MANILA, Philippines—A total of 8,241 out of 11,402 passed the 2020/21 Bar examination, or 72.28 percent, Associate Justice Marvic Leonen said Tuesday.
At a press conference, Leonen said out of the 8,241, there are 761 who earned recognition for exemplary performance after obtaining grades from 85 percent to 90 percent. The number represents 9.23 percent of those who passed.
The Bar Examination is the first-ever digitalized Bar examination with only two months of waiting time to learn the result.
In 2020, the Bar Examination was postponed because the country was in lockdown due to COVID-19. In 2021, it was rescheduled anew following the surge of COVID-19 cases.
Then, in 2022, the high court decided to reduce the Bar exam coverage and set the examination date for two days—Jan. 23-25 but due to another COVID-19 surge, the examination was moved to February.
The two-day examination was pushed through last February 4 and 6 from 29 testing sites located in 22 local government units.
The Bar examination committee led by Justice Leonen has made adjustments and introduced innovations taking into consideration the existing pandemic which includes the health protocols imposed by the government.
The 2020/2021 Bar examination is a lot of first—first digital examination, first to conduct in several testing sites around the country, first time conducted for two days instead of the month-long four Sunday exam.
The 2020/21 Bar examination also departed from tradition by not releasing the top 10 examinees.
READ: SC departs from tradition, won’t announce topnotchers in bar exam
“On one hand, those who had intended to take the Bar Examinations in 2020 either had more time to review, or endured more time for waiting. The 2021 graduates, on the other hand, had to endure the long ordeal of preparing to graduate during the pandemic, causing delays in the graduation dates. They have been put in a constrained environment, with only a brief window of time to prepare,” Leonen said in Bar Bulletin No. 25.
Leonen added that “testing two batches of examinees that prepared under different circumstances—not to mention the vast number of combined examinees, placing an enormous demand on the examiners—compels the adoption of unique mechanisms that aim to balance these inequalities.”
Instead, the high court recognized exemplary performances of examinees as well as the law schools with the most number of passers among first-time examinees.
During Tuesday’s press conference, Leonen also announced that law schools have been divided into groups: Group 1 includes schools with more than 100 Bar takers; Group 2 are law schools with 51 to 100 Bar takers; Group 3 covers law schools with 11 to 50 and Group 4 includes law schools with 10 or fewer Bar takers.
From Group 1 with more than 100 Bar takers, they are ranked according to the percentage of their passers among first-time takers. The top five schools are the following:
Ateneo de Manila University – 99.6429%
University of the Philippines – 98.406%
San Beda University – 98.1061%
University of San Carlos – 98.0000%
University of Santo Tomas-Manila – 93.0556%
The top five law schools with most number of exemplary passers are the following:
University of the Philippines -147
Ateneo de Manila -100
San Beda University -94
University of San Carlos – 57
Arellano University – 39
The following law schools have produced the most number of excellent passers
University of the Philippines – 4
Ateneo de Manila University and University of San Carlos with 2
For third place with one excellent are the following schools:
Arellano University
Ateneo de Davao University
Far Eastern University
San Beda University
University of Cebu
University of the Cordilleras
In Group 2 with 51 to 100 Bar takers, the top five schools with the highest number of passers among their first-time takers are the following
Saint Louis University – 98.6667%
University of Cebu – 97.4026%
Xavier Universit-Ateneo de Cagayan – 96.9388%
Ateneo de Davao University – 96.4912%
Lyceum of the Philippines University – 94.3396%
For Group 3 with 11-50 Bar takers, seven law schools had a passing rate of 100% for first time takers, the following schools are:
Ateneo de Naga University
Bulacan State University
Jose Maria College
Mariano Marcos State University
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila
Siliman University
University of Asia and the Pacific
In Group 4, six out of 27 law schools had a passing rate of 100% among their first time takers, they are the following:
Abra Valley Colleges
Batangas State University
Rizal Memorial Colleges
Tabaco College
University of Makati
Western Leyte College
RELATED STORY:
SC spox: Release of Bar exam results to proceed as scheduled