DLSU Law aims for 100 percent passing rate

The De La Salle University College of Law (DLSU COL) first opened its doors to lawyer hopefuls in 2010. Four years after, 46 members of the pioneer batch are already into the third week of this year’s Bar examinations.

The other members of the Lasallian community, on the other hand, are rooting for the 46 examinees to successfully make it through the rigorous exams with a 100 percent passing rate and flying colors.

Vice Chancellor for Academics Dr. Myrna Austria expresses her excitement for the first batch of graduates that the COL has produced in the send-off organized by the Law Student Government (LSG) for the Bar examinees last October 4. Austria candidly shares that the University has done its best in order to provide everything, even the impossible, for the Bar examinees just so they would have a comfortable time easing into the pressures of doing well in the exams.

Mind over matter

Digoy Esguerra, one of the Lasallian Bar examinees, acknowledges how supportive the University has been of the pioneer batch. He furthers that he and his fellow examinees have done everything to prepare for the exams, but he admits that he still doesn’t know what to expect in the four-week tests.

Dino de Leon, another examinee, adds that the first round of tests could make or break the performance of the examinees for the rest of the Bar exams. De Leon also thinks of the four-week exams as a progression rather than four separate sets of tests, since it would be difficult to maintain test taking momentum if one looks at the exams in a per topic basis.

LSG Vice President for Non-Academics Klaire Esden mentions that COL, through its Bar Operations arm, has a schedule to follow during the month-long Bar exams. In any case that there would be something unexpected that would throw any of the 46 examinees off their game, COL professors are willing to step in and help the examinees finish the exams. Esden elaborates that the whole college, from professors, understudies, to the LSG, will do anything to assist the first batch of examinees just to guarantee their success.

Conventional/unconventional support

To be able to attain a relatively competitive passing rate, if not 100 percent, in the first Bar exams the COL will participate in, strong support systems were put into place even before the October tests. Esguerra shares that his father, who is a lawyer, has been quizzing him about law topics during the course of his studies at DLSU Law. Jokingly, Esguerra mentions that getting an allowance raise from his parents was the most significant form of support he received, since that got him through reviewing for the Bar exams.

Norma de Leon, Dino de Leon’s mother and a lawyer herself, has also been giving her son pointers on how to do well in law school and eventually in the Bar exams. The younger de Leon has been living on his own ever since he started law school, and for his mom, the independence she gave her son enabled him to toughen up just in time for the exams. “I’m more stressed out now that my son will be taking the Bar compared to the time when I took the exams,” she ends.

COL Dean Jose Manuel Diokno asserts that he, together with the professors who have guided the first batch of Lasallian lawyer hopefuls, are optimistic that the college will reach its target of a 100 percent passing rate. He admits that the target is a tall order and bargains that he will already be contented once the pioneer batch surpasses University of the Philippines’ (UP) performance in last year’s Bar exams.

“The highest passing rate in the Bar last year was received by UP Law, they got about 81 percent. So while DLSU Law wants to get 100 percent, realistically, we may not. I would be happy if we (DLSU Law’s passing rate) will be at par with UP’s performance last year,” Diokno says.

DLSU Law’s dean affirms that the college has equipped the first batch of graduates with the skills and knowledge they need to make good lawyers in the future. “The college itself is, of course, giving its full backing to our graduates. We gave them special mock practice, mock Bar exams, as well as special lectures on different Bar subjects from selected speakers,” Diokno mentions.

He also reminds the Bar examinees to find ways to relax in tense situations, such as when taking the Bar exams. No matter how much an examinee knows about the topics of the exams, if he or she is too nervous to think properly while taking them, it could affect the results of the tests, according to Diokno.

With reports from Nina dela Cruz