THE UNIVERSITY will host the 2016 Bar Examinations for the sixth consecutive year after getting positive feedback from the Supreme Court.
UST has been the host of the Bar Examinations since 2011, after the University signed a contract with the Supreme Court. The contract is renewed annually.
Faculty of Civil Law Dean Nilo Divina said the Supreme Court Justices were “very happy” with UST as venue of the Bar Exams.
“They decided to renew the contract with UST. [UST] will be the venue [of the Bar Exams] for many more years,” Divina said in an interview with the Varsitarian.
However, the Faculty of Civil Law is not supposed to be involved in the preparations because Thomasians also take the Bar Examinations, Divina said.
The 2016 Bar Examinations is scheduled on all four Sundays of November. A liquor ban will be implemented around the campus. The selling of beer and other alcoholic products between 4 a.m. and 8 p.m. will be prohibited during examination days.
Last year, there were no major incidents reported during the Bar Examinations. The Manila Police District, however, banned party poppers due to a minor disturbance on the last day of the tests.
Supt. Mannan Maurip of the Sampaloc Police Station said the 2015 Bar Exams were “generally peaceful.”
Improved passing rates
Aside from campus preparations, UST aims to improve its Bar passing rate as well as to produce topnotchers this year, Divina said.
“The numbers are improving and the gap between the top law schools and UST [gets] closer and closer, and our goal is the same, [to] try to be the top law school and produce topnotchers,” Divina said.
Last year, Civil Law obtained a 66.38-percent passing rate or 77 successful examinees out of 116, placing eighth in the roster of top-performing schools.
The last Thomasian to enter the top 10 was Christian Louie Gonzales, who placed fifth with a score of 84.09 percent in 2011.
Divina introduced “pre-mock” bar exams as well as standardized case and course outlines for all the students to prepare for this year’s Bar Exams. He said these were firsts in the history of law schools in the country.
The “pre-mock” bar exams were “intense” lecture series held last July. A special bar lecture series will be held in the third week of October.
“[We conducted this] series [to improve] further our bar passing percentage,” Divina said.
The mock bar exams will be held two weeks before the start the Bar Exams, with the questions to be provided by a third-party outfit.
Case digests of 490 cases penned by Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco, chairman of the Bar Exams, were given to Thomasian barristers. Peer coaching will still be implemented.
Divina urged Thomasian bar examinees to “study as if everything depends on study [and] pray as if everything depends on prayer.”
This year marks the 115th edition of the Bar Exams.
