The bar exams

Today, our bar examinees will be taking part in the fourth and last day of the 2022 Philippine bar examinations chaired by Supreme Court Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa.

Just like last year, there are regional testing venues and the mode of taking the exams is digitized – using the computer-based Examplify software. So bad handwritings are no longer a problem.

The bar exam covers the usual subjects – Political and International Law, Criminal Law, Labor Law and Social Legislation, Civil Law, Mercantile Law, Remedial Law, and Legal Ethics – but removed Taxation Law as a separate bar subject, and adopts a three-examiner per subject policy.

The Philippine bar examinations is without doubt the most difficult licensure examination in the country. The fact that the exams are in digital form did not diminish its difficulty – the questions still required of the examinees a recollection of what they learned in four or five years in law school, the ability to identify and analyze what is being asked, and applying the rule of law and their analysis to answer the question.

If you want to become a lawyer and carry that “Atty” as part of your professional name, then there is only way, and that is to pass the bar exams.

But of course passing the bar is no guarantee of success in the legal profession, just like in any other profession which requires a licensure test.

It likewise does not determine what kind of lawyer they will become.

As pointed out by the National Union of People’s Lawyers, the bar exam, “is merely a door at the very end of a very long and arduous passage that once opened, permits you into a expansive hall filled with opportunities and responsibilities.”

NUPL president lawyer Ephraim Cortez pointed out that the bar exams is only a test like most others and that prestigious though it may be, this exam will not define one either as an individual or as a lawyer.

In the past, the bar exams also served as a competition among the different law schools for the top 10 highest grades. But last year, the top 10 grades were not announced, but instead, recognitions were given to the exemplary passers or those who scored 85 to 90 percent and the excellent performers or those who got ratings of over 90 percent.

Recognition was also given to the schools with the most number of excellent and exemplary passers.

This was because during the previous bar examination with Justice Marvic Leonen as the bar chairman, the Supreme Court decided to be more inclusive by drawing the focus from how every examinee performed competitively against each other but instead highlighting performance of law schools.

We do not know yet how it will be done under the Caguioa-led bar exam.

But one thing was made sure – it will not be as easy as the previous 2020-2021 bar, which was taken under the most difficult conditions due to the pandemic.

The 2020-2021 bar exam’s passing rate of 72.28 percent, which was one of the highest in the bar history (the highest was the 1954 bar with 75.17 percent), will also probably never happen again. A total of 8,241 examinees out of 11,402 takers passed the 2020-2021 exams held earlier each year. This year, around 9,100 took the exams. No bar exams were held in 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic. The exam which was originally scheduled in November 2021 had to be postponed to February 2022 due to increasing number of COVID-19 cases back then.

The November 2022 bar examinees were also required go on quarantine before and during the bar exams to avoid getting infected and had to be tested negative against COVID-19.

Moving forward, the Supreme Court has said that future bar examinations will be conducted via digital means to be in tune with technological advancements. And they will remain regionalized or localized unlike before when there was only one testing site and examinees from Visayas and Mindanao had to stay in Manila for at least a month for the exams which were held on four consecutive Sundays.

The bar examinations in the Philippines is still evolving to make sure that the examinees are only asked basic questions which entry-level lawyers should know how to answer. What is also being taught in law school is also being reviewed to make sure that it remains relevant.

And so for the thousands of students who have reached the end of their long journey, good luck.

But I would like to especially wish all my former students from Arellano University Law School, UST Faculty of Civil Law, University of Makati, PUP College of Law, University of Perpetual Help, University of the East, Lyceum, Adamson and Manila Adventist, and my reviewees at Villasis Law Center and Legal Edge Review Center the best of luck and success. You have prepared well and it is just a matter of time before you become full-fledged lawyers.

And thank you to all the law professors who helped these students along the way.

One journey ends, another one begins.

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