Digital Bar Exams on its Second Year

For the second consecutive year, the Philippine Bar exams chaired this year by Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caquioa were conducted in digital form in fourteen testing centers on November 9, 13, 16, and 20. All examinees were required to go on quarantine before and during the exams and had to be tested negative for COVID-19. The examinees were supervised by proctors and monitored through closed-circuit television cameras.

It is said that the computerized software application used in the exam is Examplify, and part of the preparation was the process of registration, access, and use of the program on the examinees’ devices. Before the exams, the examinees first had to check the compatibility of their devices with the Examplify software by completing two sample examinations scheduled earlier in September of this year. 91.77% of the candidates completed the most difficult professional licensure exam in the country on the last day.

It is to be recalled that the 2020-2021 digital bar exams’ 72.28% passing rate was one of the highest in bar history. The passing average fixed by law is 75%, with no grade falling below 50% in any bar subject. The bar subjects in the Philippines are Civil Law, Commercial Law, Criminal Law, Labor Law, Political Law, Remedial Law, and Legal Ethics.

With the dawn of a digital era in the conduct of bar examinations, the problems of legibility in handwriting and erasures in test booklets have been eliminated. Examiners will also have an easier method of checking the exams, and test results can be obtained faster. However, it would be worth investigating how our examinees have been keeping up so far for the past two years and the impact on the candidates of this digitalization of the bar exams.

QUOTATION FOR THE WEEK:

“We are products of machinery built of situations/ circumstances, to be refined repeatedly, with newer versions like technology.” -SOMYA KEDIA

FOR OUR WORD OF LIFE:

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” -PROVERBS 14:12