FE1 Exam Thread (Read 1st post!) NOTICE: YOU MAY SWAP EXAM GRIDS

Troels Hartmann

I'll be 31 heading to Blackhall.

A bit nervous about that, truth be told. But people reassure me that I won't be out of place so here's hoping!

Tea-a-Maria

I was 23 in Blackhall this year, and I'm pretty sure I was the youngest person there. The average age is about 26 and I'd say every class had at least one person over 30.

I recall that Blackhall offered mature student meetings for people who have family commitments and the like. Don't know anyone who availed of them though.

I really wouldn't worry about the age differential! I had great nights out with people in their 30's in Blackhall. As long as you make an effort to be social, people won't care about your age.

lawbear

ellie88 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

Just logged on here to say thanks for all of the support and guidance. I havent been super active on this thread for the last while - especially after that head melter of an EU law exam (didnt want to freak myself out more than I already was!!!). Anyway, thankfully have come through on all 4 (shockingly well - a 60 in Constitutional and a 62 in EU?!???) and heading to Blackhall in September.

Happy to share any and all materials FOC for anyone who wants them (does that count as advertising? I hope not, it was said with the best of intentions!). I managed to secure Equity, Tort, Criminal and Contract last October (first time around) and, like I said, the remaining four this sitting.

For anyone who didnt get them - the more I hear and the more I read on this thread, I feel like the examiner just throws the papers down the stairs and decides who passes based on the pile that lands face up. Its like numberwang (Mitchell and Webb show anyone?) for law students.

Best of luck to all of you and thanks again.

congratulations thats brilliant. I have four passed and my highest was 52..I d love to hear from people that scored in the sixties or over…what way do ye tackle the question or do ye have any tips? I passed equity this time round..I was so happy when I seen the paper…I had looked at griffith sample answers for possibly all the questions that came up..I really thought I played a blinder in the exam …I only got 51. I got 40 in tort and contract,,,I did a lot of study for these…I did NO STUDY AT ALL for EU and I got 44?? that simple does not make sense and it is really bothering me.

Any more people have experience with rechecks?? I really do feel like i did better in some of the exams but I'm so broke.

lawbear

TinkledPink wrote: »

Yeah, I had to tell mine today I wouldn't be able to start Blackhall this year. They dropped my traineeship with no option for deferral. That's probably not what you want to hear but everywhere is different so they might cut you a break. Back to the drawing board... and more applications in September:(

Hey, where you with one of the big five?? i am on a "pre trainee" contract with one of the big five. I was due to start this sep..I can't now…They will be having a meeting soon to see if they will defer my contract for another year….how incredibly awkward is it going to be if they drop my training contract but I still have to work out my pre trainee contract??

I am so stressed about this…literally dreading the decision day. This whole process of the intense study…having no life…being broke and then failing exams and not knowing why and then worrying about training contracts and having all family members constantly ask about work and exams is really getting me down. The whole thing is really starting to knock my confidence and get me down to be honest …sorry for the rant

gemcallaghan

Hi everyone, I'm a first time visitor to this forum.

So I got 5 exams in this sitting, (first attempt) totally shocked and delighted! I agree with the opinion here that the results are utterly unguessable. I wrote utter waffle in criminal and got 58. I got 53 in contract and only answered 4 questions. I got 60 in property when I thought I'd scraped by. 53 in company, which I thought I'd answered well - I give up. My "new sitting resolution" is No more attempting to judge performance before I have the results in front of me! I was sure I wouldn't get three, but here I am now with 5 done and EU, Constitutional and Tort to go. I'm living abroad at the moment so I'm not in any major hurry to complete the last three as then I'm only ticking down apprenticeship seeking time, so I'm thinking of doing 2 in September/ October. Tort and one other. Which would you recommend taking, constitutional or EU? In October they are one after the other, and I'd rather not do that.

Thanks for the input!

Legal125

lawbear wrote: »

congratulations thats brilliant. I have four passed and my highest was 52..I d love to hear from people that scored in the sixties or over…what way do ye tackle the question or do ye have any tips? I passed equity this time round..I was so happy when I seen the paper…I had looked at griffith sample answers for possibly all the questions that came up..I really thought I played a blinder in the exam …I only got 51. I got 40 in tort and contract,,,I did a lot of study for these…I did NO STUDY AT ALL for EU and I got 44?? that simple does not make sense and it is really bothering me.

Any more people have experience with rechecks?? I really do feel like i did better in some of the exams but I'm so broke.

I know it's tough to know what way to approach and that the exams are so so tough but you reference you answered using sample answers... I didn't use the course when doing the fe1s but had my hands on sample answers - which I immediately but to the side as they were generic (didn't really answer the q asked bar a line at the beginning and end referencing the Q) and on one or two occasions I noticed actual errors so I would look to changing your answering style - you need to answer the Q that is asked and the examiner needs to see that.
If you think about it.....how many generic Griffith sample answers did the examiner get in front of him/her

ellie88

lawbear wrote: »

congratulations thats brilliant. I have four passed and my highest was 52..I d love to hear from people that scored in the sixties or over…what way do ye tackle the question or do ye have any tips? I passed equity this time round..I was so happy when I seen the paper…I had looked at griffith sample answers for possibly all the questions that came up..I really thought I played a blinder in the exam …I only got 51. I got 40 in tort and contract,,,I did a lot of study for these…I did NO STUDY AT ALL for EU and I got 44?? that simple does not make sense and it is really bothering me.

Any more people have experience with rechecks?? I really do feel like i did better in some of the exams but I'm so broke.

.

Hey Lawbear,

So I got 68 in Contract, 54 in Equity and Tort and 51 in Criminal last October. This time around, I got 58 in Company, 61 in Property, 62 in EU and 60 in Constitutional as I said.

I think Tort and Equity are quite tough to pass generally - despite the horror stories you hear about EU and Constitutional. There also seems to be a bit of a knack to Contract.

I think there is no magic formula when it comes to passing them. I worked really hard - I was lucky enough to get put on paid study leave by the company that I am currently working for (based abroad and not the law firm that my TC is at: I know this isn't an option for many). I think that really helped.

I did a prep course through Independent Colleges - online - and submitted 10 pieces of homework per subject. I didn't do them under exam conditions. I watched each lecture 2-3 times, sometimes when randomly at the gym or out and about using up precious data 😜 I found the course really helpful in terms of tips and predictions. I'm not saying you can rely solely on these though - I am a pretty thorough person when it comes to studying generally,

In terms of exam technique, I definitely didn't go with sample answers. I used a combination of my home works, the sample answers and the materials in the manuals to have a general overview of the topics. I would learn things more in depth if they were considered part of a trend - especially with subjects like Property and Company, for example. On the papers that were harder to predict, I took a broader approach and tried to manipulate the questions to suit what I knew.

I don't know if any of this is at all helpful. I'm so sorry you have to go round the roundabout again. If you need anything else, just holler.

Also to answer an earlier question about ages at Blackhall, I will be 27 starting 🙈

Lily Belle

lawbear wrote: »

congratulations thats brilliant. I have four passed and my highest was 52..I d love to hear from people that scored in the sixties or over…what way do ye tackle the question or do ye have any tips? I passed equity this time round..I was so happy when I seen the paper…I had looked at griffith sample answers for possibly all the questions that came up..I really thought I played a blinder in the exam …I only got 51. I got 40 in tort and contract,,,I did a lot of study for these…I did NO STUDY AT ALL for EU and I got 44?? that simple does not make sense and it is really bothering me.

Any more people have experience with rechecks?? I really do feel like i did better in some of the exams but I'm so broke.

I got 61 in equity, 63 in property, 71 in criminal, 55 in company, 50 in EU, 52 in tort, 62 in contract and 58 in constitutional. I would definitely advise against solely relying on grind school sample answers as I agree that a lot of the time the answers don't even attempt to be tailored to the question asked and are mostly just a copy and paste job of a generic topic answer. I know it would be a lot easier to just learn off and regurgitate sample answers but they really seem to be actively trying to discourage, particularly in EU and Constitutional. The answers are useful in terms of if you're looking for a condensed version of cases or definitions but that's about it. I used a mixture of the manuals, answers, other notes, the exam papers and examiners reports (especially for criminal) to make my own set of notes. I know a lot of people say it's pointless just making more notes when the manuals are more than sufficient but I actually don't agree that they are for certain subjects. I think being familiar with the exam paper and the examiners is so so important, that was the first thing I did before ever even reading a manual, get familiar with the paper, how questions are asked, the format etc.

In terms of how I actually found each subject I personally would think the following:

Equity: pretty tough, a lot of people do seem to struggle with it, I ended up covering the vast majority of the syllabus so was lucky to be very covered on the day.

Property: definitely the most doable and predictable. Even though you can cut a lot out though I wouldn't leave yourselves too short, I had 8 topics covered going in for that and was fine.

Criminal: you have to cover everything. Well, I left out some of the more essay style questions like 'what is a crime' and 'classification' but I left out nothing else because so many questions cross over different areas. He seems a fair marker and wants you to pass. Plus as I said his examiners reports are excellent, most of my notes were made up of info taken from them.

Company: tough, he seems to expect a lot from your answers but I liked the subject so found learning it ok. Was caught out a bit on the day because I did a mass cutting out of topics the day before!

Constitutional: thought this was going to be my most hated but actually really liked the content. Only left out four topics and honestly think only 2/3 of my answers were based on actual info I'd learned off, the rest was very off the cuff. The city colleges manual is excellent. I avoided the case note question like the plague but ended up having to do it on the day.

Tort: I thought this was easily my best exam this sitting and only scraped it so I'm not very well placed to advise on this ha...

Contract: I found this really hard myself. Couldn't for love nor money figure out what the problem questions were asking so had to learn enough that I could answer at least 3 essays. Lots of people find it easy but I just couldn't wrap my head around it.

EU: spent so much time the last month moaning about this that I can't even do it again. All I'll say is based on past papers I thought I'd pass even though I detest the subject with a passion. Was really really wrong but fingers crossed the poor standard this sitting will mean the paper goes back to the format of setting questions answerable by those other than those with masters level knowledge!

Sorry about the length of this, just found this thread so helpful and wanted to pass on any info that can help. The one thing I'd emphasise is don't rote learn, cover as much as the syllabus as possible (you'll be less stressed out for it!) and answer the questions asked.

bobsterlfc

Troels Hartmann wrote: »

I'll be 31 heading to Blackhall.

A bit nervous about that, truth be told. But people reassure me that I won't be out of place so here's hoping!

I will have just turned 35 with 3 kids starting blackhall in September so u deffo wont be out place haha

dandadub

Troels Hartmann wrote: »

I'll be 31 heading to Blackhall.

A bit nervous about that, truth be told. But people reassure me that I won't be out of place so here's hoping!

I should be the same Troels next year. I was one FE1 short this year and I turn 30 in September.

On another note how are people passing Constitutional Law?? I keep getting results in the 40s

lawchick2

Hi guys,

Quick q from a first time poster! Just wondering if 45 in tort is worth a recheck? I believe the examiner is a tough marker so just wondering what other people thought or if anyone found themselves in a similar situation previously? Got 43 in Constitutional so doubt that's worth a recheck but would appreciate guidance in how to get the magic 50 in that one!

Cheers,

vickyplumx

Was planning on doing my last 3 in September. Eu and constitutional are back to back though. Should I run a mile from doing those two together? Anyone do this ?

smeal

vickyplumx wrote: »

Was planning on doing my last 3 in September. Eu and constitutional are back to back though. Should I run a mile from doing those two together? Anyone do this ?

I think you should be fine so long as you're well prepared in advance? Sometimes it's better to have exams closer together, keeps you concentrated as opposed to having lots of space in between where you might have a chance to lose motivation Definitely attempt it anyways! The EU paper might end up being a delight after the last one anyways plus it seems to be easily marked regardless

Darren07

Hi Guys, I am 35 and heading to Blackhall in September so safe bet I will probably be the "Daddy" of the group! Lol. Well done to all who finally finished and chin up to those who have to go again, been there many time but you will all get there guys. Dam exams!

RCFE15

Hi guys, didn't get the magic 3 so going to start over again. I didn't do a prep course for the March sitting so it is something I'm looking into now. Anyone able to help me pick a prep course for property, criminal and equity?

Thanks

sunshine and showers

An exam on my birthday? Oh Law Society, you shouldn't have! :rolleyes:

jenspondolik

I will be 31 starting now and will be an hour commute staying with family to save costs. Will it be a big deal not being around for nights out etc?

Probably not the correct forum for the above but just curious...

Purdia

Is the exam timetable up for the Autumn sittings yet? I have looked on the LS website but cannot find it?

LovelyDovely

sunshine and showers wrote: »

An exam on my birthday? Oh Law Society, you shouldn't have! :rolleyes:

Hello!! Sorry to bother you - first time poster here, just wondering if you have the timetable for the Autumn sitting? I'm trying to decide what subjects to tackle and from what I've read here it looks like a good idea to try and choose ones that are spaced out! How/when is the timetable normally distributed?

Thanks!!

Bayley1

Purdia wrote: »

Is the exam timetable up for the Autumn sittings yet? I have looked on the LS website but cannot find it?

The actual timetable is not up but the dates of the exams are on the application form which is on the site!

smeal

https://www.lawsociety.ie/Public/Become-a-Solicitor/FE-1-Exam/

They're inside the application form

neesie_85

Purdia wrote: »

Is the exam timetable up for the Autumn sittings yet? I have looked on the LS website but cannot find it?

IS ON THE BACK OF THE APPLICATION FORM,
TORT 30TH SEPT
COMPANY 1ST OCT
PROPERTY 2ND OCT
CRIMINAL 5TH OCT
EQUITY 6TH OCT
EU 7TH OCT
CONSTITUTIONAL 8TH OCT
CONTRACT 9TH OCT

neesie_85

Darren07 wrote: »

Hi Guys, I am 35 and heading to Blackhall in September so safe bet I will probably be the "Daddy" of the group! Lol. Well done to all who finally finished and chin up to those who have to go again, been there many time but you will all get there guys. Dam exams!

If you don't mind me asking how long did it take you to complete the exams and getting a traineeship?

neesie_85

gemcallaghan wrote: »

Hi everyone, I'm a first time visitor to this forum.

So I got 5 exams in this sitting, (first attempt) totally shocked and delighted! I agree with the opinion here that the results are utterly unguessable. I wrote utter waffle in criminal and got 58. I got 53 in contract and only answered 4 questions. I got 60 in property when I thought I'd scraped by. 53 in company, which I thought I'd answered well - I give up. My "new sitting resolution" is No more attempting to judge performance before I have the results in front of me! I was sure I wouldn't get three, but here I am now with 5 done and EU, Constitutional and Tort to go. I'm living abroad at the moment so I'm not in any major hurry to complete the last three as then I'm only ticking down apprenticeship seeking time, so I'm thinking of doing 2 in September/ October. Tort and one other. Which would you recommend taking, constitutional or EU? In October they are one after the other, and I'd rather not do that.

Thanks for the input!

I would go with Constitutional rather than EU as although Constitutional is a lot of information I think EU is worse. That's my last exam which hopefully will go well in October. Then again some people find EU easier than Constitutional.

FeDespair

Congrats to everyone who passed, great news having followed this thread from the start of March.

Unfortunately I just got results in the post and only passed 1 out of 4- criminal. It's definitely a case that the actual content of my answers just must have been crap cause I answered 5 questions for every exam. Even EU...and one of my friends answered only 3 full questions and passed!

When I was studying for them I said no way i'd go through it again so I have absolutely no idea what to do now as im 29 and at a serious crossroads. I know im still young and all that jazz but the reality of the situation is I dont even have a training contract despite applying to loads of places. Though I suppose I still wouldnt have been able to go to Blackhall in September regardless cause i'd still have the other 4 to do.

Bit deflated right now

dandadub

lawchick2 wrote: »

Hi guys,

Quick q from a first time poster! Just wondering if 45 in tort is worth a recheck? I believe the examiner is a tough marker so just wondering what other people thought or if anyone found themselves in a similar situation previously? Got 43 in Constitutional so doubt that's worth a recheck but would appreciate guidance in how to get the magic 50 in that one!

Cheers,

I got 43 last time, got a recheck and came back 43 again. I got 42 this year so I'm reluctant to recheck this time. Anyone else any luck with the recheck of the Constitutional Law exam??

jenspondolik

FeDespair wrote: »

Congrats to everyone who passed, great news having followed this thread from the start of March.

Unfortunately I just got results in the post and only passed 1 out of 4- criminal. It's definitely a case that the actual content of my answers just must have been crap cause I answered 5 questions for every exam. Even EU...and one of my friends answered only 3 full questions and passed!

When I was studying for them I said no way i'd go through it again so I have absolutely no idea what to do now as im 29 and at a serious crossroads. I know im still young and all that jazz but the reality of the situation is I dont even have a training contract despite applying to loads of places. Though I suppose I still wouldnt have been able to go to Blackhall in September regardless cause i'd still have the other 4 to do.

Bit deflated right now

Hey I'm sorry to hear that if its not overly a financial burden you should give it one more shot at least. Doing four this march as you say you were never going to blackhall anyways until 2016 at least, so you're no further worse off bar moneywise than you were before nor are you any further back. I was 29(barely, nearly 30) sitting first set last march. I'm 31 one now and spread mine over three sittings. You can't sit these exams and give yourself an ultimatum to pass four first go cos they're so unpredictable. You passed one so you're doing something right. Read exam reports see what they are looking for and try identify what you did differently if possible. I was at exactly same crossroads as you and I really hope if it's what you want to do you persevere may as well get stuck in now rather than another few years down the line its a long enough road. I had made the decision to do these when the place I worked went bust and I picked up a job which turned into apprenticeship. I'll have to pay for everything myself and don't have a bean but its what I want to do so I'll have to make it work.

LawCQ91

FeDespair wrote: »

Congrats to everyone who passed, great news having followed this thread from the start of March.

Unfortunately I just got results in the post and only passed 1 out of 4- criminal. It's definitely a case that the actual content of my answers just must have been crap cause I answered 5 questions for every exam. Even EU...and one of my friends answered only 3 full questions and passed!

When I was studying for them I said no way i'd go through it again so I have absolutely no idea what to do now as im 29 and at a serious crossroads. I know im still young and all that jazz but the reality of the situation is I dont even have a training contract despite applying to loads of places. Though I suppose I still wouldnt have been able to go to Blackhall in September regardless cause i'd still have the other 4 to do.

Bit deflated right now

It seem like it's the way you answered the questions not that you don't know the stuff. I don't know what your approach is but I would stay away from grind schools answers, I used some of them for reference but I don't think they are particularly good or accurate. They are good for reference though!


This is what i did to pass the exams hopefully it would help you and anyone else reading this .

Study

I made sure I fully understand the law first, in my case I watched lectures for the prep course, then I make my own notes (type/write out) Then closer to the exam, if I have time I would write out the important topics again (shorter version but all hand written just it would all go through my head) , then 1/2 days before the exam I would write out the list of cases in their order of appearance and just purely learning the case names off. Now I think the way I study is so clumsy and time consuming but hey it worked I didn't fail any of the exams in the end in despite of my serious emotional struggle!

Exam Q + Report

Personally, I am not a big fan of exam papers and exam reports. I think I have done about 10 questions altogether if even that for the 8 subjects combined . My attitude is do whatever is thrown at me on the day. But I would at least have looked at some questions just work out in my head what would I have done, just bullet point it out really . I have only done this for banker topics (i.e Directors for Company, Competition law for EU etc) I would also read the questions very carefully during the exams and answer 'exactly' well to the extend I can to the questions being asked. I misread one question for Tort and nearly failed! I got 50! hard lesson to learn never make such mistakes again! In saying that I must say the Criminal law report is just brilliant, read it if you have time!

Bipolar? :P

I struggled emotionally during the exams, as I have mentioned here before i felt so weak and useless and i wondered why can't I just be so calm and cool!! and it's funny, if anyone know me in real life I am such a positive and happy person! Anyway, during those times I am lucky enough to have good family and friends for emotional support and some people on boards have PMed me and replied me, the emotionally support on this is unreal and I am still so grateful!! (I especially remember MissM89/Legal125/missindigo123 ) .. so yea so i questioned the meaning of life/choice of the career you name it.. :P There are days I would cry and study and cry, cry while studying! I know I am not the only one too! Anyway only saying this because I know I am not the only one and don't worry if you feel the same way! and no I didn't cry all the time, it's only when the pressure really got to me lol.

Calculated risks

ok, next point! Calculated risks, i never studied 100% of the course, just don't have the time . I always studied enough so that in the worst case I can still do 4 questions and made an attempt of the 5th. I would make out my worst case for each paper and make sure I can still answer 4 Qs + an attempt of the 5th ( Didn't quite work out for EU i must say! totally backfired but I still managed to pass it with 62 actually still can't believe it)

I took a big chance in my first 4, I knew I had passed Company and property because I had studied enough, but I didn't manage my time enough so I ended up having to cut it so fine for Criminal and Equity, I was so lucky to have passed both!! But hey sometime you need some luck too! so I studied very hard for my last four I made sure that didn't happen again!

Time management

So my study method is so time consuming and EVERY SINGLE TIME i feel like i ran out of time. if I was doing them again I would make sure I start to study sooner( I say it every time! but luckily i work reasonably well under pressure!) I sat 4 then 2 and 2 , I didn't think I could mentally handle all the bigger subjects together...


Anyway! this is a long post, I really do hope it is helpful in someway! Please Don't lose hope! I don't think I am particularly intelligent or anything and English is not my first language I struggled with that a little too.I got through college/masters with a 2.1 by just doing enough to get by , really didn't work that hard for college but I must say these exams really took everything out of me, I worked so hard, had given up my life to study for these!! I don't believe anyone who sat those exams and thought they are easy unless you are Mike Ross or something!

SO keep at it, it's gonna be worth it !

smeal

LawCQ1 has nailed it to a tee:)!

Have to agree strongly with the past papers/reports. I was SO surprised at the amount of people who got so bogged down with grids, past papers, predictions etc. You really need to be ready for anything on the day.

I received some great advice before starting to study for the FE-1s from a past candidate who told me that to pass these exams you need to know topics 1000 miles wide and 100 miles deep as opposed to 100 miles wide and 1000 miles deep. This is certainly true of Criminal where 5/6 topics can fall into the one problem question but I also found it true for the larger subjects like Constitutional. It's so important to have a wide understanding of the principles of the 'big' topics like JR, SOP, Due Process etc without getting too stuck in the nitty gritty details. Somebody mentioned a few days ago about manipulating questions to suit what you know and this is great advice and 100% true for Constitutional especially.

This was my first sitting of the FE-1s and thankfully I passed all. I worked full time in the lead up to them and didn't have a lot of major study time before so I really didn't know what to expect or what my abilities really were. I didn't do any of the grinds courses- just worked off manuals and one of the grinds school's lecture videos for Constitutional from a few sittings ago. For the problem questions on most of the exams I tried to apply the "PQE- point quote explain " principle from Leaving Cert English- Identify the issue, back it up with a piece of legislation or a few cases and then explain your findings. I definitely didn't sound like the most academic of people on paper during these exams but they aren't looking for that- they just want you to answer the question!

In saying that though, these exams completely lack transparency! Bar a few examiner's reports, a syllabus and the hit and miss advice from the grinds schools I'm not sure if we'll ever know what they're properly looking for! Just ordered my manuals for the next set... ahhhh!

Troels Hartmann

Lily Belle wrote: »

I got 61 in equity, 63 in property, 71 in criminal, 55 in company, 50 in EU, 52 in tort, 62 in contract and 58 in constitutional. I would definitely advise against solely relying on grind school sample answers as I agree that a lot of the time the answers don't even attempt to be tailored to the question asked and are mostly just a copy and paste job of a generic topic answer. I know it would be a lot easier to just learn off and regurgitate sample answers but they really seem to be actively trying to discourage, particularly in EU and Constitutional. The answers are useful in terms of if you're looking for a condensed version of cases or definitions but that's about it. I used a mixture of the manuals, answers, other notes, the exam papers and examiners reports (especially for criminal) to make my own set of notes. I know a lot of people say it's pointless just making more notes when the manuals are more than sufficient but I actually don't agree that they are for certain subjects. I think being familiar with the exam paper and the examiners is so so important, that was the first thing I did before ever even reading a manual, get familiar with the paper, how questions are asked, the format etc.

In terms of how I actually found each subject I personally would think the following:

Equity: pretty tough, a lot of people do seem to struggle with it, I ended up covering the vast majority of the syllabus so was lucky to be very covered on the day.

Property: definitely the most doable and predictable. Even though you can cut a lot out though I wouldn't leave yourselves too short, I had 8 topics covered going in for that and was fine.

Criminal: you have to cover everything. Well, I left out some of the more essay style questions like 'what is a crime' and 'classification' but I left out nothing else because so many questions cross over different areas. He seems a fair marker and wants you to pass. Plus as I said his examiners reports are excellent, most of my notes were made up of info taken from them.

Company: tough, he seems to expect a lot from your answers but I liked the subject so found learning it ok. Was caught out a bit on the day because I did a mass cutting out of topics the day before!

Constitutional: thought this was going to be my most hated but actually really liked the content. Only left out four topics and honestly think only 2/3 of my answers were based on actual info I'd learned off, the rest was very off the cuff. The city colleges manual is excellent. I avoided the case note question like the plague but ended up having to do it on the day.

Tort: I thought this was easily my best exam this sitting and only scraped it so I'm not very well placed to advise on this ha...

Contract: I found this really hard myself. Couldn't for love nor money figure out what the problem questions were asking so had to learn enough that I could answer at least 3 essays. Lots of people find it easy but I just couldn't wrap my head around it.

EU: spent so much time the last month moaning about this that I can't even do it again. All I'll say is based on past papers I thought I'd pass even though I detest the subject with a passion. Was really really wrong but fingers crossed the poor standard this sitting will mean the paper goes back to the format of setting questions answerable by those other than those with masters level knowledge!

Sorry about the length of this, just found this thread so helpful and wanted to pass on any info that can help. The one thing I'd emphasise is don't rote learn, cover as much as the syllabus as possible (you'll be less stressed out for it!) and answer the questions asked.

I agree with virtually everything in this post. I might do my own version of it when I get time later!

Id particularly caution people against relying solely on sample answers. Really you need a mix of the manuals, answers, The exam papers and examiners reports and a couple of external sources for some subjects (eg recent articles and case notes for EU and Constitutional) to make your own set of notes

It sounds daunting and horrible and to a large extent it is! But it is totally doable If you apply yourself to a decent level. The trick is to keep going and not to let the volume of it get you down