CLP Examiners Say Law Grads Have Poor Command Of English & Often Misunderstand Questions
They also highlighted illegible handwriting as another significant issue among some candidates.
Cover image via A recent report by the Legal Profession Qualifying Board has revealed that many budding lawyers struggle with poor English and often misunderstand questions in the Certificate in Legal Practice (CLP) exam
According to the 20-page report, 1,174 candidates registered for the CLP exam last year.
Of those, 994 candidates sat for the professional practice exam, with 650 failing the subject. It constituted a 65.4% failure rate, the highest among the four other subjects: general paper, civil procedure, criminal procedure, and evidence.
The passing mark for each paper is 40%.
According to FMT, candidates must pass all five subjects in a single attempt to qualify for a nine-month chambering period at law firms.
CLP candidates are allowed a maximum of four attempts within five years to complete the examination, with two retakes permitted for those failing a single paper.
Practising certificates are issued upon the successful completion of all papers and the nine-month chambering period.
Image via LPQB
The report highlighted that candidates demonstrated poor English proficiency in the general paper, civil procedure, and evidence
Examiners generally agreed that many struggled to grasp the legal issues posed in the questions, and even when the issues were understood, their application of legal principles to the facts was weak, with some candidates using incorrect laws.
"Generally, very poor performance, as many candidates were not well prepared for the examination," read a comment for the professional practice subject.
"A significant number of candidates did not prepare for the examination at all, as reflected by marks scored below 20. There were a handful of answer scripts that scored zero marks, and this was highly disconcerting to note. This also calls into question the actual readiness of the candidates in the first place.
"It can safely be concluded that the candidates are not taking the examination seriously," read the report.
Examiners for the civil procedure subject even recommended a six-month internship at a legal firm as a prerequisite for taking the exam.
Below are the examiners' observations for the general paper exam:
Image via LPQB
