The 19 stages of the BPTC

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By Thomas Connelly on

A journey through the sorrow and the joy of the Bar Professional Training Course (BPTC)

First comes the self doubt.

Next, a momentary high as your acceptance offer arrives.

But pretty soon reality intrudes…

Receiving your new textbooks…all at once!

Luckily there’s a must-have roller suitcase awaiting them.

The work begins…

Even worse than Freshers’ Flu: the excruciating pain of watching your first advocacy exercise on video.

For those who remain unbroken, there’s a chance to put into action what they’ve learned on the mooting circuit.

Hating it indicates that you may be pursuing the wrong career.

Now, if you find mooting boring you’re going to love drafting!

By this stage BPTC students have become reliant on caffeine to function.

Fortunately, their hard lives are given meaning by occasional brushes with royalty.

As the course continues, things become increasingly mystifying

It doesn’t help that the tutors gave up months ago.

Just around the corner: exams you haven’t found time to revise for

Still, at least the excellent-value course fees mean there’s plenty of cash left over to lavish on wild celebrations.

Finally, just enough time to impress your friends by taking them for an Inns of Court dinner…

…before panic strikes.

Several months later and your 115th job application yields a paralegal position on a zero-hour contract at a struggling law firm in Grimsby.