2012 Bar exams moved to October

MANILA, Philippines–The 2012 Bar examination has been moved to October, a month earlier than the original schedule, and has a modified format mixing the traditional essay type with multiple choice type of exam.

In an en banc (full court) session, the high court said the examination will be at the University of Santo Tomas on the four Sundays of October 2012 (October 7, 14, 21 & 28). Last year’s exam was in November.

Aside from that, the high court modified the format of the exam. For this year, seven of the eight subjects will have 60 percent multiple choice questions and 40 percent essay type of problem.

Every Sunday, there will be two subjects unlike last year where there are two Sundays with three subjects to accommodate the memorandum and legal opinion writing on the last Sunday of the exam.

For this year, Legal Ethics will contain 50 questions which is scheduled for the morning of the last Sunday of the exam while memorandum writing will be in the afternoon.

This year’s Bar exam committee chair Associate Justice Martin Villarama said the memorandum writing will be about simple civil or criminal action.

He said all examinees will also be allowed to bring home the questionnaires after every subject.