Bar Exam
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Felix Evangelista
Mar 18, 2014, 10:16:55 PM3/18/14
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UP Law dominates Bar exams anew, recovering from 2011 fiasco
March 18, 2014 12:01pm
UP dominates Top 10 Bar passers . Of the 11 Bar exam passers in the Top Ten list, five are from UP. The 11 are: (L-R from top) Nielsen G. Pangan (UP), Mark Xavier Oyales (UP), Dianna Louise R. Wilwayco (AdeMU), Rudy v. Ortea (U Batangas), Eden Catherine B. Mopia (UP), Tercel Mara Mercado-Gephart (USC), Manuel Elijah J. Sarausad (U Cebu), Katrine Paula V.Suyat (SBC-Manila), Michael T. Tiu Jr. (UP), Marjorie Ivory S. Fulgueras (AdeMU), and Cyril G. Arnesto (UP). To check the full list of passers, go to http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/examresult/428/list-of-passers-in-2013-bar-examinations SC-PIO
UP's College of Law had failed to produce a single top-ten placer in the 2011 exams, causing much hand-wringing and even soul-searching in the nation's most respected law school. After tweaking its curriculum for better Bar performance, UP Law did respectably in 2012, bagging four of the top ten places.
But archrival Ateneo Law School captured the top two places that year, as well as the number one spots in the two previous years. 2013's Pangan is the first UP law graduate at number one since Joan A. de Venecia in 2005.
[Click here for complete list of passers]
Higher passing rate
The latest Bar exams' passing rate was 22.18 percent, according to 2013 Bar chairman and Supreme Court Associate Justice Arturo Brion at a briefing in Manila on Tuesday. That was a significant jump from the 17.76 percent passing rate in 2012, a 12-year low.
A total of 5,293 examinees hurdled the four Sundays of the exams, from the original 5,593 who were admitted to take them in October last year. According to the Supreme Court, 5,641 law graduates applied for the 2013 Bar exams.
The Bar exams are believed to be the most difficult among licensure examinations.
UP Law's new direction
"Medyo masakit noong (2011) kapag kinakantyawan kami dahil nga sa tradition ng UP Law before. Pero ngayon, happy na ulit lahat. Ako, happy. UP Law, happy. Lahat ng university officials, happy," said UP Law Dean Danny Concepcion, who was in his first year as dean when the dry spell hit UP in 2011.
Now in his third year as dean, Concepcion said the UP Law faculty continues to practice a new approach in teaching their students and training them for the Bar.
"Ni-refocus lang namin uli ang mga estudyante namin sa importance ng Bar exams. We exerted more effort in order to redirect the focus of the students back to Bar exams," Concepcion told GMA News Online in an interview.
"For a long time, hindi na sila nag-aaral for the Bar. Ang tingin nila papasa na sila. Baka sayang lang daw oras nila," he added.
Concepcion admitted that for a time, UP law students were giving more attention to studying non-Bar-related law courses that are "global in character" in order to remain competitive with neighboring countries in the region.
"Kung ang pag-aaralan ay ili-limit sa coverage ng Bar, hindi sila magiging up to date and at par sa mga graduates ng ibang bansa like the National University of Singapore," he said.
"Ang coverage ng Bar ay matatandang courses na, karamihan obsolete na. Kung ang pag-aaralan lang nila ay covered ng Bar, hindi na sila makakapag-aral ng bagong subjects lalo na yung global in character," Concepcion admitted.
Concepcion said UP Law's goal was to compete not with other local law schools but with foreign law schools.
"'Di kami nakikipagsabayan sa students ng ibang schools sa Pilipinas. Gusto namin makipag-sabayan sa ibang bansa," he said, adding that UP Law's toughest competition in Southeast Asia are schools in Singapore and Malaysia.
However, with the disappointment in the 2011 Bar exams, Concepcion said UP Law was forced to return its focus to Bar-related courses.
"Ni-redirect ko. Binawasan na ang courses na non-Bar-related. Ang in-encourage natin ay mag-enroll sila sa bar-related courses," he said.
The 2013 exams
The exams were held for the third year in a row at the University of Sto. Tomas along España Boulevard in Manila, without any untoward incidents, according to the local police.
Prior to UST, the exams were held at the De La Salle University in Manila. The 2010 bar exams at DLSU were marred by a grenade explosion as exam takers were exiting, causing injuries to over 40 people. A fraternity member was suspected of throwing the grenade at a rival fraternity.
For last October's Bar exams, the Supreme Court decided to change the rules. This time, the exams were mostly made up of essay questions rather than multiple choice.
The 80-percent essay portion was divided into eight divisions of 10 points each, with a maximum of two facts per division from which questions were drawn. Meanwhile, the 20-percent multiple choice questions (MCQ) portion of the exam was divided into four or five fact situations, from which the questions were asked.
The high court only introduced multiple-choice questions during the 2011 Bar Exams. However, for two years, or until the 2013 exams, results for the MCQ weighed more (60 percent) than the results for essay questions (40 percent) in computing for the final grade.
In August last year, or two months before the exams, the Supreme Court came up with guidelines for the examinees. Among them was a reminder not to use "carabao English" and an advice to construct sentences using only five to six words to increase readability.
Passing rates
The 17.76 percent passing rate in the 2012 Bar exams was the lowest since 2000 despite the lowering of the passing grade from 75 to 70 percent, in order to increase the number of passers from the original 361.
During the 2011 Bar exams, the passing rate was 31.95 percent with 1,913 successful examinees led by Raoul Angelo Atadero from the Ateneo Law School.
The 2011 passing rate was the second highest passing rate since 2000. Meanwhile, the passing rate in the 2010 Bar was 20.26 percent.
Brion said the SC en banc adjusted the passing grade for the 2013 Bar exams, from 75 to 73 percent "in light of various factors that the court considered."
Among these factors were the difficulty and type of the exams, as well as the "structure" of the grades obtained by all the examinees. Brion said the grades ranged between 85 percent and 28 percent.
Brion said the en banc also considered precedents, in which the high court had made similar adjustments in the passing grade.
Had the SC not lowered the passing grade and maintained a 75 percent passing grade, only 694 examinees would have passed or a much lower 13.3 percent of all examinees, Brion said.
Ma. Cristina Layusa, deputy clerk of court and Bar confidant, said her office is still preparing the passing rates of each law school, which would later be sent out to the schools.
She said these passing rates would not be made public, saying the high court does not want to be accused of being "unfair." People wanting to get these documents will have to ask from the schools themselves.
Suggestion
UP Law's Concepcion said he has already submitted to a Supreme Court committee, which is updating the Bar exams, a proposal to trim down the subjects covered in the exams from eight to just four, like in Singapore.
"Ngayon walo kasi ang subjects pero bawat isa napakalaki ng saklaw. Wala ka na oras para mag-aral ng global or international law practice courses so hindi ka magiging competitive sa region," Concepcion said.
He said there was a need to "modernize" the Bar exams and maximize a law student's time in studying both Bar-related and non-related courses.
"Kapag binawasan mo ang subjects, dadami ang oras na libre at makakapag-specialize ngayon ang eskwelahan," he said. — Mark Merueñas/HS/KBK/KG, GMA News
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Felix Evangelista
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