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According to some bar revew centers, there is. And they call it the Lex Pareto Notes, using the Pareto principle. Thanks to Atty. Zodiac and Atty. Pareto for contributing this info in the original Pinoylaw.com Message board.

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LEGAL ETHICS

Did you know that 34 % of the bar exams in legal ethics for the past 15 years, is taken from the Code of professional responsibility ?

Did you know that 78 % of the questions asked in the Code of Professional responsibility comes from Chapter 1 and Chapter 4 of said code ?

Did you know that out of 52 questions taken from the Rules of court, 29 are asked from RULE 138 for the past 15 years ?

Did you know that the “COMPLAINT” is the most favorite form asked in PRACTICAL EXERCISES, and that it has been asked for 20 times in the past 15 years ?

CRIMINAL LAW

Did you know that 77 % of the criminal law exam is taken from the revised penal code, 19 % from Special penal laws and other matters compose only 4 %

Observations on book 2 of the revised Penal code:

Book 2 has a total of 253 articles of which only 75 are asked (About 30 %)

These 75 Articles are asked 211 times

Out of the 211 times these articles were asked 178 (84 %) were taken from those articles that were asked at least twice.

The most asked crime was on murder, followed by homicide, estafa, robbery with violence against persons.

REMEDIAL LAW

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON QUESTIONS TAKEN FROM CIVIL PROCEDURE FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS:

1.) Civil procedure has 56 Rules. Out of these 56 Rules, 33 were asked.

2.) About 150 questions were taken out of these 33 Rules

3.) Of the 150 questions asked, 82 % were derived from only 14 Rules.

4.) These 14 Rules represents only 25 % of the total number of rules in Civil
procedure.

5.) The most asked article was on Rule 9 entitled “Effect of failure to plead” followed by Rule 6 “Pleadings”, Rule 3 “Parties to a civil action”, Rule 2 “Cause of action”, Rule 39 “Execution of judgment” and so on. It can be noticed that there is a very good reason why such rules were those that were frequently asked. These rules walks you to the process of a civil action. (Pleadings, parties, cause of action etc.)

CIVIL LAW

Did you know that the most asked book in the Civil law exam is Book 4 ? Book 4 (Obligations and contracts, Special contracts) consist of about 46 % of the exam in civil law ?

Did you know that 14 % of the questions asked in book 4 is about obligations ?

Did you know that 77 % of the questions taken from Book 1 are taken from the Family code ?

TAXATION

Income taxation, Remedies and General principles constitutes 85 % of the exam in taxation for the past 7 years.

MERCANTILE LAW

The corporation code, Negotiable instrument, Insurance code, securities regulation code, transportation laws, banking laws, maritime commerce and the civil code make up 85 % of the exams on mercantile law.
The other 15 % is composed of other special laws namely:

Asked more 9 times or more for the past 15 years:

– Intellectual property law
– Bulk sales law
– Insolvency law
– Chattel mortgage law
– Retail trade liberalization law

Asked less than 5 times for the past 15 years:

– Trust receipts law
– Letters of credit
– Anti-dummy act
– Flag law
– Electric power industry reform act
– Public service law
– Foreign investment act
– Investor’s lease act
– Constitution
– Other applied provisions of the code of commerce.

So what does the “Pareto principle” really mean ?

The 80/20 Rule means that in everything there is a “vital a few” (20 percent) that results in the “trivial many” (80 percent) For Pareto it meant 20 percent of the people owned 80 percent of the wealth. In Juran’s work he identified 20 percent of the defects causing 80 percent of the problems Project managers know that about 20 percent of the work consume 80 percent of time and resources. 80 percent of company sales will come from 20 percent of the sales people. 20 percent of the employee will cause 80 percent of the problems. The 80/20 Rule applies to almost anything, from management to science. So why can’t we apply it in preparations for the bar exam?

How can observing the Pareto principle in the bar exam help you ?

The value of the Pareto Principle for a bar candidate is that it reminds you where to focus your study on. Of all the laws that you have studied and read, only 20 percent really matter in the bar exams. Those 20 percent make up 80 percent of the bar exam questions. With this in mind a bar candidate should spend 80 % of his time studying the vital 20 %.

Some people say that we should not study hard but that we should study hard. Definitely that is true, however we should remember that it is more important to study smart on the right things.

Does the bar exam have a pattern ?

“Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot, but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the Old One. I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw dice.” – Albert Einstein

Whether we agree or not, we live in a world of order. Our world follows a set of rules and principles. The sun and moon just does not rise and set randomly, it follows a certain pattern. Seasons goes through certain cycles. What goes up must come down, and for every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.

Even how chaotic a system might be, there is always a certain “order” to it. Einstein’s quote above is often paraphrased as “God does not play dice with the universe”

To recognize the existence of such patterns and to make use of them will be certainly to our advantage.

In our study of law it cannot be denied that the preparations for the bar exams is given primordial concern. Preparing for the bar is not an easy task. Wouldn’t it be great if we would know in advance what particular article or subject area we should study? Is it even possible to know this?

The answer may be a yes or no. The science of probability and statistics is not an exact science. However it more or less gives us a general idea on things on what would be, though not what should be.

For this reason a group of lawyers and law students has developed a five volume reviewer for the bar exams called the “LEX PARETO NOTES”

What is the “Lex Pareto notes” and why call is called such ?

A famous bar reviewer once said, that only 25 % of the articles in the Civil code are going to be asked in the bar exams. The rest of the 75 % will never be asked or if they will be, they will seldom be asked. He quipped “Magiging ka tawa-tawa ang bar exam pag kinuha sa 75 % sa civil code ang mga questions.”

Prof. Abelardo Domondon, a very well known bar reviewer said that he topped the bar because he studied the previous bar exam questions and saw a “pattern” in the questions that are being asked. He even showed evidence concerning this matter.

This is what the Lex Pareto Notes is all about. The Lex Pareto Notes is based on the foundation laid down by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. If Pareto were alive today he could say that 20 % of the law are the questions that will most likely be asked in the bar exams, while approximately 80 % of it will rarely be asked or never asked at all.

Who is Pareto anyway ?

Vilfredo Pareto is an Italian economist. In 1906 he observed that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. Through that he created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country. After Pareto made his observation and created his formula, many others observed similar phenomena in their own areas of expertise. In the late 1940s, Dr. Joseph M. Juran a quality management pioneer based in the U.S attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto’s Principle. Dr. Juran reduced this universal principle into writing and gave another term for it the “Vital few, trivial many” principle.

So what does the “Pareto principle” really mean ?

The 80/20 Rule means that in anything a few (20 percent) are vital and many (80 percent) are trivial. For Pareto it meant 20 percent of the people owned 80 percent of the wealth. In Juran’s work he identified 20 percent of the defects causing 80 percent of the problems Project managers know that about 20 percent of the work consume 80 percent of time and resources. 80 percent of company sales will come from 20 percent of the sales people. 20 percent of the employee will cause 80 percent of the problems. The 80/20 Rule applies to almost anything, from management to the science. So why can’t we apply it in preparations for the bar exam?

How can observing the Pareto principle in the bar exam help you ?

The value of the Pareto Principle for a bar candidate is that it reminds you where to focus your study on. Of all the laws that you have studied and read, only 20 percent really matter in the bar exams. Those 20 percent make up 80 percent of the bar exam questions. With this in mind, a bar candidate should spend 80 % of his time studying the vital 20 %.

Some people say that we should not study hard but that we should study hard. Definitely that is true, however we should remember that it is more important to study smart on the right things.

The five volume work contains, graphs, statistics on how many times a question has been asked on a particular article. It will point out the applicability of the Pareto law in the bar exam questions. It also discusses the doctrines that were asked in the bar exams. The first four volumes corresponds to the subjects that will be given for the 4 Sundays of the bar exams. Volume 1 will be on Political law and Labor law. Volume 2 will be on Civil law and TAXATION. Volume 3 will be about Mercantile law and Criminal law while Volume 4 will be on Remedial law and Legal Ethics and Practical exercises. Volume 5 will be all about bar questions from 1990 to 2006 and other information on bar preparations.

For more information on where to buy the LEX PARETO NOTES 2007 edition and other information check out their website at www.lexparetonotes.8m.com.

REFERENCE:

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