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SC announces new Bar exams rules


The Supreme Court has announced changes to be introduced in the 2011 Bar examinations. Those who made the proposals were Associate Justice Roberto Abad, chair of the 2011 Bar exams, and the Philippine Association of Law Schools. The SC recently announced that this year's exams will be moved from September to November. The venue was likewise transferred from the De La Salle University campus to the University of Santo Tomas campus. (See: Bar exams moved to November, to be held at UST ) In Bar Matter No. 2265, the high court also clarified how the Bar exams syllabus would be ‘re-defined’ as announced last November, as well as how to implement Abad’s earlier proposals on fielding multiple-choice questions instead of just essay questions. On March 7, 2006, the SC issued an earlier resolution (Bar Matter No. 1161) detailing the phase-by-phase adoption of Bar exams reforms which led to the introduction of multiple choice exams for the first time in the 2009 Bar exams. GMANews.TV is publishing the new rules outlined by the SC's en banc (full court) resolution, B.M. No. 2265, dated January 18, 2011. The SC said that the following rules "shall govern the future conduct of the Bar examinations:" 1. The coverage of the bar examinations shall be drawn up by topics and sub-topics rather than by just stating the covered laws. The test for including a topic of sub-topic in the coverage of the examinations is whether it covers laws, doctrines, principles and rulings that a new lawyer needs to know to begin a reasonably prudent and competent law practice. The coverage shall be approved by the Chair of the bar examination in consultation with the academe, subject to annual review and reapproval by subsequent chairpersons. 2. The bar examinations shall measure the candidates knowledge of the law and its applications through multiple-choice-questions (MCQs) that are to be so constructed as to specifically:

    2.1. Measure the candidate's knowledge of and ability to recall the laws, doctrines, and principles that every new lawyer needs in his practice; 2.2. Assess the candidate's understanding of the meaningand significance of those same laws, doctrines, and principles as they apply to specific situations, and 2.3. Measure his ability to analyze legal problems, apply the correct law or principle to such problems, and provide solutions to them.
3. The results of the MCQs examinations shall, if feasible, be corrected electronically. 4. The results of the MCQ examinations in each bar subject shall be given the following weights:
    Political law: 15 percent Labor Law: 10 percent Civil Law: 15 percent Taxation:10 percent Mercantile Law: 15 percent Criminal Law: 10 percent Remedial Law: 20 percent Legal Ethics/Forms: 5 percent
5. Part of the bar examinations shall be essay type, dedicated to measuring the candidates skills in writing in English, sorting out the relevant facts in a legal dispute, identifying the issue or issues involved, organizing his thoughts, constructing his arguments, and persuading his readers to his point of view. The essays will not be bar subject specific.
    5.1. One such essay examination shall require the candidate to prepare a trial memorandum or a decision based on a documented legal dispute (60 percent of essays). 5.2. Another essay shall require him to prepare a written opinion sought by a client concerning a potential legal dispute facing him (40 percent of essays).
6. The essays shall not be graded for technically right or wrong answers but for the quality of the candidate's legal advocacy. The passing standard for correction shall be work expected of a beginning practitioner, not a seasoned lawyer. 7. The examiners in all eight bar subjects shall, apart from preparing the MCQs for their respective subjects, be divided into two panels of four members each. One panel will grade the memorandum or decision essay, while the other will grade the legal opinion essay. Each member shall read and grade the examination answer of a bar candidate independently of the other members in his panel. The final grade of a candidate for each essay shall be the average of the grades given by the four members of the panel for that essay. 8. The results of the a) MCQ and b) essay-type examinations shall be given weights of 60 percent and 40 percent, respectively, in the computation of the candidate's final grade. 9. For want of historical data needed for computing the passing grade in MCQ kind of examinations, the Chairperson of the 2011 Bar examinations shall, with the assistance of experts in computing MCQ examination grades, recommend to the Court the appropriate conversion table or standard that it might adopt for arriving at a reasonable passing grade for MCQs in bar examinations. 10. In the interest of establishing needed data, the answers of all candidates in the essay-type examinations in the year 2011 shall be corrected irrespective of the results of their MCQ examinations, which are sooner known because they are electronically corrected. In future bar examinations, however, the Bar Chairperson shall recommend to the Court the disqualification of those whose grades in the MCQ is so low that it would serve no useful purpose to correct their answers in the essay-type examinations. 11. Using the data and experience obtained from the 2011 Bar Examinations, future Chairpersons of Bar Examinations are directed to study the feasibility of:
    11.1. Holding in the interest of convenience and economy bar examinations simultaneously in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao; and 11.2. Allowing those who pass the MCQ examinations but fail the essay-type examinations to take removal examinations in the immediately following year.
12. All existing rules, regulations, and instructions that are inconsistent with the above are repealed. This Bar Matter shall take effect immediately, and shall be published in two newspapers of general circulation in the Philippines." — MRT/RSJ, GMANews.TV
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