates are too high? Look at those
assumptions one by one. Make your own spreadsheet.
Alright, you want to
economize and you can shave off a third of the cost. That’s still around P270,000!
You’re an extremely good in budgeting and
you can shave off half of the costs, that’s still P240,000. Okay, alright, you
want to save 75%! That’s still P118,000!
And all these
expenses that could run up to half a million pesos for a physically, emotional,
and mentally draining endeavor with a 90% probability of failure. That’s not a
happy prospect.
- End of Part 3 -
-To Be Continued-
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