Yet another long gap since my last post. As you can imagine, it is winding down time at uni which means spare time is in short supply. And you will see from the title is has been a busy few weeks!
I can hardly believe that three weeks YES THREE WEEKS(!) has passed since the last exam of the most recent exam period. Our final sessions in litigation and property (PLP) were on 5 February and we had two free weeks to cram in revision for both subjects plus revision for conduct - more about that later. But first, the drafting assessment was also due on 5 February. This assessment was sent to us a little over three weeks before the due date. It is one of the only assessments, along with Practical Legal Research (PLR), which constitutes university type "coursework" in which you are required to do the work at home and submit a written piece. This year, the drafting was in three sections which a question in each. We were required to test different drafting skills, i.e. actually drafting a clause, critiquing drafting. The sections related one each to business law, civil litigation and property - so a word of warning for you fair part timers who, like me, believed that after the business exam the previous year you wouldn't catch a sniff of business law until at least a TC, business law comes back with avengeance. I suppose it wasn't really that bad as far as assessments go but I would definitely recommend Lexis PSL as a bank for precedents (in addition to PLC of course!) as there was a very handy precedent on there which was unmatched on PLC and sadly many students didn't find it and had to struggle with the rather unworkable PLC version.
The usual hum of tension was buzzing around uni on the 5th. Hand in date. We also had final classes so, rightly or wrongly, the breaks in between were times for us to hurriedly rush to the PC labs to amend/rewrite/check/renumber/reparagraph/have-mini-breakdowns. I myself ended up printing my assessment four times due to casual checking and noticing errors. I dread to think how many I may have missed! I could have reread it a hundred times. We did the usual ritual of handing in and then after we felt like criminals as we carefully discussed our submissions - for those of you who don't know you're not allowed to discuss the written assessments before or even after the deadline. Inevitably this rule is ditched as soon as the assessment has been submitted. There were a few people who looked positively sick in these discussions, having likely answered a question wrong and I suppose that is one reason alone to avoid the post- assessment analysis.
The day ended, we headed to our respective homes aware that our little gang of eleven had finished its last ever day of classes together. It has been an extremely tiring and testing eighteen months and a period in my life that has been made all the more bearable, hell, even enjoyable, for having those people as classmates. But we looked onwards to exams and then electives.
Ahhhhhhh the exams.
Civil Litigation
In hindsight, my ingenious idea of waking up at 4:30 every exam morning to arrive at Guildford for 7am was flipping ridiculous. Civil was up first, on 24 February and I felt surprisingly 'buzzy'. Probably the early start and copious amounts of caffeine. It is a 3.5 hour paper with the writing skill also being a part of the assessment. I started fairly well and none of the questions seemed monstrous but around the two hour mark the tiredness was beginning to take its toll and my mind was becoming a tad sluggish. Some water and a snack helped the situation and I finished the paper feeling seriously concerned only about one question and the final question which I only partly answered due to running out of time. I am quietly confident that this can at least get me a pass - mainly because resitting civil litigation would be hellish!
Criminal Litigation
The criminal exam was two days later on 26 February. This was a 1 hour paper with advanced reading - information emailed to you two weeks before that you can annotate and take into the exam. Our advanced reading relating to a gentleman who had been arrested for ABH and some witness statements. The university tell you not to use this as a tool to guess questions but it is hard not to at least surmise at what the paper will include. There were five Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and it turned out two written questions. I had used the information to write up bullet points of things to take into account, bearing the information in mind, when making his bail application etc. Luckily for me, something that I had prepared came up and with a little tweaking to account for the new information presented in the exam paper I think my answers were good enough to pass. Phew!
I must say that by this point in the week I was beginning to feel the effects of two 4:30am starts, 7am starts on the days off with packed revision and 11pm bedtimes.
Property Law and Practice (PLP)
You may remember that I managed, somehow, to achieve 74 in the mock for PLP with absolutely no revision. For that reason alone I felt that with revision a distinction should be in my grasp for the real thing. This exam should have been one of my best, one that I held the most confidence for, one that I felt the most prepared.
My final 4:30 start for the week killed me. I felt genuinely awful, actually unwell. When I arrived at uni I did the usual ritual of going to the PC labs to print the notes I had typed at home and then emailed to my account. I printed of the Test and Feedback exercises for each week (they are all MCQs so generally are a good aid for the exam MCQs) and headed off to the common room for some light reading of the advanced reading. The property advanced reading consisted of a 43 page lease. It was to be the main focus of all the lease questions, taking up 40% of the exam, and so was rather important. Looking back I don't feel that I was nearly prepped enough in terms of the advanced reading and had not completed any tasks in relation to the specific provisions of that lease, although I had heavily annotated it.
With an hour to go until the 9:30am start I was still feeling weird. Fuzzy headed and a bit shaky, a little nauseous. Strange. The time passed and the exam started and I remember reading the front of the paper with the little disclaimer "By sitting this exam you are confirming that you are fit to sit" or whatever it says.
I had decided to leave the 20 MCQs until last. They were mainly on unregistered land and not my cup of tea at all. I moved straight to the written questions on freehold land.
They were fairly okay. My start was questionable at best and my head still felt hot and fuzzy, but I gained my stride and was soon moving to the leasehold questions which were largely uncomplicated.
I had worked out to the second how many minutes I had per mark and then per question. I finished the written exercises bang on time and began the MCQs.
LOTS of reading. LOTS of processing of information. My brain was completely frazzled and I struggled enormously. I cannot explain how frustrating it is to have to read and reread and reread information and retain none of it. I muddled through but I expect to have little over 7/20 on those questions - heavily affecting my final grade.
Conduct
Conduct is a 'pervasive' subject, hence why you have never seen a blog about it. It is meant to be covered in all areas and relates to the Solicitors Regulation Authority Code of Conduct - basically how solicitors should behave.
It is a two hour paper, all MCQs and was on the Thursday 6th March - a nice big gap after the incredibly long week of core exams previous.
The paper was not particularly taxing although I am not saying I aced it. The problem with MCQs is that you can often get yourself down to two answers and be sure that either could be right and so you have a 50/50 chance. Luckily, it is a Competent/Not Competent paper so I am hoping I have done enough to get 50% at least!
Results estimates:
- CIVIL LITIGATION 62%
- CRIMINAL LITIGATION 70%
(giving 64% for litigation overall)
- PROPERTY LAW AND PRACTICE 65%
- CONDUCT COMPETENT
