A career in law can be appealing to you if you want to explore different aspects of the judicial system and want to give back to society. It can also be an interesting career option if you are adept in analytical and logical thinking.
Most of the world’s nations including Canada, have extensive legal and judicial systems that can be a source of career opportunities for you as a lawyer. Canada especially has a lot of scope for lawyers from a different domain, thereby attracting scores of foreign-trained lawyers.
As per statistics released by the Canadian National Committee on Accreditation (NCA), the number of foreign-trained legal applicants has tripled since 1999. These applicants have to appear for the NCA exams to be able to hold a legal practice in Canada. Read this article to learn more about the NCA exams and whether it is feasible to pursue additional coaching for the exams.
What are the NCA exams?
The NCA on behalf of the Federation of Law Societies of Canada evaluates the qualifications of foreign-trained lawyers to check if they are qualified enough for practicing law in Canada. An applicant’s legal credentials are checked on a case-by-case basis.
If the NCA decides that the credentials are insufficient, the applicant might be required to write NCA exams on the following core modules:
- Foundation of Canadian Law
- Canadian constitutional Law
- Canadian Administrative Law
- Canadian Criminal Law
In addition to these core modules, applicants can be asked to take exams on other modules as well, if required.
Why is it beneficial to pursue preparatory courses for your NCA exams?
The NCA exams cover a lot of syllabus spanning across several legal disciplines. It can take you a long time to cover the extensive syllabus with self-study. Taking on coaching courses for your NCA exams can help you cover a lot of ground in a relatively shorter time.
Apart from this, here are some more interesting benefits of pursuing coaching courses for NCA exams.
- The exams are challenging and have low pass rates: The NCA exams are very comprehensive and can require a lot of preparation. They also have very low pass rates. In fact, as per NCA statistics, only 1708 out of 4515 applicants passed their exams during 1999-2009.
- The syllabus is extensive and can take longer with self-study: The low pass rate can be attributed to students underestimating the time required for preparation. Each course module can require more than 150 hours of studying and reviewing the course material. It can even take longer if you are studying on your own without any external help.
- The preparatory courses can allow you to juggle your studies with a full-time career: Many students attempt to give the exams while juggling a full-time career on the side. Opting for suitable coaching can give you the right exposure and help you need to cover the syllabus.
Clearing the NCA exams is the first step towards establishing a successful legal career in Canada. Hence, you should get prepared for NCA exam by enrolling in a suitable preparatory course.