MANILA — The 2023 Bar examinations will take place in September, the Supreme Court said on Thursday.

The SC said the examinations would remain digitalized and regionalized, and were scheduled on 3 days: Sept. 17, 20, and 24 next year.

The 2022 Bar exams were held on 4 days last month, while the 2020-2021 Bar exams were held on 2 days in February.

"The rationale is both practical and societal: an earlier conduct of examinations means an earlier release of examination results; successful Bar examinees can commence their practice of law as early as December 2023," the Office of the Bar Chair said in a press release.

“New lawyers may begin contributing to their families and to society as new members of the Bar in the same year they graduated from law school," it added.

The exams will cover the following 6 core subjects. Two subjects will be taken per exam day.

Examinations will be composed of a maximum of 20 “straightforward, entry-level questions, in essay-type form.” Answers will be graded from 0 to 100 percent, or 5 percent for each question, the Supreme Court said.

The exams will have 4 examiners per subject “to achieve an efficient, thorough review of answers despite the increasing number of Bar candidates every year,” it added.

Some 9,800 candidates took the 2022 Bar exams in November.

• 2022 Bar takers set to hurdle final day of exams

The 2020-2021 Bar exams, meanwhile, was the first to be held digitally and pushed through last February after a 2-year delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Out of 11,402 law graduates who took the exams, 8,241 passed.

• FULL LIST: 2020-2021 Bar exam passers

— With a report from Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN News