Farewell: Final Results and PgDip Award

Tuesday 29 July 2014 marked the final results day for me and my comrades. Needless to say I was at work so my usual hoohah of winding myself up at exactly 2pm and opening and then closing the results page did not happen. Instead I sat at my desk doing my work, and between the hours of 2 and 5 pm, feeling like my stomach was going to jump out my mouth or fall out the other end. 

Work finished and I practically ran to the door. I had already seen that my friends had passed and that at least two had achieved an overall Distinction. Pressure was on. I had also seen that the girl who managed to wangle FOUR WEEKS off work for study leave (the same girl who called the employment exam commotion last year and proceeded to get a 76 and who has also only achieved distinctions thus far) had gotten a 66 in International Commercial Law. You know, International Commercial Law the one exam that I felt like I knew just about nothing in. 

Anyway, I finally opened my results. No opening and closing this time, I had had enough mental torture throughout the afternoon. I opened the email which gave our final award first, thinking that if I had a Commendation or above I knew that I had at least passed ICL (if you fail one of your core modules or electives you are limited to only a Pass in your final award regardless of your average mark).

I opened the email and found I had been awarded a DISTINCTION in the PgDip (fancy way of saying LPC) with an overall average of 76. 

Absolute relief and joy and, yes, mainly relief! I now had the courage to check the final exam results.

PRIVATE CLIENT                                                    80%

INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL LAW           66%

As you can imagine I was completely over the moon with Private Client. A little disappointed with ICL but when you think you may have failed something a solid Commendation is not to be looked down upon. 

So thats it folks, law school is now over for me. I started this course full of nerves, knowing that I wanted to get a Distinction but not believing I was good enough. Unlike on the LLB I can honestly say I have followed the course materials rigorously, I haven't missed a single piece of required reading or I-Tutorial. And that would of course be my only advice in approaching the LPC - do everything required of you. And more if you have the time!

The future is looking bright for me. I landed that paralegal job that I interviewed for and which has a Training Contract interview attached commencing 2015. I have all my fingers crossed. Unfortunately, I didn't get any further with the CPS. That case study assessment was just too damn hard!

I want to thank each and every one of my readers for their support - some of your Twitter messages and emails have been amazing. Please do continue your support for the blog and to my successor who is starting the GDL this September. 

Good luck in all your studies and legal careers you lovely lovely people. Farewell!

CPS - Case Study Assessment

So apologies for the delay in this blog. Today, as promised, I am talking about the case study assessment I attended on Monday 30 June 2014 for the Crown Prosecution Service. 

First off, to get to this point you had to submit an application which consisted of the usual information form filling bits and then three competency based questions. Following this there was supposed to be a Situational Judgment Test (very similar to the Government Legal Service which I interviewed for last year), however, the date for these tests to be emailed to successful candidates came and went. I eventually received an email to say they would not be conducting the SJT and instead would be moving to the next stage - the case study assessment. 

I was emailed the date and time of the assessment (non-negotiable - all the assessments took place on one day), as well as a link to the Code for Crown Prosecutors, and told to familiarise ourselves with this in particular part 4. My assessment was to be in London and on 30 June. 

I arrived just ten minutes before the time we had to be there, having got slightly lost (damn you Google maps!). The irony in this is that I had actually arrived in London over an hour early! Anyway, I certainly wasn't the last one there. We had our photos taken and given a Visitor badge and led into a room with about seven tables each with three places marked. I took a seat, we were given brief instructions and then the forty five minutes began. 

I was initially struck by the sheer amount of reading that was required in the forty five minutes. We had one witness statement, a narrative of what had happened, legal reference pages (burglary, perverting the course of justice and meaning of circumstantial evidence) and then extracts from the Code we were asked to read beforehand. 

There were two questions, basically asking us to assess the strength of the case using the Code tests and make conclusions. It was not horrifically bad but, as most people agreed, I could have done with another thirty minutes! I am guessing that is the point though - time pressures and all that jazz!

Afterwards the assistant sat and had a chat with us about the next steps etc. and we should hear the outcome within the next two weeks. She said that there were around twenty positions and that they were down to the find two hundred candidates (around 800 having applied). In the meantime I have an interview for a paralegal position. Things are definitely looking positive at the moment - life without the LPC aint so bad!