November 2011 Philippine Bar Exam Results (2012 Release)

In last year’s Bar Exam results released on March 17, 2011 for September 2010 Bar examination, the Supreme Court announced 982 passers out of 4,847 examinees, with Cesareo Antonio S. Singzon Jr. from Ateneo de Manila University as the topnotcher having an 89.00% rating. For the November 2011 Bar Examinations, the Supreme Court told that a total of 6,200 candidates were admitted to take the exams. The examinations were held in the 4 Sundays of November at the University of Sto. Tomas. The results are expected to be released on Wednesday February 29, 2012 by 2pm. This will be the earliest announcement of results by the Supreme Court.  Thanks to the introduction of MCQ (multiple choice questions), which cover 60% of the exams. The examinees took the following subjects during the examinations:

First day: Political and International Law, and Labor and Social Legislation and Taxation
Second day: Civil Law and Mercantile Law
Third day: Remedial Law, and Legal Ethics and Forms and Criminal Law
Fourth day: Trial Memorandum and Legal Opinion.

Associate Justice Roberto Abad is the Chairman of the 2011 Bar Exams. The Supreme Court stated that the MCQ exams should be able to assess the following skills: knowledge and recall; comprehension and understanding; and analysis and application. The Bar Examinations result is one or most awaited results in the country. It is the only professional licensure exam in the Philippines that is not supervised by the Professional Regulation Commission. The exam is exclusively administered by the Supreme Court of the Philippines through the Supreme Court Bar Examination Committee

Just like last year, we will post the November 2011 Bar examination results and list of passers here. We are expecting it to be announced tomorrow, February 29, 2012. So bookmark this page and stay tuned. For the meantime, you can read the following interesting trivia and facts about the Philippine Bar Examination.

Interesting Trivia about the Philippine Bar Examination

A. The first bar exam was held in 1901, with 13 examinees

B. In recent history (2000-2010), the 2001 bar examination has the highest percentage of passers — 1,266 out of 3,849 examinees, or 32.89 percent. But it was in 2006 that the highest number of aspiring lawyers took the test. A total of 6,187 law graduates took the bar exams, 30.60 percent of them or 1,893 passed the tests.

C. There are 3 Philippine presidents who became the topnotcher of the Bar Exams, namely:

1. Manuel A. Roxas – 1st President (3rd Philippine Republic); 1st placer (92%), 1913 Bar Exams (UP)
2. Diosdado P. Macapagal – 5th President (3rd Philippine Republic); 1st placer (89.85%), 1936 Bar Exams (UST)
3. Ferdinand E. Marcos – 6th President (3rd Philippine Republic); 1st placer (92.35%), 1939 Bar Exams (UP)

D. It was Florenz D. Regalado of San Beda College who has achieved the highest Bar Exam rating in the Philippine History with a rating of 96.7% in 1954.

E.  In 1939, Ferdinand Marcos topped the examination with almost perfect score of 98.01%. However, after some deliberation on his grade, the Supreme Court judges decide to prune down his grade to 92.35% to halt controversies that he cheated on the said exam despite the fact that he underwent oral examination, the result of which is impressive.

F. In 1969 Bar exams, Miriam Defensor Santiago passed with a 78% bar rating. Her classmates include the former Senate President Franklin Drilon and San Juan Representative Ronaldo Zamora. Ronaldo B. Zamora became the 1st placer, while Franklin M. Drilon became the 3rd placer on that year. Nevertheless, it is Santiago who became the most popular and admired lawyer among the three.

G. In 1953, Juan Ponce Enrile (future Defense Minister and Senate President) of the University of the Philippines College of Law, earned 100% in Mercantile Law and placed 11th in the bar exams of that year.

H. Corona passed the bar examination in 1974 and ranked 25th place with 84.6% grade