Last bend, finishing line in sight
That's another yet landmark passed.
No, not another birthday-I've now had my last lectures/workshops. The learning part of the course is now ended. All I have now is a week and a half of finishing off my notes, followed by 4 exams in 6 days and then it'll all be over.
I have promised myself that for my very last entry I'll try to summarise the year but it's difficult trying not to express a bit of that now. I have a deep sense of sadness that it's nearly all over, that the people that I've met will soon be going their individual ways and embarking on rich new adventures. Will they succeed? What will happen to them? Will we keep in touch? Will I ever get a snog again?
And the doubts. Have I worked hard enough? Was it worth it? What now? Do I look fat in this?
These questions and others will be answered in time...
On first sight, it appears that the College wanted all the electives to finish with a flourish. Running into the last week there was more preparation involved than at any other stage-unfortunately the apathy that has been prevalent throughout the electives managed to infect the final sessions too. I had hoped that the announcement of results a couple of week back would help energise a few people into a last push before the final exams but all it seems to have done is motivated those who could be heading for a distinction-the others have either accepted their fate to get commendations or passes and as for those who failed a compulsory-it's hit them hard.
I know from experience just how demoralising it was to fail an assessment and how it knocked me for six for a goodly while. For those that failed a compulsory exam, it becomes more serious since you know that you will have to come back to Guildford to retake at least one exam in August and that the best grade you can now hope for is a pass. My heart goes out to them-it must make these next couple of weeks very hard.
Employment was a classic example of a course that wanted to peak on a high. The first part of the workshop was simply covering the prep exercise and making sure that we were familiar with the case history that we had been studying recently.
A female member of staff (your client) who works in the accounts department of a moderate sized employer applies for a position as head of accounting. In the past she has deputised (on a smaller scale) for the former head while he was sick. Only two applicants apply for the role, the other being a male member of staff from the marketing department. Neither of the them have an accountancy qualification although your client is studying at home for an OU accounting degree (Good old OU!)
Regarding the appointment interview; your client alleges that some of the questions asked to her were inappropriate and focused on her children and her commitment to the role being questioned because of her family. The interview was conducted by a male director and the female head of human resources.
The male candidate gets the job.
Your client feels that she has been discriminated against on the ground of her sex. Although she is prepared to go to an employment tribunal she is happy for you to negotiate some form of settlement with the lawyers for her employer.
And that's the second part of the workshop-you along with at least one member of your table must negotiate with students from another table who will be acting for the employer. Obviously, both sides will try to get the best possible terms for the people they are representing.
Looking at the facts and witness testimonies that the client and the employer have supplied, my view was that her case was a tad lightweight shall we say? Her best witness was the head of human resources whose testimony was fantastic-except that we received an addendum that told us;
Great-If I can get her off being fired, I'll be doing well.
The College was slightly remiss in not supplying us with a list of the clients wishes-particularly since we had been told on our video tutorial that this was vital so that we could gauge our opening gambits.
In the absence of this, I decided on 3 things that I wanted for her;
I just smiled and let him get on with his fantasy-we'll see...
I have only just noticed a flaw in my fledgling legal career-I don't like confrontation...Is it too late to ask for a refund? Quite how this incredible oversight managed to slip by me I haven't got a clue...Still, in for a penny in for £9,000.
The representatives for the employer are in quite a bullish mood. They have been given objectives for their client and will offer us little crumbs of encouragement. In the end we compromise on;
The first thing that I noticed was that our injury to feelings compo was way lower than anyone elses-but we were then told by Temp-loyment that even £1,500 would probably be too much and that this case was probably worth little more than £500 (the statutory minimum). Apart from that we did pretty well.
Except when it got to announcing our results, one of the 'solicitors' for the employer that we had negotiated with told the group in a loud voice that they considered us 'pussies' who had folded at the first sign of their aggressive stance. This really narked me-we had little to play with and (I think) used it well. However, revenge is sweet. The tutor asked about the confidentiality clause that the employer had asked for-they hadn't mentioned it at all!!!
They suddenly went very quiet and while the room was still I had my chance to reply in an equally loud voice-'well in the absence of that, exposing the story to the papers should be worth a few extra quid to our client...'
And god's gift to negotiation? Well, for all the big talk-all he got was a larger settlement for hurt feelings (but as noted before was greatly in excess of what would have been granted by experienced opponents)-other than that?
Much, much worse...
We then had a quick consolidation session where our stand-in tutor (9 weeks, no sign of the real tutor) went over the likely form of the exam paper and what we should do regarding timing and then it was all over...
I had arranged to meet a friend for a soft drink and a chat after but she was intrigued by the idea of going to a class on conduct that had been arranged by the College for those people who are worried about that exam. I do find it strange that so many people are stressed about this. The average score so far seems to be about 30 out of 40-the written exam is to be out of 60 to give us an overall mark of 100. A pass mark of 50% is required. That means that for the average student they will only have to get 20 out of 60, just 33%. There is no higher grade, just pass or fail-why are they worrying? Have I missed something here?
Keen to spend some time with her I decided that I would go to this lecture. The room was set out for 80 students and even as we were arriving the tutor was saying, 'if your name is not on the list you will have to leave'.
We waited until every chair was filled and then decided that since we were not supposed to be there we would go. Interestingly, even as were leaving more people were arriving who had signed up to this class. 80 chairs, 90+ people who all claim to be on the list-methinks there may have been one or two fibbers amongst them.
The College announced that there would be two more classes later that week-she signed up for one. I didn't. No worries. (I do hope that that doesn't bite me on the bum later...)
Tuesday-our last criminal workshop. Another showpiece. This time a trial (whoopdedoo another one...). A slight twist though-this one is set in a Youth Court with two girls accused of forcing open another girls locker and stealing her phone.
Yet again, I have been allocated a role acting for the CPS. That's 3 criminal trials in the year-all acting for the CPS. Oh lord, why do you torment me by waving this delicious morsel in my face? Oh, and I've lost all 3! Yet again, the CofL favour the defendants even though the vast majority of cases that go trial result in convictions.
I did have a little bit of fun though-I got to cross examine one of the defendants. This means I get to ask lots of nasty leading questions and try to trick a response out of them (or something like that).
The story is that one girl is a bit of a tearaway, the other is a 'naice' girl from a stable middle-class background. While the tearaway is breaking into the locker the other girl is meant to be watching for people coming to the locker room.
I have to cross examine the 'naice' girl. This looks fun-how can I go wrong?
The trial proceeds and we get to my bit. The tutor asks who is doing the cross examination.
I indicate that I am...
...and no word of a lie...
The tables where those students who are acting for the defence let out an audible gasp.
How cool is that?
Oh oh, problem. The defence's table has 10 people, 3 men-7 women.
Result?
The middle class 14 year old guy is played by a bloke with a stubble problem!
Thanks people for ruining my role playing experience!
So we begin,
"Good morning Kate, I'm going to ask you a few simple questions. There's nothing too hard here, just be truthful and it'll soon be over"
How long have you known Natalie?
And you're her best friend?
You're really close?
And she helped you when your father died?
You owe her a lot?
And you look out for each other?
And so on. A simple openingl question followed by automatic 'yes' responses (Old salesman's trick-get the customer saying 'yes' automatically)
Astute readers will notice that I got her to admit that she 'looks out' for Natalie-which was a bit naughty and I only did it for my own fun!
Anyhow, the cross examination carried on but became less fun as the 'defendant' got more cocky and started to show off
Hmm, where have we heard that before?
The end-result? As I mentioned before another notch in the loss column. This time though the 'magistrates' didn't take long to come to their decision. If I was a more fragile soul I could start to take this personally...
Following this was the last criminal large group-again a consolidation session about the examination-talking about 'timing'. It is worth noting that the room was barely half full-shame really, missed some good tips-especially about timing...
On the way to school on Wednesday, I bought a 'thank you teacher' card for our welfare tutor. This is a bit weird and totally unlike me-I have never done anything like that before.
Mind you, saying that, I did send some flowers as a 'thank you' to my first OU law tutor after I got my end of year results but then she was hot so it doesn't really count.
I managed to get the class to sign it on the sly saying cynical things like 'this gives you an excellent opportunity to give the tutor an example of your handwriting which he can refer to when he marks your anonymous exams'.
But the truth was that I had really enjoyed the classes (This is particularly ironic since I am currently updating and reviewing earlier posts and have only recently read what I originally write about the tutor and the course)
It's possibly because it was such a small group and so more closely integrated because of it. It was also my third choice and one that I chose 'to make up the numbers'. It was (and still is) hard though-we have been warned that it is a struggle to finish the paper in the time (but I love a challenge, me)
I do think that if someone had started crying then I would have started blubbing myself-my sensitive side is waaaaay too strong these days....
The final lecture of the year, a consolidation on welfare and a talk about the exam especially timing.
No, not another birthday-I've now had my last lectures/workshops. The learning part of the course is now ended. All I have now is a week and a half of finishing off my notes, followed by 4 exams in 6 days and then it'll all be over.
I have promised myself that for my very last entry I'll try to summarise the year but it's difficult trying not to express a bit of that now. I have a deep sense of sadness that it's nearly all over, that the people that I've met will soon be going their individual ways and embarking on rich new adventures. Will they succeed? What will happen to them? Will we keep in touch? Will I ever get a snog again?
How did that one creep in?
And the doubts. Have I worked hard enough? Was it worth it? What now? Do I look fat in this?
These questions and others will be answered in time...
On first sight, it appears that the College wanted all the electives to finish with a flourish. Running into the last week there was more preparation involved than at any other stage-unfortunately the apathy that has been prevalent throughout the electives managed to infect the final sessions too. I had hoped that the announcement of results a couple of week back would help energise a few people into a last push before the final exams but all it seems to have done is motivated those who could be heading for a distinction-the others have either accepted their fate to get commendations or passes and as for those who failed a compulsory-it's hit them hard.
I know from experience just how demoralising it was to fail an assessment and how it knocked me for six for a goodly while. For those that failed a compulsory exam, it becomes more serious since you know that you will have to come back to Guildford to retake at least one exam in August and that the best grade you can now hope for is a pass. My heart goes out to them-it must make these next couple of weeks very hard.
Employment was a classic example of a course that wanted to peak on a high. The first part of the workshop was simply covering the prep exercise and making sure that we were familiar with the case history that we had been studying recently.
A female member of staff (your client) who works in the accounts department of a moderate sized employer applies for a position as head of accounting. In the past she has deputised (on a smaller scale) for the former head while he was sick. Only two applicants apply for the role, the other being a male member of staff from the marketing department. Neither of the them have an accountancy qualification although your client is studying at home for an OU accounting degree (Good old OU!)
Regarding the appointment interview; your client alleges that some of the questions asked to her were inappropriate and focused on her children and her commitment to the role being questioned because of her family. The interview was conducted by a male director and the female head of human resources.
The male candidate gets the job.
Your client feels that she has been discriminated against on the ground of her sex. Although she is prepared to go to an employment tribunal she is happy for you to negotiate some form of settlement with the lawyers for her employer.
And that's the second part of the workshop-you along with at least one member of your table must negotiate with students from another table who will be acting for the employer. Obviously, both sides will try to get the best possible terms for the people they are representing.
Looking at the facts and witness testimonies that the client and the employer have supplied, my view was that her case was a tad lightweight shall we say? Her best witness was the head of human resources whose testimony was fantastic-except that we received an addendum that told us;
- She had been under a lot of pressure at the time
- She was taking some strong medication
- She resigned from the role a week or so later
- She is still unfit for work
Great-If I can get her off being fired, I'll be doing well.
The College was slightly remiss in not supplying us with a list of the clients wishes-particularly since we had been told on our video tutorial that this was vital so that we could gauge our opening gambits.
In the absence of this, I decided on 3 things that I wanted for her;
- Keep her current position
- Be considered for the newly announced deputy head of accounting position
- Get the employer to grant her study leave for her upcoming exams
I just smiled and let him get on with his fantasy-we'll see...
I have only just noticed a flaw in my fledgling legal career-I don't like confrontation...Is it too late to ask for a refund? Quite how this incredible oversight managed to slip by me I haven't got a clue...Still, in for a penny in for £9,000.
The representatives for the employer are in quite a bullish mood. They have been given objectives for their client and will offer us little crumbs of encouragement. In the end we compromise on;
- The client keeps her job
- Damages of £1,500 for injured feelings
- Consideration for the new position
- The employer to make a public declaration of their position regarding discrimination (from experience this will hurt the employer way more than money ever could!)
- 2-3 days study leave
- The possibility of the employer paying for the client's accountancy course fees
The first thing that I noticed was that our injury to feelings compo was way lower than anyone elses-but we were then told by Temp-loyment that even £1,500 would probably be too much and that this case was probably worth little more than £500 (the statutory minimum). Apart from that we did pretty well.
Except when it got to announcing our results, one of the 'solicitors' for the employer that we had negotiated with told the group in a loud voice that they considered us 'pussies' who had folded at the first sign of their aggressive stance. This really narked me-we had little to play with and (I think) used it well. However, revenge is sweet. The tutor asked about the confidentiality clause that the employer had asked for-they hadn't mentioned it at all!!!
They suddenly went very quiet and while the room was still I had my chance to reply in an equally loud voice-'well in the absence of that, exposing the story to the papers should be worth a few extra quid to our client...'
And god's gift to negotiation? Well, for all the big talk-all he got was a larger settlement for hurt feelings (but as noted before was greatly in excess of what would have been granted by experienced opponents)-other than that?
Much, much worse...
We then had a quick consolidation session where our stand-in tutor (9 weeks, no sign of the real tutor) went over the likely form of the exam paper and what we should do regarding timing and then it was all over...
I had arranged to meet a friend for a soft drink and a chat after but she was intrigued by the idea of going to a class on conduct that had been arranged by the College for those people who are worried about that exam. I do find it strange that so many people are stressed about this. The average score so far seems to be about 30 out of 40-the written exam is to be out of 60 to give us an overall mark of 100. A pass mark of 50% is required. That means that for the average student they will only have to get 20 out of 60, just 33%. There is no higher grade, just pass or fail-why are they worrying? Have I missed something here?
Keen to spend some time with her I decided that I would go to this lecture. The room was set out for 80 students and even as we were arriving the tutor was saying, 'if your name is not on the list you will have to leave'.
We waited until every chair was filled and then decided that since we were not supposed to be there we would go. Interestingly, even as were leaving more people were arriving who had signed up to this class. 80 chairs, 90+ people who all claim to be on the list-methinks there may have been one or two fibbers amongst them.
The College announced that there would be two more classes later that week-she signed up for one. I didn't. No worries. (I do hope that that doesn't bite me on the bum later...)
Tuesday-our last criminal workshop. Another showpiece. This time a trial (whoopdedoo another one...). A slight twist though-this one is set in a Youth Court with two girls accused of forcing open another girls locker and stealing her phone.
Yet again, I have been allocated a role acting for the CPS. That's 3 criminal trials in the year-all acting for the CPS. Oh lord, why do you torment me by waving this delicious morsel in my face? Oh, and I've lost all 3! Yet again, the CofL favour the defendants even though the vast majority of cases that go trial result in convictions.
I did have a little bit of fun though-I got to cross examine one of the defendants. This means I get to ask lots of nasty leading questions and try to trick a response out of them (or something like that).
The story is that one girl is a bit of a tearaway, the other is a 'naice' girl from a stable middle-class background. While the tearaway is breaking into the locker the other girl is meant to be watching for people coming to the locker room.
I have to cross examine the 'naice' girl. This looks fun-how can I go wrong?
The trial proceeds and we get to my bit. The tutor asks who is doing the cross examination.
I indicate that I am...
...and no word of a lie...
The tables where those students who are acting for the defence let out an audible gasp.
How cool is that?
Oh oh, problem. The defence's table has 10 people, 3 men-7 women.
Result?
The middle class 14 year old guy is played by a bloke with a stubble problem!
Thanks people for ruining my role playing experience!
So we begin,
"Good morning Kate, I'm going to ask you a few simple questions. There's nothing too hard here, just be truthful and it'll soon be over"
How long have you known Natalie?
And you're her best friend?
You're really close?
And she helped you when your father died?
You owe her a lot?
And you look out for each other?
And so on. A simple openingl question followed by automatic 'yes' responses (Old salesman's trick-get the customer saying 'yes' automatically)
Astute readers will notice that I got her to admit that she 'looks out' for Natalie-which was a bit naughty and I only did it for my own fun!
Anyhow, the cross examination carried on but became less fun as the 'defendant' got more cocky and started to show off
Hmm, where have we heard that before?
The end-result? As I mentioned before another notch in the loss column. This time though the 'magistrates' didn't take long to come to their decision. If I was a more fragile soul I could start to take this personally...
Following this was the last criminal large group-again a consolidation session about the examination-talking about 'timing'. It is worth noting that the room was barely half full-shame really, missed some good tips-especially about timing...
On the way to school on Wednesday, I bought a 'thank you teacher' card for our welfare tutor. This is a bit weird and totally unlike me-I have never done anything like that before.
Mind you, saying that, I did send some flowers as a 'thank you' to my first OU law tutor after I got my end of year results but then she was hot so it doesn't really count.
I managed to get the class to sign it on the sly saying cynical things like 'this gives you an excellent opportunity to give the tutor an example of your handwriting which he can refer to when he marks your anonymous exams'.
But the truth was that I had really enjoyed the classes (This is particularly ironic since I am currently updating and reviewing earlier posts and have only recently read what I originally write about the tutor and the course)
It's possibly because it was such a small group and so more closely integrated because of it. It was also my third choice and one that I chose 'to make up the numbers'. It was (and still is) hard though-we have been warned that it is a struggle to finish the paper in the time (but I love a challenge, me)
I do think that if someone had started crying then I would have started blubbing myself-my sensitive side is waaaaay too strong these days....
The final lecture of the year, a consolidation on welfare and a talk about the exam especially timing.
Enough with the freaking timing already!!
Change the record please! I have never not finished an exam. I think fast, I write fast!
There is a parallel argument here that I think inteligibly and write illegibly but we'll leave that for another day
And that's it-my college tuition is over.
So, only consolidation and revision to go before the elective exams.
Except
Today, I applied for my dream job-working for the CPS in Exeter. This ticks all the right boxes and would be ideal for me. So much so that I was determined to write an exemplary application.
It took some time-not half it did!
Just over 3 and a half hours! Previously I could do a CPS application in 15 minutes but they've changed their electronic application system.
No longer do you have to list;
A slight problem might be that the interviews take place in one day during the week of my last exam. Oh well, if it was not meant to be...
There will be only one more post on this blog-after the exams are over I will say how they went and give as full a review of my year as I can.
There is a parallel argument here that I think inteligibly and write illegibly but we'll leave that for another day
And that's it-my college tuition is over.
So, only consolidation and revision to go before the elective exams.
Except
Today, I applied for my dream job-working for the CPS in Exeter. This ticks all the right boxes and would be ideal for me. So much so that I was determined to write an exemplary application.
It took some time-not half it did!
Just over 3 and a half hours! Previously I could do a CPS application in 15 minutes but they've changed their electronic application system.
No longer do you have to list;
- Past work experience
- Education and qualifications attained
A slight problem might be that the interviews take place in one day during the week of my last exam. Oh well, if it was not meant to be...
There will be only one more post on this blog-after the exams are over I will say how they went and give as full a review of my year as I can.
posted by Paul Salmon at
6:07 pm
2 Comments:
Paul,
Thanks for all your effort in providing us with this insight to the LPC and your experiences in general.
Throughout the year I've found your blog compelling reading but, given the similarities in our ages and backgrounds, also a little unnerving; it's like reading my diary for next year! Still, too late to change my mind now.
Best of luck with the exams, and with your search for a training contract.
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