MY THOUGHTS ON PhiLSAT

The LEBMO No. 7 series of 2016 released by the Legal Education Board (LEB) establishing a unified standardized test for aspiring law school called Philippine Law School Admission Test (PhiLSAT) is a welcome development in the legal education in the Philippines.

My previous post regarding the implementation of PhiLSAT is clearly a product of my overthinking because apparently it doesn't matter if a potential law student has taken an entrance exam last December or January.

When I had the time to ask the admissions office of San Beda Alabang to clarify, the admin officer told me that all potential law students who would like to enroll to San Beda still needs to take the school's entrance exam on top of the PhiLSAT and those students who have already passed San Beda's entrance exam still needs to take PhiLSAT because they won't be allowed to enroll in law school if they don't. I guess the school recognizes that its income will reasonably decrease if they will stop giving entrance exams *wink* *wink*

In short, a potential law student needs to pass 2 exams in order to study in San Beda Alabang School of Law. One is PhiLSAT and one is the San Beda's entrance exam for School of Law.

Somehow, it becomes clear to me the statement of the LEB Chairman Aquende that PhiLSAT is implemented because some law schools implement "open admission" policy. Open admission policy means the school does not give an entrance exam.

In my previous post, I said before that PhiLSAT is at par with the National Medical Admission Test (NMAT) given to aspiring medical students. However, I was wrong.

From my understanding, the score of the potential medical student in NMAT will determine in what Medical School he/she be allowed to enroll. For instance, UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery requires its students to have an NMAT score of at least 85% percentile while San Beda College Mendiola College of Medicine requires its student to have an NMAT score of at least 40% percentile.
Furthermore, NMAT does not have a passing score, it just shows you the number of students who got lower score than you. To illustrate, if you got a score of 75% percentile, it means that that 75% of NMAT takers scored lower than you while 25% of NMAT takers scored higher than you.

On the other hand, PhiLSAT has a passing score requirement. A student is not allowed to enroll to any law school if he fails to obtain a score of at least 55%. I thought in my previous post that passing PhiLSAT means that law schools will no longer hold their own entrance exams and I also thought that  those who have already taken and passed the entrance exams of some law schools last December and January will not be affected by the LEB's Memo because of its date of implementation.

To summarize and as far San Beda is concern, a potential law student who wants to enroll in San Beda, the students needs to pass 2 exams, one for PhiLSAT and one for the entrance exam.

On the other hand, if a potential law student wants to enroll, for example in University "X" which does not have any entrance exam, he/she only needs to pass the PhiLSAT.

Basically, LEB just wants to mandate an entrance exam for all law schools in the country.

PRIMER ON THE PhiLSAT

The Legal Education Board (LEB) recently released a memo stating that starting Academic Year 2017-2018, all students who wants to study should take the Philippine Law School Admission Test (PhiLSAT) and obtain a score of at least 55%.

The objective of this new measure is to improve the quality of legal education in the country. 

The PhiLSAT will cover the following topics:

• Communications and Language Proficiency:
• This subtest measures the ability to recognize grammar and usage errors and determine the appropriateness of words and phrases in given sentences. This subtest consists of three question types—sentence completion, identifying sentence error, and improving sentences.
• Critical Thinking Skills:
• This subtest measures the ability to analyze and evaluate reasoning in written materials and to draw conclusions about given propositions. This subtest consists of two question types—logical reasoning and analytical reasoning.
• Verbal Reasoning:
• This subtest measures the ability to understand written materials and make conclusions based on their content. This subtest consists of reading passages followed by questions about the passage.
• Quantitative reasoning:
• This subtest measures the ability to apply basic mathematical skills to the analysis and interpretation of real-world numerical information to draw conclusions. This subtest consists of three question types—pattern recognition, data interpretation, and data sufficiency.

However, law schools have the discretion of giving additional or supplemental exam in addition to the PhiLSAT such as essay exams or a panel interview. In addition, law schools are also given the discretion to impose a higher passing score before admitting a student.

Students who garnered a score lower than 55% can still be admitted, provided, that the Dean of the Law school will give the a written justification to the LEB for each student stating  the reasons for admitting him/her and the general weighted average obtained of the applicant in his/her bachelors degree.

If the written justification could not be done, the student can still retake PhiLSAT as the memo states that a qualified examinee may take the PhiLSAT as many times as he/she wants, without any limit.

The qualification for the PhilSAT examinees are the same as regards the admission policies of law schools which have entrance exams. The only difference is that Honor students who were given Professional Civil Service eligibility two years from their graduation date, are exempted from taking PhiLSAT,  they just need to submit their Certificate of Eligibility to the LEB. For the format of the  exemption form, just click the link. For the certification form from your school, just click the link. 

PhiLSATS shall be administered at least once a year starting this April 16, 2017.

Testing centers shall be located in the following:

• Metro Manila - Univesity of Santo Tomas
• Baguio City - University of the Cordilleras
• Legaspi City - Aquinas University
• Cebu City - University of San Jose-Recoletos
• Iloilo City - University of SanAgustin
• Davao City - Jose Maria College
• Cagayan De Oro City - Xavier University

Additional testing dates and testing centers shall be fixed by the LEB as necessary.

The testing fee is now finalized and it Php 1,000.00 which can be paid online or via on-line counters at the any Bank of Philippine Islands (BPI) branches.

All Law Schools are expected to comply with the memorandum released by the LEB. Administrative sanctions, as much as Php 10,000 per infraction. shall be given to the Law Schools if they violate the provisions of the memo.

To view the complete instructions for PhiLSAT, just click this link.

For PhiLSAT practice items, just click this link