November 10, 2005

 Dear Friend,

Thanks for visiting our website.

I am sure that you are as excited as we are in awaiting the final release of the Lex Pareto Notes.  By God’s grace, we will have the final release on February of 2006.

This project is dedicated to God Almighty, our families, friends and of course to the students of Southwestern University.

I could choose not to undertake this project considering that I am so busy in running our family business and being a family man at the same time, but I have decided to pursue this project for the following reasons:

1.)                    NECESSITY - Lord willing, we will be taking the bar exams next year. There is a need to go over the bar exam questions for the past 15 years. Since I am going to do it anyway one way or another, why not make it into something worthwhile ?

2.)                    INSPIRATION

a.)                       THE END OF POLITICAL STRUGGLE - “We are a SOLAS divided” (Sounds familiar ? That’s taken from president’s Arroyo’s speech) there’s so much political turmoil and disunity in the college. I want to emphasize that I am neither pro or anti-administration or pro or anti-opposition. I remain to be neutral as to the parties involved but I take a stand on some issues either in some issues I may be on the administration side, yet on some issues I may be on the opposition’s side. I believe that we should develop our political exercises into politics of issues rather than of personalities. I believe this is the stand of the rest of the Lex Pareto members. I wish that the Lex Pareto notes and other related project will unite us, and that it will make us realize that we can do more and do something good and useful academically rather than engaging in political mud slinging. I hope this project will serve as an inspiration to the future generation of Southwestern University law students. I call on all students to stop the bickering. Let us do something positive for the good of everybody.

b.)                      CHANGING THINGS THAT YOU CAN -  I am so saddened by how some of our fellow students see Southwestern University College of Law. They treat themselves or the College as a “Third-class” institution. When jackets were being sold by the Bar Ops, somebody even suggested to just place “College of Law” and not “SOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY.”  We keep on underestimating ourselves. Remember what the Bible says in the book of proverbs,  “As man thinketh in his heart, so is he” If we think we are losers, than we are already. We should stop this kind of attitude. We should focus on the things that we can do, and  not on the things that should have been. We keep on complaining that there are no law books in the library, or that we do not have a complete set of SCRA, then why not do something about it ? We keep on complaining that other law schools have this and that etc. etc. The question that we should all ask is not what should have been or could have been but rather what could we do about it. Our attitude and prayer in life should always be

“God give me the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed; Give me courage to change things which must be changed; And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.”

3.)                     LEGACY -  My life mission statement has always been “To Live, to love, to learn and to leave a legacy, all for the Almighty” I hope that the Lex pareto notes, the legacy that I together with the Lex Pareto team, will be leaving is something that we will all be proud of.

I hope and pray that the Lex Pareto Notes will fulfill all of these objectives. God bless you all. - Zigfred M. Diaz, Project coordinator

SOLVING THE BAR EXAM EQUATION

- By Zigfred M. Diaz*

“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 senior 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.”

Another 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 2005 and other information on bar preparations.

The final release of the LEX PARETO NOTES will be on the last week of February 2006.

For more information on the LEX PARETO NOTES check out their website at www.lexparetonotes.freeservers.com

*Zigfred M. Diaz is the LEX PARETO notes project coordinator. Together with Alrey Ouano, Louella Matsumoto, Maria Salud Barillo, Nholito Dayanan and Dannel Fernandez, they hope that this project will help not only those who will be preparing for the bar in 2006 but also the future generation of Southwestern University college of law students.