It’s not so common to hear students complain that an exam is too easy. However, the BSB has conducted a review of the controversial Bar Course Aptitude Test following concerns that too many students who were ‘not likely to succeed’ in the eventual Bar Professional Training Course were making it over the first hurdle.
Though the mandatory exam costs £150 to take, it has proved less an effective screening tool and more an annoying financial obligation for aspiring barristers. Marked on a point scale between 20 and 80, students were previously required to obtain only a 37 or above to progress on to the BPTC. The BSB review found that in 2013, the exam’s first year, just 13 students—or 0.6 per cent of the total cohort—were unable to pass the exam after one or more attempts.
The BSB opted to suspend the test in December pending a comprehensive review. This week, it has announced that the test will be reinstated but with a higher pass grade of 45. Using data from the 2013/2014 BCAT cohort, a pass grade of 45 would have resulted in 16.6 per cent of students failing to pass the test.
The new BCAT will also give students a numerical grade rather than a simple pass or fail. Students will be offered information about what their individual grade suggests about their prospects in the costly and time consuming BPTC, which can cost students between £12,000 and £19,000 in fees alone.
According to Bar Council policy analyst Alex Cisneros, the revised pass grade of 45 will not do enough to ensure that only the highest quality candidates compete for pupillages and careers at the Bar. ‘If the BCAT is to serve a gatekeeping function, it must filter out students who have no reasonable prospect of obtaining pupillage or practicing as a barrister, not just those who have no prospect of passing the BPTC,’ he said. Sources: Legal Futures; Legal Cheek
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