Hey guys-thanks for replies. yeh these exams are some pain the hole. Not looking forward to a summer of study. I just keep thinking about the fact that if everything goes ok, ill be a free camper come next october. Schnord, which manuals are better for constitutional, eu, tort and company the griffith or independent college ones? (ive used the griffith ones for the first four)
In relation to apprenticeships, i didnt mention that im fortunate enough to have gotten one in the last round of "intakes" last october. I dont really like to talk about it because so many of my mates who worked just as hard as myself in college and were just unlucky, have not gotten one...i can only assume that the same goes for the majority of people sitting the fe1s at the moment. I personally think its awful how the law society permit people to keep on sitting these exams, paying the fees, going through the stress etc, without doing anything in the way of helping people find apprenticeships....but is there really much they can do?? There was talk a while ago of making the FE1s recognisable in other common law jurisdictions making it easier for students to transfer to say canada or south africa or wherever. That would really help imho. My solution would have been not to bother sitting the FE1s at all and either do a masters in the UK and/or look for a training contract there, but ive been following the threads on rollonfriday.com for quite some time now and the state of the legal market over there is almost as bad as it is here. Things are so bloody bad that at the moment im even being skeptical about being kept on after i qualify, which wont be until 2012. Makes me wonder what the hell is the point of all the hard work and stress!!?? What do you guys think could be done to help young law grads/fe1 students find jobs/ apprenticeships? Ive read that the australian market is quite flooded too as is the US where the only vacancies are for experienced niche lawyers specializing in IP or energy law?? Canada is meant to be quite difficult to qualify in as well-i think they do an apprenticeship type thing over there too. Havent heard much about new zeland. What do ye think? On Apr 15, 3:30 pm, Schnork <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey there, > > I didn't sit any exams this time round-I've been ill so put off doing > my last one (Company) until October. > I can offer my 2 cents on some of your other questions though. > > I think you did a very wise thing sitting contract, land, equity and > criminal together. The 1st three compliment eachother well. > You will find similar in sitting constitutional-there is quite a bit > of crossover between it and criminal. > Constitutional is considered one of the harder subjects, but I think > that's mainly down to the fact that there's a lot of material to get > through and the examiner > expects more analysis/opinion than some of the others. If you try to > cover as much of the course as possible, concentrating on quantity > over quality, you will get enough covered to pass the exam. If you > have an argumentative or analytical mind, you will do fine also. I > think the people who really struggle with constitutional are those who > thrive at the more black and white, one answer only subjects where > your own opinion doesn't come into it. > Company and Tort are fine, the latter requires you covering basically > the whole course and therefore takes up a lot of time, but it's one of > the most interesting courses and was easier for me to read up on and > remember facts because of this. Company is reasonably easy and not > overly time consuming. > EU is a pain inthe backside-boring and complicated are not a great > combination in my book ;-) However, it is the easiest marked exam. I > got 54% and it was the worst exam I ever sat. Ever. I deserved about > 20%. Ditto several mates of mine who automatically pencilled that in > as a repeat but got through. So, it's horrible and I hated every > minute of studing it, but the topics are predictable and it's marked > easily. If you concentrate on getting your head round the basic topics > and practise a lot of exam questions, you'll walk EU. > > I hope this is a help. > > On apprenticeships, I haven't looked at all myself due to my health > situation, but mates of mine who started the FE's 2 years ago are not > finding it easy. > The only people I know who secured apprenticeships, did so by getting > in to the top 10, or did so through family contacts. Try to get some > work experience and work at making contacts, I'm sure things will pick > up and those of us who really want to be solicitors, and not just > those who think it's a handy way to earn a lot of cash, will get there > eventually! > > Best of luck, > Mar. > > On Apr 15, 12:47 pm, NoDole <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Apprenticeships hmmmm, if you can get an internship go for it. Right > > now things seem to be a bit slow. haha. no thats not quite the word. > > While i was doing the FE-1s last year i was working in a solicitors > > office, everything was looking rosy for that apprenticeship and I had > > approached four other places where i had managed to build up > > contacts. Everything look set. All my time spent hanging around the > > courts seemed to be paying off. I also sent out a ton of CVs. > > > Oh well, all the other offers dried up and where i was changed their > > mind, I could work for free during my apprenticeship..... then that > > changed, they didnt even have enough work for that. Staff levels have > > been chopped by around 60% since August and they had already let > > around 30% go the previous year. Things are looking a bit slow right > > now and a few of the folks i know from the FE-1s who have been looking > > for a year or two have just totally given up. > > > Everyone is a bit nervous and slow to take on any staff, don't be > > surprised if you hit a bit of a wall at this point. The only people i > > know who have managed to get an apprenticeship right now did so > > through family. Although im sure thats not a universal thing. > > > All i can say is don't be surprised if you have to sit it out for a > > while. Don't get the hump and think its you. Even when times were > > good there were far too many people doing the exams and places have > > been letting staff go since at least summer 2007. Even when things > > pick up there will be a backlog of everyone who has been waiting this > > out. > > > Its going to be a lot of fun, don't expect it to be easy but don't get > > disheartened --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "FE-1 Study Group" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.ie/group/FE-1-Study-Group?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
