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.

Law Actually Mailbag – Lawyer or “Megistrate”?

Another gem of an email plopped into my inbox a while ago.

dear michel,

i am garima from india and i wasnt to be a uk lawyer or megistrate. can u tell me what should be necessary pattern to follow...

kinda guide me..

thank you

garima

Well there ya go. Any advice for Garima? First things first, um, what are her chances - ALL things being considered?

 

Any ‘Megistrates’ out there who’d like to advise as to her best way forward?  She’s not really fussy – she’ll happily be a lawyer in the UK instead.   

Give me strength!!! 

What I don’t really get is why someone would email a question like this when just a few minutes spent on Wikipedia would have made them much more knowledgeable.  Had Garima done that, she probably wouldn’t have emailed me, but if she had, it would have likely been something much more intelligible and worthy of being answered. 

Is that an unreasonable thought? 

Oh well, Garima, you can’t win them all.  And if you’re really set on a career in law, that’s a lesson you might as well learn sooner rather than later.

Just don’t count on me answering you anytime soon! 

Mailbag – Can you write my law school assignment for me?

Every now and then I get the odd email asking for help. Sometimes it’s choosing a law school, how to cope with legal exams, whether I recommend a masters in law, how can someone survive a law degree with their sanity and bank balance intact etc. etc.

Every now and then I get something really wacky, often concerning someone slipping on a spilt yoghurt or something similar and suffering some kind of personal injury and whether I think they can claim compensation.
Heck, what do I know – I don’t even like yoghurt!

 

Anyhow, the following little gem which plopped into my inbox was a first – even for me:

Hi Michael,

I am wanting some coursework doing in taxation i would be willing to pay £120 per1000 words, its 3000 words in total so i would more than happy to pay £360 in total.

you can take your time doing it. 3-4 weeks.

would you be interested in doing it?

Many Thanks

[X]

Call me old fashioned, but I really couldn’t believe the audacity and blatancy of this.

Apparently students don’t complete coursework by themselves any longer – they outsource it, by first putting it out to tender.  No student should utter the phrase that they ‘want some coursework doing’.

Had I been interested, though, it seems I could have taken my time with it.  How generous – like he was doing me a favour!

But what did he think this is - my email address isn’t enquires@order-a-law-paper.com !!

When I’d finished simmering a few days later, I did take a couple of minutes to respond and stated that I didn’t engage in plagiarism and I didn’t suggest that he did either. Whilst having to write papers can be annoying, stressful, difficult and all the rest, it’s that way for a reason and paying someone to do it for you shouldn’t even be an option. (He’d probably found some moron to write something for him by that point, but I hope he hadn’t).

There are plenty of other things a struggling student can try: talking to lecturers, going to a drop-in study session, trying different, more approachable texts and so on. But paying someone to write a paper which you intend to pass off as your own really is a stretch too far. You’d be better failing or dropping out than that.

Law Actually Mailbag: Jennifer without a G

The following email plopped into my inbox a while back but I’ve been a little slow in answering it.  To partly cover up my tardiness, I though that rather than just giving my own views on this, I might throw it out to the whole blawgosphere – as one of my ‘mailbag’ features.

So, what did law graduate Jennifer have to ask?

“Hey

I am jennifer XXXX from india.I have currently finished my bachelors in legal sciences. I have the option of transferrin my credits and joinin law school in the uk. The issue is that it is very expensive. Will i be able to repay a loan with a part time job? Mostly i should be studyin in london. Is it really worth all the trauma? I mean emotionally,mentally and physically. Out of 10 how much would you rate the course as tough? Considering i am a little gullible is it ok to come there? Will i  get an oppurtunity to  grow or will it  blow me away in the very beginning? Also if the environment is going to be extremely negative due to the competitiveness then please do give me a  special warning.

I really want the exposure the law schools have to offer there but the downside consequences should not be unbearable.

Jennifer “

I wasn’t sure if Jennifer was missing off the letter g each time on purpose. But oh no:

“Ps: pls do not mind the way i have written the letter it is 5 in the mornin over here and my button g is not functionin.
so i can only paste it these many no of times. ya pls reply asap.thnx.”

Honestly - you really couldn’t make this stuff up!

Once I’d calmed down from the burst of hysterics which hit me upon reading about Jennifer’s keyboard woes, I didn’t quite get why she couldn’t paste the ‘g’ every time. I still don’t. Oh well.

What also struck me when I first read her email was that she seemed to be fairly well aware of the issues likely to affect her as a law student trying to cut the mustard in the UK.  In fact, it almost seemed as though she was talking herself out of it by asking me to confirm her fears.

So, distinguished members of the blawgosphere, is there any particular advice you’d give to Jennifer (apart from getting a new keyboard)?  Is it worth her taking the plunge into legal education UK-style?  Or is she crazy for even contemplating it?