In 2020, as part of the reforms to Bar training, the Bar Standards Board (BSB) split the assessment of professional ethics between the Bar Course and pupillage. On the Bar Course students sit an exam set by their provider. Pupils take an assessment that is set and marked by the BSB. Under the new scheme pupils build up their practical knowledge of how ethics operate in practice before being signed-off as being ready for a full practising certificate. The pupillage ethics exams is therefore focused on application of the rules rather then simply being a memory test.

Passing the professional ethics assessment is now a requirement for all pupils (unless you have a specific exemption authorised by the BSB). If you are doing a 12-month pupillage, you must have completed your first three months before your first attempt at the assessment.

There are three sittings of the exam each year, usually in January, April and July. The exam is a three-hour, open book assessment comprising 12 short answer questions (SAQs). The exam is delivered online, and you can sit the exam at home or at a test centre.

There is no compulsory course to undertake before sitting the assessment, although the Inns and Circuits do provide professional ethics training as part of pupillage training and the Inns of Court College of Advocacy provides online preparatory materials. The BSB provides a mock assessment, and we strongly recommend that you take this before sitting the final exam.

If you are in pupillage or about to start, here are five tips to help you succeed in the exam:

1. Familiarise yourself with the syllabus material

The syllabus is published by the BSB. It sets out the rules, guidance documents and other material you need to be familiar with before sitting the exam. You will no doubt have covered some, but probably not all, of this material during the Bar Course.

2. Know the rules

The exam is open book, but not completely open book. This means that while you can access the BSB Handbook during the assessment, you won’t have access to any of the other syllabus materials, including BSB guidance documents. You will therefore have to memorise a certain amount of the syllabus material, so make sure you allow yourself sufficient time to do so. If you are taking the assessment at home you will have access to a PDF version of the Handbook; at a test centre you will only have access to an online version.

Remember you do not have long to look up the rules, so you need to be familiar with them in advance. You can search the Handbook during the assessment if necessary (we recommend using the Ctrl+F function for this), and copy and paste material from the Handbook into your answers.

You don’t need to memorise specific rule numbers. The BSB states: ‘While it is helpful to quote rule numbers and other source material, markers are instructed to look for appropriate application of the relevant rules.’ We would advise that you learn the Core Duties by heart, so you don’t waste time having to look these up during the exam.

3. Answer the questions effectively

Remember that each question requires a narrative answer, so make sure you have a plan before you start writing. Every question follows the same structure; a factual scenario followed by the same final sentence: ‘Identifying the relevant ethical issues and applying them to the facts, explain what ethical issues arise [for A / for A and B] in this scenario and how they should be resolved.’

For every question you should:

  • Identify your role and your stage of practice. Your answer may differ depending on whether you are responding from the point of view of an unregistered barrister, a pupil or a fully qualified member of the Bar.
  • Think about who else is involved in the scenario and make sure you cover what they should do or how the issue(s) in the question will affect them. For example you may have to consider different issues in relation to your lay and professional clients.
  • Make sure you identify the risks and benefits of your chosen course of action.
  • Answer the question:
    • Do not sit on the fence if you are asked to resolve the issues.
    • Do not just repeat the rules and guidance – apply them to the facts of the scenario and come to a conclusion.
    • Even if you come to the wrong conclusion, you can still get credit for identifying and considering relevant issues, so make sure you set out your answers in full.
  • Keep an eye on the time. You only have 15 minutes to answer each question, and one of the most common feedback points from pupils who have undertaken the exam is that they ran out of time. Do not leave any question unanswered – you cannot get any marks if you do not attempt that question.

4. Know what you need to do to pass

There are no grades for this exam – candidates are deemed competent or not competent. Questions are not given numerical marks, but are given a grade of ‘Satisfactory’ or ‘Unsatisfactory’. As mentioned above, there are 12 questions in the exam, and in order to achieve a competent grade overall, you would usually be expected to achieve a grading of ‘satisfactory’ in eight of the 12 questions. You may fail if, despite achieving eight satisfactory answers, you also provide three or more answers which are ‘clearly incorrect’ or do not demonstrate a genuine attempt to engage with the subject-matter of the question.

What you need to achieve a grade of satisfactory on each question is determined by a panel of standard setters, who are a combination of academics and practising barristers.

This obviously raises the question – what needs to be in a ‘satisfactory’ answer? The answer is set out in the BSB Assessment Guidance document, which states that you must:

  • Demonstrate satisfactory understanding of the key issues (albeit with some inaccuracies and omissions allowed)
  • Show some analysis and/or evaluation (this does not have to be highly developed)
  • Show some evidence of insight (this can be limited)
  • Use appropriate information and principles
  • Show an awareness of the key issues and come to appropriate conclusions

The BSB provides a full mock assessment on the Surpass testing system (the system used in the exam). We strongly recommend that you undertake this mock assessment and look carefully at the feedback provided as this will give you the best insight possible into how to approach the questions and what constitutes a satisfactory answer. The mock assessment can be accessed via the BSB website.

5. Practical preparation

  • If you are taking the exam online at home, make sure you have downloaded the relevant software and tested it well in advance of your assessment date.
  • If you are taking the exam at a test centre, plan your travel carefully and arrive in good time.
  • If you need reasonable adjustments, you will need to contact the BSB well in advance of the exam to organise these. Full details are available on the BSB website (in the ‘Adjustments and other arrangements’ policy).
  • Be aware of the misconduct policy and the exam requirements document, which are both available on the BSB website. 

This article was updated on 23 September 2024 to clarify that passing the professional ethics assessment has now been made a requirement for all pupils (unless you have a specific exemption authorised by the BSB).