FOLLOWING intensive review sessions, UST saw its passing rate in the Bar Examinations zoom to 81 percent.
A total of 76 Thomasians passed out of 94 who took the 2015 Bar Exams, or a passing rate of 80.85 percent. This was higher than 2014’s 59-percent passing rate, in which 68 Thomasians passed out of 115 examinees.
Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina said 38 out of 47 first-time Thomasian examinees made the cut, or a passing rate of 82.22 percent.
A top-10 finish remained elusive for UST. The last UST graduate to enter the top 10 was Christian Louie Gonzales, who placed fifth with a score of 84.09 percent in 2011.
The national passing rate rose to 26.21 percent or 1,731 successful examinees out of 6,605, from last year’s 18.82 percent or 1,126 out of 5,984.
Rachel Angeli Miranda of the University of the Philippines topped this year’s bar exam with a score of 87.4 percent. Athena Plaza of the University of San Carlos (87.25 percent) and Jayson Aguilar of UP (86.75 percent) placed second and third, respectively.
Former Varsitarian staff members Akemi Aida and Kristine Jane Liu were among those who passed the 2015 Bar Exams, held in UST last November.
The exams, which were all essay questions, covered eight subjects: Political and Public International Law, Labor and Social Legislation, Civil Law, Taxation, Mercantile Law, Criminal Law, Remedial Law, and Legal and Judicial Ethics.
According to Bar Exam rules, a bar examinee is deemed to have passed his or her examinations successfully if he or she has obtained a general average of 75 percent.”
Dean Divina attributed this year’s improved results to new review materials and a peer coaching system.
“We really dedicated time and money and resources. We provided our reviewees with all the cases penned by the chairman of the Bar Exam committee and all the cases penned by justices. We prepared for them also the summary of jurisprudence,” Divina said in an interview. “We adopted this peer coaching system so we assigned a faculty member for five examinees giving them encouragement, advice, suggestion and strength to be able to continue up to the end. And of course you have to add prayers.”
Divina said the exams for all subjects in the Faculty of Civil Law were departmentalized since last semester. If students master jurisprudence, past bar exam questions and basic legal principles, a 100-percent passing rate is possible, he added.
Divina confirmed that UST will again host the 2016 bar exams. D.T. Cudal and A.A.M. Peralta
