Private Client exam - and the last exam of the LPC

Well what can I say, the LPC is over! Last Thursday saw me take the final of my LPC exams in beautiful sunshine and boy did it feel good. 

The PC exam is just like all the others -  three hour paper made up of 20% MCQs (multiple choice questions) and 80% written questions. This translated into ten MCQs at two marks each and five written questions with varying marks, totalling eighty. I did the usual - and would recommend this to anyone else - took thirty minutes off the three hour time limit and then divided the remaining minutes by  eighty giving me the average minutes per mark. Then multiplying all the questions marks by the average and writing how long I have for each (always rounding down!). This should only take two or three minutes to do and is INVALUABLE in time keeping. I have particularly found on the LPC that sometimes you really do have to wind up what you are saying and move on. On some questions I feel as though I could write forever! 

I digress. My time keeping worked a treat and I finished with five minutes to spare. All in all I was really happy with the exam. As expected the written questions were quite tax heavy, whether you were actually doing tax calculations or explaining the tax implications of a variety of options to a client, there certainly was a lot of tax. This was heaven for me! As nerdy as it may sound I would happily sit that exam ten times over - such a relief to end the course on a high. Especially in comparison to the Commercial exam which, in light of PC, was pretty damn horrendous. 

RESULT PREDICTIONS:

International Commercial Law:            60%

Private Client:                                          70%

After the exam there was a real sense of finality. Although there were still two more exams to go on the following day it seemed that most people in that room had just sat their last LPC exam. I must admit in my final five minutes I sat and had a little look around the room, took it all in. 

The LPC really has been a roller coaster. I went into it quite terrified of public speaking and not at all confident in my ability to one day be a solicitor. I am leaving having conquered my fear and feeling like a legal career was made for me. When I remember how absolutely petrified I was of both the interviewing and advocacy exams I am now so incredibly proud that I managed to do the exams and pass them first time (and even enjoy them a little!). 

In terms of friendships, I have definitely made a few of those. It really has been eye opening the different people you meet and from all kinds of walks of life. The camaraderie has been second to none, everyone is willing to lend a hand and support you when needed. For this reason I am excited for the future generation of lawyers - a kind, intelligent and extremely determined bunch. 

So now I await exams and the classification of my Legal Practice Course, and that will be my final blog post on the LPC *sniff sniff*. 

….. BUT don't abandon the blog just yet dear readers! I will still be popping in to post about the search for training contracts. Indeed, Monday 30th June will see me attending an assessment day so hold out of for the results of that. And in even more exciting news, the blog will be fully taken over by a new student in September. I will let him introduce himself in his own blog post but he is an English Literature graduate and will be documenting his journey on the Graduate Diploma in Law. 

So for now, enjoy whatever summer you may have and good luck in your TC applications!

International Commercial Law exam

Yesterday was the first of my two elective examinations and was on ICL. The course itself has been so incredibly structured that I assumed the exam would be straightforward enough. If you are currently in the UK you will be aware of the ridiculously hot weather we are experiencing at the moment - and I don't do heat! Give me a log cabin in the snow any day! On top of this my new car has (a) manual windows (yes, they do still exist!) and (b) no air conditioning. So my multiple hour long journey to uni was less than comfortable. Nevertheless it was lovely to see the campus full of summery looking students all revising in the sunshine and I enjoyed a pre-exam salad with my friends on the grass before we went to our doom.

First of all, the room was SWELTERING. Genuinely, I walked in and instantly felt a little sick at the thought of spending the next three hours in that stuffy heat, trying not to drink so I could avoid a time-wasting toilet break and doing my best to maintain peak concentration. Luckily, we were all in the same boat. 

The exam began and in usual fashion it was ten multiple choice questions worth two marks each followed by the written questions worth the remaining 80% of the paper. As someone who generally struggles with the MCQs on the papers, I was sooo relieved to find that they were all unusually similar to the practice questions we are required to do for each workshop (and which I had run through that morning!). Hoorah!!! There were not many that I was not confident about. 

The written questions were a bit more tricky. There were four and they were all styled on "read the email and write your response in a report". Annoyingly unnecessary when you don't want to waste precious time faffing and just want to answer the question! Because of this slight set back my timing was a bit off. Each "report" had specified subtitles but it wasn't clear how many marks were allotted under each subtitle, only under the whole question. This meant I was unsure how much was required in each bit. 

I did finish the exam and do all the questions. One of my friends missed the last question but then it was only worth six marks so not necessarily catastrophic. Now I am preparing myself for my final ever exam on Thursday for Private Client. I cannot wait!