Can someone please remind me...
...what a day off is like? No, honestly, I think I have completely forgotten. Another 7 days have shot by since my last post (this is no word of a lie-weeks flash by here, although that could be an age thing-when I was under 12 everything took sooooooooo looooooooooong and I got bored sooooooooo easily)
I've been keeping half an eye over the OU law bulletin boards-those lucky sods have taken their exams and (post mortems aside) can now look forward to 9-10 weeks of NO work before their results are posted then another two months before their next course starts. Ooooooooh bliss! They've got so much time on their hands that they are doing unnecessary prep reading... (change 'lucky sods' to 'silly sods')
I mention this purely because I am that close to losing it-I am not too sure what form my mini-tantrum will take. I have been known to pout, sulk, storm around, throw valuable things at walls (always my own things-guess the results...) or just generally act like a ill-disciplined 4 year old.
When I summarised what I had to do this weekend I arrived at (deep breath) consolidation for the last two workshops, 1 'proper' assessment paper (practical legal research), 3 group assignments, 2 personal assignments, 3 i-tutorials and about 100 pages of A4 text to read, understand and annotate ready for the workshops on Monday and Tuesday. Although I hadn't planned on doing them yet there are also the prepatory exercises for those workshops. Yesterday I worked from 7am to 6pm and barely seemed to make a scratch in it.
So, you guessed it-another 5 hours this morning. And now what? I'm starting to get guilt feelings about what I still have to do. I have a suspicion that the CofL worked out this 40 hours a week business a while ago and have added to the syllabus since then without recalculating-certainly there is no way anyone could do the work that we have in the time that we have. (well maybe the Road Runner on amphetamines could...)
Hang on I need to,
'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'
(oh, that's a lot better...) The problem I have is I can't work out what is important and what is not. The College stresses the importance of prioritisation and its necessity in the modern legal firm. But on the other hand that same College will tell you that all of the work set is of the utmost importance so could you please hurry up and do it. But that's the thing about prioritisation-my priority is not the same as yours (or hers, or his or especially theirs). A priority is personal-so unless the aim of the College is to make us into identical little androids they are going to struggle on that one.
Mind you, saying that-at the moment my resistances are pretty low-so it is possible that a tutor might say, 'Paul, can you pop in to see me in my office later?' and the next day I've been replaced by an identical looking Stepford Student.
I've been keeping half an eye over the OU law bulletin boards-those lucky sods have taken their exams and (post mortems aside) can now look forward to 9-10 weeks of NO work before their results are posted then another two months before their next course starts. Ooooooooh bliss! They've got so much time on their hands that they are doing unnecessary prep reading... (change 'lucky sods' to 'silly sods')
I mention this purely because I am that close to losing it-I am not too sure what form my mini-tantrum will take. I have been known to pout, sulk, storm around, throw valuable things at walls (always my own things-guess the results...) or just generally act like a ill-disciplined 4 year old.
When I summarised what I had to do this weekend I arrived at (deep breath) consolidation for the last two workshops, 1 'proper' assessment paper (practical legal research), 3 group assignments, 2 personal assignments, 3 i-tutorials and about 100 pages of A4 text to read, understand and annotate ready for the workshops on Monday and Tuesday. Although I hadn't planned on doing them yet there are also the prepatory exercises for those workshops. Yesterday I worked from 7am to 6pm and barely seemed to make a scratch in it.
So, you guessed it-another 5 hours this morning. And now what? I'm starting to get guilt feelings about what I still have to do. I have a suspicion that the CofL worked out this 40 hours a week business a while ago and have added to the syllabus since then without recalculating-certainly there is no way anyone could do the work that we have in the time that we have. (well maybe the Road Runner on amphetamines could...)
Hang on I need to,
'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'
(oh, that's a lot better...) The problem I have is I can't work out what is important and what is not. The College stresses the importance of prioritisation and its necessity in the modern legal firm. But on the other hand that same College will tell you that all of the work set is of the utmost importance so could you please hurry up and do it. But that's the thing about prioritisation-my priority is not the same as yours (or hers, or his or especially theirs). A priority is personal-so unless the aim of the College is to make us into identical little androids they are going to struggle on that one.
Mind you, saying that-at the moment my resistances are pretty low-so it is possible that a tutor might say, 'Paul, can you pop in to see me in my office later?' and the next day I've been replaced by an identical looking Stepford Student.
**Bleep, does not compute. User error. Restart from Original**
Now one thing that I didn't want to do in this blog was to mention specific people. After all, I'm the star and no star wants to share top billing-so Ive been careful to avoid names and references to tutors that might single them out. That may change in this entry-I'm still mulling it over. I want to give an accurate view of my week and personality can affect that accuracy.
The week started similarly to the previous one. It is Monday so I must be doing property law-and just like the previous week it appeared that the room had had a damn good weekend and had prioritised property law slightly lower than defluffing the cat.
It always gives me a giggle when the tutor asks a question to the class and there is utter silence. Different tutors have different approaches-so might drop little clues, some might probe a 'victim' to see if they can solicit a response and others just give us the answer. Fortunately this tutor is of the 'give us the answer' brigade-so the whole class proceeds quickly and without pain.
Property law is an excellent subject, the materials are of the highest class and we are proceeding at a fair rate-in fact by the end of the next session we should be able to do a complete property sale from first interview to sending the finished bill.
Now to Tuesday-we had a new subject to get our teeth into. To build on our awesome accountancy knowledge **cough** we are moving onto Revenue law, starting with income tax.
This was highlighted by the majority of the class as a nightmare in the making-not necessarily because of the subject matter (although that didnt help) but because we have had a tutor change from a lovely young lady to a slightly older lady with a reputation.
And I have to add, not a good reputation. My classmates had been informed that this particular tutor has a style of asking questions that could be termed 'confrontational'. With her handily located table map she can pose a question to an individual and if they can't answer, she asks them again, and again and again. All the time focusing on the same person.
Whether this acute form of pressure makes a better student I cannot say-rumours circulate that she has brought students to tears. Even this week, on the Wednesday, she is alleged to have made one girl cry-but that is no more than a rumour-and the reason for my hesitance earlier. No one cried in our class-I was going to make sure of that.
I'm lucky-I'm good with numbers and figures and have coped OK with the accountancy and tax so far. As far as I'm concerned-I've put the hours in and I can reap the rewards (paltry though they are). So, come Tuesday-I'm prepped and ready to go. From the start I made sure to offer answers to her open questions to the class. Sometimes I crashed and burned but mostly I was right.
This was in careful preparation-now when she started to put questions to someone who (obviously) didn't know the answer then I could call out my answer and this could be put down to 'youthful' **cough** enthusiasm.
We'll ease past Wednesday-well I did, worked from 7am to 5pm. 'Life, dont talk to me about life.'
Thursday, back in civil lit-and the first of our two workshops on advocacy. Yep, that's right speaking in court. What's that sound? Is it 18 sphincters all freezing up? Well, I cant speak for the others, but...
The problem is this is something that I have to practise and be good at-if I want to work for the CPS and present cases in the Magistrates (and heaven forbid to work in the Crown Court one day)-so I will have to either to;
To a purist this may seem like arguing over semantics-but it should be stressed that generally the two sides going into court both believe that they are right. They have not been persuaded to go by their solicitors-in fact the solicitors Code of Conduct (is that an oxymoron?) demands that everything else is tried before litigation and that it should only be used as a last resort. (So much so, that the courts may punish anyone who leapfrogs reasoned arbitration by reducing their award for costs (if they win)
The week started similarly to the previous one. It is Monday so I must be doing property law-and just like the previous week it appeared that the room had had a damn good weekend and had prioritised property law slightly lower than defluffing the cat.
It always gives me a giggle when the tutor asks a question to the class and there is utter silence. Different tutors have different approaches-so might drop little clues, some might probe a 'victim' to see if they can solicit a response and others just give us the answer. Fortunately this tutor is of the 'give us the answer' brigade-so the whole class proceeds quickly and without pain.
Property law is an excellent subject, the materials are of the highest class and we are proceeding at a fair rate-in fact by the end of the next session we should be able to do a complete property sale from first interview to sending the finished bill.
So, if anyone wants a property conveyed-just get in touch **cough**
Perhaps more importantly I didnt turn my ankle over walking out the class-hey I could be learning!Now to Tuesday-we had a new subject to get our teeth into. To build on our awesome accountancy knowledge **cough** we are moving onto Revenue law, starting with income tax.
This was highlighted by the majority of the class as a nightmare in the making-not necessarily because of the subject matter (although that didnt help) but because we have had a tutor change from a lovely young lady to a slightly older lady with a reputation.
And I have to add, not a good reputation. My classmates had been informed that this particular tutor has a style of asking questions that could be termed 'confrontational'. With her handily located table map she can pose a question to an individual and if they can't answer, she asks them again, and again and again. All the time focusing on the same person.
Whether this acute form of pressure makes a better student I cannot say-rumours circulate that she has brought students to tears. Even this week, on the Wednesday, she is alleged to have made one girl cry-but that is no more than a rumour-and the reason for my hesitance earlier. No one cried in our class-I was going to make sure of that.
I'm lucky-I'm good with numbers and figures and have coped OK with the accountancy and tax so far. As far as I'm concerned-I've put the hours in and I can reap the rewards (paltry though they are). So, come Tuesday-I'm prepped and ready to go. From the start I made sure to offer answers to her open questions to the class. Sometimes I crashed and burned but mostly I was right.
This was in careful preparation-now when she started to put questions to someone who (obviously) didn't know the answer then I could call out my answer and this could be put down to 'youthful' **cough** enthusiasm.
note to sell-must buy some cough syrup
Fortunately I didn't have to do this more than twice (not because the class suddenly became tax literate-mostly because some of them had obviously got together to form their own plan-rather than stumbling and blustering the common plan seemed to be to say, 'I'm sorry I don't know' in a bold and confident voice
I do have a tiny suspicion that this Tuesday's class will be better prepped next week though! (but saying that-I did the prep this morning and the textbook is dreadfully written. My view is that a good writer can take a difficult subject and write it in a such a way as to explain it (with maybe a little work on behalf of the reader) but this dross was written by such a wally-I have a feeling that they could take the instructions for peeling a banana and make them incomprehensible to anyone less than the Professor of Advanced Peeling Ergonomics at Oxford University.
After that we had another of those large group lectures-my business file is starting to fill at an alarming rate-I will have to get some more ringbinders this week.
BTW, I made a comment a month or so ago talking of the need for binders-this is no word of a lie. I have 12 ring binders on the go at presnt and will have to get at least 4 more this week. I do have them colour coordinated though-purple for business, green for property and red for civil litigation. Oh little things..etc
This is absolute GENIUS!
This had the effect of the tutor having to step back and say, 'well, you should do, it was in the reading' but then she had to move on. I told you that I was working with some brilliant minds!I do have a tiny suspicion that this Tuesday's class will be better prepped next week though! (but saying that-I did the prep this morning and the textbook is dreadfully written. My view is that a good writer can take a difficult subject and write it in a such a way as to explain it (with maybe a little work on behalf of the reader) but this dross was written by such a wally-I have a feeling that they could take the instructions for peeling a banana and make them incomprehensible to anyone less than the Professor of Advanced Peeling Ergonomics at Oxford University.
After that we had another of those large group lectures-my business file is starting to fill at an alarming rate-I will have to get some more ringbinders this week.
BTW, I made a comment a month or so ago talking of the need for binders-this is no word of a lie. I have 12 ring binders on the go at presnt and will have to get at least 4 more this week. I do have them colour coordinated though-purple for business, green for property and red for civil litigation. Oh little things..etc
We'll ease past Wednesday-well I did, worked from 7am to 5pm. 'Life, dont talk to me about life.'
Thursday, back in civil lit-and the first of our two workshops on advocacy. Yep, that's right speaking in court. What's that sound? Is it 18 sphincters all freezing up? Well, I cant speak for the others, but...
The problem is this is something that I have to practise and be good at-if I want to work for the CPS and present cases in the Magistrates (and heaven forbid to work in the Crown Court one day)-so I will have to either to;
- Stifle all my inhibitions and forget that I'm a anxiety ridden dweeb, or
- Invent a character based on all this role-playing from interviewing of 'Paul, the beaming, bouncing advocate-defender of the weak and champion of the underdog'
To a purist this may seem like arguing over semantics-but it should be stressed that generally the two sides going into court both believe that they are right. They have not been persuaded to go by their solicitors-in fact the solicitors Code of Conduct (is that an oxymoron?) demands that everything else is tried before litigation and that it should only be used as a last resort. (So much so, that the courts may punish anyone who leapfrogs reasoned arbitration by reducing their award for costs (if they win)
Oh god, Ive become brainwashed!!!
***bleep, 'brainwash' does not compute-water will affect my circuits***
However, strange things were happening in my throat (has the robotic voice box been fitted already?)-my voice was getting quite crackly. Hmm, not looking good. Bit of a cough, blocked nose-bad nights sleep from perspiring in bed-Oh god, Im going to die!
At this stage I should point out that I am male-this will be patently obvious from my reaction the next day. I just did not fancy going in to school-with no mother at hand to feel my brow and stick a thermometer under my tongue
I now have to certificate myself (ouch!). On the one hand I have a two mile walk in the cold, followed by 2 1/2 hours on business law with a tutor who thinks I'm a div (my worst class by a mile) or I could stay at home and do my prep for Monday-save myself some time over the weekend when I'm feeling better. Excellent-a plan with no drawbacks! But I hummed and hawed (a sense of guilt is a terrible thing!) until I though, no-I can't go in.
And that brings me back to beginning...
The good news on the horizon is that half term is just a few days away-and a celebratory nights drinking next Friday (naturally I will be there to oversee my young charges and make sure that they dont get into any mischief
I have a suspicion that I will be working very long hours at home (rather than at school/home) over half term-but hey that's a million miles away...
However, strange things were happening in my throat (has the robotic voice box been fitted already?)-my voice was getting quite crackly. Hmm, not looking good. Bit of a cough, blocked nose-bad nights sleep from perspiring in bed-Oh god, Im going to die!
At this stage I should point out that I am male-this will be patently obvious from my reaction the next day. I just did not fancy going in to school-with no mother at hand to feel my brow and stick a thermometer under my tongue
("what does 'for rectal use only' mean, mum?")
I now have to certificate myself (ouch!). On the one hand I have a two mile walk in the cold, followed by 2 1/2 hours on business law with a tutor who thinks I'm a div (my worst class by a mile) or I could stay at home and do my prep for Monday-save myself some time over the weekend when I'm feeling better. Excellent-a plan with no drawbacks! But I hummed and hawed (a sense of guilt is a terrible thing!) until I though, no-I can't go in.
**feeble cough, wimpers and pulls jumper over arms**.
Then I can email the tutor to say that I'm too sick to go in and could they make sure that all the flowers at my funeral are light blue (my father was a hypochondriac-I caught that off him too).I had been called the previous night by a student from my table-I decided to email her and ask her to pick up the handouts. In every workshop there are handouts (usually lots of handouts)-someone at the College is involved in some huge deforestation plan-you heard it here first!
So I logged on the PC and as I always do, checked my email. I had an eem from someone who reads this blog saying how much they enjoy it **humbling cough** and wishing me well. Can someone die from guilt? I felt really inspired (and also slightly silly over my previous behaviour) and went to College after all.
Good job too, if I hadn't I wouldnt have been there to pick up all the extra work that was set.And that brings me back to beginning...
The good news on the horizon is that half term is just a few days away-and a celebratory nights drinking next Friday (naturally I will be there to oversee my young charges and make sure that they dont get into any mischief
***double cough-really must find those Strepsils**)
I have a suspicion that I will be working very long hours at home (rather than at school/home) over half term-but hey that's a million miles away...
posted by Paul Salmon at
1:47 pm
2 Comments:
Half term? You big softy!!
By
Anonymous, at 5:05 pm
Lucky sods? Maybe, in the just finished 38 consecutive weeks of 25 hour a week studying, on top of holding down a full time job, on top of applying for training contracts and attending interviews and assessment days, and having used all of my annual leave to fit it all in kind of way!
Enjoy your half term!
By
Anonymous, at 8:27 pm
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