Hooray, Hooray it's a holi-holiday
Just a little bit of Boney M there to sort out the forty-somethings from the rest! Half term is upon me-hurrah! I had yesterday as a complete day off and the same will apply today. Although even now I can feel the pull of my work yanking my head backwards towards my study area.
Be strong Salmon, you can do it. (moves chair slightly, cranks up CD a notch, rotates neck to help relaxation) I feel surprisingly positive about the coming week. It was one of the strangest parts of my LLB that I enjoyed the revision most out of everything I did. The cynical amongst you might suggest that it was only then that I actually understood what the hell I'd been making notes on-which is probably true...
The amount of times that I would write 'WTF?' or the subtler 'I don't understand' in the margins but make notes anyway was legion. And true, come revision time things did make more sense but even then I did still have a great many areas where coming up to the exam I said-'don't understand this, s'not fair' and suchlike. I then made a mental note to discard it and focus on things that I could explain.
It's a weeny bit different with the LPC-with the exception of something that cropped up this week I have understood it all (I might not be able to reproduce it perfectly when needed but it's not incomprehensible). The trick is handling the volume of material.
NOTE: I will not be using 'this' weeks entry to moan how much work I have-I received one or two comments last week about being whiny and feel duly castigated **ouch**.
My only reply is;
The day that I return I will be sitting my first proper exam. This will be on general accountancy and is a simple pass/fail paper. Annoyingly the results are not avalable until next year (18th of Jan.)
At this stage I am not too worried about this (though see me in 1 weeks time!) even though it is a closed note exam. You are permitted a calculater (non programmable) and a 'clean' copy of the Solicitors 'Code of Conduct' (provided). It does seem a bit weird-the vast majority of exams that we will sit are open note, so starting with a closed note is strange. I suppose that it could be argued that starting with a closed note will be a better 'stop-gap' than being plunged in to the deep end.
**Embarassing story alert**
The following will probably get my friends widdling themselves with glee but maybe by the end they will say, 'awww, bless' (some hope...)
Unlike the vast majority of my class mates I have sat an open note exam before. It all sounds very easy really;
You can take anything in-notes, textbooks, aides memoir (this was before mobile phones, mind-unless they were the size of breeze blocks). Then you answer the questions. A veritable walkover, huh?
Well, no actually. the first thing is that your notes and knowledge of the textbooks have to be good. No, scratch that-it has to be excellent. If you didn't understand the work in the first place then there is nothing that you can take into an open note exam that will help.
My open note exams were in Chemistry back in the mid 80's (that's the 1980's for those people who are unsure...) and I was a shocking chemist-really, really bad. How I got through is a mystery-there was a rumour that if you got through the first 2 years then you were guaranteed a degree of sorts since otherwise the department would have had to admit that it made a mistake by letting you through. (And I only got through my first year retakes because I caught gastoenteritus on the Fri/Sat before the Monday exam and was provided with a doctors note-there was no way what I wrote on the paper was a pass!
Anyhow-there I was in the last exam that I thought that I was ever going to take (oh, life how you mock me), with a wheelbarrow-load of books, notes etc in front of me. I open the paper and...
...can't understand a word. Has my paper been switched in mistake with an Albanian students? Hang on, those words are in English-I can identify them singly but as a sentence? Not a chance. What I hadn't realised is that the department had obviously decided, 'well, if they have all their books there, then we can take the gloves off and give them the really hard stuff'. And they did-oh, god did they. So, I struggled on....
About an hour into the exam (a four hour paper I think) my ink cartidge in my ball pen died. No problem, I am one of those organised students and I have spare cartridges. The only thing is, when I unscrewed the barrel, the internal spring fired it the rear half of the pen backwards. I heard it hit the ground and skitter away. Now a confident person would have put up their hand and got the invigilater to get it and carry on. But I am not (nor ever will be) that person. So I wrote for the remaining three hours just using the cartridge.
I left the exam in tears (wuss) realising that my 3 years had been wasted and that I was to leave with no degree. Talking of wasted-that was also me a few hours later (but that's another story)
Well, as luck and the script would have it-I did pass my degree but that day still leaves a mark 21 years on.
Be strong Salmon, you can do it. (moves chair slightly, cranks up CD a notch, rotates neck to help relaxation) I feel surprisingly positive about the coming week. It was one of the strangest parts of my LLB that I enjoyed the revision most out of everything I did. The cynical amongst you might suggest that it was only then that I actually understood what the hell I'd been making notes on-which is probably true...
The amount of times that I would write 'WTF?' or the subtler 'I don't understand' in the margins but make notes anyway was legion. And true, come revision time things did make more sense but even then I did still have a great many areas where coming up to the exam I said-'don't understand this, s'not fair' and suchlike. I then made a mental note to discard it and focus on things that I could explain.
It's a weeny bit different with the LPC-with the exception of something that cropped up this week I have understood it all (I might not be able to reproduce it perfectly when needed but it's not incomprehensible). The trick is handling the volume of material.
NOTE: I will not be using 'this' weeks entry to moan how much work I have-I received one or two comments last week about being whiny and feel duly castigated **ouch**.
My only reply is;
"I've done all that before and now I'm doing this-I think that gives me the knowledge to say which one is harder, OK?"
The day that I return I will be sitting my first proper exam. This will be on general accountancy and is a simple pass/fail paper. Annoyingly the results are not avalable until next year (18th of Jan.)
At this stage I am not too worried about this (though see me in 1 weeks time!) even though it is a closed note exam. You are permitted a calculater (non programmable) and a 'clean' copy of the Solicitors 'Code of Conduct' (provided). It does seem a bit weird-the vast majority of exams that we will sit are open note, so starting with a closed note is strange. I suppose that it could be argued that starting with a closed note will be a better 'stop-gap' than being plunged in to the deep end.
**Embarassing story alert**
The following will probably get my friends widdling themselves with glee but maybe by the end they will say, 'awww, bless' (some hope...)
Unlike the vast majority of my class mates I have sat an open note exam before. It all sounds very easy really;
You can take anything in-notes, textbooks, aides memoir (this was before mobile phones, mind-unless they were the size of breeze blocks). Then you answer the questions. A veritable walkover, huh?
Well, no actually. the first thing is that your notes and knowledge of the textbooks have to be good. No, scratch that-it has to be excellent. If you didn't understand the work in the first place then there is nothing that you can take into an open note exam that will help.
My open note exams were in Chemistry back in the mid 80's (that's the 1980's for those people who are unsure...) and I was a shocking chemist-really, really bad. How I got through is a mystery-there was a rumour that if you got through the first 2 years then you were guaranteed a degree of sorts since otherwise the department would have had to admit that it made a mistake by letting you through. (And I only got through my first year retakes because I caught gastoenteritus on the Fri/Sat before the Monday exam and was provided with a doctors note-there was no way what I wrote on the paper was a pass!
(but shhhh that's our secret...)
Anyhow-there I was in the last exam that I thought that I was ever going to take (oh, life how you mock me), with a wheelbarrow-load of books, notes etc in front of me. I open the paper and...
...can't understand a word. Has my paper been switched in mistake with an Albanian students? Hang on, those words are in English-I can identify them singly but as a sentence? Not a chance. What I hadn't realised is that the department had obviously decided, 'well, if they have all their books there, then we can take the gloves off and give them the really hard stuff'. And they did-oh, god did they. So, I struggled on....
About an hour into the exam (a four hour paper I think) my ink cartidge in my ball pen died. No problem, I am one of those organised students and I have spare cartridges. The only thing is, when I unscrewed the barrel, the internal spring fired it the rear half of the pen backwards. I heard it hit the ground and skitter away. Now a confident person would have put up their hand and got the invigilater to get it and carry on. But I am not (nor ever will be) that person. So I wrote for the remaining three hours just using the cartridge.
I left the exam in tears (wuss) realising that my 3 years had been wasted and that I was to leave with no degree. Talking of wasted-that was also me a few hours later (but that's another story)
Well, as luck and the script would have it-I did pass my degree but that day still leaves a mark 21 years on.
I suppose that on reflection a closed note exam is the right way to start the year...
There was a bit of strange atmosphere this week, a cross between 'last day at school' and 'I've had enough, make the pain stop'. I've mooted the idea with my class mates that the way that the college overload you with work is a deliberate plan to give you a feel of what the workload in a solicitors office is like (since trainees are apparently given all the really awful and tiresome jobs to do). Or it may be that there are just not enough weeks to cram all the work into. Whatever.
Property on Monday was not so great for me, the effects of last weeks cold left me muddle headed for a day or so. It was actually a strange session full stop. The closest I can get to explaining it is;
imagine a series of lessons on the numbers 1 to 10.
After the class, I and the others in my civil litigation group had arranged to get together and knock out an answer to the first part of our group project. I had timetabled half an hour (or so) for this since I had already written out a basic draft. Hmm, I guess that I got that one wrong-over 2 1/2 hours later we managed to peel ourselves away from the computer, (vaguely) satisfied that we had done sufficient. (let's just say that my basic draft did not go down well...)
In business accounts we looked at inheritance tax. This should be straight forward and important but it must be remembered;
this is the tutor who the class are scared of, and
it is close to a holiday break
We now come to the content, IHT (as we legal types **cough** call it) clicks in when someone dies (it is more than that but that's for another day). The tutor (where is St George when you need him?) was very keen on a certain phrase- 'the shadow of death' as in 'what happens in the shadow of death?'. Apologies all around-but I would have trouble keeping a straight face at the start of term-as for this week, forget it.
And as for her other classic, 'come on class-what happens at death?' My response of ,'the person doesn't get out as much as they used to' did not put me in her good books...
As an aside, before the workshop had begun-when there were only half a dozen of us spread out over the room (and the tutor pottering about) there had been a discussion about the advocacy part of the course (more to come) and who you would be speaking 'against' and whether you would be able to bully or intimidate them. I made sure the room could hear when in reply to a statement about this I said , 'There's nothing clever in making a person cry by bullying them'.
Gosh, I had forgotten that this tutor had (allegedly) made a girl in her class cry last week-naughty me (oops)---------------NOT
Property on Monday was not so great for me, the effects of last weeks cold left me muddle headed for a day or so. It was actually a strange session full stop. The closest I can get to explaining it is;
imagine a series of lessons on the numbers 1 to 10.
- week 1 you do the number one in great detail
- week 2 you do the number two in great detail
- week 3 you do the number three in great detail
- week 4 you do numbers four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten in passing.
After the class, I and the others in my civil litigation group had arranged to get together and knock out an answer to the first part of our group project. I had timetabled half an hour (or so) for this since I had already written out a basic draft. Hmm, I guess that I got that one wrong-over 2 1/2 hours later we managed to peel ourselves away from the computer, (vaguely) satisfied that we had done sufficient. (let's just say that my basic draft did not go down well...)
In business accounts we looked at inheritance tax. This should be straight forward and important but it must be remembered;
this is the tutor who the class are scared of, and
it is close to a holiday break
We now come to the content, IHT (as we legal types **cough** call it) clicks in when someone dies (it is more than that but that's for another day). The tutor (where is St George when you need him?) was very keen on a certain phrase- 'the shadow of death' as in 'what happens in the shadow of death?'. Apologies all around-but I would have trouble keeping a straight face at the start of term-as for this week, forget it.
And as for her other classic, 'come on class-what happens at death?' My response of ,'the person doesn't get out as much as they used to' did not put me in her good books...
Pity, thats another potential ally lost.
As an aside, before the workshop had begun-when there were only half a dozen of us spread out over the room (and the tutor pottering about) there had been a discussion about the advocacy part of the course (more to come) and who you would be speaking 'against' and whether you would be able to bully or intimidate them. I made sure the room could hear when in reply to a statement about this I said , 'There's nothing clever in making a person cry by bullying them'.
Gosh, I had forgotten that this tutor had (allegedly) made a girl in her class cry last week-naughty me (oops)---------------NOT
Amazingly the tutor was as nice as pie when we started. I would like to claim credit for this-but she reverted to type after about an hour-pity, but it was good while it lasted.
Thursday was our first advocacy session-a practice for speaking in closed court (i.e. just solicitors and the judging official present). I have to say that I had stressed myself out over this, we had been told to prep for one of the two roles in two scenarios.
In fact it wasn't too bad-we were set on a table of 4 people. One would be for the claimant and one the defendant with the other two sitting as 'judges' then we would swap over and do the other scenario.
Being a judge was fine-I could listen to the speeches of my colleagues and say, 'well, I can't be that bad'. Well, I may have been-you'll have to find another blog site to get a neutral view. I felt it went OK but I relied too heavily on my script-come the assessment, scripts are a no-no. You can have brief bullet points but any indication of a script and you've failed.
I did get picked out by the tutor for my good use of the evidence-so I felt a bit chuffed. If she carries on like this I may even get to like her (by about 2023 at current going)
After this was another group meeting about project work (different project though). This one did go to plan and I was out the room in 30 minutes. That's more like it!
Friday (last day-hurrah!) The tutor didn't show (illness) so we got an emergency guy who came in all manic arm-waving and button-bright enthusiasm. It was fun to have a different tutor-although I do feel that his clothes probably twitch on their own up to an hour after he's removed them...
He did remark that our numbers were a bit down and questioned, 'I wonder if we are a bit light because it's the last day before half term?' to which I blurted out, 'I guess that you'll have to ask (name of our usual tutor) about that'. Obvious line-but someone has to say them! It's the rules of the classroom-I don't make them I just have to make sure they're enforced!
Friday night-birthday meal (not mine), drinkies, go to club with most of the group. Usual stuff I wont bore you with the details.
Saturday-cancelled (see Friday)
I am now a 6th of the way through the course-what conclusions can I draw?
Well, it's expensive for what it is. We have very little teaching, you are expected to work on your own and the workshops are only for practical examples of the theoretical work studied. The teaching materials are a little stuffy (and I've noticed a little prone to error as we've progressed). My favourite typo in the last week was the claimant paying himself for the damage he did to himself- a small mistake but one that should have been picked up.
The tutors are generally very good and know their stuff.
The facilities are excellent
The groups are balanced by background with a good mix of LLB and GDL students as well as by age.
'
All of the CofL tutors who appear on the video tutorials have some form of quirky style of speech or off-putting mannerism. This is very distracting. (BTW, any readers who have a speech impediment-I'm sorry, this is not meant to be rude-I stutter myself-although interestingly, I dont remember stuttering since I've been here) I have a suspicion that even if the video tutors were perfect looking and sounding then I would still find a reason to be distracted-I guess I just dont like video tutorials...
And one for OU students only-throw your minds back to a video tutorial about a student looking to do research on a German guy (Karl) being prosecuted for importing cocaine. Cheats! She is not a student (nor was then)-she's a bloody tutor on the course!! Oh, I feel cheated-I want my money back you frauds!
And generally? Yes, this is worth doing, so very worth doing. You need commitment for the time (and lots of money) but if you have those things then this is a fantastic place to be and study.
Thursday was our first advocacy session-a practice for speaking in closed court (i.e. just solicitors and the judging official present). I have to say that I had stressed myself out over this, we had been told to prep for one of the two roles in two scenarios.
In fact it wasn't too bad-we were set on a table of 4 people. One would be for the claimant and one the defendant with the other two sitting as 'judges' then we would swap over and do the other scenario.
Being a judge was fine-I could listen to the speeches of my colleagues and say, 'well, I can't be that bad'. Well, I may have been-you'll have to find another blog site to get a neutral view. I felt it went OK but I relied too heavily on my script-come the assessment, scripts are a no-no. You can have brief bullet points but any indication of a script and you've failed.
End of.
Judges' decision is final.
Judges' decision is final.
I did get picked out by the tutor for my good use of the evidence-so I felt a bit chuffed. If she carries on like this I may even get to like her (by about 2023 at current going)
After this was another group meeting about project work (different project though). This one did go to plan and I was out the room in 30 minutes. That's more like it!
Friday (last day-hurrah!) The tutor didn't show (illness) so we got an emergency guy who came in all manic arm-waving and button-bright enthusiasm. It was fun to have a different tutor-although I do feel that his clothes probably twitch on their own up to an hour after he's removed them...
He did remark that our numbers were a bit down and questioned, 'I wonder if we are a bit light because it's the last day before half term?' to which I blurted out, 'I guess that you'll have to ask (name of our usual tutor) about that'. Obvious line-but someone has to say them! It's the rules of the classroom-I don't make them I just have to make sure they're enforced!
Friday night-birthday meal (not mine), drinkies, go to club with most of the group. Usual stuff I wont bore you with the details.
Saturday-cancelled (see Friday)
I am now a 6th of the way through the course-what conclusions can I draw?
Well, it's expensive for what it is. We have very little teaching, you are expected to work on your own and the workshops are only for practical examples of the theoretical work studied. The teaching materials are a little stuffy (and I've noticed a little prone to error as we've progressed). My favourite typo in the last week was the claimant paying himself for the damage he did to himself- a small mistake but one that should have been picked up.
The tutors are generally very good and know their stuff.
The facilities are excellent
The groups are balanced by background with a good mix of LLB and GDL students as well as by age.
'
All of the CofL tutors who appear on the video tutorials have some form of quirky style of speech or off-putting mannerism. This is very distracting. (BTW, any readers who have a speech impediment-I'm sorry, this is not meant to be rude-I stutter myself-although interestingly, I dont remember stuttering since I've been here) I have a suspicion that even if the video tutors were perfect looking and sounding then I would still find a reason to be distracted-I guess I just dont like video tutorials...
And one for OU students only-throw your minds back to a video tutorial about a student looking to do research on a German guy (Karl) being prosecuted for importing cocaine. Cheats! She is not a student (nor was then)-she's a bloody tutor on the course!! Oh, I feel cheated-I want my money back you frauds!
And generally? Yes, this is worth doing, so very worth doing. You need commitment for the time (and lots of money) but if you have those things then this is a fantastic place to be and study.
posted by Paul Salmon at
12:08 pm
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