SC: 6,210 law students to take Bar Exams in Nov.

A total of 6,210 law students will take the Bar Examinations at a new place and time, using a new exam format, the Supreme Court said on its website Friday. The number of this year's accepted applicants is 23.26 percent more than last year’s 5,038. "This entails an increase in cost in the conduct of the Bar exams," the court said. Last year, 5,012 law graduates took the exams, popularly believed as the most difficult among all licensure exams in the country. The record number of examinees was recorded in 2008 when 6,364 candidates were admitted to take the exams. This year, five applications were denied, while five others were withdrawn. (The list of accepted applicants can be viewed through the Supreme Court website). The upcoming Bar exams, to be held during the four Sundays of November, also marks the transfer of venue from the campus of De La Salle University along Taft Avenue in Manila to the University of Santo Tomas campus along España Boulevard in Manila. The court earlier said it decided to move the time and place because September is often a bad-weather month and because the DLSU did not renew its lease. Court spokesperson Midas Marquez earlier said the transfer of venue had nothing to do with the Sept. 26, 2010 post-Bar exams blast in front of the La Salle campus, in which about 42 people were injured. The schedule of this year's examinations is as follows:

• Day 1 (November 6): Political and International Law, and Labor and Social Legislation (morning) and Taxation (afternoon)
• Day 2 (November 13): Civil Law (morning) and Mercantile Law (afternoon);
• Day 3 (November 13): Remedial Law, and Legal Ethics and Forms (morning) and Criminal Law (afternoon)
• Fourth day (November 27): Trial Memorandum (morning) and Legal Opinion (afternoon).

Justice Roberto Abad chairs the 2011 Bar Exams committee. Multiple-choice questions Apart from the time and place, other changes in the Bar Exams include changes in the format of the test like the use of multiple-choice questions. "[The questions are] constructed [so] as to specifically measure the candidate’s knowledge of, and ability to, recall the laws, doctrines, and principles that every new lawyer needs in his practice, and assess the candidate’s understanding of the meaning and significance of those same laws and principles as they apply to specific situations," the court said. Another part of the exam will have essay-type questions that will not be "Bar-subject specific." "One such essay examination will require the candidate to prepare a trial memorandum or a decision based on a documented legal dispute," the court said. "This essay will account for 60 percent of the exam's essay portion. The remaining 40 percent will be covered by an essay which will require the Bar candidate to prepare a written opinion sought by a client concerning a potential legal dispute facing him or her," it added. The final grade is derived from the multiple-choice exam results (60 percent), and from the essay-type exam results (40 percent). A candidate's results in the essay-type exam will still be checked "irrespective" of the results of his or her multiple-choice exam. "In future Bar Examinations, however, the Bar chairperson shall recommend to the court the disqualification of those whose grades in the multiple-choice questions are so low that it would serve no useful purpose to correct their answers in the essay-type examinations," the court added. — VS, GMA News