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

Tony_TwoLegs

HappyKitten62 wrote: »

Hi, I am sitting the FE1s in October for the first time and was wondering how you all planned your study? I haven’t a clue how to approach making a study plan as there is just chapter after chapter. The exams I will be sitting are Company, EU, equity and criminal.

Thanks

I'd re-evaluate Equity as a first-sit subject. It trips a lot of people up. If you haven't paid, I would suggest Property.
Do Equity and Contract together.

Charlie Gove MP

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Small Wonder

Tony_TwoLegs wrote: »

I'd re-evaluate Equity as a first-sit subject. It trips a lot of people up. If you haven't paid, I would suggest Property.
Do Equity and Contract together.

I second that. I failed it twice despite it being a subject I quite enjoy and, in terms of the remedies, one I have some real world experience with. Each time I was happy with the questions asked yet I tied myself up in knots trying to answer them.

Handle with care.

lawless11

Small Wonder wrote: »

I second that. I failed it twice despite it being a subject I quite enjoy and, in terms of the remedies, one I have some real world experience with. Each time I was happy with the questions asked yet I tied myself up in knots trying to answer them.

Handle with care.

It is to handle with care, but personally I passed it first time and 2 other friends of mine did too. You just need to know it's a tough one, but feasible. You need to be really meticulous when learning it, have a ton of case law and be really logical in the application part. Don't be too discouraged.

lisac223

Could anyone one recommend which particular EU legislation to bring in? I heard that Foster's is easy to decipher. Any thoughts? Thank you :-)

HappyKitten62

Tony_TwoLegs wrote: »

I'd re-evaluate Equity as a first-sit subject. It trips a lot of people up. If you haven't paid, I would suggest Property.
Do Equity and Contract together.

Thank you so much!! That’s very helpful. Thankfully I haven’t paid so can do property instead.

HappyKitten62

Hi Guys me again just wondering if it’s a bad idea to work a part time job while studying? I got a job and it’s only 12 hrs a week. Is this not recommended? Thanks

Darragh12

HappyKitten62 wrote: »

Hi Guys me again just wondering if it’s a bad idea to work a part time job while studying? I got a job and it’s only 12 hrs a week. Is this not recommended? Thanks

It is really stressful to work and do them but I did it! Last sitting I sat three - Company, Tort & Criminal whilst working full time in a big 4 financial services firm and managed to pass the three. You should be grand!

Tony_TwoLegs

HappyKitten62 wrote: »

Hi Guys me again just wondering if it’s a bad idea to work a part time job while studying? I got a job and it’s only 12 hrs a week. Is this not recommended? Thanks

Ah if you pace yourself in the lead up.
Start now.
I did 90 min in morning before work and 90 min in evening. Increase in the last month.

Cover all the material over next 2 months.
Revise in last 4 weeks or so.
I worked fulltime throughout all 8 and was ok.

ahhhhhFE1s

Would anyone have up to date exam grids for Equity, Company, EU and Contract??
Have some equity notes to swap if that suits anyone??

rightytighty

Is the best approach to sitting contract and equity together to focus on rescission and the likes, specific performance etc?

lawless11

rightytighty wrote: »

Is the best approach to sitting contract and equity together to focus on rescission and the likes, specific performance etc?

Yeah I enjoyed the fact of double-learning information and cross-referencing for contract & equity, so I would recommend sitting those together if that doesn't confuse you. In my mind it was "less" work .

jommer01

Hi all, I've only just started looking into this and the thread is quite the beast so apologies if this is all covered already.

I'm early to mid 30s with an engineering degree and a background in IT. I'm at a bit of a crossroads career wise and have just recently considered going down the law route. I could stick with the IT for the money but I've never really enjoyed it. I have no mortgage (not am I a homeowner) and no dependents and have some savings.

How much more difficult are the exams coming from a non-law background? I was strong at English in school but I haven't sat an essay style exam in 15 years so the volume of writing alone seems a bit daunting.

It sounds like 4 exams per cycle is the way to go. Do I still have enough time to prepare to sit 4 this October? Is there 4 I should start with? How much time/effort is involved for studying? Is studying while working full time feasible?

Any feedback is much appreciated. Thanks

ahhhhhFE1s

ahhhhhFE1s wrote: »

Would anyone have up to date exam grids for Equity, Company, EU and Contract??
Have some equity notes to swap if that suits anyone??

Have actually managed to source exam grids for equity and EU so would be able to swap those for Criminal or Company??

ahhhhhFE1s

jommer01 wrote: »

Hi all, I've only just started looking into this and the thread is quite the beast so apologies if this is all covered already.

I'm early to mid 30s with an engineering degree and a background in IT. I'm at a bit of a crossroads career wise and have just recently considered going down the law route. I could stick with the IT for the money but I've never really enjoyed it. I have no mortgage (not am I a homeowner) and no dependents and have some savings.

How much more difficult are the exams coming from a non-law background? I was strong at English in school but I haven't sat an essay style exam in 15 years so the volume of writing alone seems a bit daunting.

It sounds like 4 exams per cycle is the way to go. Do I still have enough time to prepare to sit 4 this October? Is there 4 I should start with? How much time/effort is involved for studying? Is studying while working full time feasible?

Any feedback is much appreciated. Thanks

I haven't actually sat any FE1s yet so take this advice with a grain of salt.. October might be a bit soon if you have never written a law essay, while not outrageously difficult it is a skill that takes a bit to get a hang of and you would be putting yourself under pressure for Oct to do 4 exams that require 5 essays each in 3 hrs.

If you feel up to the challenge, I would recommend completing a preparatory course to get all the study materials necessary to complete the exams eg manuals, exam grids, sample answers, exam grids etc

I've heard that good ones to start with would be criminal and contract because they are shorter and straight forward ish and then after that it's a preference.

It definitely is achievable to complete them from a non-law background and have met plenty of solicitors that didn't have a primary degree in law!

Good luck!

Breacnua

jommer01 wrote: »

Hi all, I've only just started looking into this and the thread is quite the beast so apologies if this is all covered already.

I'm early to mid 30s with an engineering degree and a background in IT. I'm at a bit of a crossroads career wise and have just recently considered going down the law route. I could stick with the IT for the money but I've never really enjoyed it. I have no mortgage (not am I a homeowner) and no dependents and have some savings.

How much more difficult are the exams coming from a non-law background? I was strong at English in school but I haven't sat an essay style exam in 15 years so the volume of writing alone seems a bit daunting.

It sounds like 4 exams per cycle is the way to go. Do I still have enough time to prepare to sit 4 this October? Is there 4 I should start with? How much time/effort is involved for studying? Is studying while working full time feasible?

Any feedback is much appreciated. Thanks

If you are a bright spark, can understand concepts quickly and learn and retain information then my advice would be to sit Criminal (easiest but cover all 14 chapters) property as its easy to pin down topics and not a massive course and contract, nothing in contract can be left out and she looks for a good understanding over quantity so means alot of learning.

My reasoning:
(1) The pressure would be on to pass the 3 to carry them forward but at this stage it is to much to do 4 with no background in law. Even if you didn't pass them it would give you a real feel for the exams and be a good grounding for March.
(2) I would join an online course and catch up asap and do the homework Qs as its the only way to learn what the examiner wants with no law background.
(3) I would spent as many hours as humanly possible (alongside your job) working away at the books in order to have any real chance to secure 3 exams in oct.
(4) It is an investment of well over E1000 so there is no point unless your willing to graft. Join an online coure that lets you repeat for free!
(5) try and meet with someone who has sat the exams, if not meet with a lecturer in the college u join for the real low down. you have sat many exams, exam tecnique is half the battle.
(6) It's 5/8 Q's in 3 hours - breath over depth!

My tuppence worth! If you are serious , move soon and you have a good chance of getting 3 this year!

lisac223

Would anyone have an EU grid to swap for grids for any other subject?

ahhhhhFE1s

lisac223 wrote: »

Would anyone have an EU grid to swap for grids for any other subject?

I have an EU grid I can send on anyways?? If you had criminal or company one that would be ideal but PM your email and I'll send on EU.

HappyKitten62

Writing notes from the manuals seems to take HOURS. Did anyone type their notes? Thinking I should type first and then condense from those.

Small Wonder

HappyKitten62 wrote: »

Writing notes from the manuals seems to take HOURS. Did anyone type their notes? Thinking I should type first and then condense from those.

Yeah I type everything. I'll do some handwriting in the week or two leading up to the exam but other than that it's keyboard all the way.

HappyKitten62

Small Wonder wrote: »

Yeah I type everything. I'll do some handwriting in the week or two leading up to the exam but other than that it's keyboard all the way.

Thanks so much. It’s a big change for me because throughout university I always wrote my notes by hand so I feel like I’m not doing it right. But there are so many topics for these!

Small Wonder

HappyKitten62 wrote: »

Thanks so much. It’s a big change for me because throughout university I always wrote my notes by hand so I feel like I’m not doing it right. But there are so many topics for these!

My handwriting speed is terrible so that's why I type. If I was able to I'd write everything I would because I feel they make for better, more intuitive notes (I use a lot of arrows, charts etc.) but I simply wouldn't be able to keep on top of it by hand.

Last time out I done virtually no handwriting. Even my flashcards were digital. Honestly, I don't think I'd written a full paragraph on anything until I was in the exam. I certainly wouldn't recommend that but it just goes to show that it can be done.

CMUL

Are the exams still on in the red cow hotel? I cant see the information on the law society website. Does the hotel give a special rate for the exams?

lisac223

Random question but can anyone give me some tips on how you should mark your legislation? I know you're allowed tab and highlight but do ye do it by topic, by section etc.? This will be my first time bringing anything in and the companies act is so huge I'm not sure where to start! Thanks :-)

lisac223

CMUL wrote: »

Are the exams still on in the red cow hotel? I cant see the information on the law society website. Does the hotel give a special rate for the exams?

Yeah they're still on in the red cow but as far as I know they don't give any special rates

JP25

Does anyone have up to date exam grids for tort, criminal, constitutional and company? I would really appreciate it if someone could pm with them

jackbergin777

Looking for Property Manual, Notes, Past exam papers? I can swap constitutional, EU and Criminal materials

Mod
Exam grids only may be swapped thru this forum.
We don't have the resources to deal with disputes etc

CiaranS93

Hi guys,

I am doing Contract, Criminal, Property and Company this October. I have exam grids up to 2017. Would anyone have the most updated versions? Also any recent exam papers (2019) would be appreciated. Thanks in advance

neon123

Hi Folks, I was thinking of sitting Contract, Equity, Property and Criminal in my first sitting but read in another post that Equity might not be the best to do on the first sitting. I'm thinking of switching out Equity for Company and just wanted to check in and see what people think of company, i.e would it be one of the easier exams to pass and is there a lot in the course? I initially thought Equity would be good to do as I'm also doing contract but just wanted to get peoples thoughts. Thanks

Small Wonder

neon123 wrote: »

Hi Folks, I was thinking of sitting Contract, Equity, Property and Criminal in my first sitting but read in another post that Equity might not be the best to do on the first sitting. I'm thinking of switching out Equity for Company and just wanted to check in and see what people think of company, i.e would it be one of the easier exams to pass and is there a lot in the course? I initially thought Equity would be good to do as I'm also doing contract but just wanted to get peoples thoughts. Thanks

I'm studying company now for the first time and I'm finding it easy going. There seems to be a lot of material to cover but conceptually it's all very straight forward. Equity, on the other hand, caught me off guard, both at undergraduate and FE1 level.

Topics like secret trusts, for example, require a bit more grey matter than I found comfortable while studying and working full time. Property, criminal, contract and company are more nuts and bolts law which is what you want when you're trying to land that magic three.