“Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate…”

This was the first sentence my personal tutor said when I walked in on my first day – and I guarantee you will hear it at least 100 times during the year. I knew I had to do it – but no one actually explained what it meant…

Open Book Exams

Chances are you’ll never have sat an open book exam before – it’s very different to University exams so I thought I’d share just a few templates of the notes I took during the LPC so you can see the difference:

After EVERY workshop – consolidate – review your notes. Condense it down into 1 side of A4 paper – go to the library for an hour straight after, when the information is fresh in your mind – you’ll thank me later when it comes time to the exam. 

If you have a gap in your notes – go and see your tutor straight away. If you leave it right before the exam, they may not be available or you might just forget.

Don’t try and write down absolutely everything – 90% of LPC exams are open book. I saw many students make the mistake of going in with 3 arch files of notes. The exam is only 3 hours long, you definitely won’t have time to look through all of them! If you consolidate properly, I promise all you’ll need is 1 small file. 

In the oral exams, try not to write full sentences — if it looks like you’re just reading off a piece of paper, you won’t be deemed competent. 

Treat the LPC like a Job

The LPC builds your knowledge which you will need when you start working in the legal sector – for my job now, I always have my Dispute Resolution /Business Law & Practice open in front of me.

Full attendance is needed – if you miss even one session, you will find it really hard to catch up.

My best advice is to treat the LPC like a 9-6 job. If you work efficiently during the weekday, you should be able to relax during the weekends – with the exception of exam periods…

Actively Participate

Try to engage – you will learn better. During workshops, you always get asked to work as a team on different tasks – learning is much more of a social experience so by discussing problems with your peers, sharing ideas and working together to solve tasks you’ll build up your knowledge faster.

It is also a good opportunity to develop your professional skills – you learn how to communicate your ideas effectively, listen to others, include everyone in the discussion and can demonstrate your leadership abilities by taking the lead at appropriate times.

Also, your teacher marks on the register at the end of each class whether you have contributed or not and your potential future employers could see this.

Be Organised

The LPC is an intensive course – more so if you are taking the LLM at the same time and/or have a part time job. It requires consistent hard work – planning, organising and managing your time.

Make sure you adhere to time limits – as a solicitor, clients are paying for your time, so you need to practice adhering to tight deadlines.

Time management in exams is crucial. 3 hours seems like a long time, but it flies by. You should spend the first couple of minutes in the exam calculating how long you can spend on each question.

Mock Exams

These are ‘optional’ but those that choose to attend are usually the ones that excel during the course. I remember the first mock exam I sat, I got 56%…from that to 97% overall, it will pay off – I promise!