There are many things you need to take into consideration before making an application to study a law masters at postgraduate level in order to enjoy the full benefits which come with the Masters’ experience.
Are there going to be SQE preparatory courses?
How to stay effective when working from home
As the country continues the fight to reduce the spread of COVID-19, workers and students are getting used to a new normal where social distancing will be part of normal life. For many this means that the transition into a working from home lifestyle is here to stay for a while.
Will the SQE kill the training contract?
How should you write as a lawyer?
How to up your revision game
There is no way about it, revision is boring. Hours sat at a desk trying to cram information in is enough to make anyone crazy. No one wants to spend their evenings and weekends revising. More importantly, no one wants to spend all their free time trying to revise but not getting anywhere. Here are our top five tips to help make your revision effective and efficient so you can get some of that time back and pass your exams first time.
Google is not your friend
Legal writing skills for LLB assessments
Over the past week we’ve posted blogs on the kind of research skills and essay planning skills that LLB students will need to deal with take home assessments such as 24 hour essay projects. Writing is a key legal skill, whether it is legal drafting, preparing memos or emails, or writing letters to clients or third parties. Here at Law Answered we’ve put together a detailed free guide to legal writing skills (which you can sign up for below), and in this blog we thought we’d share a few tips.
Essay Planning skills for LLB assessments
With law schools and universities having closed their doors due to the escalating COVID-19 situation, many are now proposing to assess their students by way of “take home” examinations. In our blog last week, we talked about research skills and where to begin your answer. Once you have researched relevant primary and secondary sources to support your argument in reaching your answer, the next step is taking the time to plan your essay.
Research skills for LLB assessments
With law schools and universities having closed their doors due to the escalating COVID-19 situation, many are now proposing to assess their students by way of “take home” examinations. . To excel in these kind of take home assessments you’ll need to hone a different set of skills to those that you might have been working on for the rest of the year. Research skills will be particularly important, so we thought we’d share a few quick tips.
Digital notes now available!
Free Guide to Take Home Assessments
We know that many law schools are changing their summer assessments due to coronavirus-related disruption and are instead setting “take home” assessments, 24 hour research projects and extended essays. We therefore thought it would be helpful to put together a free guide to help you prepare for these unusual assessments.
Good news for LPC students - assessments to go online
The SRA has been slow in responding to COVID-19 related disruption, but it looks like there might be some hope now for LPC students worried about postponed exams. It looks like the regulator is considering allowing exams to take place online. This will be great news for students worried about the effect postponing assessments will have on their career. Details of what the online assessments will be are yet to come though. Find out more on the Law Gazette.
Top tips for locked-down law students!
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced universities around the country to close their campuses and make the transition to remote and online study. Students will often spend a portion of their day working from their room or accommodation anyway, so while this change may be less extreme than people with jobs being forced to work from home, studying away from the university campus presents its own challenges and opportunities.
How coronavirus is going to affect your law exams
Don't be in the 71% that fail!
The SRA has just released its annual quality assurance report which shows the LPC and GDL pass rates at different law schools. Pass rates differ hugely between law schools.
Over the 2018 academic year, the pass rate for the GDL fell from 64% to just 60%…
How I prepared for the QLTS
We don't write guides specifically for the QLTS, but often have students and overseas lawyers ask if our guides are helpful.
We have quite a few customers using our GDL and LPC guides for the QLTS - and now one has written a very helpful article about how she prepared for the QLTS! We're glad to see our LPC Answered Core Guide get a mention.
How lawyers write….
Here at Law Answered we care a lot about writing with clarity. We intend that our guides should be produced using clear, precise English so that you can readily understand legal concepts - some of which are distinctly complex and tricky!
We think that an ability to craft language effectively and succinctly so that it can only have one meaning is a key requirement for a solicitor. (Those of you applying for training contracts, or paralegal vacancies and trying to explain why a legal career is for you might want to slide that idea into your applications.)
Sometimes it can be hard to explain the nuances of “legal writing” to law undergraduates and even to those further on with their legal training. We can break this down into lists of Dos and Don’ts:
Do: Keep sentences reasonably short.
Use standard formal English.
Spell correctly using English rather than US-English spellings.
Don’t: Abbreviate.
Use a word if you’re not entirely sure what it means.
Use unnecessary filler words.
We could go on, and on, but sometimes what you need is an example and we think that a really masterly one has been provided by Lady Hale in the recent Supreme Court judgment in R (on the application of Miller) v The Prime Minister. This is known as the Miller 2 case and you can find the link to the Supreme Court website here: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2019-0192-judgment.pdf.
Have a look – yes really! The judgment is 21 pages long and is a really masterly example of clear writing. Even if you only have time to read the first few paragraphs it will be worth your while. This judgment was written with clarity for everyone to understand.
If you want a quick overview of the case we’ve provided that for you too! Have a look at our Miller 2 blog below too.
If you want more writing tips like this, check out our friends at The Student Lawyer, who have loads of tips for law students on everything from exam technique to how to get a job in the law.
Legal Language
How should you write as a lawyer? Have you seen Jacob Rees-Mogg’s foray recently into providing advice for his team on how to write? Wow, due to his approach a very long list of words are no longer fit for purpose or are unacceptable. (Italics denote phrases or words he has banned).