FE1 Exam Thread (Read 1st post!) No trading

Chickennugget1

Fe7 wrote: »

I'm hearing a lot of positive re-check stories. Has anyone not passed from a re-check?

Also, how many weeks during normal times does it take for re-checks to be processed. I see the cut-off date is end of January, so thats two-weeks out the window anyway, leaving one month left for re-check results.

I got 48 in Equity in the last sitting and no change to my result after recheck. It took about 6 weeks to come back!

FE1new

nicolesd wrote: »

Just got my equity result i got 58 when I only answered basically 4 qs it is my second time sitting it though. I am going to request my script but will happily send it on to anyone when I receive it if anyone wants to have a look or use for study purposes

That would be amazing thank you!

lawDani

Corplawtrainee wrote: »

Didn't do crazy well in contract (58), but I really just focussed on continually practising the exam qs and went through every examiners report and noted down all the cases that she mentioned in the,. The examiner was also quite good for stating what she was looking for in the answers. E.g. She flagged Williams v Rofey in past exam reports, and if you didn't know that case well this time around you would have been screwed for one of the PQs.

I think she asked a few of the PQs a bit differently and the essays were a tad specific, but I found that a lot of the cases and questions were quite simmilar to past qs. So maybe just really focussing on doing exam qs and combing through the examiner reports from the start. Although, I know that's probably not very useful advice.

would you be willing to share your script? ive sat contract twice now hitting above 46 each time

Lovestolisten

Fe7 wrote: »

I'm hearing a lot of positive re-check stories. Has anyone not passed from a re-check?

Also, how many weeks during normal times does it take for re-checks to be processed. I see the cut-off date is end of January, so thats two-weeks out the window anyway, leaving one month left for re-check results.

I paid for 3 rechecks , first round results 43% , 37% , 47%

After recheck
42% , 37% , 47%
Raging .. lost a mark and wasted €345

FE1student560

Does anyone think they marked harder to account for people who cheated?

FE1new

FE1student560 wrote: »

Does anyone think they marked harder to account for people who cheated?

I think there is a lack of transparency around the marking system. Even getting your paper doesn't shed light on where marks are awarded or deducted.

Fe7

I have a TC due to start this September. I would greatly appreciate someone's perspective I might not have yet considered:

I have passed Property, Tort and Equity. Failed Company and Contract today. I was planning on writing EU, Constitution and Criminal this sitting. However, with little time for re-checks, I have two options.

A) Forget Company and Contract this time round and push through with original plan for March 2021 which is Criminal, Constitution and EU (which are not guaranteed passes anyway) two of which are heavy course load. This then leaves Contract, Company and any failed from upcoming sitting for October 2021.

Tack on all five and hope for the best (since it seems to be a **** show with these results anyway) but compromising the other three I have not yet attempted. Again, no guaranteed pass, but with hope to begin TC in September.

I am literally in tears at the thought of having to wait over another year to start. I was so ready to begin the next chapter of my life three months from now.

IgoPAP

FE1student560 wrote: »

Does anyone think they marked harder to account for people who cheated?

This makes sense. To account for the people that we think are cheating, we're going to mark the exams harder for those that didn't.

Lallers96

I don't understand how it makes sense to mark everyone harder "to account for cheating" (which may or may not have even occurred).

Hardly seems fair to honest people getting a fail because they decided to lower the bar for everyone

FE1_2020_

nicolesd wrote: »

Just got my equity result i got 58 when I only answered basically 4 qs it is my second time sitting it though. I am going to request my script but will happily send it on to anyone when I receive it if anyone wants to have a look or use for study purposes

Firstly, well done on getting the result and this exam under the belt. Secondly, that would be brilliant for comparison in terms of reviewing the scripts and how they qualified marks for each of the papers.

Corplawtrainee

lawDani wrote: »

would you be willing to share your script? ive sat contract twice now hitting above 46 each time

Yeah no worries just requested them there. Got 65 in crim if any one wants a look at that one either, but I think most people find the exam managable.

FE1Hopefully1

Fe7 wrote: »

I have a TC due to start this September. I would greatly appreciate someone's perspective I might not have yet considered:

I have passed Property, Tort and Equity. Failed Company and Contract today. I was planning on writing EU, Constitution and Criminal this sitting. However, with little time for re-checks, I have two options.

A) Forget Company and Contract this time round and push through with original plan for March 2021 which is Criminal, Constitution and EU (which are not guaranteed passes anyway) two of which are heavy course load. This then leaves Contract, Company and any failed from upcoming sitting for October 2021.

Tack on all five and hope for the best (since it seems to be a **** show with these results anyway) but compromising the other three I have not yet attempted. Again, no guaranteed pass, but with hope to begin TC in September.

I am literally in tears at the thought of having to wait over another year to start. I was so ready to begin the next chapter of my life three months from now.

I think you’d need to talk to the firm to make sure that they would be okay if you pushed it back a year ! But if they are fine with it I’d go with the original plan with the March sittings 5 is way too many in my opinion and I think would cause a lot of stress which may in turn make you lose focus and increase chances of a mess up just from being too tired

Saved.bythelaw

Im in the exact same boat as you. Was ready to move on with my life and im left now feeling distraught at this stage.

FE1new

Fe7 wrote: »

I have a TC due to start this September. I would greatly appreciate someone's perspective I might not have yet considered:

I have passed Property, Tort and Equity. Failed Company and Contract today. I was planning on writing EU, Constitution and Criminal this sitting. However, with little time for re-checks, I have two options.

A) Forget Company and Contract this time round and push through with original plan for March 2021 which is Criminal, Constitution and EU (which are not guaranteed passes anyway) two of which are heavy course load. This then leaves Contract, Company and any failed from upcoming sitting for October 2021.

Tack on all five and hope for the best (since it seems to be a **** show with these results anyway) but compromising the other three I have not yet attempted. Again, no guaranteed pass, but with hope to begin TC in September.

I am literally in tears at the thought of having to wait another year to start. I was so ready to begin the next chapter of my life.

I genuinely think today is not the day to make big decisions. Personally I am shocked and angry and that is never a good mindset to make a decision.

When you have had time to process you need to sit down and be honest with yourself what you can do. Can you do all 5 or are you taking on too much? If you do too much will it impact all your subjects and delay you more? These are questions you need to think about and do what you can yourself.

Theses exams are the most stressful thing I have ever experienced so you need to be kind to yourself.

Saved.bythelaw

I know exactly how you feel. But my best advice is to give them all a go in March and do your best and thats all you can do. I was meant to start my TC last year and now I may not even be able to start this year. Don't give up and have some hope that everything will work out.
If you need notes message me

Lcork23

I still don’t understand the reason why we have the FE1s still due to the United Kingdom and for mutual recognition between them and us. Due to Brexit that has gone so the FE1s seem to me to be pointless. Maybe I’m wrong but I just don’t get it. They don’t teach you anything about being a solicitor!

EmmaO94

This thread is always buzzing on results day but I've never seen it like this. So frustrated & heartbroken for the people who have been screwed over today :-(

The petition & it's edits are awesome so big thanks to the person who created it and I'll give it another boost here: http://chng.it/zZ8gqnMHp6

It is imperative that we receive a marking scheme and more transparency altogether. I, and it sounds like many others on here, have had enough.

Corplawtrainee

Fe7 wrote: »

I have a TC due to start this September. I would greatly appreciate someone's perspective I might not have yet considered:

I have passed Property, Tort and Equity. Failed Company and Contract today. I was planning on writing EU, Constitution and Criminal this sitting. However, with little time for re-checks, I have two options.

A) Forget Company and Contract this time round and push through with original plan for March 2021 which is Criminal, Constitution and EU (which are not guaranteed passes anyway) two of which are heavy course load. This then leaves Contract, Company and any failed from upcoming sitting for October 2021.

Tack on all five and hope for the best (since it seems to be a **** show with these results anyway) but compromising the other three I have not yet attempted. Again, no guaranteed pass, but with hope to begin TC in September.

I am literally in tears at the thought of having to wait over another year to start. I was so ready to begin the next chapter of my life three months from now.

Depends how strict your firm is re your start date. Will they accomadate you if you don't get them all done by September?

If there's no issues on that front, maybe you're as well to give the 3 your best shot. If not, do you have any other choice but doing the five?

Sorry about that though, must be quite stresfull. Have to get them done in max 3 sittings with my firm, which also is a bit of unnecesary pressure, so know how it feels.

LawStudent999

Comforting to see other people in the same position as me. I was also due to start a TC this year but now given these results, it seems almost impossible. I am thinking about talking to the firm and seeing about putting off the commencement by a year and tackling the rest over a couple of sittings. Has anyone any experience with this sort of thing before about asking firms to delay start dates etc. Any info on this would be hugely appreciated. Head is melted. Thank you

Saved.bythelaw

Went from 43 to 42 in equity last March.

FE1_2020_

Can anyone who receives a response regarding their request for exam scripts update us here. I think we need to put the pressure on collectively in order to get these exam scripts returned to us in an expedited fashion so we have time to consider our options with rechecks/repeats.

Does anyone know if you’re doing the hybrid do firms tend to take you on for a few months prior, like when you start in April for blackhall in September? Or do you start in the firms in December same time as the hybrid?

FE1Hopefully1

Lcork23 wrote: »

I still don’t understand the reason why we have the FE1s still due to the United Kingdom and for mutual recognition between them and us. Due to Brexit that has gone so the FE1s seem to me to be pointless. Maybe I’m wrong but I just don’t get it. They don’t teach you anything about being a solicitor!

They FE-1s are for anyone who has graduated from a level 7 degree in any subject that wants to be a solicitor - don’t think it has anything to do with brexit or brexit would have any impact tbh - in my opinion they should be scrapped for law grads as we have already sat and passed all these exams but don’t think we will see an exemption for law grads any time soon

Lallers96

FE1_2020_ wrote: »

Can anyone who receives a response regarding their request for exam scripts update us here. I think we need to put the pressure on collectively in order to get these exam scripts returned to us in an expedited fashion so we have time to consider our options with rechecks/repeats.

It took 3 weeks exactly for my Tort script to come back from the date I requested it.

johnnash2020

I think the sudden change in the marking style of equity might be attributed to a change in examiner. It seems Noel McGrath is now involved, whereas previously it was Oonagh Breen.

Worth remembering that the statistical difficulty of passing each FE-1 varies wildly. Equity is the most difficult to pass, followed by Contract, followed by Tort.

These are brutal exams, to an extent that is very tricky to explain to parents who aren't in the legal world. Most people fail one or more along the path of getting through them. I know of individuals who received high firsts from Trinity / UCD, yet failed one FE-1 exam on several occasions.

I massively feel for everyone disappointed today, having failed some myself before I got the 8. Just know, persistence is key, you'll get there soon and be all the stronger for it. Would also recommend the CityColleges courses. Expensive, but they really help with the extra push, even if you've studied law at undergraduate.

Darragh12

What are the chances of the amount of fail grades being due to technical faults from the sitting being online? ie errors in adding up marks from questions. Just putting it out there

Hazel774

Fe179user wrote: »

Can you request your scripts if you passed and how do you do this? Is there a charge for looking at your scripts? Also if you request scripts is there a chance your exam grade will be changed, I was expecting a fail for contract law but somehow managed to get 51 so I’m absolutely shocked.

"Candidates may request a copy of their exam script under the GDPR. If you wish to exercise this right, please send a request with a copy of your passport or driving licence to fe1dataprivacy@lawsociety.ie"

Just email that email address saying which exams you sat, your candidate ID (this is your username on LS website) & attach an ID.
They email it out to you, but it does take ages, could be 8 weeks. There's no charge to view it under GDPR and no they're not going to recheck it and change your grade unless you apply for a recheck

Congrats on passing!

channing90

Do you ring the law society to get a full copy of all 8 results when finished all 8 or so they do it or what's the story? I assume you need a copy of all the results.

Corplawtrainee

johnnash2020 wrote: »

I think the sudden change in the marking style of equity might be attributed to a change in examiner. It seems Noel McGrath is now involved, whereas previously it was Oonagh Breen.

Worth remembering that the statistical difficulty of passing each FE-1 varies wildly. Equity is the most difficult to pass, followed by Contract, followed by Tort.

These are brutal exams, to an extent that is very tricky to explain to parents who aren't in the legal world. Most people fail one or more along the path of getting through them. I know of individuals who received high firsts from Trinity / UCD, yet failed one FE-1 exam on several occasions.

I massively feel for everyone disappointed today, having failed some myself before I got the 8. Just know, persistence is key, you'll get there soon and be all the stronger for it. Would also recommend the CityColleges courses. Expensive, but they really help with the extra push, even if you've studied law at undergraduate.

Didn't realise Noel was the new examiner. Found he was a bit love/hate in his marking in college. You either did really well or very badly, not a large middle ground.

FE1Hopefully1

channing90 wrote: »

Do you ring the law society to get a full copy of all 8 results when finished all 8 or so they do it or what's the story? I assume you need a copy of all the results.

I think you can request a letter stating that you have passed all 8 exams

Not sure if your results to be on it however