It’s been called a tectonic shift in the global economic environment, with aftershocks to be felt for some time to come.

First, investment bank Lehman Brothers , a firm founded in 1850 and which survived the Great Depression, two world wars and every market upheaval before and since, went belly-up over the weekend. Then rival Merrill Lynch was sold to Bank of America for a fraction of its value of just a few months ago.

American International Group (AIG), one of the world’s largest insurers, was effectively bought by the U.S. Federal Reserve for a bailout amounting to US$ 85 billion to forestall its impending bankruptcy. AIG is the mother company of the local Philippine American Life Insurance Company (Philamlife). It’s often been said that when the U.S. sneezes, the Philippines catches a cold. Well, when the U.S. gets a cold, we get pneumonia. Read the rest of this entry »

The annual Philippine Blog Awards is set for this Sunday, 21 September 2008 (for those old enough to remember, the anniversary of Ferdinand Marcos’ declaration of Martial Law ) at the One Esplanade, Mall of Asia complex along Roxas Boulevard.

All bloggers are invited to attend and traipse down the red carpet in their show-stopping finery. Or better yet, just come as you are. All will be welcome, regardless of gender, age, creed or political persuasion (or lack thereof). It’ll be a blast. Registration starts at 5:00 p.m. and the awarding ceremonies start at exactly 6:00 p.m. Prizes and surprises await you, with a party afterwards. So get there early. Read the rest of this entry »

Pam Mueller in The Situationist asks a few intriguing questions.

The process of studying for the bar takes thousands of intelligent and accomplished law students and transforms them into anxious, self-doubting creatures whose exam-induced neuroses often extend beyond the confines of the test…

How does this stressful situation impact the lives of these formerly confident and capable law students? How can these students get past the power of the situation to let their proven capabilities carry them through the bar exam, as they have carried them through other difficult situations? Does empirical research shed any light on the subject?

Read the rest of this entry »

Common experience and intuition tells us self-efficacy judgments are generally associated with performance. In other worlds, how we judge ourselves when performing a certain task colors our expectation of the outcome. In relation to the bar exams, if we feel or perceive we did well in a certain subject, we expect to pass that subject. This is a natural human reaction.

Thus, in my previous post on the 2008 Philippine bar exams, Wilfred Magz posted a comment in which he expresses a common anxiety among bar takers and illustrates a phenomenon I’ve observed over the years in examinees of other licensure exams aside from the bar. With his permission, I am quoting a part of his comment here:

I am one of those 6530+ bar examiness who just finished taking the second bar exam subject ( Labor Law and Social Legislation, the “love” of my life in law school…too bad it did not love me back ) of the first day of the Bar examination month.

What can I say? I feel like the whole world just fell smack on my head. Although the booklets have not yet been officially corrected, the results for me were really abysmal. If I checked my own examination booklet on Labor Law and Social Legislation I would give it a grade of 50, and I am being rather merciful. Political Law wasn’t too bad and I would grade myself 60.

Wilfred thinks he fared badly in labor law and did better in constitutional law. His evaluation is based on the degree of difficulty he had while taking the tests. But from my own experience, the actual results did not match my self-perception of how well I did. In fact, it was the exact opposite. I did well in the subjects I thought I would fail because I had a hard time and got lower grades in the ones that I was confident I aced. And this was the experience of others as well. What gives ? Read the rest of this entry »

The 29th Metro Manila International Book Fair (MIB) is ongoing until tomorrow at the SMX Convention Center Halls 1-4 of the Mall of Asia. This is the annual bibliophiles’ bacchanalia we have been waiting all year for. By we, I mean hard-core bookaholics (people addicted to bookachol). For book lovers of all stripes and persuasions, all roads will lead to the book fair this weekend, and here are a few tips to help you get through it. Read the rest of this entry »