2025 Bar in numbers: Ateneo still on top, UP and UST dominate top 20

MANILA, Philippines – The 2025 Bar Examinations saw one of the highest passing rates in recent history at 48.98% or nearly 5 passers out of 10 examinees.

This translated to 5,594 out of 11,420 examinees, according to this year’s Bar chairperson, Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Amy Lazaro Javier.

The 2025 passing rate was higher compared to the numbers in the last three years: 43.47% in 2022, 36.77% in 2023, and 37.84% in 2024.

Like in previous years, the SC also released the list of top-performing law schools, divided into two categories: the number of Bar candidates and first-time Bar candidates. Ateneo de Manila University’s law school dominated these categories.

In 2023 and 2024, Ateneo had the highest passing rate both for first-time takers and all Bar candidates.

For 2025, Ateneo topped the law schools with over 100 takers (for all candidates), with a 96.52% rating, followed by the University of the Philippines (UP) in the same category with 94.63%, and the University of Santo Tomas (UST) with 87.16%.

The Jesuit-run university also posted the highest rating among law schools with over 100 examinees (for first-time takers), with 98.11%.

UP is at second with 96.83%, followed by UST with 96.30%.

Individual topnotchers

Like in 2024, the examinee who garnered the highest rating came from UP — Jhenroniel Sanchez — who garnered 92.70%. Sanchez’s fellow UP alumnus, Kyle Christian Tutor, topped the exam with a grade of 85.77% last year.

Meanwhile, UST’s Spinel Albert Declaro ranked second with 92.46% rating, followed by another UST alum, Alaiza Adviento, at third spot with 91.91%.

Six UP graduates and five UST (four from UST Manila, one from UST Legazpi) graduates entered the top 20 list.

Here’s the full list of the top 20 examinees:

The full list of 2025 Bar exams passers may be accessed through this link. – Rappler.com