Year after year, law deans suffer during the Bar examinations as their students face the challenge of passing the very difficult tests.

This was the observation of Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy C. Lazaro-Javier, chair of the 2025 Bar examinations, as the exams commenced last Sunday at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

Law deans were praised by Lazaro-Javier for their “sacrifices” in nurturing their students until they finally take the Bar examinations.

Speaking at the Frassati Building in UST on the first day of the exams, Lazaro-Javier said that while aspiring lawyers face the pressure of the Bar once, deans endure the “tension” annually.

She said that for lawyers, the nerves of the Bar come once in a lifetime, but for a dean, the tension of the exams comes once every year.

Lazaro-Javier said deans “watch their students grow from clueless freshmen to full-fledged lawyers in waiting” and feel the pain of every student’s struggle.

She stated that nobody sees the birth of a lawyer more than a law school dean.

Last Sunday, a total of 11,437 examinees, or 86.7 percent of those admitted, took the 2025 Bar Examinations.

The number of examinees who showed up represents a significant portion of the 13,193 aspiring lawyers admitted this year.

Of the 11,437 who took the test, 5,215 were first-time takers, 4,239 were repeaters, and 1,984 were refreshers. Lazaro-Javier also noted specific groups among the test takers, including 241 people with disabilities, 206 senior examinees, 41 pregnant women, and 139 with a medical condition.

The Supreme Court also confirmed its continued shift toward a digitized Bar examination, saying there will be no return to the traditional “pen-to-paper” format in the next three years.

The high court will maintain the current digital and regionalized exam format, ruling out the return of the traditional system.

This policy aims to provide a predictable and fair environment for examinees by allowing them to focus on their studies without the uncertainty of format changes.

The continuity highlights the SC’s push for a more modern, accessible, and efficient examination process.

The policy was first adopted in 2021, when the SC approved a historic shift in the country’s Bar examinations through a “digitalized, localized, and proctored” format for the first time.