[2/3] Top Tips to Start the BPTC Right (and even ace it!)

In Part 1, I have provided some general advice to bear in mind as you begin the course in order to manage your time effectively and hit the ground running while getting used to the workload on the BPTC. To see Part 1, click here.

4. Civil Litigation: there really is NO SUBSTITUTE for the White Book

Civil Litigation and Evidence is one of the 3 'central papers'. In essence, the syllabus, exam questions and pass mark are determined by an external body called the Bar Standards Board (BSB) and not by your university. You will have to answer 75 MCQs for the assessment, consisting of questions which have a right answer and those which require you to select the 'best' answer out of 4 options. As a rule of thumb, if you can get at least 55 questions right, you will pass. To pass this paper, you will have to read and memorise the whole syllabus and practice enough questions along the way.

This module has a notoriously high fail rate nationwide, with only 59.3% of total candidates passing it in the March/April 2017 assessment. Although the pass rate has since improved over the years, the statistics alone should remain a cause for concern for you to keep in mind.

You will be supplied with 2 volumes of 'Civil Procedure' at the start of the course, which are essentially your core texts for Civil Litigation. Each volume consists of over 1,000 pages of information, but (thankfully) not every single detail in these things are examinable. If you have yet to see copies of it, here's one:

The BSB updates the syllabus annually. They are compiled in a single document which will be made available online, or your provider will give you a copy of it. Keep this syllabus document to make sure you don't miss anything out as you revise. The heading looks like this:

In case you're wondering if I've exaggerated as to the amount of reading you are expected to do, here's a screenshot of the examinable topics for Civil Litigation this year:

You NEED to read the White Book in order to pass the assessment with confidence. The BSB issues an updated and extensive syllabus every year for a reason, in that EVERY PART OF THE SYLLABUS IS EXAMINABLE. Your provider may helpfully provide notes to aid you in your revisions, but this will not be enough. Never think that a small, sub-provision of the CPR/Practice Direction appears to be very technical, or that a one-liner case law mentioned in a particular commentary seems unimportant to appear in the exam. If something is contained in the syllabus, read them. There are no 2 ways about it.

You should start revising for this module actively as soon as the course starts. If you are serious about passing, it's better to start revising before October ends. A quick glance at the syllabus will indicate that every single chapter consists of an average of 100 pages' worth of reading, and it is essential that you make your own notes, mind maps, or something similar to help you memorise. Point is, you cannot afford to cram this module and expect to pass the exam safely.

5. Criminal Litigation: there is also NO SUBSTITUTE for Blackstone's Criminal Practice

The assessment for Criminal Litigation, Evidence and Sentencing is similar to Civil Litigation. Also 75 MCQs, consisting of questions which have a right answer and those which require you to select the 'best' answer out of 4 options. Your task is the same: read and memorise the syllabus and practice enough questions along the way until you're confident enough to pass the exam.

You will be supplied with 'Blackstone's Criminal Practice' slightly later during the course (as the annual updated version will only be published much later compared to the White Book). You will also be given a supplement with the book itself, with additional supplements being issued throughout the year (you only have to focus on the 1st Supplement). These are the core texts and look like this:

The points I've made above in relation to Civil Litigation are equally applicable to this module. I only have one thing left to address in this section: at some point, you might hear that Criminal Litigation is "easier to pass" compared to Civil Litigation. Some will also tell you that a certain set of Criminal Litigation notes from a certain provider will be sufficient to get you through the exam. Do NOT believe any of these. You will only put yourself at risk of failing by taking the shortcut. This rumour was extremely popular in my year, and many people took the chance by simply reading off the set of notes prepared by a provider and dispensed with the Blackstone's altogether.

In the April exam this year, a majority of the questions tested us on very technical aspects of criminal procedure which will not make sense unless you have read and memorised that particular sentence in Blackstone's. The result? Close to half of all candidates in the country failed this year. On a personal level, I have witnessed a lot of people who would have passed the course this year had they not failed Criminal Litigation. This serves as a warning that there is no shortcut to passing this paper and it would be unwise to not read the whole syllabus.

Every year, there will be students who want to lodge complaints to the BSB on the basis that the exams were unfair because it tested 'very obscure parts of the syllabus'. You will want to revise to a point where you won't be one of them. Whatever your revision technique, make sure you start early, keep a copy of the latest syllabus, and cover every part of it. You will thank yourself for it at the end.

6. Ethics: find ways to arrange your notes in an exam-friendly manner. Share questions amongst your peers across all BPTC providers.

This exam is different from the other 2. There are no MCQs for this. Instead, you will have to answer 6 problem questions by applying the right ethical rules and coming to the right conclusion.

Unlike Civil and Criminal Litigation, there isn't a single core text for this module. Instead, the documents forming part of the syllabus are unhelpfully scattered all over the place. In summary, the ethical principles which you are required to learn consists of (i) core duties, rules and guidances in the Code of Conduct section of the BSB Handbook, (ii) more specific guidances issued by the BSB in various other sections of the BSB Handbook, and (iii) various other documents (such as the Code for Crown Prosecutors and the Farquharson Guidelines which you will encounter later during the course). To give you a rough idea of what you are required to learn, here's a copy of the syllabus this year:

Fortunately, the amount of reading required for this module is significantly lesser compared to Civil and Criminal Litigation. The first thing to bear in mind is that YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED TO CITE EVERYTHING WORD FOR WORD FROM THE HANDBOOK. JUST THE KEY WORDS ARE ENOUGH. You really only have to learn the core duties by heart. Other than those, you can afford to paraphrase all the rules and guidances in your own word, provided that the key words are present (for example, you cannot miss out the words 'serious misconduct' when deciding whether to report a barristers' misconduct).

The difficulty with this paper is the rigid mark scheme: you either score marks because your answer hits the mark scheme, or you don't get marks at all. Your task is to 'hit the mark scheme' as much as possible, and give answers in a logical structure. You need to do 2 things in order to achieve this: First, you have to understand and memorise every relevant part of the syllabus. Second, you need to know how apply the relevant provisions of the Handbook to a problem question with a coherent structure.

As far as the required reading is concerned, you will be supplied with a 'Professional Ethics' textbook and/or a copy of the BSB Handbook and the accompanying documents, but these materials aren't student-friendly or structured in a way that makes you hit the mark scheme. You need to structure your notes to cross-reference the relevant core duties, rules, guidances AND the specific guidances in a on an issue-by-issue basis, because this is the easiest way for you to hit the mark scheme safely. Some other documents (e.g. the Code for Crown Prosecutors and the Farquharson Guidelines) are assessed on their own without connection to the core duties, rules, guidances and the specific guidances, so you can apply these directly to the facts. Pay close attention to they key words and memorise them as you revise.

On the other hand, there is a set of notes made by a BPTC provider which have already arranged the relevant core duties, rules and guidances in a way that you are able to hit the mark scheme. I haven't used it personally, but I reckon that it would have made my revisions easier if I chose to. If you do decide to revise for Ethics this way, don't tell your lecturers or tutors that I gave you this piece of advice.

That being said, knowing the Handbook from cover to cover and structuring your notes in an exam-friendly manner aren't enough to guarantee you a pass. You will have to practice as many questions as possible so as to get a grasp of how you might tackle a particular ethical scenario during the exam and maximise the marks you can obtain. This is why it is important that you obtain questions from different providers at least a month before the exam, and attempt all of them. This is the safest, and most effective way of passing this exam.

Next up in Part 3: some advice on approaching your skills-based modules, which you have to practice consistently in order to pass or score well. Click here to access Part 3.