New critical finding from the Council for Vocational Legal Team after the 2023 bar exams. This year again, the examiners' conclusions are severe.
Candidates who took these exams do not have a good command of English or French. There is also a lack of legal reasoning, deplores Council for Vocational Legal Team.
Thus, several deficiencies are noted after these examinations.
“Deplorable and inadequate”: these are the comments of the examiners.
As in previous years, the Council deplores with concern a lack of linguistic skills in terms of language, grammar, spelling and syntax among some candidates at this level.
In addition to the inability to express themselves clearly, it has been reported that many of them have difficulty understanding certain legal concepts in English or French, which prevents them from fully grasping the issues or identifying obvious problems.
Weaknesses in legal reasoning have also been identified as a major cause of failure in these exams.
While a handful of candidates demonstrated sufficient analytical skills to achieve the minimum required score, the most common criticism from examiners was that candidates analyzed only part of the problem presented to them, or rushed to write a conclusion without setting out the underlying legal reasoning.
The disorderly presentation of the exam answers was also deplored.
Although aware of candidates' natural nervousness, examiners are critical of shortcomings in eloquence. Some candidates prefer to use prepared scripts rather than address the bench directly, as expected by legal practitioners.
