FAST FACTS: Philippine Bar examination

For 2015, the exams are moved from October to November, and have 100% essay-type
questions. See other interesting facts about the Philippine Bar examination

Reynaldo Santos Jr
@reysantosjr

Published 7:52 AM, November 08, 2015

Updated 8:18 AM, November 08, 2015

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) - For 2015, some 7,146 Law graduates were admitted
to take the annual Bar examinations.

This year's examination is chaired by Supreme Court Associate Teresita Leonardo-de

Castro, and is the 114th exam since it was first conducted in 1901.

For this year, the examinations were moved from October to November in consideration
of the academic calendar shift of some law schools in the country.
Also, essay questions constitute 100% of the examinations. (See the Supreme Court
rules and guidelines here.)

Here are other interesing facts about the exam, all obtained from various news reports.

EXAMINEES:

 The 2008 Bar exams admitted the most number of examinees -- 6,533.
Only 20.58% of them passed.
 The highest percentage of exam passers was in 1954 with 75.17 percent,
while the lowest was in 1999 with 16.59 percent.
 Former Supreme Court (SC) associate justice Florenz Regalado has
obtained the highest Bar exam average to date, after geting 96.70 percent
in 1954. Regalado died in 2015.
 Former senator Tecla San Andres-Ziga, who got 89.4 percent in 1930, is
the first woman to top the Bar exams.
 Former senator Jose Diokno topped both the 1940 CPA exams and the
1945 Bar exams. He was the only Bar topnotcher not to have graduated
from law school. He was home-schooled by his father, former SC justice
Ramon Diokno.
 Francisco Noel Fernandez failed when he first took the exam in 1993, but
topped the 1994 exam with a grade of 89.2.
 The very first Bar exams in 1901 only had 13 examinees.
 All Philippine president-elect lawyers were Bar placers: Sergio Osmeña
(2nd place, 1903), Manuel Quezon (4th place, 1903), Manuel A. Roxas
(1st place, 1913), Jose Laurel (2nd place, 1915), Elpidio Quirino (2nd
place, 1915), Diosdado Macapagal (1st place, 1936 Bar Exams), and
Ferdinand Marcos (1st place, 1939 Bar Exams).
 Only 14 law schools has so far produced Bar topnochers, wih the most
coming from the University of the Philippines College of Law and the
Ateneo de Manila Law School.
 The most recent Bar topnotcher (2014) is Irene Mae Alcobillafrom the San
Beda College-Manila. Three out of the 10 top passers came from San
Beda College-Manila, while UP had the most graduates in the list.

RULES:

 In 1982, the passing grade was fixed at 75 percent, but was lowered to 70
percent in the 2007 exam due to low exam results. If this rule wasn't
changed that year, only 5 percent of the 5,626 examinees would have
passed.
  The “five-strike” rule (wherein a Law graduate can only take the exam 5
times) was first applied in 2005. This rule was lifted this year due to last
year's low passing rate.
 Also implemented in 2005 was the "three-failure" rule (wherein a 3-time
Bar flunker needs to attend a one-year refresher course before retaking
the exam).
 The exams used to be largely essay-type until the introduction in 2011 of
the multiple-type questions. On that year, 60 percent of the exam
consisted of multiple choice questions, while only 40 percent was left for
essay.
 Since 2013, the exam has 20% muliple choice questions and 80% essay-
type questions.
 Prior to 2011, the exams were held every September at the De La Salle
University, but was moved to a different date and location after violence
rocked the last day of the 2010 Bar exams.
 Reports of exam leakage surfaced in the 1979 and 2003 Bar exams. -
Rappler.com

Editor's Note: We earlier mentioned former SC associate justice Carolina Aquino as

another bar topnotcher who did not graduate from law school. In fact, she transferred to
the UP College of Law and graduated from there. We regret the error.