2023 Bar topnotcher says he’s dreamt of being lawyer for the longest time
MANILA, Philippines — The culmination of a dream. That is how Ephraim Porciuncula Bie described the feeling of passing the 2023 Bar examinations when results were announced on Tuesday.
But little did he know that he would be named the topnotcher of this year’s examinations, scoring 89.2625 percent among 3,812 passers out of 10,387 examinees.
“I’ve dreamt of being a lawyer for the longest time. This is like the culmination of a long journey for me. I was a working student so this is actually, this is far from what I was expecting,” Bie said in an INQToday interview.
Bie, who took up his law studies at the University of Santo Tomas, said that he was with his mother when the results were announced, and initially, he did not think that he was going to pass.
“The exam was really hard so I actually was bracing for the worst. I thought I was going to fail the exam. I was with my mother and I was telling my mother, ‘I think I’m going to fail.’ It was such a surprise for us when we saw that I was the top one,” Bie said.
Currently, he is working at a law firm where he hopes to “gain as much legal experience as possible with the best legal practitioners in the country,” he said.
The bar topnotcher also said that he was a former working student and that he managed his time to accommodate his work and studies.
“I was a writer while studying law, so I blocked my time, I set time for studying, I set time for working; it was just a lot of sacrifices just to make it to law school. There’s no shortcut,” he said.
He also told those aspiring to become a lawyer to schedule their time, note their strengths and weaknesses, and rest whenever they need it.
“Just try to read as much as you can if it’s a shorter bar schedule like this year, then try to schedule, try to be honest with yourself, your weaknesses and strengths, then if you need rest, don’t forget that we’re human and we’re mortal and we need rest whenever we’re tired,” Bie said.
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