Massacre

The successful examinees of the 2008 bar examinations number only to 20.40% of its total takers. It is reported that the passing rate was lowered to 72.5% instead of 75%.

By God’s grace, our school barely survived, with only one of ours making it. Our passing percentage this year is only 7.14%. It’s our first time in a long while to have a rate lower than the national passing average.

We’ve been massacred this year!!!! I really had high hopes for our candidates, since they were under me in two subjects and I could tell who had a fighting chance to make it. I do not like to question what went wrong with them because that would be adding salt to injury. Besides, I know they did their best to enter in this exclusive fraternity of ours.

This is so like the 2002 Bar Exam (released March 2003) – the bar exam which I took. I was the only one who passed in my batch. There was also another passer from the class ahead of me. At least, we were two. Back then, we were so embarrassed because our first batch had 5 passers.

Since the year 2000, the 2002 bar exam is the toughest with the national passing percentage barely 19%. Unlike this year, our passing grade was not lowered.

Oh, I’m so sad. This is our first time to have only one passer. My time was our worst in our school’s history (hey, it remains to be the toughest exam since year 2000 huh!). This is really below our expectations.  What a blow! I’m having nosebleed!

On a serious note, I empathize with those who did not make it this year. You had made a good fight. Keep the dream and try again.

Aja, aja, fighting!

When Destiny Comes

Our dean who is my cousin appointed me officer-in-charge of the College of Law before she went out of the country.
My first function? Watching out for the 2008 bar examination results, which is about to come out any minute now.
I have been doing nothing for almost two hours here seated in front of the pc — just my eyes glued to the supreme court website and stretching my ears to hear any news of the bar results from the television.
Our examinees are nervously waiting for their fate. I am at a loss of comforting words to soothe them.
During my time, I turned off my cellular phone and hanged the phone because of the anxious callers asking about the results. There’s nothing more irritating than somebody confronting you with something you yourself is terrified to know. Whether pass or fail, the moment of truth is beyond description. I remember our house being very still.   My husband and I had a very silent dinner. His attempts to comfort me are met with me barking at him to shut him up. Immediately after dinner, I turned off the lights in our bedroom and got ready for bed. He turned on the TV and the bar results were all over the news. I slowly replaced the phone receiver at my bedside table.  I turned on my cellular phone. It was silent. Did I pass? My God, did i fail? I closed my eyes and got ready to force myself to sleep.

Then, a beep came from my cellular phone. My husband and I looked at each other. I pressed the “view message” and then, I let out a sigh of relief.
It was a message from my friend zandee. Her message read “congratulations, atty yen!”

It was one of the most memorable days of my life.

Make or break, the same earth shattering moment will befall my students a few minutes from now.

Good luck to them all. If they make it, I will welcome them, no longer as their teacher, but as a colleague in the profession.