Statistics on the 2014 Bar Examinations
(Part 1)
by
Thads Bentulan
Thads Bentulan
thadsbentulan@gmail.com
If you obtained a
grade of 79% in the 2014 bar examinations, what was your ranking? The Supreme
Court does not tell you that, but the truth is, you ranked 85th
place, among the top 3.06%, among the top 183 successful examinees out of the 5,984
who actually took the exams.
Now, that’s
exceedingly impressive. Which is impressive - the score of the bar candidate, or
the fact that we know his ranking details? The answer is: both.
Can you imagine
being in the top 3.06% of what is probably the hardest bar examinations in the
world? Yes, with a score of 79, you can claim to be a legal genius. Ah, yes,
probably, this is the first time you ever heard of a ranking outside of the top
10. Yes, exactly right, you heard it here the first time.
In contrast, if you
obtained 79% in the medical board exams, this grade would have been pathetic.
See the difference in overall difficulty between the two post-graduate exams?
Look at your 2014 bar
scores. Ah, you say you scored 80, and you want to know your ranking? First, I’m
going to bet a peso that you didn’t get a score of 80. Why am I almost certain?
Because only 114 examinees (1.91%) obtained a grade of 80.00 and above, and I
don’t think you are one of those brilliant 114 out of all the 5,984. I bet
you’re one of those exactly 5,300 who failed.
But you may ask, how
did I know such ranking information? Probably, this is the first time in its
114-year history, since the first bar in 1901, that the statistical results is made
available to an outsider. Continue reading if you want to know your rank.
In summary,
originally, only 684 out of 5,984 (11.43%) passed the 2014 Bar Exam with a grade
of 75.00 and above. And yes, you read it here for the first time, because the
original success rate of only 11.43% was never publicly released by the Supreme
Court. Yes, exactly right, you read it here the first time.
As had been the
practice in recent decades, the Supreme Court lowered the passing grade from
75.00 to 73.00, thereby allowing an additional 442 (65% more) candidates to pass,
totaling 1,126 (18.82%), one of the lowest in a decade. Think of this for the
moment. The SC added, not 10%, nor 20%, nor 50%, but 65% more passers only to
attain an upgraded success rate of 18.82%, the second lowest success rate in
the last 14 years, next to 2012’s 17.76%?
In this article, I
will compare some statistics between the Philippine and the American bar,
between the bar and the medical board exams, and more detailed statistics of
the 2014 bar exams results. Along the way, I will discuss why the 2014 bar
exams was unusually difficult, and how algebra caused this distortion. I will also discuss the pitfalls of the
current bar exam format. And most importantly, I will share my discovery of the
weakest link in the entire bar exam operational cycle that remains unrectified
to this day, and may be have caused tremendous injustice to the examinees for
over a century. As a sidelight, I will tell you what suggestion of mine was
carried out in the subsequent 2015 bar exams. Overall, I will justify why the
2014 bar is the most physically exhausting, emotionally draining, and mentally
exhausting exam in recent memory.
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