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

Paleblood

shellbm wrote: »

I am beginning to start learning cases etc off. For the entire Equity course, I am currently looking at a list I have drawn up of about 350 cases to cover all 14 chapters. Does this sound about right?? Given I tend to only give about 8-10 cases per answer in the exam, its a lot to learn off.

Does anyone have any hints or tips for memorising this amount of caselaw??

You're not going to remember 350 cases and you shouldn't be spending your time trying. If you refer to 8-10 cases per answer then all well and good, but you should know that that's a lot! I doubt anyone has an average of 80 authorities per exam. If you feel that you need to learn off 350 cases then you simply haven't been decisive enough in identifying the areas of each topic that are likely to come up.

The Talking Bread

Get your hands on sample answers and past questions quick. You will soon see that you are fooling yourself even considering learning any, any, any where close to half that

The Talking Bread

Has the "Family Property " Question came up in the last 2 sittings?

I assume, if it has, it was the same old one that is usually on it yeah?

MarkOC95

Have people got their exam numbers in the post yet?

shellbm

Paleblood wrote: »

You're not going to remember 350 cases and you shouldn't be spending your time trying. If you refer to 8-10 cases per answer then all well and good, but you should know that that's a lot! I doubt anyone has an average of 80 authorities per exam. If you feel that you need to learn off 350 cases then you simply haven't been decisive enough in identifying the areas of each topic that are likely to come up.

If you have successfully passed all 8 FE1's knowing roughly 6 cases per chapter, you are a better man than me.

The Talking Bread

shellbm wrote: »

If you have successfully passed all 8 FE1's knowing roughly 6 cases per chapter, you are a better man than me.

Have you done any yet yourself?

shellbm

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Have you done any yet yourself?

Only 4 so far in March gone

The Talking Bread

shellbm wrote: »

Only 4 so far in March gone

And did you use the same approach?? I mean concentrating so heavily on covering every chapter and so much case law. Which subjects??

nmwcc

shellbm wrote: »

I am beginning to start learning cases etc off. For the entire Equity course, I am currently looking at a list I have drawn up of about 350 cases to cover all 14 chapters. Does this sound about right?? Given I tend to only give about 8-10 cases per answer in the exam, its a lot to learn off.

Does anyone have any hints or tips for memorising this amount of caselaw??

Breaking up injunctions helped me a lot, I was overwhelmed revising the chapter the other day. The same with SP, break it up between part performance - sale of land etc. When you are trying to memorise the cases, it will help as the issues will stand out more. A poster on the previous FE1 thread posted an excellent book which gives helpful tools and tricks for memorising cases, I will try and find this exact name and post.

It suggests associating journeys you take every day with topics. each stop on the journey/traffic light etc will be a case name. I found it pretty helpful

Paleblood

I've just finished up with one of the FE1 colleges (I won't say which one) and each of my lecturers, for equity, property, contract and tort, have all said the same thing, and that is that 5 or 6 authorities is all that's needed or expected per question.

Now, you might think to yourself "well 5 or 6 cases per topic sounds fine, but the topics are big so I'll need to know 40 or 50 cases per topic to make sure I cover all bases." Again, based on the lecturers' advice, that is incorrect. Yes, the topics are big and if you are one of those prodigies that can remember buckets of cases, well then go ahead. But everyone else will have to identify the cases that they simply cannot leave out. Know those, and supplement them with whatever else you can, and you'll have enough.

(The one notable exception (that's not to say there aren't others) seems to be charities. Charities, cy-pres and non-charitable purpose trusts have to be studied together and to do that block of topics justice you need to know a large volume of cases).

Also, read through the past exam papers and examiner's reports. Certain topics seem big, or heavy on case-law, but the examiner might be attracted to certain areas, or expect candidates to focus on particular tests or aspects. I'm not going to go into specifics here, but for a topic like constructive trusts there are only really a few different types of questions appearing, the same with injunctions. You can save a lot of time and a lot of rote-learning by focusing in on the types of questions and themes that re-occur.

There's an element of risk involved in that but personally I'm comfortable taking calculated risks because I haven't the time, or indeed the interest, to cover every section of every topic. And for what it's worth, none of my lecturers expect me to either. There hands are tied in so far as they can't tell anyone to cut out topics, but they've done and said as much as they can to indicate that people ought to take some sort of educated gamble (not so much in tort because of how examiner has been spending his topics around in recent years).

Anyway, best of luck.

shellbm

The Talking Bread wrote: »

And did you use the same approach?? I mean concentrating so heavily on covering every chapter and so much case law. Which subjects??

I wouldn't know the exact facts of every case or anything of the sort, each case usually just helps me to remember some kind of point, if that makes sense? it may just be a one liner that reminds me of a principle or a decision. Some people would just remember principles as they are but its more like word association for me, its a weakness of mine more than anything. I've colleagues who have totally different approaches, its just the way I remember the law, solely through cases.

luckyman

Knowing 4-5 cases per answer where you can apply the law and explain the principles of the law is better than merely knowing several dozen per question. Surely. In fact I'd say applying 2-3 cases correctly to an answer is better than listing 20.

Paleblood

shellbm wrote: »

If you have successfully passed all 8 FE1's knowing roughly 6 cases per chapter, you are a better man than me.

I haven't sat any yet but I'm taking the advice of a group of lecturers who have been teaching FE1 students for a combined total of roughly 50 years, as well as the advice of my colleagues who have passed the exams in recent years.

And for the record, I'm not suggesting anyone goes in with just 6 cases per topics. That would be ludicrous. What I'm saying is that, based on the advice I'm drawing from, jotting down 80 cases in an exam is very rare.

yournerd

Anyone know why there were 2 sittings in spring 2014?

The Talking Bread

yournerd wrote: »

Anyone know why there were 2 sittings in spring 2014?

yeah, there was. Some sort of mix up with dates

nmwcc

yournerd wrote: »

Anyone know why there were 2 sittings in spring 2014?

As far as I know the LS moved them forward on very short notice and the FE1 students signed petitions to have them moved back. Then the law society provided two sittings then I think to facilitate both..?

Paleblood

yournerd wrote: »

Anyone know why there were 2 sittings in spring 2014?

The Law Society changed the date at very short notice, and there was bloody uproar because loads of candidates had booked time off work thinking the exams would be during the usual slot. So the Law Society had to stage two sittings for people that had booked for either date. They completely fcuked it up.

SM1803

Is it safe to focus on past papers in equity or is that a big risk?

shellbm

Paleblood wrote: »

I haven't sat any yet but I'm taking the advice of a group of lecturers who have been teaching FE1 students for a combined total of roughly 50 years, as well as the advice of my colleagues who have passed the exams in recent years.

And for the record, I'm not suggesting anyone goes in with just 6 cases per topics. That would be ludicrous. What I'm saying is that, based on the advice I'm drawing from, jotting down 80 cases in an exam is very rare.

Ah cool, apologies for taking you up incorrectly, my bad

cjaybcjayb

does anyone have an up to date criminal law grid? Can swap for all exam papers and mark schemes from the march 2017 sitting. Also have notes for Tort, criminal, contract and equity.

cjaybcjayb

yournerd wrote: »

Hey if anyone is looking for grids just sent me a PM with your email!

Would you possibly be able to send me the criminal law grid? coz, not sure how to PM on this! lol

LegalLaaaaady

Anyone receive Law Society letters yet confirming venue?

Louisekeegan

LegalLaaaaady wrote: »

Anyone receive Law Society letters yet confirming venue?

No I haven't heard anything from law society

Lumi77

For Equity is a lot, but I had that for the Constitutional law and you ll probably remember half of them for the exam.
if is a big course to me it makes sense but if is a small course... the trend would be about 5 cases per topic from what i know. Its human nature if you mix some cases.

The Talking Bread

cjaybcjayb wrote: »

Would you possibly be able to send me the criminal law grid? coz, not sure how to PM on this! lol

Just tap on posters name, will take you to their profile and then you will be given option to send PM

The Talking Bread

Re Equity Injunction Question .....Mareva came up last sitting if I am correct in saying?

But which topic came up in October 2016 (in Quia Timet, mandatory, APRIL etc ??)

MomTuR

Anybody got a list of potential case notes for Constitutional AND/OR sample answers for the Constitutional exam in October 2016? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Paleblood

shellbm wrote: »

Ah cool, apologies for taking you up incorrectly, my bad

No need to apologise, and to be honest everything I said comes with a caveat because I haven't actually sat them. I was just hoping to take the pressure off people trying to learn off massive amounts of cases by relaying some of the advice I received. But different stokes etc. You clearly know what you're doing having passed four already!

LegalLaaaaady

Does anyone have an examiners report for Criminal March 2017?

Tony_TwoLegs

The Talking Bread wrote: »

Re Equity Injunction Question .....Mareva came up last sitting if I am correct in saying?

But which topic came up in October 2016 (in Quia Timet, mandatory, APRIL etc ??)

Q3 in March was a Mareva essay Q.