The Supreme Court (SC) will release the result of the November 2017 Philippine bar examination with the targeted date to be the last week of April or the first week of May 2018.
Out of 6,750 law graduates who have completed the tests on the four Sundays of November 2017 (5, 12, 19 and 26), the full list of passers and topnotchers (top 10) who got at least 75 percent average grade will be announced by the Supreme Court (SC).
For the 116th bar exam, the SC Public Information Office (PIO) said: "7,227 were admitted to take but after first Sunday, only 6,759 remained and on the last two Sundays, there are only 6,750 examinees (still higher than 2016)."
The statistics showed that 477 of the 7,227 admitted candidates did not show up to complete the examinations.
As a protocol, takers who did not proceed on succeeding exams are not required to explain their absence. In addition, SC has no way of knowing if the examinees fell ill or were simply overwhelmed by fear of the grueling tests.
COVERAGE OF EXAMINATIONS
The 2017 bar exam was headed by Committee Chairman Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin and the eight (8) examiners for each bar subjects.
The examinable subjects are: Political Law and Public International Law (15%), Labor and Social Legislation (10%), Civil Law (15%), Taxation (10%), Mercantile Law (15%), Criminal Law (10%), Remedial Law (20%) and Legal and Judicial Ethics (5%).
Examinees were tasked to answer open-ended questions in long hand. Those questions, carefully selected by the committee, are formulated to test analytical ability, facility in expression in terms of written argument, comprehension of basic principles of law, and grasp of jurisprudence.
2017 BAR EXAM PASSING PERCENTAGE
While a bar examinee is “deemed to have passed his examinations successfully if he/she has obtained a general average of 75%,” the SC en banc has always retained for itself (based on its authority to amend the Rules) the discretion to make adjustments, as it did in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 Bar Examinations to lower the bar exam passing percentage.
In 2012, the Bar exam committee lowered the passing average to as low as 70%. In 2013 and 2014, the highest court lowered the passing grade to 73% in view of the structure of the results, the difficulty the candidates encountered with the MCQ portion of the exam, and in light of past precedents.
Meanwhile, the standard passing grade of 75% was kept for the 2015 and 2016 examinations. Section 14, Rule 138 of Revised Rule of Court added that there should be no grade falling below 50% in any bar subject.
2017 BAR EXAM OFFICIAL RELEASE
The results of the 2015 and 2016 were both released on the first week of May the following year (specifically both May 3).
The Bar Examiners committee manually checked the test papers which caused the long waiting period of about five (5) months.
While there's no announcement yet on the exact release of results, the Office of the Bar Confidant (OBC) is tasked to release the 2017 Official List of Successful Bar Examinees, expected anytime in April to May 2018.
Traditionally, the full list of successful bar examinees will be flashed on a widescreen at the Supreme Court front yard and simultaneously be viewed at the official website of the high court.
Source: http://www.thesummitexpress.com/2017/12/list-of-passers-november-2017-philippine-bar-exam-results-release.html