FILE PHOTO BY RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net
A law graduate from the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City has topped the 2017 bar examination, the Supreme Court (SC) announced on Thursday.
Registering a passing rate of 91.050 percent, Mark John Simondo bested 6,749 others who also took the grueling four-day bar examination held at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) last November.
This is the first time in 16 years that the top notcher has breached the 90 percent passing mark. The last time was in 2002 by Arlene Maneja of UST with a score of 92.9%.
Overall, some 25.5 percent or about 1,700 of the total 6,750 law graduates who took the bar in November 2017 passed.
In the 2016 bar exam, about 59.06%, or 3,747 out of the 6,344 examinees passed. It was considered the highest rating in recent years.
The results were announced Thursday afternoon, following a special en banc session where the high court magistrates deliberated on the bar test results.
The 2017 bar examinees took a total of eight subjects for four consecutive Sundays in November: Political Law and Labor Law, Civil Law and Taxation, Mercantile Law and Criminal Law, Remedial Law and Legal Ethics and Practical Exercises. /kga
FULL LIST: 2017 Bar examination passers
