Checked 27 October 2026. Format, dates, fees and practice materials were read on the BSB’s Professional Ethics exam page, its candidate guide Part 1 and the two practice mark schemes on 27 October 2026. The BSB publishes each year’s dates and syllabus on that page; check it before booking.
The BSB Professional Ethics exam is 12 short-answer questions in three hours, open book with the BSB Handbook only, sat during pupillage. The next sitting is Tuesday 12 January 2027 at 10am, then 11 May and 27 July 2027. Your first two attempts are free; from the third, the fee is £832 an attempt. The BSB sets and marks it centrally, and you book it yourself on Scheduler, the booking system that Surpass’s supplier EventMap operates, rather than through a course provider as for the litigation exams of the Bar course. It publishes two practice papers in the Surpass system with mark schemes. This page sets out the format, the dates and deadlines, the fees, how answers are graded according to the BSB’s own documents, and how to use the practice papers. Independent — not affiliated with the Bar Standards Board. ProSyllabus is an independent study site and nothing here is official. Every exam fact and figure below is quoted or summarised from the BSB’s own documents, read on 27 October 2026.
BSB Professional Ethics exam page and candidate guide Part 1, read 27 October 2026.
The format
The BSB’s exam page says: “It is an open book exam comprising twelve short answer questions. All parts are equally weighted. Responses are required in the form of narrative prose (short answers).” Each question is a scenario “set within professional practice”, and “the scenarios will cover a range of settings and areas of law (eg criminal practice and civil practice), but no specialist knowledge of these areas is required.” “The exam is three hours long. It is for you to decide how to apportion your time.” That is 15 minutes a question on average (our arithmetic).
| Feature | What the BSB says |
|---|---|
| Questions | Twelve short-answer questions; all parts equally weighted |
| Time | Three hours; you decide how to split it |
| Materials | “The only permitted material for the Ethics exam is the BSB Handbook”, supplied online during the exam; no other materials or webpages, and you may not call the Bar Council Ethical Enquiries line |
| Delivery | A computer-based test on Surpass, at a test centre or by remote online invigilation; a hard copy (paper) exam or a paper Handbook only as an agreed adjustment |
| When you can sit | After at least three months of pupillage (waived for a transferring qualified lawyer with a reduced pupillage) |
| Who sets and marks it | The BSB, centrally |
From the BSB’s Professional Ethics exam page and the Bar Qualification Manual.
How you reach the Handbook differs by venue. At a test centre it is “available online only”, cannot be downloaded, is searched with its own search function and keyboard shortcuts such as copy and paste do not work. Under remote invigilation it is in the browser, can be downloaded as a PDF, and Ctrl+F and copy and paste work. Side-by-side viewing needs a screen of at least 1920x1080 pixels, which every test centre screen meets.
- 3 Criminal mocks of 75 questions
- 3 Civil mocks: Paper 1 and Paper 2
- Every answer explained
- A countdown study plan to the sitting
2027 dates and deadlines
| Sitting | Exam | Adjustments deadline | Booking window | Results on MyBar by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2027 | Tuesday 12 January, 10am | Tuesday 10 November 2026 | Tuesday 24 November to Tuesday 8 December 2026 | End of Thursday 25 March 2027 |
| May 2027 | Tuesday 11 May, 10am | Tuesday 9 March | Tuesday 23 March to Tuesday 6 April | End of Thursday 24 June |
| July 2027 | Tuesday 27 July, 10am | Tuesday 25 May | Tuesday 8 to Tuesday 22 June | End of Thursday 16 September |
From “When are the exams and what are their key dates?” on the BSB’s Professional Ethics exam page, read 27 October 2026.
Our count of calendar days between the exam and results dates the BSB lists. The BSB says a result is “typically” available eight weeks after the exam.
First-time candidates book online in a window that “opens online seven weeks before the exam date … It closes five weeks before the exam.” If you fail and resit at the very next sitting, the candidate guide says the window opens three weeks before the exam and stays open one week, so you have time to receive your result. Tell the BSB about adjustments at least 9 weeks before an exam.
Booking runs through Scheduler. The candidate guide says your pupillage should normally be registered with the BSB before you book; if registration may not be complete while the booking window is open, it asks you to contact the BSB, which can make a booking “contingent on your pupillage being succesfully registered before the date of the exam”. If the BSB has agreed extra time or extra breaks for you, the guide says you “can book your own exam once we have notified you that the adjustment has been approved”. For any other adjustment or arrangement, do not book yourself: the BSB books the exam for you once it has approved it, because a self-booked place is a standard exam with no adjustments. Surpass then uploads the candidate list to Scheduler, which emails you a username and password. The candidate guide says: “Scheduler is maintained and operated by EventMap”, which it describes as Surpass’s supplier. If you cannot attend, the guide says to “cancel at least two weeks prior to the exam” by emailing the BSB.
Fees and attempts
| Attempt | Fee | Note |
|---|---|---|
| First and second | None: “funded by the BSB from … Practising Certificate Fees” | A booked exam you do not cancel at least two weeks before uses one of these free attempts, unless the attempt is set aside due to extenuating circumstances or another appeal |
| Third and each later attempt | £832 per exam | Your pupillage provider may pay, or may ask you to; the BSB says this should be in your written pupillage agreement |
| Non-attendance without cancelling in time (at least two weeks before) | £100 non-attendance fee | Unless an extenuating circumstances application succeeds. On a third or later sit you also still pay that sit’s £832 fee in full |
| Limit on attempts | None | “If needed, you are permitted to take unlimited resit attempts.” |
From the BSB’s Professional Ethics exam page and candidate guide Part 1.
You must pass before your pupil supervisor can sign off your pupillage and before the BSB can issue a full practising certificate. If you have not passed by the end of pupillage, the BSB says what happens next is up to your pupillage provider.
How answers are graded
The BSB’s own answers are the place to start. On passing: “It is expected that competent candidates will have provided at least eight satisfactory answers out of 12, but there will be a review of all candidates on either side of this borderline which will involve a holistic view of the candidate’s entire script.” And a hard rule: “Where a candidate has three or more sub-part answers graded as ‘Unacceptable’ the candidate will be graded ‘Not Competent’, regardless of the grades awarded for answers to other sub-parts. Please note that providing no answer to a question will count as an ‘Unacceptable’ answer.”
The Paper 1 practice mark scheme grades each question’s “application of knowledge” as Good, Satisfactory, Poor or Unacceptable. For each question it lists what a satisfactory answer must show, what a good answer adds, the omissions that make an answer poor, and the statements or omissions that make it unacceptable. In its first question, for example, an unacceptable answer includes “A statement that Moira should ignore what she has seen.” Others are failures to spot a point: “A failure to identify William is vulnerable.” and “A failure to recognise that the Cab Rank Rule applies.” Both mark schemes also give indicative content for an answer “comfortably exceeding ‘satisfactory’”.
| Grade | What the Paper 1 mark scheme looks for |
|---|---|
| Good | Everything a satisfactory answer has, plus further points it lists for each question |
| Satisfactory | Evidence that the candidate understands and can apply each listed point (the points cite the relevant Core Duties, rules and guidance) |
| Poor | The specific omissions, or irrelevant or incorrect material, that the question’s Poor criteria list |
| Unacceptable | The scheme says an unacceptable answer “may include any or all of” the points it lists: statements (such as advising that what was seen can be ignored) and omissions (such as failing to recognise that the Cab Rank Rule applies); no answer at all also counts as unacceptable |
From the BSB’s Professional Ethics practice test mark scheme (Paper 1) and the exam page.
On citing rules, the BSB says: “Candidates are expected to accurately identify the Core Duties, rules and other materials which are applicable to the question scenario. While it is helpful to quote rule numbers and other source material, markers are instructed to look for appropriate application of the relevant rules.” So you do not need to memorise rule numbers, but you do need to find the right ones quickly and apply them to the facts.
Would you use a Professional Ethics answer checker? Join the waitlist below. It is not built yet.
- 3 Criminal mocks of 75 questions
- 3 Civil mocks: Paper 1 and Paper 2
- Every answer explained
- A countdown study plan to the sitting
The official practice papers
The BSB publishes two practice assessments in Surpass, the system the exam itself uses. It says: “the practice assessments are not marked and your responses will not be saved - you will be able to copy and paste them into a Word document in order to evaluate your answers against the mark schemes. There is no limit to the number of attempts for the practice assessment.” It “strongly” recommends trying one, whether you sit at a test centre or online.
| Resource | Where | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Practice Paper (Paper 1) | BSB website, Professional Ethics section | A full timed run in Surpass; then grade yourself with the Paper 1 mark scheme’s Good / Satisfactory / Poor / Unacceptable lists |
| Practice Paper Two | BSB website, Professional Ethics section | A second full run; compare with the Paper 2 mark scheme’s indicative content |
| BPTC Ethics sample paper and mark scheme | BSB website | Extra short-answer practice; the BSB says the question style has not changed but the pupillage exam is marked differently |
| Syllabus (2027) and assessment guidance | BSB Professional Ethics exam page | What is examinable and how answers are classified |
From the BSB’s Professional Ethics exam page, read 27 October 2026.
A routine for each practice paper (ours): sit it in three hours with the online Handbook; paste your answers into a document; for each question, compare your answer with the mark scheme: for Paper 1, with the points it lists as satisfactory and as unacceptable (the failures to spot a point as well as the statements to avoid); for Paper 2, with its indicative content; give each answer an honest grade; count how many reach Satisfactory or better against the BSB’s benchmark of eight out of 12. Note how long you spent on each question: at 15 minutes each on average, two long answers can leave the last question unanswered, and an empty answer counts as Unacceptable.
Pass rate
The BSB does not set a target: “We do not prescribe to a set passing quota or passing rate.” It uses a competency-based standard-setting method, and “The final passing rate is taken as valid, regardless of where it falls.” On what to expect, the exam page says only: “For the BPTC Ethics exam, the pass rate was typically around 70%. It is not possible to predict the pass rate for the pupillage-stage exam”, noting that every candidate has passed the Bar Training Course and been selected for pupillage, that the exam is open book, and that candidates have more time than in the BPTC exam. The BSB publishes a Chair’s report for each Ethics sitting, the latest for April 2026 at the time of reading, which is where sitting-by-sitting figures appear.
Still to pass Criminal or Civil Litigation before pupillage? The BSB litigation resit bundle covers both, three free questions first. The litigation dates are in our dates and resits guide, and the exam page is the BSB centralised assessments exam page.
Frequently asked questions
What is the format of the BSB Professional Ethics exam?
Twelve short-answer questions in three hours, equally weighted, answered in narrative prose. It is open book, and the only permitted material is the BSB Handbook, provided online during the exam.
When is the next BSB Ethics exam?
Tuesday 12 January 2027 at 10am. Booking runs from 24 November to 8 December 2026 and results are on MyBar by the end of 25 March 2027. Later 2027 sittings are 11 May and 27 July.
How much does the BSB Ethics exam cost?
Nothing for your first and second attempts. Third and later attempts cost £832 each. A £100 non-attendance fee applies if you do not cancel at least two weeks before the exam, unless an extenuating circumstances application succeeds; on a third or later sit the £832 fee is still payable in full as well.
How many answers do I need to pass the Ethics exam?
The BSB expects competent candidates to give at least eight satisfactory answers out of 12, with a holistic review of scripts either side of that line. Three or more sub-part answers graded Unacceptable mean Not Competent, and no answer counts as Unacceptable.
Are there BSB Ethics past papers?
No. The BSB says it holds a bank of questions and does not publish past papers. It publishes two practice papers in Surpass with mark schemes, and an older BPTC sample paper.
What is the BSB Ethics exam pass rate?
The BSB does not set a target pass rate. Its exam page says the BPTC Ethics pass rate was typically around 70% and that the pupillage-stage rate cannot be predicted; sitting figures are in its Professional Ethics Chair’s reports.
Do I need to quote rule numbers in the Ethics exam?
Not word for word. The BSB says you must accurately identify the applicable Core Duties and rules; quoting rule numbers helps, but markers look for appropriate application of the rules.
Sources
- official — BSB: Pupillage / work-based learning component, Professional Ethics Exam (format, 2027 dates, fees, practice assessments, FAQs)
- official — BSB: Professional Ethics exam candidate guide, Part 1, About your Professional Ethics assessment
- official — BSB: Professional Ethics Practice Paper (Surpass practice assessment)
- official — BSB: Professional Ethics Practice Paper Two (Surpass practice assessment)
- official — BSB: Professional Ethics practice test, mark scheme including indicative content (Paper 1)
- official — BSB: Professional Ethics practice paper 2, mark scheme and indicative content
- official — BSB: BPTC Ethics sample paper and mark scheme (older BPTC material the BSB still links)
- official — BSB: Bar Qualification Manual (whole PDF, including Part 3B Bar Training Syllabi and the 2020 change to attempts)
- official — BSB: Bar training, who does what
official = a document published by the conducting body. reported = a news or coaching site we could not check against an original. Where sources disagree this page says so rather than picking one.
