I have officially completed the first year of the LPC :D I cannot believe it. This academic year has gone so quickly and it's scary to think that I will only be a student for one more year.
Last week I had exams in the employment elective and then solicitors' accounts. Employment (on Tuesday) didn't go as well as I would have like. In preparation for the exam I re-read the ENTIRE textbook (dedication!) and made notes on each topic. I went through each workshop and re-did most of the workshop tasks. I then annotated the flow charts and did the specimen exam. It would be fair to say I was feeling fairly confident and I slept like a baby the night before the exam.
The multiple choice element of the exam (20%) went terribly, as expected. So I was pleased to move on to the written questions. The first one was primarily redundancy based, with an unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal element plus a juicy question on restraint of trade. The second was TUPE followed by a question on future liability in relation to transferred employees. It mainly went badly due to time management. At the start of the exam I worked out how much time I had for each section but, inevitably, I ran over on my redundancy question- opting to cover EVERY single option etc. This meant I rushed the second part. However, I did finish and since the exam I know of 3 people who didn't even reach the future liability question, so I am at least thankful for that!
The real issue I have is with regard to discrimination. 1/3 of the course was dedicated to discrimination claims and so I was surprised to find it was not examined in the paper . Apparently, this surprise was felt by many and has led to a divide on whether there was in fact a potential discrimination claim in the first question. *cue panic* Some have covered it and some haven't. I didn't. And I revised discrimination ALOT. My personal opinion is that some have felt so uncomfortable that it wasn't in the paper that they have shoe-horned a claim in, but I guess only results will tell.
My advice to anyone studying on the LPC in the future would be that, studying for open book exams is actually no walk in the park! Obviously, more is expected of you and you really cannot rely on your books; there just isn't the time. I think I used my actual textbook twice in the whole 3 hour exam and used my notes sporadically- I only just finished in time. You absolutely cannot be learning or reading big chunks about a topic during the exam so make sure you learn everything in the same way you would a closed book exam. Then, create prompts and case references to quickly glance at while you are writing.
Prediction for Employment: 58%
On the other hand, Solicitors' Accounts (closed book) was a dream. A 2 hour paper and I managed the ledgers (worth 36%) in 20 minutes and the Financial Statement (worth 16%) in another 20 minutes. This gave me a lovely 80 minutes for the multiple choice element (20%) and the comprehension element (28%). No hiccups and it was pretty painless.
Prediction for Solicitors' Accounts: 70%
Results are out on 30th July and I am glad to have a 6 week breather to be honest. My immediate plans involve a return to the CAB for my advisor training, continuing with work and completing my TC applications. I might even treat myself to a break! No holidays this year as we are saving for an 8 week trip next summer (destination is as yet unknown) but I am booking in a lot of beach barbecues and countryside picnics. Here's to the summer!
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