Studying for a law exam - a cry for help

It’s been a while since I did a mailbag feature, so here’s to turning that around. ;-)

The following email plopped into my inbox a couple of weeks ago from a law student panicked by the prospect of open book exams:

Just found your law blog after having a complete mare over open book exams.
I appreciate this is a completely cheeky and out of the blue question,
but I don't suppose you happen to have those old company law notes you
mention in your revision entry do you?! Completely terrified about it,
have no idea what I'm doing or how to answer question from the second
semester, and generally worried I'm not going to get a 2:1 and thereby
miss my TC offer!

Totally understand you telling me to piss off, but thanks for the
hints and tips anyway :)

Jodie G

For those wondering, my “revision entry” was this post back in 2009.

I stand by the techniques I propounded there – certainly for closed book exams, anyway – and there isn’t really much I can add.

Open book exams are a bit of a different animal. Quite obviously, they call for a slightly different focus with less of the course material committed to memory and more focus on meticulous organisation and knowledge of your permitted materials. But that’s not to say you don’t need to be able to recall a large proportion of the content without being reliant on your books.

Your permitted materials are an aide memoire – not a memory replacement.

Jodie’s email didn’t really inspire me to respond (nope, not even to tell her to piss off). Amongst other things, the experience of a law degree is about trying different study methods to see what works for you, learning from your mistakes and emerging the other side richer for the experience.

As I said to a student colleague recently, “I don’t want to rob you of the learning experience”. I think the subtext there is blatantly clear.

For what it’s worth, I did have the revision notes of which I spoke in the post but they were a) tailored for my course and not Jodie’s, b) the fruit of my exam-time labours (why should I share them) and c) let me ask you this: would you, even as a desperate law student, risk asking a complete stranger on the internet for revision notes of which you have no assurance of quality, accuracy or anything else?

Who’d do that? It’s scary that someone who’d risk trying that has a training contract offer. (Sorry, that’s how I feel).

Btw – “a complete mare”. Excuse me? Is this new street talk?

Update: I’ve Googled it and thanks to Wiktionary, it seems it’s a colloquial contraction of “nightmare”.

(UK, colloquial) (Shortening of nightmare) A nightmare; a frustrating or terrible experience.

I'm having a complete mare today.

Well, there you go.

A cry for help from a foreign law student

It’s been a while since I’ve shared any of my ‘law actually’ email with the sphere and I’ve received a couple of quirky bits a recently so thought I’d throw them out there. 

I’ve removed the sender’s name and the university they attend.

“I am a LLB student. I found your article very interesting and had a few queries. Actually i am in my first year and to be honest i find law very difficult. I even had to resit 2 papers-public and land law. I have not got the results yet and i am really worried because i am an international student studying at [a northern] university UK. And it is very costly. If i fail these resits i don't know what will happen. Could you please suggest me something. Do you think studying law in a british university was a bad decision. Please help me. Hope to hear from you soon. Thank you”

So, fellow blawggers, what should be the advice here? 

I’ve certainly got my own ideas but I’ll be interested to get some other views.

What kind of reviser / studier are you?

It’s revision / study season and in recognition of the agony students are currently going through, here’s my latest version of ‘what kind of ... are you’.

I think this will be something all of us in the blawgosphere can relate to, though perhaps we should keep the fact we exhibit behaviour falling into some of the less desirable categories to ourselves.  ;-)

	What it really means	We Say	Try	Why
The Crammer	You know you should have found that motivation to start revision before now but, you know.... things... kinda.. came up. (hmm.. they always do, don’t they?)	If you do well in the exam(s), you won’t have deserved it. And you know, deep down, that’s true. ;-)	A bit more dedication next time / learning from past mistakes, eh?	Despite what you’ve told yourself all these years, you don’t actually work better under intense pressure.
The Self-Righteous ‘Low Voltage’ Student	You’re as cool as they come and, guess what, you haven’t even done 10 minutes of revision. Oh really?	We all know you’re actually bricking it / have been studying like a neurotic beaver* for the past 6 weeks - or both.	Counselling / drowning yourself	No one likes a clever dick*
The Sunshine Student	You’re a narcissistic, sun-worshipping a-hole, sat on the grass around campus ‘revising’... we all know you’re really ogling students of the opposite sex.	We hope you sit on a thistle, get badly sunburnt and stung by a wasp.	Sitting at your desk once in a while. Just face it, sitting outside ‘starring’ at a page is about as useful as peeing in the wind.	Revision shouldn’t be enjoyable
The Couch Potato	You’re as lazy as sin and you couldn’t care less.	God bless you	Getting off your fat ass once in a while.	Do you want to be stuck in an endless cycle of re-takes, only to be ultimately failed and given a ‘diploma’ instead of a degree?
The I-need-my-daily-dose-of-Prozac	You’re a hyperactive freakoid buzzing in and out of your revision notes (and around your increasingly frustrated peers) like a demented gnat.	Try and get a handle on things.. you’re bringing everyone down with your negative energy.	Staying off the coca cola and candy.	Everything in moderation remember. Wait! That shouldn’t apply to revision!
The Serial Retaker	“This time is the final practice run... no, for real this time.” Don’t tell me, you’ll really, really study hard for the retakes?! :p	You’re f*cked	Doing everyone a favour and drop the hell out	You’re just not cut out for Uni... better accept it now than later.
The Steady Eddie	You’re not exactly going for pole position, but you’re hopefully on course for a ‘desmond’ (2:2) if you hook everything up...	Turning the wick up... relying on a few post it notes stuck on walls at this level just doesn’t cut it!	Pulling your freaking finger out!	Because who wants to be relegated to the ‘also rans’?!?
The Slut	You’ve flirted your way through classes this far and have suddenly been left in a panic realising you might have to actually do some work to pass your exams.	No, writing the examiner a seductive note at the end of your script, offering sexual favours isn’t going to get you a first class degree.	Wearing a longer skirt and/or less revealing top and do some God damn work.	Because your ultra short skirt and pert, bouncing jahooblies are lovely and all that, but flashing your goods at the lecturer just won’t cut it any longer.
The I’m planning to cheat in the exam	You’ve spent the study season cramming every spare inch of your casebook(s) with study notes / devised some other (more fraudulent) plan.	We know, you’re just playing the system to your advantage / outright cheating :p	Playing fair for once in your cheatin’ life	You’ll only cheat yourself in the long run... yadda, yadda, yadda... but seriously, what if you’re caught?! :-/

*And please, no sniggering at the words ‘beaver’ or ‘dick’. :p