Metro Manila, Philippines – When the results of the 2025 Bar examinations were released, Jhenroniel Rhey Sanchez was not glued to a screen, refreshing pages like the rest of anxious examinees.
Instead, he was offline – by choice.
“I really didn’t want to hear anything about the Bar,” Sanchez, 32, said in an interview on The Newsmaker. “I wanted to be able to engage with the news at my own pace.”
Information spread like wildfire, however, reaching him while on a jeepney ride via a call from a friend who struggled to get the words out.
“They were stuttering through it and said I was top one,” he recalled. “I didn’t believe them.”
Moments later, he turned on his internet data. True enough, he passed the bar, and was even top rank.
Disbelief before celebration
Sanchez said it did not sink in initially.
“A slight bit of disbelief, thinking this can’t be happening,” he said. “But apparently it is.”
His family could not believe it as well. “My parents are very proud. My siblings were also surprised. Generally, shock all around,” he added.
Despite the historic result, Sanchez said topping the Bar was unexpected.
“Not in a million years,” he said. “I just really wanted to pass the Bar.”
An ‘average’ law student
Far from the image of a prodigy, Sanchez described himself as an average student throughout law school.
“I wasn’t intending for honors. I didn’t get any honors,” he said. “I just wanted to stay in the middle of the pack, keep my head down, and do what I needed to pass my subjects.”
That mindset was shaped in part by failure – when he failed civil procedure, a major law subject he had to retake.
“If you keep passing subjects, you get this inflated sense that you can take anything,” Sanchez said. “Then suddenly you trip. As much as it sucked, it was also a learning experience.”
Grit over intelligence
“It’s not really just about intelligence. It’s about having the tenacity and grit to keep going despite bad exams, bad scores, and bad resets,” he said.
The Bar review period, he said, was especially draining. Studying the same material day after day took its toll.
“Everything starts blending in,” he said. “There’s a part of losing yourself in the work. By the time you’re nearing the Bar, you’re still very exhausted.”
Still, he persevered.
“The bar review and the bar exam – for the most part- is an endurance game,” Sanchez said. “You just have to last.”
From engineering to law
Before law school, Sanchez trained as an electrical engineer. His interest in law, he said, was sparked during an engineering ethics class.
“It fascinated me that a profession needed to be defined by law and constrained by the provisions of law,” he said.
While studying law, Sanchez also worked, eventually taking on legal-related jobs and becoming a paralegal by the end of his law school years. Balancing work and study required focus.
“You really just have to deal with the problem that’s in front of you,” he said. “If you try to do everything at once, you’re not going to be doing anything.”
