An Interview with A Bar Topnotcher

(This is an article I did for work. Just wanted to share it. May I add that the interview was done in Hiligaynon over the phone. And I might have bumbled more than once. But Atty. Mark was very gracious and accommodating. )

March 26, 2015 was an ordinary day for most. The atmosphere in NFA Aklan was different however. IT was the day the bar results were coming out and the son of PISO Liwanag Bejemino of NFA Aklan and PM Marianito Bejemino of NFA Antique, took the said exams last October, 2014. The TV was tuned to ANC while the Top 10 passers were announced. Shrieks of glee punctuated the tense and quiet atmosphere as the name of the Top 4 flashed on TV. It was no less than Atty. Mark Leo P. Bejemino.

As aforementioned, both parents of Mark are NFA employees. Their love story started within its four walls too. Atty. Mark is the second child of Engr. Maning and Li (as they are more commonly known.) Their eldest child is Dr. Liza Marie P. Bejemino. Atty. Mark was also featured in Grains in the year 2009 when he graduated cum laude in Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics at the University of the Philippines- Diliman.

In an interview with him, Atty. Mark initially did not have plans of taking up law but admitted that he was interested in it. After graduation he worked for Hewlett-Packard for a year and took the UP-Law Admission Exam to try his luck. He passed the exam and in 2010, he enrolled in UP-Law School and graduated in 2014.

The discipline he took from studying a rigorous branch of science, he says, helped in honing his critical thinking and reasoning skills.

“It is difficult. You have 8 subjects,  4 Sundays, 2 subjects per day, with questions from everything under the sun. The Supreme Court issues the list of subjects but it can be anything,” he replied on asked how did he find the Bar.

His tip for those taking the Bar and other aspiring students is simple. “There is no substitute for hardwork.” Unlike some of his peers who took a month long break after graduation, Atty. Mark commenced review a day after his graduation slowly at first until after gaining his momentum, he spent 8-10 hours studying everyday.

“The Bar was difficult. There were some questions you knew you had studied somewhere down the road but couldn’t recall exactly. It was also scary when you went out and you talked about the exam with your fellow examinees then find out that you were the only one who answered that way,” he shares. He also said that he avoided searching for the right answer after the exam believing it was not helpful at that point and might only affect his succeeding exams.

Although graduating with honors as well in UP Law, there weren’t really expectations and no pressure on him to top the one, if not the most rigorous and difficult examinations in the Philippines. There were also Sundays that he wasn’t so confident about his answers and he just hoped that it would even out with those he answered correctly.

Asked if his parents gave him any advice while he was studying, Atty. Mark said, “They told me not to push myself too hard and make sure that good health was still my priority.”