The end of an era

Law School is over. Finished. Done. No more.

This state of affairs probably hasn't hit home just yet as it really just feels like any old post-exam day and I will wake up tomorrow thinking it's time to head to the library again.

My exams went ok, I think. None were horrific, but I did remember a few things post-Equity Finance that I know I missed out, but generally speaking ok. The Debt Finance paper was a bit evil, and seems a lot of people missed out on the last two questions due to confusing layout of the paper.

I will get back to you when I've realised it's all over. Right now it just all feels a bit surreal...

All drafted out

I'm not very happy about this exam. I don't think I particularly did myself justice, but I also didn't really revise very hard either and the whole thing is making me feel a bit uneasy. The trouble is there is no right answer so there is no way of knowing whether you got the marks or not.

I added up my supposed marks and think I probably managed 26 out of 50 at least, which for me is shocking. But it is a pass. And I will never know. I would imagine drafting is so subjective they can't fail people on the basis that their answers are different to the exact wording in the solution.

I do feel a little ashamed at not revising a bit more and being a little complacent about the exam. I heard last year that very good students often fail drafting because it is commonsense and subjective. Maybe I will fail. I don't want to fail. But I've always had that fear after hearing that... However I answered all the questions, and for once had enough time to check through and add some extra stuff that I feel improved my answers so hopefully that is something.

In response to anonymous who stated left this comment:

Is this diligent student thing serious? Or are you just being funny? I cant work it out. If you really were hard-working and scarily obsessive I'm not sure you'd share that fact with everyone. Give us a clue?

I'm not very clear on where anonymous got 'obsessive' from, diligent for sure, obsessive I hope not! Might I suggest you read some of my older posts, they may give you a bit of insight. Yes, it is completely serious and I'm not sure on why I wouldn't share it with everyone. I hate those people who work their backsides off and then when someone else says "oh did you work really hard for that" they go "oh no, half an hour". I work hard and I'm not afraid to admit it (although the drafting exam is not an example of this as I didn't work very hard at all, shame on me!). Hopefully it will pay off.

Results Day I

Accounts and interviewing results today. You will all be jumping for joy to hear that I am indeed competent. Of course I am disappointed not to have obtained 100% in my accounts assessments. Unsurprisingly, I was unwilling to put myself through the ordeal of physically walking up to the wall where the results were pinned up. Instead, I relied on my trusty friend, the computer. And it did not fail me.

The whole thing was somewhat of an anti-climax. Even though in true Susie Law School style I was somewhat nervous, I don't think I ever genuinely thought I had any real chance of failing either assessment. In fact, the absence of nerve-shredding dreams filled with NYCs (Not Yet Competent) and percentage values in the low twenties suggested to me that today would indeed pass without exam-induced hysterics. This was indeed the case.

I'm sure you are all very pleased for me ;-)

The Fear

"An emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight). "

I am experiencing Business Law related fear.

It is immense.

It is not aided by the fact that I get to a point where I feel like I know things, only to find something else entirely that I have not even considered.

In 25.5 hours it will all be over. Sadly said time is not sufficient for me to actually learn everything I need to know.

Fear.

Immense fear.

Exam II... and III

Big day today. Civil Litigation AND Criminal Litigation both in one day! Four and a half hours of flicking through statute books, writing like a small beast and pretending my arm did not ache and it is over.

This is how it went.

Civil Litigation

Some MCQs. Some were easy, some were difficult. Sadly, my two favourite topics, foreign jurisdiction and Part 36 t offers already appeared in MCQ so no long form questions to guarantee full marks from! Managed to do all of them fairly quickly and figured there would be plenty of time for Section B (80% of the paper). Turned over to Section B and found most of it was ok, but I would have preferred different questions. Compare arbitration and mediation. talk about Tomlin orders. Case law on Summary Judgment was v sketchy. Wasn't sure what part of Security for Costs was for what part of the question, put it all down but wasn't sure if it was in the right sections. Disclosure was a disaster. Thought it would be easy marks but managed to completely confuse myself. Also completely confused myself in Particulars of Claim. This should not happen!! I am clever, I work hard. I should be ble to get many many marks for this stuff! Goodbye 100%...

Criminal Litigation

This paper was a dream!!! No rush, got everything down I wanted to say, apart from think there was more to say about bail than I said but wouldn't be too many marks. Case study was almost identical for Formative Assessment!

At least the day ended on a high.

Business Law is on Tuesday. Another very long day and bound to be the toughest. Back to the library I go tomorrow...

Exam madness

Enough said

Exam I

Property Law and Practice was the longest exam I have ever done. And is likely to remain the longest until the New York Bar at least. I mean it actually WAS the longest, three hours and 15 minutes. I left 10 minutes before the end having finished my answers a good ten minutes earlier. This asn't happened to me since my undergraduate exams - I finished early! Oh except for Accounts but that wasn't a real exam...

That in itself is not however, an indication that the exam went well. I had high hopes for this one. I felt like I knew it.

Section A was multiple choice, not a big fan actually. They try to catch you out wit really tiny detail so youneed to be mega-careful to read the question exactly and not miss anything! I got lots of D's. There is of course no statistical probability involved so they could all be D's but it did not inspire confidence.

Section B was about registered land. It was fine, mostly, but I thought for a while I was running out of time and started rushing and possibly didn't answer the middle questions as well as I could have done. There was a professional conduct question which totally threw me and even though I think I got some of the points, I certainly missed out talking about the fact that it isn't in the client's best interest to lie to their mortgage lender... bah.

Section C was on leases, my least favourite topic area. Many were hoping for a big question on Security of Tenure but instead said topic was in MCQs. I hadn't looked at Landlords' Licences in enough detail so missed out a lot of points on section C. Not amused.

Next one is on Friday, litigation. Two papers, one in morning one in afternoon. Am hoping it will go better!

T minus 12 hours

First exam tomorrow. Property Law and Practice.

You will pleased to know tat today I got to that point were you feel like you know a lot of stuff and just want to get to the exam and see what the questions will be like.

I did a past paper, timed, managed 88% which was nice, but this of course means nothing in real terms. It did reassure me that I do actually know quite a bit of stuff though! It also reassured me that there probably won't be such a godawful rush as last year, and I actually have a decent chance of finising the wole paper.

Watch this space! And wish me luck of course.

Last year...

...someone apparently got 100% for Business Law and Practice.

Would be nice. Doable? Perhaps not...

Something wicked this way comes

And I don't mean wicked as in evil. I mean wicked as in excellent.

Dear readers, you may be in shock if my blawg is a new feature of your daily life. But my more established readers will not be surprised.

EXAMS ARE COMING!!!

I like exams. I like revision, suffice to be said. I have been spending some time this week going over what needs to be done in terms of revision, and putting together a revision timetable. And I must say I'm very excited!

The pre-Christmas mock examinations went very well (78% upwards well, in fact some papers very much upwards!) and this has erased some of the horror from last year's exam hell of my first two papers.


In other news - someone suggested a money-making idea in the form of publishing my blawg as advice to budding lawyers. I always have fancied being a published author but I can't see who would want to a) publish something I wrote and pay me money or b) buy it!

But secretly I've already been designing the cover of course...

Mock examining

Next week we have mock exams. Three of them to be exact - one for each compulsory subject.

The consensus in law school is that most people are anticipating abject failure. Apparently the average mark last year was an impressive 30%. Considering the mark required to pass the final exams is 50% I felt this fosters a great deal of confidence in the fact that since most people passed their final exams, there is enough time to do all the revision well between now and the end of February. As a result many of my peers are planning to carry out minimal revision and prepare to perform the happy dance if they succeed in obtaining over 30% in the mock exams (seeing as that would be deemed 'above average').

However, the situation has created within me considerable cognitive dissonance.

In one corner is the Logical Susie. She accepts there really is not enough time for the kind of decent revision between now and next week that would be required for say a 60-70% outcome. Therefore she has decided the best course of action is to instead focus on detailed consolidation and do what she can in the mocks, and not worry if the result is less than encouraging. It is all about experiencing what the exams will be constructed and suchlike.

In the other corner, however, is Competitive Susie. She is thinking that really it would not do to fail the mocks. This is despite the fact that they are entirely insignificant and most people improve greatly from their mock result when they sit the final exam. She is wanting to do all she can to maximise the points she can score, and see exactly how well she COULD do, to provide confidence for the impending final exam revision and at least a small smidgeon of self-satisfaction.

Currently Logical Susie is winning. She has convinced me to sit down and carry out very diligent consolidation activities which, although taking longer than superficial cramming, is providing me with a much better in-depth understanding of the topics and which should put me in good stead come exam-time.

However, notwithstanding this victorious outcome, I fear it is highly unlikely that Logical Susie will be able to convince Competitive Susie not to be too disappointed when she averages 29% in the mock exams...

Invaluable LPC advice

Last year I reported my puzzlement with outlining.

In academic study this was never appealing to me in any other sense than revision notes. I still maintain it is just revision notes but I can see the as due to the different teaching styles across the pond where revision only becomes similar at a later stage in education when big nasty finals start to rear their ugly head.

In comparison to academic study the LPC is a whole different beast altogether. Gone are the days when you would have a lecture on a topic one week and then a seminar on the same topic the week after. Now everything is all over the place, information strewn across the curriculum left right and centre.

So, I have started outlining.

Ok when I say outlining I really mean that instead of making revision notes by hand I am doing them on my trusty PC. The significant benefit of this being that I can write down all the information from my lectures and seminars, combine pieces of law from enough pieces of paper to annihilate all the forests in Sweden, and then work out what is linked together and move it all around. Obviously with handwritten notes once you've written it down, the whole thing becomes much more confusing if you realised something else was relevant and you didn't put it in!

Potentially, dear readers, you may feel this is one of my less enticing topics. However, there is a point to it. The point is - consolidate. When they say this all the time on the LPC they are not kidding. The contents are bitty, you get lots of pieces of information and it is up to you to make sense of it.

So, boys and girls, do not leave it all until the last minute. No time like the present. You will thank me later.

Interviewing and failing...

My interviewing and advising exam is in the near future*. I am concerned.

Let me give you a short explanation. You go into a room with a client. You have twenty minutes. They tell you their problem. You ask them questions about the bits they have missed out and you need to know. Then you give them some advice, a few options and advantages and disadvantages of each.

In usual LPC style the assessment is highly artificial. You have to say certain things in certain order in a certain way. You have to summarise what the client has said at particular times of the interview. There are about 6-7 points you can ask them questions on. Some of these are crucial - i.e. if you don't get that information, you will fail. This makes sense, as it is information that will change your advice. Others are less important.

As a great surprise to myself I was competent in my mock assessment. This was despite only asking two questions, and forgetting to set out my advantages and disadvantages of my options in the required way. In other words I told the client what they were but I didn't say stuff like "the advantages of Option 1 are..." etc.

I don't normally suffer from nerves. In my previous job I spent hours and hours talking to clients. Daily. A situation where they asked me something and I had to totally wing it is not unknown.

So why is it that this twenty-minute jumping-through-hoops exercise is so difficult to contend with? Bah!

*excessive detail could out me, so try to cope without knowing exactly when it is.

And so it ends...

First year of Law School.

Finished. Complete. Done. Over.

EU Exam today a mere two hours, which felt positively short in comparison to the previous six. It was starting to feel like Groundhog Day. Everyday I would get up, go to the library, and study more. And everytime an exam was complete, there was another one waiting.

Not today.

What an anti-climax. It doesn't feel like it's over. I'm exhausted. Ready to go to sleep for five days.

However, alas, I must now go and make myself look all pretty for the Law School Ball tonight.

I'll get back to you when it actually has hit home that I have finished my exams. Now it just feels like any other day. But then this was how it was always going to be. I think the best thing to do now is to go and party my little socks off and it might feel more like it! ;-)

BREAKING NEWS: Three-hour crimewave sweeps over Southeast London

LONDON - 8th June 2007

Today, between 10.35 and 1.35 Hall S5 of the ExCeL centre in London's Docklands gripped by a three-hour crime wave.

Two people were brutally murdered in the street by a male reported to be intoxicated, identified only as "John". Incenced by taunts by the first victim about his infertility, he proceeded to kick the first victim to death. The victim's pregnant wife, shocked by the events unfolding before her, attempted to stop the incident by throwing stones at the attacker, however this merely led to him stabbing her in the stomach with the keys he was carrying on his person. The first victim died en route to the hospital, his wife subsequently succumbed to her injuries after refusing treatment due to her distressed state following the tragedy.

It is reported that potentially over 1000 law students advised the offender to rely on intoxication, self-defence, provocation and dimished responsibility as defences, should he be charged.

In scandalous events elsewhere, three stars of a TV reality show, analogous to the X-factor were also found in a number of compromising situations, attempting to steal various objects
varying from airline tickets to a fellow star's guitar.

A lady walking her dog wreaked havoc at a local pub by going on a rampage resulting in criminal damage, burglary, aggravated burglary, robbery and blackmail. The landlord of the pub said "I am truly shocked. In all my years running a fictional public house in law exams have I seen such audacity."


------------

Yes you got it. Today was Criminal Law. It's not my favourite but it was ok. EU left on Monday but that isn't even like a proper exam - it's only two hours!

If I had my way...

...every day would be equity day.

Well every exam would be an equity exam.

I love equity. It's my favourite topic.

Contract is my second favourite and it was a disaster so if that was anything to go by, I would be unpleasantly surprised today. But it was just lovely. The first time that I've finished and exam knowing that I put in every single case and every single principle that I wanted to, and used all the facts of the question and didn't feel like I was rushing majorly. A little bit but not hugely.

Whether the writing was of sufficient quality is a whole different matter but I'm actually satisfied with that for once.

I did almost nearly strangle a person sitting nearby my desk who was talking the whole time before the exam and started again as soon as it finished, and was talking to a girl they presumably knew but she could not get a word in edgeways. LEARN SOME SOCIAL SKILLS!!

Please.

I must admit though, I am very juvenile because it made me laugh that Aslan wanted to set up a trust for his beaver.

It was all kinds of fun for a couple of minutes.

I need to go now and get myself one of those life-thingies.

So Land Law

Is mostly good.

That is all there is to be said about it.

I think I got a few things a bit wrong (mainly severance of co-ownership, I should have been more definite but I only found the 'trick' by reading the statute in great detail) but I actually finished a paper and got all the points down on paper that I wanted to.

And based on what I've heard there were several people very disappointed with the choice of questions.

So all is well.

Equity on Wednesday, it's my favourite topic on the course, so I hope I can perform to my required standard!

Shoulda woulda coulda

A realisation dawned on me yesterday.

I should have gone to Oxford.

Ergo I would have realised I am only average among great minds, rather than going to a good university where I was one of fewer great minds among a greater number of average minds.*

Ergo I could have taken all this academic distress more in my stride and not felt so horrendously disappointed about failing to obtain the distinction that I should have got (and probably would have got had I gone to Oxford) and would have been content with the Pass or low Commendation I am destined for, and could have been happier, rather than feeling like I should have written more concisely so I would have done my knowledge justice so I could have got the elusive Distinction.

Q.E.D.

Now I've come to terms with that, all is well.

The latest installment in the exam saga was ok in comparison to the other two, although my defamation answer was truly shoddy, and I made a significant misstatement of fact in my Occupiers’ Liability question, thus leaving out a crucial chunk of discussion, so that wasn’t so good. But it's done, and Tort was always my worst subject, so as long as I pass I'm actually going to just accept that we were never a match made in heaven.

But tonight I’ll be seeing Jack Sparrow so all is well in the world!

*This is not intended to be in any way disparaging about my University, or the people who study there, it is a rather good University, particularly for my subjects and my friends are all very clever.

Sense of impending doom

So far twice I have sat down at my desk at an exam and felt good because I know all the cases and understand the law and felt like as long as my questions come up, all will be well.

Only to have been proven wrong. Twice.

Tort is tomorrow.

As some of my more regular readers will probably recall, Tort is not good.

It is made slightly worse by the fact that I know all the cases and the structures, which gives me a distinct sense of... yes, you guessed it... impending doom. And general uneasiness. Because so far both exams that were supposed to go well have not. It will be no mean feat if I manage to actually write three complete answers at some point during the exam period!

Good luck to my fellow law-factory produce.

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!!! ;-)