October BPTC exams to go ahead reveals BSB
updated on 23 September 2020
Students will be deciding whether to resit their Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC) exams in October, despite not knowing their original results beforehand, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) has said.
The BSB is refusing to reconsider its decision for resits to take place in October. In a letter to bar school students, the regulator said it “must retain the academic rigour of these examinations – even in these difficult and extraordinary times and even when that means extra work for students, for course providers, and for the BSB”.
While some members of the profession suggested that exams could be taken orally, the BSB has stated that this cannot happen. A waiver is also “not an option now or in the future” according to the regulator.
Students were required to register by Monday 21 September to take to the centralised BPTC exams in professional ethics and civil and criminal litigation. These exams will not take place virtually – they will be traditional pen and paper examinations.
Speaking to the Law Gazette, the BSB said that August exam results cannot be released any sooner due to quality assurance reasons. Therefore, despite not receiving their August assessment results, students must still decide whether to resit their exams.
This comes at a time when the government has started to introduce further measures to curb the spread of coronavirus, with students warning that they may not even be able to take their exams in October under new social distancing rules.
