First year Law llb

dinthefield

is anyone else finding the classes tough going? feeling kind of swamped by all of the stuff we are getting. there are just too many cases to remember.

Procrastastudy

You don't need to remember the entire case just one party's name will do. So you'll find your self referring to cases as the McMaster case or the Anns case. Its inevitable in the exam you'll forget case names if you write "The case in which a smokeball was sold to a woman" everyone will know what case it is and you'll get the marks. Another trick, shamelessly stolen, is to say "Case law shows..." when you know there is a case and you can't remember the name or the facts.

Law isn't hard but there is a lot of reading. You need to make sure you are reading all the time, digesting and above all USING the law. GCD offer you about a bazzilion ways to do this through all the extracurricular stuff but if you can make them then get a few friends together and explain it to each other.

EDIT: and another thing - past papers - do as many of these as you can. A question here and a question there. Try and do at least one question everyday in the second half of the term (after nov 19th). DO them in groups, do them with notes, do them on the back of a fag packet just do them. As you get closer to the exams start doing them (even the same ones) without notes. If you can write 3 - 4 pages with the odd case name you'll pass easily and shout hit 2.2 or 2.1 territory.

Above all else DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, defer your first set of exams. If you fail these it makes sod all difference to your final grade, but you need to have sat your first set to build your confidence.

dinthefield

thanks but are you crazy? an exam question a day!!!!!!!!! i have been to a few tutorials which are good but its like a new language. finding some of the lectures difficult and trying to remember everything that has been said. could spend hours reading the ame thing trying to get it. sometimes it will go in and sometimes it won't. it may get easier otherwise ill be doing grinds! i like the law but it is hard. hopefully it gets easier.

Procrastastudy

dinthefield wrote: »

thanks but are you crazy? an exam question a day!!!!!!!!! i have been to a few tutorials which are good but its like a new language. finding some of the lectures difficult and trying to remember everything that has been said. could spend hours reading the ame thing trying to get it. sometimes it will go in and sometimes it won't. it may get easier otherwise ill be doing grinds! i like the law but it is hard. hopefully it gets easier.

You tell me whether I'm crazy - you've probably met me by now . I've left plenty of clues as to who I am. What I will tell you is I came out of what you're doing now with a 67 GPA and did very little work. Dont panic it gets easier but all you really need to do for a 2.2 is (50-59%) - go to every lecture without fail - add what you're told to the notes and don't loose them. Don't sit at the back giggling sit near the front idealy on your own. There's plenty of social time.

If you want a low 2.1 the add reading the Clarus press core texts (Oran Doyle for Con Law, Enright for Contract and Healy or Quill for Tort) and the odd seminal case.

If you want a high 2.1 64% plus you need to read a few more cases, read the core texts carefully and add the odd article and occational chapter from the 'proper' books (the hard backs). GCD are notoruis for not giving firsts but 69% is quite easily achieved.

I have no idea what a grind could offer you? If you want to learn by wrote grab a set of Kings Inns manuals (try adverts.ie) and learn them off by heart (they are very breif) that will get you a reasonable 2.1. If you still want grinds PM me I'm happy to take your money and I know exactly what they are looking for in exams.

Realistically though it shouldnt take you more than 1 hour a day to sit down with an exam question (1 now not an entire paper) and your notes and use the notes to answer the question. If you want help with this PM me and I'll sit down and go through one with you - free of charge - call it a free sample!

First year is easily aced by a commited 40 hour week. Keep a diary of how much you actually study - you may find this is the issue. Just give you the good news second year is a bit harder (more time commitment) - but oddly easier (you know the basics).

Sorry for the crap spelling - no spell check on this computer.

EDIT: Speak to your tutors - Ciara would be the best for this sort of thing but be nice as she is in high demand as almost all of us fall back on her for advice.

dinthefield

thanks for the advice sane person who i hope i never meet in real life!

Procrastastudy

dinthefield wrote: »

thanks for the advice sane person who i hope i never meet in real life!

Hmmm not 100% sure what you are trying to convey here. What I will tell you is if someone offers you help and you are an asshat about it you'll go the way for a fair few others I've seen come (and go) through GCD over the last couple of years.

chops018

dinthefield wrote: »

thanks for the advice sane person who i hope i never meet in real life!

In all fairness Procras is just trying to give some advice at how you can get through law, and it seems like good advice, he is in GCD and offered to sit down and go through a question with you and show you how to answer it. Basically if you put in the work you will be rewarded. Law isn't that tough, you don't have to read full cases, and the language isn't all that necessary (not all the time anyway).

Procras has been a long time user on the legal discussion section on here and he has been in numerous discussions with myself and others who have been through it and I must say he has always been a pleasure to discuss things with, debate with and even have the odd argument with. He seems to have flew through first year and seems to be getting a good grasp of the subjects he has and is doing pretty quickly. If I was you and a person in my college was offering to give a little help to get you kick started when you say you are finding things difficult then I'd take it.

Procrastastudy

chops018 wrote: »

In all fairness Procras is just trying to give some advice at how you can get through law, and it seems like good advice, he is in GCD and offered to sit down and go through a question with you and show you how to answer it. Basically if you put in the work you will be rewarded. Law isn't that tough, you don't have to read full cases, and the language isn't all that necessary (not all the time anyway).

Procras has been a long time user on the legal discussion section on here and he has been in numerous discussions with myself and others who have been through it and I must say he has always been a pleasure to discuss things with, debate with and even have the odd argument with. He seems to have flew through first year and seems to be getting a good grasp of the subjects he has and is doing pretty quickly. If I was you and a person in my college was offering to give a little help to get you kick started when you say you are finding things difficult then I'd take it.

To be fair to the OP he/she might have been on the receiving end of me on a GCD Law Soc night out - at which point most of my very good friends dont actually want to have ever met me!

Thank you for your extremely kind words chops - always been a pleasure chatting/arguing with your good self also!

dinthefield

I was only referring to the fact that i found the original idea 'crazy'. it was a play on words. no need to be so patronising and serious.

Procrastastudy

dinthefield wrote: »

I was only referring to the fact that i found the original idea 'crazy'. it was a play on words. no need to be so patronising and serious.

Seemed pretty rude in all honesty, but as I said I wasn't sure what you meant. You latest post does seem to indicate your true colours somewhat, however.

I wish you luck, all the tools and resources are there - use them. Speak to your tutors, use the library staff (at least one of them is legally trained) and use the other students. I've learned a lot, and got a lot of support from my peers. I also recommend the LS discussion forum here. A word of warning - think before you post there, as chops has said there are some fantastic discussions but they are not adverse to eating you alive for saying something stupid (plenty of first had experience myself).

As for the original idea being crazy, in a few weeks you will need to answer each question within 40 minutes, with no notes. I'm not sure looking at them now with notes for an hour is particularly crazy. In all honesty its not even my idea its what I was told to do, a year ago, by various lecturers.

I can't have too much of a go about your attitude - many here find me quite flippant - I would patronise you a little further by telling you it doesn't help.

dinthefield

i do appreciate the advice. i didnt particularly appreciate being called an asshat. good luck with your exams.

Procrastastudy

dinthefield wrote: »

i do appreciate the advice. i didnt particularly appreciate being called an asshat. good luck with your exams.

Again a bit more patronising - read what I wrote. I didn't call you an asshat I presented a scenario - I didn't commit myself. Worth noting for exams as a subtle but precise style is generally what you want to go for. Let the examiner read in, as you've done.

As a peace offering, as think we have simply misunderstood each other, I'll leave open the offer of sitting down with you for an hour and showing you how to extract from your notes and answer exam questions. I'm usually allowed, by the faculty, to have contact with other students as long as Jill is satisfied I've had my medication that day.

23border

Being a casual observer that has happened upon this, the three of you need some of the crazy meds! Weird passive aggressive vibes from all of you. Griffith seems to be a angry place grrr argghh!
[enter passive aggressive remark with flippant and patronising statements with a dash of insult]
[Replies with flippant and passive aggressive comment]

Procrastastudy

23border wrote: »

Being a casual observer that has happened upon this, the three of you need some of the crazy meds! Weird passive aggressive vibes from all of you. Griffith seems to be a angry place grrr argghh!
[enter passive aggressive remark with flippant and patronising statements with a dash of insult]
[Replies with flippant and passive aggressive comment]

Were all annoyed because we didn't get into proper Unis don't you know. Well chops might not be I've no idea where he is - he's much better educated than me so I'm assuming he's not at DBS :P

As for GCD being an angry place - If I have to push past any more gaggles of Italians in doorways I might just kill someone.

Any chance of a few more thread reviews? :P

23border

Having gone through law also I think you need to chill a little and enjoy the course. It is tough going particularly at the beginning. Other courses have a softer lead in and some are just a progression of the leaving cert, like arts subjects. Medicine is an extension of science in some ways in that you have an idea of the general. Law is the coach picking you up and throwing you in the deep end.
You should treat the course as more of 9-6 job. First and second year is where people normally fall off. Remember this is a step up from your leaving cert which was 9-4 plus outside work.
I think you should aim for a first and work towards a first. Do outside reading and cases. Normally extra cases are kept in the footnotes of the books which are easy enough.
You will eventually learn to read the notes, books, cases and articles with a little bit of speed after a while. Make sure to keep notes as you go on either a laptop (back it up) or pen and paper.
For exams I think the month before you should start looking at previous papers and see how you find them. Try identify the area of law first and then maybe write out bullet points for each question if you don't want to do an essay fully.
Finally, the stress you are feeling is probably felt by others too and you are not in that boat alone even if the others are't saying it. Good luck!

23border

lol! "A gaggle of Italians"!
This is the part where the teacher comes in and makes you both apologise and shake hands. But it would probably be fraudulent.
Practically speaking I say you divide up the campus into an East and West side, claim a turf and fight it to the bitter end.

Procrastastudy

23border wrote: »

lol! "A gaggle of Italians"!
This is the part where the teacher comes in and makes you both apologise and shake hands. But it would probably be fraudulent.
Practically speaking I say you divide up the campus into an East and West side, claim a turf and fight it to the bitter end.

Funny you should mention east and west side given the entire business faculty is Chinese. I don't think I've ever been anywhere quite so cosmopolitan in Dublin. Quite gratifying to see them all form there national groups and over the semester make friends and mix with people from all over the world. Obviously the law school is slightly more narrow in that 80% of the students will want to stay in Ireland. Tangent aside one thing I forgot to mention. You won't get any help on what exam questions are coming up - the lecturers make a point of not dropping hints.

Strange that we only get tutorials on three subjects though - I'm sure it's nothing but coincidence that that the number you have to do out of the six.

23border

Three tutorials per year or in total? Most places only give tutorials in the core subjects that are FE-1 tested.

Procrastastudy

23border wrote: »

Three tutorials per year or in total? Most places only give tutorials in the core subjects that are FE-1 tested.

3 per semester per subject. The lectures are broken down into topics that roughly follow the manuals. TBH the KI or FE1 manuals really help get through the GCD degree - although I've been told by others that they help any degree really.

I've friends in other unis and to be fair GCDs first year exams are pretty tough going in comparison to DCU for example. That said the standard doesn't really ramp up in second year - its just more of the same. Although the generosity of marking, from first year, goes out the window. You're also doing 5 subjects across the two semesters rather than (essentially) three (I don't count Intro its designed to be easy).

chops018

Procrastastudy wrote: »

Were all annoyed because we didn't get into proper Unis don't you know. Well chops might not be I've no idea where he is - he's much better educated than me so I'm assuming he's not at DBS :P

As for GCD being an angry place - If I have to push past any more gaggles of Italians in doorways I might just kill someone.

Any chance of a few more thread reviews? :P

I'm graduated a couple of years now. Did my undergrad in an IT and my postgrad in a University, but I'm not going to divulge where to strangers :P

TimotiSt

Procrastastudy wrote: »

I'm usually allowed, by the faculty, to have contact with other students as long as Jill is satisfied I've had my medication that day.

Made my day...

pauld5152

Hi I am looking to do a part time law degree in DBS at night and would like to know you taughts on the college and the course and would also like to ask if any body had a reading list and the course
Thanks paul