Editor's weekly: Bar aptitude test - Fail
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Looking through the Bar Standards Board’s (BSB) standards-monitoring reports 2010-11 [surprisingly interesting reading I might say] we were struck by the fact that in amongst the expected cheers and boos from the panel inspectors there was an almighty thumbs down from the students over the bar aptitude test (see story).
Despite recent research by the BSB proposing that the bar aptitude test will increase the BPTC success rate by lowering the proportion of students on the course with a propensity to fail, students remained unconvinced on the current version of the test.
BPP Law School’s (BPP) Leeds report stated: “Students failed to see the correlation between what was asked in the test and aptitude on the course.”
BPP London’s stated: “Whilst students supported the principle behind it, they did not believe that the test they had sat was fit for purpose as they could not see in its present form how it could determine suitability to pass the course.”
Would-be barristers from Nottingham Law School also agreed the test was not fit for purpose, with the report stating that”students felt that sometimes there were two answers” to the questions posed.
Elsewhere, University of West of England’s aspiring barristers were described as being “not enthusiastic about the test as a means of determining aptitude for the course”. The test was also found to be subjective and the phrasing of some of the questions unhelpful.
Incongruously the report from the College of Law Birmingham stated that students believe the aptitude test pilot to be a “clever, well constructed and objective test”.
Maybe time for the test itself to have a resit?
But do you know what working as a lawyer actually involves? And are you sure of the steps you have to take to qualify as a solicitor or barrister?
Readers' comments (4)
Anonymous | 12-Jan-2012 12:10 pm
The mock test submitted to students was extremely poorly drafted. As a student who sat the test I could not comprehend why the format did not mirror more closely the LNAT test used for University admissions which gives aspiring barristers the opportunity to argue in shades of gray in an essay as well as a multiple choice assignment. As one student commented on at a BPTC dinner - when will a Judge ever ask if your client's right to bail is a) b) or c).
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NIgel Henry | 12-Jan-2012 12:33 pm
I think that misses the purpose of this kind of test. By not relating directly to the content of the course, it shows different aspects of the makeup and psychology of a student. Sometimes, for instance, to be able to differentiate between two right answers (as happens in practice).
On the other hand there are still too many BPTC graduates for places available, and that has to be the over-ambition of the students, not the fault of the providers, the inns, chambers, courts, government or number of crimes/disputes per year!
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Derick Ackloo | 12-Jan-2012 1:02 pm
This is what you get when you try to 'Americanize' your otherwise excellent legal education and profession. Why not stick to what has worked and made the legal profession the envy of those you are trying to emulate and the rest of the world. You are unique; stick to it!
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Beth | 13-Jan-2012 4:54 pm
I'm not sure why it's relevant what BPTC students thought of the test. The question is whether it is fit for purpose.
One legitimate purpose might be to weed out those students who have no chance of passing the BPTC before they pay large amounts of money. By that standard, the test seems fit fior purpose according to what I have read. When the BSB compared scores on the test to the BPTC results, they apparently found a close correlation.
A similar, but functionally different purpose could be to weed out potential BPTC students who have no chance of getting pupllage/succeeding as barristers. It seems that students were saying they didn't understand how this particular test would help with that. Having sat the test, I agree. For that purpose, you would need a more nuanced test, probably with a free response section.
My point is, that the test may be good for the purpose for which it was (apparently) designed, without that being clear to the people taking it. There is a separate debate about whether that is the appropriate thing to test for, but that doesn't mean the test is a failure, the way the headline of this article implies.
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