FE1 Exam Thread (Mod Warning: NO ADS)

32minutes

bcdccm wrote: »

Thanks Brian and 32minutes.
Im taking your advice and have started going through the syllabus and updates from westlaw etc. Ive ordered some past papers and reports, and might look out for some manuals. Still think I might do one of those griffith one day courses for the odd exam.

Thanks for the help!

actually that's something i left out, past exam paper revision and reports were very beneficial for most subjects but not for others... (im looking at you constitutional law)

anyway best of luck

Ruby83

32minutes wrote: »

actually that's something i left out, past exam paper revision and reports were very beneficial for most subjects but not for others... (im looking at you constitutional law)

anyway best of luck

Ya I actually found the griffith sample exam paper answers sooo helpful, particularly for tort and contract when I was kind of unsure what the examiner was looking for. In fact two of those questions came up in tort this year where I had been unsure what to put down and had checked with the griffith answers before the exams (think it was causation question and remoteness of damage was the other one).
I can't stop thinking about the results now. I wish they'd just send them out. I kind of thought they'd be a bit earlier this year as the exams themselves were earlier. Damn it!! Need to know whether I should be studying for 8 or just 5.

Amre17

If anyone is tyring to offload a set of the companies acts please get in contact with me.. interested in buying a copy that is as clean as possible..

lalala85

Amre17 wrote: »

If anyone is tyring to offload a set of the companies acts please get in contact with me.. interested in buying a copy that is as clean as possible..

Hi just sent you a PM

cd.galway

I don't think it's acceptable that our results are still not out... We have paid a lot of money for these exams and a wait of 2.5 months is simply not good enough in my book.. You may say our exams take time to correct and they may have 'other commitments' but I imagine they've employed high calibre staff to meet such a high demand.
I didn't even have to wait this long in college for Godness sake!!!

JCJCJC

cd.galway wrote: »

I don't think it's acceptable that our results are still not out...
I didn't even have to wait this long in college for Godness sake!!!

If you wanna be a solicitor, you'd better get used to it. I have a close friend who is a solicitor, and he is waiting eighteen months for an Employment Appeals Tribunal decision, meanwhile his client is out from work on sick certs. Getting a civil case heard in the Circuit Court in Limerick is currently taking up to four years. Even the mighty PIAB are in no hurry to process cases quickly, which was their raison d'etre.

JC

cd.galway

If you wanna be a solicitor, you'd better get used to it. I have a close friend who is a solicitor, and he is waiting eighteen months for an Employment Appeals Tribunal decision, meanwhile his client is out from work on sick certs. Getting a civil case heard in the Circuit Court in Limerick is currently taking up to four years. Even the mighty PIAB are in no hurry to process cases quickly, which was their raison d'etre.

JC

Yeah, I'm well aware of the delays in litigation and there is a lot more money changing hands. I'll just have to sit tight!!!
Just a little anxious to receive them as I'm currently working in a solicitors office and cannot start 'officially' as a trainee solicitor until I have these results. So I'm in limbo so to speak.

shaneybaby

cd.galway wrote: »

Yeah, I'm well aware of the delays in litigation and there is a lot more money changing hands. I'll just have to sit tight!!!
Just a little anxious to receive them as I'm currently working in a solicitors office and cannot start 'officially' as a trainee solicitor until I have these results. So I'm in limbo so to speak.

Max you can do before PPC1 (which will go towards your apprenticeship) is 4 months i think.

cd.galway

Max you can do before PPC1 (which will go towards your apprenticeship) is 4 months i think.

Oh really thought it was more than that I'll probably start PPC1 in October then, I thought I'd have more time to get some money together. Must look into it.

shaneybaby

cd.galway wrote: »

Max you can do before PPC1 (which will go towards your apprenticeship) is 4 months i think.

Oh really thought it was more than that I'll probably start PPC1 in October then, I thought I'd have more time to get some money together. Must look into it.

You can work away fine for as long as your employer will have you but the Law Soc only take in a max of 4 months. So if you've been working as an apprentice for 3 years prior to actually going into PPC! it still only counts as 4 months, in other words you cant just skip straight onto PPC2 because you've a year in the office done already. That's my take on it anyway.

cofree2009

Anyone know what happens if you have to repeat an FE1 with Griffith? Is it still first time is free then 50% after that?

cofree2009

Just on to the law society results out early next week!!!

Ruby83

cofree2009 wrote: »

Just on to the law society results out early next week!!!

Oh thanks for letting us know!! I don't know if I want them now!

brian__foley

cofree2009 wrote: »

Anyone know what happens if you have to repeat an FE1 with Griffith? Is it still first time is free then 50% after that?

Nopes, it's not. It depends on when you first sat etc - you can call and clarify your position if you want.

Hogzy

cofree2009 wrote: »

Just on to the law society results out early next week!!!

where?cant see it anywhere

shaneybaby

Hogzy wrote: »

where?cant see it anywhere

I don't think they actually post up that they're sending them out. The poster probably rang and got the info. Now starts a week of offering my soul to God of Tort.....

Amigone

....and I my soul to the gods of constitutional and eu!

I wanted to give out lots about the Law Soc taking their time but now that they'll be here soon I don't want them! I'm content with not knowing and resigning myself to another year of being a skivvy to these devil worshippers of a solicitors firm!

cofree2009

brian__foley wrote: »

Nopes, it's not. It depends on when you first sat etc - you can call and clarify your position if you want.

Just got an email saying it's 33% off. If you were registered for the last sitting do the old rules apply?

Sarahaw

Hi Guys

Finished finals last week; studying for FE1's this summer.. I'll be a fulltime student for the summer (bar a 2 week holiday in August!)

I was thinking of perhaps doing 5 in Sept/Oct. Having read this threat I am considering Contract, Equity, Company, Constitutional & Criminal. Is this too much OR should I try for 6 given that I have the summer to study, if so what subject?

I know that this is subjective but any informed opinion/past experiences would be welcome. For what its worth I would consider myself to be neither genius nor slow but I have a good work ethic.

I intend to sign up for either Griffith or Independent. I’m living in the North West so I'll probably do the distance learning course and I’m yet to decide which one is best?

I am quite clueless regarding the FE1's at the moment so ANY advice is welcome. When, for example, should one realistically start proper study (I mean 9am-6pm)? Also, while on internship I heard of trainees having done all 8 FE1's at once and I think, from memory, that FE1 Direct recommends fulltime students doing this! Is this feasible (without running oneself into the ground) now that the day break has been removed between exams?

Jev/N

First off, do what you want and feel comfortable with, don't let anyone overly influence your decision.

By all means, go for 5+ if you feel up to it, but there is nothing wrong taking them half and half, and it leaves you with the most possible attention to devote to each. If you're trying to choose the amount to do, think about the fact that if you did 5 or 6 the first time and failed 1 or 2, it would be like doing 4 and 4 but with less time spent on the subjects in the first set. Basically you would be spreading your time over 5/6 but having to do 4 the next time around regardless.

I don't think anyone should bother doing 8 exams at one time, if you've got the next year (relatively) free to sit 2 sets of exams. With the gaps being removed, it's a lot tougher in that week of 5 x 3hour exams and you really need to be on top of things. You would have to be studying for months and month consistently due to the breadth of some of the courses like tort or constitutional. Again, this is only my opinion, so go for it if you feel up to it!

With regard to the subjects, definitely take Contract and Equity together, as you have already mentioned. There is a lot of cross-over which makes things a lot easier to double up on topics. I would also recommend going for Property as there are a few other overlaps with the above two subjects. Aside from that, I'd say keep Tort and Constitutional separate as they are the two largest.

Otherwise, you'd be fine starting into serious study at some point in early - mid August; the main thing being don't burn yourself out too early. Just keep up with the lectures, make some notes and start looking at questions and answers and leave the rote learning til the serious study time. Just make sure you understand everything you've learned so far.

Lastly, I did Independent Colleges, mostly lectures but a few of the weeks I availed of the distance learning which was really good. I think people will recommend whichever they have gone to and TBH there doesn't seem to be much between the two

Arsenal1986

First of all it is certainly possible to do all 8 if you are studying full time for them. Now whether it is possible to do this without running yourself into the ground and having a crap summer is a totally different matter!

It depends realy on what kind of studyer you are, if you need the lectures for every subject then I would say 8 in one go could be a bit much - purely from the point of view that 16 hours a week is gone with lectures before you factor in starting to study.

If you only took the lectures for the more difficult ones/ones where there has been recent changes in the law e.g. Constitutional/Property/EU to and then studied under your own steam for the others then its doable.

As to when you should start - hard to say, if doing 8 I'd start pretty soon. If doing 5, then late July is probably enough time. I started then and got 4 no problem, doing 4/5 hours a day up until last 2 weeks when I'd do 9/10 hours a day.

Good choice of subjects by the way - thats a good mixture for doing 5.

Arsenal1986

I posted this before to a similar Q -

. These exams are a little over hyped and talked up. With 2/3 months solid, hard work its nigh on inconcievable you'll fail any so no stress!

3. General Advice for all them, don't listen to hints/tips/predictions of Indo colleges or anyone, its pure guessing there is no logic behind what comes up, no patterns nothing! Best way to cut things out while ensuring you can't get caught out is to use the grids of past papers. Then pick enough topics so that any year you would have at least 6 qs on the paper. Especially good for tort and company where theres v little mixing of topics. HOWEVER dont do this for contract, evthings mixed there!

Company:

I know i just said don't listen to predicitons but there was no liquidation, winding up, recievership or examinership q last time. Usually theres one maybe 2. Therefore I'd know these inside out. ALot of Shareholders i think you could leave out. There will be 1 q on Shs in some form on paper but its just an awful lot of ****e bout meetings etc., focus on SH protection and the transfer and transmission, foss v harbottle....... leave out meetings etc (just a cursory glance so u no the gist)

Know everything about directors. Usually 2 qs on it. Having said that 2 of the chapters in my book anyway were stuff that was pretty much in the companies act which ull have with u, so have all that underlined and u wont have to learn alot of it off. Its also great being v familiar with the act cause i reckon ppl have passed in emergencies creatively rewording things out of the act.

Tort:

is a strange one. Should be very straightforward as he never ever mixes questions and if ever there was a subject perfect for mixing questions it was tort. That signinficantly reduces how hard it is. But then he marks it really really hard! All the lil topics like animals etc leave out. Apart from that only real bankers are psychiatric/nervous shock. Weirdly u never, ever get a q on general negligence principles (since new examiner came in) and thats a huge part of the book, massive part. And they really should ask as its the bread an butter of tort! like u never get a english v irish approach to negligence principles q, nothing on glencar etc. i wouldnt advise skipping it tho cause itd be hard to understand it otherwise.

One final thing on it, read over past problem qs, sometimes he writes them v weirdly as in u dont know what hell hes asking, there was one last time bt a car crash an it could have being any number of things, i didnt do it cause of it.

Also leave out rylands v fletcher never comes up, pretty obsolete now.

Criminal:

V. Straightforward. Leave out maybe first chapter and one about courts/procedure. Just cause they are boring, they do come up. Practice problem qs, alot of mixing but easy enuf, in alot of the problems, there'll be a ton going on ie a robbery, an assault, a murder, a kidnapping, a burlary an a defence of self defence, intoxication all in 1 problem! Whats important to rememeber is u dont have to go into big depth on all of them discuss the major ones eg a murder in depth then at end of essay say..'john may also be liable for robbery because.....' etc one or 2 sentences max on these lil afterthoughts an ur fine. Also dont worry if u miss something, like that someone is guilty of an assault as well as a murder once u spot the big crime no big deal if u miss the lil ones.

Contract:

Suprisingly tricky but v easily marked. Everything is mixed, dont cut anything out! Often 3 big topics mixed into one q. What is important an i didnt realise is, its not end of world if say in a problem theres three topics, an u answer 1 with 2 pages,, 1 with half a page an 1 with a sentence then thats fine! less than ideal but fine. I thought that each topic would be 1/3 of marks, its not.


Equity:
Easy. Again use the grids and again can leave alot out. all the 10 mark qs are really simple an eg would be 'what are the 4 maxims of equity', writing few sentences on each with mayb 1 case on each would easily be a passing mark. Just one caveat, know everything about the topics u do decide to do. For eg Charitable trusts, i only knew alot about those for support of religion etc an not alot about the other types, thinking id only get a general q on it but got asked a specific problem about sports charities. So once uv decided for eg charitable trusts are a topic ur doing, do it all, ev bit. But overall v easy.

Paul1979

I don't agree with ur assesment of the tort course, in reality one needs to have a general understanding of the entire course, as the examiner makes it quite hard to discern what the q actually is about, unless u know all the torts u might not be able to establish what infact is being asked. IT's funny that u suggest that one could leave out negligence/causation, because the time i sat it there was a full q on multiple causes! you cannot leave neg out, it's like leaving out seperation of powers or rights in constitutional! Negligance comes into every area of tort, leaving it out would be examination suicide

Arsenal1986

I never said don't do it or skip it, I actually specifically said don't leave it out! I was just using it as an example of how strange the lecturer is. I had him in UL, his exams there are similar.

lucilou

cofree2009 wrote: »

Just on to the law society results out early next week!!!

Best of luck to everyone i have a feeling results will be out in the morning the Law Soc usually post them out the friday before....Remember though if it doesnt go your way dont beat yourself up there is way more to life than fe1s...2 years ago I failed 2 and past 2 and thought that law wasnt for me...2 years on 6 down 2 to go....fingers crossed for everyone....

0435414@live.ie

Hey,best of luck to everyone waiting on results,waiting on a couple myself. Results pending,does anyone have the 09-10 Indep/Griffith E.U or PROPERTY manuals for sale?-Will pay a good price:D

cd.galway

How do ye know the results are out tomorrow I've been on the law society website and can't seem to find anything about it!!!!

TommyGavin

Best of Luck to everyone tomorrow!!!!

(I hope they defo are out 2m cos i've psyched myself up for the post in the morning, god love poor ol' postie if he doesn't have them lol)

Ruby83

TommyGavin wrote: »

Best of Luck to everyone tomorrow!!!!

(I hope they defo are out 2m cos i've psyched myself up for the post in the morning, god love poor ol' postie if he doesn't have them lol)

Got results today. Passed the three thank God. Seriously the marking scheme is weird I think. I thought Tort was my best but got 56 and criminal was my worst and got 68. Not complaining though!! Relief!!

lucilou

Got mine this morning passed last 2....i am officially going to Blackhall......:D