Wednesday, May 23, 2007

The following takes place between 08:15 and 17:05 on the day of the London Law School Contract Law Exam. Events occur in real time.

08:15 Susie Law School leaves her abode
09:10 Susie arrives at the examination venue
09:15 Susie purchases a bagel, which is not of satisfactory quality as it has too much cheese and not enough sweet pepper
09:30 Susie feels quite confident, she likes contract, she knows it and it should all be ok
10:10 Susie and friends enter examination room (read 'huge aeroplane hangar with 1500 desks)
10:35 'God' (read head of law school type person on a scary PA system) announces that the exam begins
10:36 Susie is excited because the first two questions she wants to do look rather easy.
10:47 Susie debates whether to do the 'Remedies' question or the 'Frustration' question
10:48 Susie selects 'Remedies' and begins to read and highlight with various colours (green for parties, blue for losses, orange for dates and pink for everything else)
10:53 Susie commences her first answer, on 'Offer and Acceptance'
11:43 Susie completes a rather good answer on 'Offer and Acceptance', even though she says so herself, unless she messed up something about acceptance of a unilateral offer but chooses to ignore it
11:44 Susie begins to write about 'Terms and Exemption Clauses'
12:20 Susie is still writing about Terms and hasn't got on to exemption clauses yet
12:23 Susie asks for another answer book and manages to smile at the nice lady who gave her 90% for her mock and feels bad that she is really nowhere near tha
12:25 Susie realises she has not realised that the person in the question is acting 'in course of business' and has to write a whole bunch of stuff again
12:30 Susie finally starts writing about exemption clauses and forgets about Stewart Gill v Horatio Myer, which was such an easy brownie points case
12:45 Susie turns to remedies, slightly panicking that she only has 45 minutes left
12:50 Susie realises, having written half a page on remedies that she has no idea what the question is on about and 40 minutes is not enough to work it out
12:51 Susie crosses out 'Remedies' and turns to 'Frustration'
12:52 Susie starts writing about 'Frustration' having not read the question and having no idea who the parties are and making it up as she goes along.
13:33 Susie stops writing, because she is not adding anything of any value and has NOT applied the law sufficiently and there is no point.
13:34 Susie comforts herself with the thought that she has quoted 44 cases in her Offer and Acceptance answer
14:02 Susie and friends leave the examination hall
15:15 Susie departs the venue on the toy train (as JB calls it)
15:30 Susie decides there is no way in HELL she is getting a distinction
16:04 Susie arrives home
16:15 Susie decides there is no way she is even getting a commendation
16:35 Susie wonders if she will even make a mediocre lawyer since she clearly lacks the ability to write concisely enough
17:05 Susie wonders if she even passed the last question, and whether Strippers-R-Us are hiring.

Please note comments along the lines of "shut up you probably did fine" or "what are you complaining about I'll be happy if i pass" will NOT be published. Yes that refers to YOU Accidental Lawstudent!!! ;-)

10 comments:

Accidental Lawstudent said...

Oh, like I'd say anything quite that positive/self-deprecating.

Actually, I was going to say that I'm all in favour of you starting at Strippers R Us, Susie. And I think I speak for my entire readership when I say so! :D

Anonymous said...

I think you just need to be practical about this. Basically you have learnt from your last 2 papers that you are writing too much and not having enough time to finish. trust me, if you are methodical about your approach for the next 5 papers you may still get your distinction. put less cases per question, stick to the manual* facts because they will definately get the marks on the marking scheme. leave a blank page after every question and go back to it *if you have time to put extra reading brownie points. and last of all do the question you know best last not first. you cant do this! cheer up!

Susie Law School said...

I know you are trying to be friendly and helpful but unfortunately I am not in the correct state of mind at the moment to appreciate it but please rest in the knowledge that if I wasn't completely convinced about my utter stupidity, I might appreciate it.

I know what the problem is, trust me I am being methodological, I'm just stupid. I'm not adding in anything that isn't in the manual, it's only because I am thick and have so far both times missed something really obvious in a question, that I'm running out of time. And please don't say "plan better" because I am planning.

I will feel better tomorrow but right now I'm just happy in my little cave revelling in my inadequacy.

Toodles.

Lise Johnston said...

Well at least you know what the problem is. Bad part, there's nothing you can do now about it. Good part, you have a few more exams to take before you graduate to get it right. There, I tried not to say "you'll probably be fine" and yet still make you feel better.

Accidental Lawstudent said...

And just to add to that, EVERYONE ran out of time today. There was no way to do any of the questions justice and stay within allotted time, but most people only realised this on completing the second question and having only half an hour left to rush the third one. Bad organisation by the Contracts staff, I say.

Anonymous said...

Well, if it doesn't work out you'd have a fabulous career as an author/TV writer - love this blog!

Anonymous said...

The Remedies question was something of mare, on reading your problems with it I was very much reminded of my own!
I decided to battle on through it, and only when i heard BH on the loudspeaker annoucing 5 mins to go did I suddenly realise that i had missed various crucial areas. It was, I tell myself, a funnily worded question after all!
-C

Anonymous said...

yeah remedies was worded in a topsy-turvey way which was designed to catch you out i reckon. easy to get lost in the midst of all the numbers.

Barrister 2 B said...

You will be fine, everyone always does two questions well and one not so well, so stop stressing and have a nice glass of wine.

Rachel said...

try not to worry. in my lpc commercial exam I got an entire 23 mark question wrong and I still managed a commendation. I think you'll be ok in the end. But good luck xx