MANILA - Ignatius Michael "Mickey" D. Ingles was a member of the Ateneo de Manila University’s Football Team, the three-peat champs from 2004 to 2006. Today, he is a hotshot lawyer, topping even the Bar exams that saw only 17.76% of the examinees pass.
Ingles is proof that brains and brawn go well together.
In an interview with ANC, Ingles said his was a story of “balance and sacrifice.” It was only when he went to law school that he had to focus more on his studies.
He said playing football at his spare time was only to show a “semblance of what [I was before].”
Football may have become a breather of sorts, especially since the 2012 Bar exam is supposedly one of the hardest of all Bar exams in history. Nine hundred forty nine (949) examinees out of a total of 5,343 bar takers passed, constituting 17% of the total examinees. An original 5,686 were admitted to take the Bar but only 5,343 completed the four-Sunday examinations.
In 2011, 31.95% passed. The previous year, only 20.26% passed.
Deputy Clerk of Court and Bar Confidant Atty. Ma. Cristina B. Layusa earlier said that each exam for 2012 consisted of a Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) portion and an essay portion.
The MCQ portion had a weight of 60%, while the essay exam part had a weight of 40%. There was also a performance test (trial memorandum) in the afternoon of the last Sunday of the exams.
Ingles said of the 2012 Bar exam: “It was hard. It wasn’t only the MCQ that we had to deal with. We also have 40% essay. It was like we were taking two exams in a span of three to four hours.”
He said not everyone in Ateneo Law passed the Bar. “I was hoping Ateneo would go for 100% and that more people would have passed.”
“It was very hard, it was very long.”
He said he did not expect to top the Bar. “I just wanted to do my best and prepare…so that after, I wouldn't have any regrets.”
Ingles said that this time, football will take a back seat.
“I’m set on practicing law…I will concentrate on law,” he said.
Asked for his advice for law students, he said they have to prepare as early as their first year in law school.
source: abs-cbnnews.com
