Librarians' Licensure Examination 2016: Results

Congratulations to the new librarians!

The passing rate for this year's Librarians' Licensure Examination (LLE) is 65 percent (738 out of 1,140), which is the highest-recorded passing rate since librarians began taking the LLE in 1993, and certainly higher than the 2015 passing rate of 47 percent.

The most important question is "Why?" Was the exam easier? Or are graduates getting better? It's hard to say for sure, but comparing the passing rates of the 2016 first timers (80 percent, or 622 of 780) and the 2015 first timers (70 percent, or 273 of 388), as well as the passing rates of the 2016 repeaters (32 percent, or 116 of 360) and the 2015 repeaters (22 percent, or 76 of 354), it's clear that the percentage of first timers and repeaters who passed the exam this year is consistently greater than the percentage of those who passed the exam last year.

While the change in exam schedule (i.e., from April last year to September this year) gave last year's graduates more time to study for this year's exam, the increase in passing rate for repeaters from 22 percent last year to 32 percent this year suggests that the 2016 exam was easier. There is a need to examine all previous passing rates for repeaters, but the passing rates for repeaters in 2013 and 2014 (22 percent and 15 percent, respectively) support my thesis that this year's exam was easier.

"Easier" in what sense? From what I've learned from previous and current members of the Board for Librarians, greater efforts have been exerted to ensure that test questions are easier to comprehend (though not necessarily making them easier to answer). From my own experience taking the exam in 2004, LLE questions can be rather difficult to comprehend, and examinees just have to make a guess regarding the answers to many questions. This can be rather disconcerting, especially to repeaters.

Anyway, while the University of the Philippines had a 100 percent passing rate (50 out of 50) and 4 of its examinees made it to the top 11, I think it's remarkable that 4 of the top scorers were from provincial schools, namely Holy Cross of Davao College, Baliuag University, University of Saint Louis-Tuguegarao, and Bicol College; with University of Santo Tomas taking the top spot, and examinees from University of the East and Philippine Normal University rounding out the list of topnotchers.

The list of the top scorers is reproduced below. The list of successful examinees may be downloaded from the official website of the Professional Regulation Commission.

Top 11
KARL EMMANUEL VILLANUEVA RUIZ 89.90
APRIL MAE BADILLA DELOLA 89.25
ELAINE BARBARA MAGLAQUE CRUZ 89.20
PAUL JASON VISAYA PEREZ 89.15
JONATHAN DE GUZMAN ISIP 88.85
ROANA MARIE LUCENA FLORES 88.85
GRACE RUTH TANTEO DAULAT 88.55
DANOLEENE MARIE PASICOLAN TUGADE 88.40
RAYMOND BALASAN AZUL 88.20
DENISE MARIE OCAMPO MACROHON 88.15
SHAUNTEL PEREZ ORTEGO 88.00