FE1 Exam Thread (Mod Warning: NO ADS)

Scarlet 27

I am in the same boat as you, I sat 5 exams in Oct and got the 5, sat 3 in march/april but dont know my results yet (think I failed at least two of them) I was always of the opinion that you just had to get three in the first sitting and could pass any amount after that and they were all counted. However from what you wrote it sounds like you must pass 2 of the remaining three in order for them to be counted as passed. Probably best to ring law society and ask them, must have changed the rules for the last sitting because I have never heard of this before.

page1

Got my results passed three out of four so delighted to have those under my belt.

Scarlet 27

Just got results passed last three over the moon, cant believe it, honestly thought I had failed them, in shock

Dante09

Congrats!
Passed my first four too.

colonel1

Congrats to all who got their Fe1 results today:-) Am going to sit four in October 2009, but am working full time. I will have the month of August off though. Any tips? I am doing company, contract, criminal and equity. Any other boards.ie members in a similar position (i.e. working full time and studying for these exams):)?

Dante09

colonel1 wrote: »

Congrats to all who got their Fe1 results today:-) Am going to sit four in October 2009, but am working full time. I will have the month of August off though. Any tips? I am doing company, contract, criminal and equity. Any other boards.ie members in a similar position (i.e. working full time and studying for these exams):)?

If you're doing equity, be sure to do land...there is A LOT of overlap.

Arsenal1986

if your doing Contract, whatever you do don't leave anything out, the questions are always a mixture of several different topics so there is really no way you can safely cut out any 1 topic.

Its a relativley short course - compared to constitutional for eg - so its very doable to cover everything

Congrats to evry1 that got results today and did well

Scarlet 27

colonel1 wrote: »

Congrats to all who got their Fe1 results today:-) Am going to sit four in October 2009, but am working full time. I will have the month of August off though. Any tips? I am doing company, contract, criminal and equity. Any other boards.ie members in a similar position (i.e. working full time and studying for these exams):)?

Hi, I did all of mine fe1 while working full time in law firm, would recommend doing a course, found that v helpful because can be very hard to stay motivated, also the tips are helpful. Also take a look at timetable as well, I know it has been changed so no breaks between exams so would def keep this in mind when picking topics, these exams are much harder then finals and you will be total exhausted when you come out of them, if you have done law before would def recommend doing land it is the easiest out of all the fe1 in my opinion.

I did 5 the first time (company, criminal, equity, contract & land) and left the horrible three (eu, constitution and tort till this sitting) did very well in first five and just scrapped passes in the last three, the courses are vast for them so would recommend either doing one of them the first time and taking 3 of the easier ones or taking the easier 5 and leaving them until next sitting but as i said above not sure what new timetable is like but if I were you would def try to plan it so had a least a day between each exams.

colonel1

Hi again and thanks to all who replied to my post:) I am doing the Fe1 prep course in independent [just started] and they recommended that I sit company, contract, equity and criminal. I studied company and contract before, so am happy enough with those, provided I remember all the case law [my pet hate!!]. There is a day between each exam, so that worked out well. I was just wondering had anyone worked full time and still managed to get the four exams [or even the three]. Oh, any tips for recalling case law??

page1

I wasnt working full time but sitting the ones in March i had a 14 month old baby and was 3 months pregnant with second with 24/7 morning sickness so found it very tough.
Discipline is the key my Mam minded my DD for a half day a week and my husband looked after her Sat so i had 1.5 days to study. I also studied for the hour she slept at lunchtime and also in the evenings when she went to bed close to the exams.
Definitely dedicate at least one full day at the weekend and as much time in the evenings as you can. The month you will have off will fly so i wouldnt rely too much on it.
For the cases i found the best way was to read the important ones in full or as much of it as you can. I used bailli.org website for this. Its time consuming but i found it really helped me. If you get the bus/train to work you could use this time or read them during your lunch break.
Flash cards are another good idea, write the name of the case on the front and the important details on the back and carry them with you.
Good luck.

Heineken pants

Got 40 in Constitutional, disgusted, thought i had passed it. Any point in getting a re check? Does anyone know of someone who has been marked up 10% in the past??

michellemhurchu

I sat constitutional and EU and passed- but i thought they were marked really hard-i figured they would ahve been my strongest results but bearly got 50-anyone else think they were marked this tough??

nehemiah

michellemhurchu wrote: »

I sat constitutional and EU and passed- but i thought they were marked really hard-i figured they would ahve been my strongest results but bearly got 50-anyone else think they were marked this tough??

I do agree with that. I sat them last time, only getting too. This time, although been much better prepared I only got 3% more in Property despite it being the same paper as the previous paper and done worse in Criminal!

relief1984

Hi have 7 Griffith Manuals for sale 50 each - 08/09 - found out passed all 7 today such relief - all subjects but EU for sale- still have yet to sit! If intersted email mccarthy.anne@gmail.com

shansey

woo last two in the bag...one surprisingly so...AND got offered apprenticeship an hour after opening the envelope...a good day to say the least! would like to give everyone the advice that no matter how crappy things feel when ya fail or are gettin rejection letters dont give up..persevere! i failed first round and have been gettin rejetion leters since feb

legal eagle 1

Awh i'm super depressed right now, everyone is getting apprenticeships lately apart from me

johnfás

My apprenticeship was deferred by a big 5 firm today when I contacted them about my results. Probably won't be starting until September 2010/April 2011 now owing to the economic climate but at least I have a job at the end of it. I will work out what to do for the next academic year over the coming weeks.

Dandelion6

I passed all four of mine, can't believe it, I really thought I had done terribly in two but they turned out to be my two best!

_JOE_

johnfás wrote: »

My apprenticeship was deferred by a big 5 firm today when I contacted them about my results. Probably won't be starting until September 2010/April 2011 now owing to the economic climate but at least I have a job at the end of it. I will work out what to do for the next academic year over the coming weeks.

Take it from me John, it's the hardest thing to do, kill time that is...same thing happened to myself, but i took the opportunity to go off and study something else (arbitration) as i'm not really the holiday type and still working in a small firm at the same time...just make sure you plan everything out in advance because there's nothing worse than sitting about!!

colonel1

Thanks page1 for the advice, and kudos to you for getting through exams with small baby and morning sickness. I usually do about 2.5 to 3 hours per evening. I will also start working through lunch. I have grind school all day Saturday, so Sunday will be my only day to study at weekends. Hopefully that will be enough. Thanks for the tips regarding the case law. I will be starting a caselaw notebook [easier to handle for me than flashcards].

limericklady87

Anyone selling 08/09 manuals for Company, Contract, Property and Equity after the results came out? PM me please if you are. Thanks!

orangecake

Congratulations to everybody who got results in the last couple of days. I am finally free of the FE1s!

If anyone is interested in Company, Criminal or Tort manuals from the April sitting or Contract and Property manuals from the October '08 sittings let me know...

legal eagle 1

johnfás wrote: »

My apprenticeship was deferred by a big 5 firm today when I contacted them about my results. Probably won't be starting until September 2010/April 2011 now owing to the economic climate but at least I have a job at the end of it. I will work out what to do for the next academic year over the coming weeks.

At least you have something secured.....be grateful for that I'd love to be in your position right now as crappy as it may seem for you at the minute!

legallad

i have been left quite worried following the most recent set of fe1 results. Many of my friends sat roughly 4 and most failed a few.

My problem is I have a traineeship with a top firm(this isnt the problem!!) which is due to start in may/june 2010 however as of yet i have sat no fe1 exam. I literally have no room to fail any exam and the high rates of failure are causing exam jitters to creep into my fragile mind 4 months before the bloody exams! I am therefore looking for some advice as to how many to sit this time around and what are my chances of passing all without any fails. I have done all the subjects as part of my degree and have solid notes on equity, criminal, land and contract from it bar a few topics however i will have to start from scratch again with the rest as in my early years at college i thought it better to dispose of notes in some sort of post exam teenage rebellion! all help is appreciated

legal eagle 1

Personally i thought the FE1's were okay. As long as you put in good study time and are dedicated to it you'll pass no bother. I think though that in every course you have to cover almost everything alot of people leave huge areas out and hence reason they fail. I did four a go, for the first four I put a huge focus on three of the subjects so as to pass the first round. I didnt want to have to end up repeating all four again in the second session due to failing more than one!

page1

legal eagle 1 wrote: »

I think though that in every course you have to cover almost everything alot of people leave huge areas out and hence reason they fail.

I agree with this, the first time i sat the FE1s i tried to only cover the bare essentials and ended up being very limited with the questions i could answer and i failed two. This time around i covered almost everything, it was obviously a lot more work but a couple of the papers i could answer 6/7 out of 8 questions which was alot less pressure. Thankfully i passed 3 of the 4 so im on my way.
I also threw my notes away but i left college 7 years ago so i had to start from stratch, i used Griffith books, the main text books and the "make that grade" one - probably overkill but i wanted to be sure.

colonel1

Roughly how much study time would people recommend [I know page1 recommended evenings and one day a week]? I work full time! But I have started doing about 2.5 hours after work, and will study on Sunday also [have grind school all day Saturday]. I only finished college exams a fortnight ago, so needed a short break.

Dante09

should have tried doing your FE1s, two weeks before your college exams
nightmare.com

Guy whose starting in big 5 firm and worried about failing them-dont-you'll be grand. Do a minimum of 5, or probably 6. Id be in the same situation as you (including the worrying) and would be doing 6 had i not done 4 last march during my postgrad.
A mate of mine is in the same position as yourself and is doing 5...he has started studying a few weeks ago...stop worrying and get working. Put in the work and you'll be fine...these exams are not near as hard as they say but ONLY if you put in the work.

colonel1

Indeed:D Still it is tough recalling the details and case law either way. The end result will be worth it though.:) Kudos to all who have got traineeships.

Fr.Frost

All of the above for 60 euro
(:)dublin sellar)