FE1 Exam Thread (Mod Warning: NO ADS)

coco13

Yes you are indeed.

Becky55 wrote: »

Am i correct in saying that the Irish exam is now completely done away with??

JCJCJC

Just finished one full read-through of the Griffiths manual and Ruth Delaney's textbook on Equity, now starting to write my most condensed notes. Anybody able to offer any exam advice on the most important areas, eg what always appears, what never appears, what is topical, what are the preparatory colleges tipping etc? All help appreciated.
JC

Orla FitzP

JC im also sitting equity,
Injunctions are a gud place to start study maybe???theyre popular

estoppel is also topical?

I really find the trusts the hardest part thou but resulting trusts were there last yr??

Undue influence wasnt on last yrs paper??either were the maxims?

i dunno if thats helpful but maybe itl start u off?

colonel1

Orla FitzP wrote: »

In company wen they say- the corner stone of corp. governance is regulation 80 of Part1 table A-

do they want u to talk about how the directors get their power???like it comes from the shareholder??

i dont have the Company Acts yet (expensive) do pple recommend u bring them in??
wb please!!!!

Definately bring in the Company Acts as if you get stuck in the exam they could come in handy. Check out Courtney on regulation 80, it is a favourite of his.

colonel1

coco13 wrote: »

Cheers Colonel 1 ... Yeah just find it difficult after work..not enough hours in the day to fit it all in! And its taking a while to get going. Courses I have left are long though and going to try to persevere this week to get them covered.

I will mention that while I have five in the bag..It took a while to get em and I also passed two and failed two first sitting so keep plugging!

Thanks for that Coco13 was finding it hard to get motivated tbh especially after talking to a rather unsympathetic friend who didn't really beleive me whan I said the exams were hard. Made me feel like a plant tbh. Now while I shouldn't care about that, everytime I look at my company notes mountain I just want to run away alas.

Any tips for making condensed notes. I always find that the hardest part!!

euroj

Hello all!

I am sitting 5 fe1s in March and have a question - is there anyone sitting FE1s in March who is currently in Berlin? It would be great to find someone else wading through this endless material!!

Cheers!

Aisling23

Orla FitzP wrote: »

In company wen they say- the corner stone of corp. governance is regulation 80 of Part1 table A-

do they want u to talk about how the directors get their power???like it comes from the shareholder??

i dont have the Company Acts yet (expensive) do pple recommend u bring them in??
wb please!!!!

That's exactly it - root power always vests in the members, Art 80 is that vehicle which facilitates the transfer of powers from the members to the directors. And yes big favourite of Courtney - he especially looks at whether there is a difference between the Irish version of Model art 80 and the English equivalent and whether that difference would allow, in Ireland, members to give directions to the directors re powers that are not specifically limited to the directors in the Articles. This is off the top of my head so would recommend checkign out Courtney on it.

Company's Acts - Yes I would recommend. Most people don't use them that much but just for the odd thing you need to verify and also for peace of mind the night before the exam!

mirwin

JCJCJC wrote: »

I met a friend in the past few days who is a 'high-up' in the Law Society. Friend says a decision was taken in November 2010 to close down the Cork PPC operation, apparently the costs to the Lawsoc are prohibitive. So all of us from outside the Pale can look forward to a spell living in Dublin once we get past the FE1s and beg an apprenticeship in some lonely outpost.

JC

I contacted the Law Society in early December. The reply I got was that student numbers have been falling each year since 2007 and in light of this a cost review is being conducted concerning course venues etc. They have said that no final decisions have been taken yet on whether or not the PPC will be offered in Cork in 2011. They anticipate that the review will be completed in February. I am not sure if there is any point in people emailing the Law Society requesting that PPC1 remain in Cork for this year. What do people think?? Personally, it will be a disaster for me if I have to go to Dublin.

steph86

just wondering what people think is the best study technique for these fe1's? I've a tendancy to read a chapter and then re write it in short hand but find it very time consuming.
any suggestions.

05008441

I'm currently studying for Company, Constitutional and Contract from materials that are about a year old. Does anyone know of areas in these subjects where there have been recent developments?
I know there is the issue of children's rights and the A,B,C abortion case. If anyone can point me in the direction of other developments in the past year it would be greatly appreciated!

coco13

Hi Steph..I'm the same but agree that it can be so time consuming.. Sometimes my short hand notes are longer than the chapter in the book!! I believe the recommended technique is to condense each chapter into one page of notes..I haven't mastered it yet! Good luck!

steph86 wrote: »

just wondering what people think is the best study technique for these fe1's? I've a tendancy to read a chapter and then re write it in short hand but find it very time consuming.
any suggestions.

coco13

Guys, Just starting out on the company law course therefore excuse my ignorance when I ask why is it known to be such a tough exam?

_JOE_

coco13 wrote: »

Guys, Just starting out on the company law course therefore excuse my ignorance when I ask why is it known to be such a tough exam?

It is mainly to do with the low pass rate. I think April's sitting was only circa 30% which is extremely low. The average rate is normally around 50% for the other subjects.

Basically, he's the toughest marker.

coco13

_JOE_ wrote: »

It is mainly to do with the low pass rate. I think April's sitting was only circa 30% which is extremely low. The average rate is normally around 50% for the other subjects.

Basically, he's the toughest marker.

Cheers for that Joe!

JCJCJC

steph86 wrote: »

just wondering what people think is the best study technique for these fe1's? I've a tendancy to read a chapter and then re write it in short hand but find it very time consuming.
any suggestions.

I think you absolutely have to read the recent past papers and the corresponding examiners' reports. For a hypothetical example, if there is a question on negligence and duty of care in tort, the examiner might say 'the better answers mentioned Donoghue v Stephenson'. Take that as a deafeningly loud hint. If you subsequently do a negligence question and don't mention the cases the examiner has overtly flagged as being important, you can't expect top marks, can you?
Next, use bailii.org and courts.ie to check very recent developments, the law society examiners value fresh citations much more than college examiners do. So if you say Donoghue v Stephenson was recently re-affirmed in Hogzy v JCJCJC[2011] IESC you are showing that you are very up-to-date.
Next, read any journal article your examiner has published and know the general structure of it - opinion, citations, approvals/criticisms of judgments etc.
In some areas, the law reform commission's work is important, particularly if the word 'reform' creeps into the question. For instance, in tort last October, there was a question on animal torts, which is very easy on its own, but it also said give suggestions for reform - you would have needed to have read the relevant report and be able to cite its main points to impress.
Last - decide on the topics you will cover in each subject area, five plue one or two bankers, make approx two hand-written pages of bare essential notes, this will be the key cases, definitions, latin names for doctrines, key quotations from texts, recent legislation etc. Use diagrams, colours, mind maps, mnemonics, whatever it takes to firmly fix the image of those two pages in your brain. This is the stuff you will be looking at the night before the exam and on the morning.
When you get into the exam proper and you get your paper, start doodling immediately as you read it on the work sheet. If adverse possession comes up in property law, doodle the names of the cases you can remember, doodle stuff like nec vi, nec clam, nec precario and so on. Begin with the question you are most comfortable with, and let your mind process the other stuff in the background as you write your first answer. Things will come back to you when you relax, so note them as they do and take comfort from the fact that you have another good solid question to write after the first one. If you can't remember one party in a case, leave a gap for it and it might occur to you later and you can go back and fill it in. You should therefore arrive at question five with a fairly reasonable structure already in place to assemble your answer, because you will be mentally very tired at that stage. There's nothing wrong with having a mars bar and a lucozade in with you to give you a boost when you badly need it - it does work.
Get plenty of sleep and fresh air for at least two to three weeks prior to the exam to defrag your main computer.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

JC

JCJCJC

coco13 wrote: »

Guys, Just starting out on the company law course therefore excuse my ignorance when I ask why is it known to be such a tough exam?

Well the examiner wrote a MOFU of a book on the subject and he has published a load of articles as well, so he will expect you to know a fair bit about it if you are on the point of being launched into the unsuspecting public as a practising solicitor. Company law is real law, it will come in the door to you in practise so it's a key area for a practitioner.

JC

colonel1

JCJCJC wrote: »

I think you absolutely have to read the recent past papers and the corresponding examiners' reports. For a hypothetical example, if there is a question on negligence and duty of care in tort, the examiner might say 'the better answers mentioned Donoghue v Stephenson'. Take that as a deafeningly loud hint. If you subsequently do a negligence question and don't mention the cases the examiner has overtly flagged as being important, you can't expect top marks, can you?
Next, use bailii.org and courts.ie to check very recent developments, the law society examiners value fresh citations much more than college examiners do. So if you say Donoghue v Stephenson was recently re-affirmed in Hogzy v JCJCJC[2011] IESC you are showing that you are very up-to-date.
Next, read any journal article your examiner has published and know the general structure of it - opinion, citations, approvals/criticisms of judgments etc.
In some areas, the law reform commission's work is important, particularly if the word 'reform' creeps into the question. For instance, in tort last October, there was a question on animal torts, which is very easy on its own, but it also said give suggestions for reform - you would have needed to have read the relevant report and be able to cite its main points to impress.
Last - decide on the topics you will cover in each subject area, five plue one or two bankers, make approx two hand-written pages of bare essential notes, this will be the key cases, definitions, latin names for doctrines, key quotations from texts, recent legislation etc. Use diagrams, colours, mind maps, mnemonics, whatever it takes to firmly fix the image of those two pages in your brain. This is the stuff you will be looking at the night before the exam and on the morning.
When you get into the exam proper and you get your paper, start doodling immediately as you read it on the work sheet. If adverse possession comes up in property law, doodle the names of the cases you can remember, doodle stuff like nec vi, nec clam, nec precario and so on. Begin with the question you are most comfortable with, and let your mind process the other stuff in the background as you write your first answer. Things will come back to you when you relax, so note them as they do and take comfort from the fact that you have another good solid question to write after the first one. If you can't remember one party in a case, leave a gap for it and it might occur to you later and you can go back and fill it in. You should therefore arrive at question five with a fairly reasonable structure already in place to assemble your answer, because you will be mentally very tired at that stage. There's nothing wrong with having a mars bar and a lucozade in with you to give you a boost when you badly need it - it does work.
Get plenty of sleep and fresh air for at least two to three weeks prior to the exam to defrag your main computer.

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

JC

7 topics per subject, that would be doable as opposed to attempting to know the 20 or so topics for company. I am at the condensing notes stage, but always find it hard to condense notes. Two pages per topic would be a dream for me:)

I agree with the suggestion to bring in the lucozade, though the Law Society have strict rules about flasks etc.

glengirlie

steph86 wrote: »

just wondering what people think is the best study technique for these fe1's? I've a tendancy to read a chapter and then re write it in short hand but find it very time consuming.
any suggestions.

Seems to me the best way is to condense the stuff down as much as possible from your own notes. So the main,points, they dont seem to like waffle. I tend to use flash cards nearing exam time. But def I would advise sticking with re writing the points of the chapter you read in your own words and do your best to whittle it down. Concise answers seem to be the way to go.

Good Luck.

glengirlie

05008441 wrote: »

I'm currently studying for Company, Constitutional and Contract from materials that are about a year old. Does anyone know of areas in these subjects where there have been recent developments?
I know there is the issue of children's rights and the A,B,C abortion case. If anyone can point me in the direction of other developments in the past year it would be greatly appreciated!

I myself am sitting Constitutional and Contract, there doesnt seem to be any major changes in the last year. The main things to watch out for are the topical subjects some of which featured in the exams in Autumn 2010. Would love to hear from someone else though in relation to contract, as this is one of my weaker subjects. So far I am covering what is in the Griffith packs from Autumn 10 and am doing the Griffith course for Constitutional at the moment.

Robbo

colonel1 wrote: »

I agree with the suggestion to bring in the lucozade, though the Law Society have strict rules about flasks etc.

You'd want to be hitting a hip flash fairly hard with some of the more recent company papers...

colonel1

glengirlie wrote: »

I myself am sitting Constitutional and Contract, there doesnt seem to be any major changes in the last year. The main things to watch out for are the topical subjects some of which featured in the exams in Autumn 2010. Would love to hear from someone else though in relation to contract, as this is one of my weaker subjects. So far I am covering what is in the Griffith packs from Autumn 10 and am doing the Griffith course for Constitutional at the moment.

I thought the question on consumer protection was really nasty in the autumn 2010 paper and couldn't have answered it as I left out the consumer protection part of the course. Off the top of my head, I recall that one of the problem questions had a lot of issues to answer (I think it was either Q1 or 2 (haven't looked at the exam paper recently)) and I was just mid way through at the close of the exam.

colonel1

Robbo wrote: »

You'd want to be hitting a hip flash fairly hard with some of the more recent company papers...

Indeed, it might be easier to send a hip flask (or a bottle or 2 of Veuve Cliquot) to the darling examiner and hope for the best:D

JCJCJC

glengirlie wrote: »

I myself am sitting Constitutional and Contract, there doesnt seem to be any major changes in the last year. The main things to watch out for are the topical subjects some of which featured in the exams in Autumn 2010. Would love to hear from someone else though in relation to contract, as this is one of my weaker subjects. So far I am covering what is in the Griffith packs from Autumn 10 and am doing the Griffith course for Constitutional at the moment.

I've said this here before - the problems in contract tend to be all single-case fact patterns. Know the case law and know the outcomes, it makes your answer shorter than trying to get there from first principles if you can identify the case. Have a look at the latest edition of B Clarke's book in a library or even in a bookshop if you don't own it, note the cases from 2007 onwards that she lists, know those. Read the article Prof. Robt Clark wrote on damages, I got a full question out of it in October, my only essay, I did four problems.
From memory - some cases that came up recently as problems were (1)Bannerman v White, hops and sulphur, the big issue was representations and terms. (2) Sowell v Potter, mistake as to identity, name changed by deed poll. (3) Dakota Packaging v Wyeth - formation, did an enforceable contract actually come into being, (4) Zuphen v Kelly Tech., frustration or not.
It'll be all downhill if you get the recent Irish case right straight off and then write a bit about the nett legal issue involved, the classic cases and so on.
Using that method I got 67 in October.

JC

bob_lob_law

Doing equity myself at the moment - does anyone have a copy of/link to the Szabo judgement? Can't seem to see it on bailli or maybe I'm missing something?

JCJCJC

bob_lob_law wrote: »

Doing equity myself at the moment - does anyone have a copy of/link to the Szabo judgement? Can't seem to see it on bailli or maybe I'm missing something?

PM me and you might have a late Xmas

JC

benb

hi, not sure if this has been posted before, i've heard from people that there is only a certain amount of times one can sit the FE1's. is there any truth in this? i've been given conflicting answers by people

also, do people think, starting studying now will be enough time to give it a good go in march? i'd be doing 4 subjects, probably criminal, tort, constitutional and property/contract.

where can the fe1 subject manuals be purchased and how much are they?

thanks, any help would be much appreciated

neenee

{SNIP}

JCJCJC

benb wrote: »

hi, not sure if this has been posted before, i've heard from people that there is only a certain amount of times one can sit the FE1's. is there any truth in this? i've been given conflicting answers by people

also, do people think, starting studying now will be enough time to give it a good go in march? i'd be doing 4 subjects, probably criminal, tort, constitutional and property/contract.

where can the fe1 subject manuals be purchased and how much are they?

thanks, any help would be much appreciated

First question - theoretically yes - you have to begin within five years of your degree. So if you sat and failed them all twice a year for five years after you graduate, you would run out of chances, and you would have to graduate again. By then you should have realised that God didn't really mean you to become a lawyer.

Second question - depends how much you know already and how well you retain stuff. The FE1s are open to law graduates and people who haven't previously studied law at all, so it will depend on that. If you graduated with a first-class LLM in company law last June you should be ok. If you never before studied it, you would need to be a great student to absorb it all in the time available - but it can be done.

Third question - there is a thread on boards for buying and selling manuals and materials. Price depends on condition and freshness. A pre-Lisbon EU manual for instance should be very cheap, a post-Lisbon one is probably the best seller at present. A property one should ideally be post- the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform Act 1999. If some eejit has plastered a manual with graffitti and highlighters, it devalues it. Some areas of law don't change a lot, eg equity, constitutional, tort to an extent, so an older manual should be ok.

Just be careful, there are some shysters and timewasters on that board.

You can always of course acquire them by doing the courses, or even the one-day intensive courses in GCD or similar.

JC

shaneybaby

JCJCJC wrote: »

First question - theoretically yes - you have to begin within five years of your degree. So if you sat and failed them all twice a year for five years after you graduate, you would run out of chances, and you would have to graduate again. By then you should have realised that God didn't really mean you to become a lawyer.

JC

I'm not sure the five rule is AFTER your degree. I was doing my fe1s in 2009 after graduating in 2003. I think it's that you have to have all fe1s passed 5 years prior to entry to blackhall. Off the top of my head now with no time to look it up though...

cd.galway

Hi I'm beginning to start studying now this week...all going well!!!
sitting my final three-EU, Company and Constitutional of which I sat all three in Sept but unfortunately failed all three!!!
I'm willing to do a prepartory course preferably the Griffith course...due to recessionary times I can only do one(thinking EU due to all the changes) Just wondering if anyone can give me any suggestions on which may be the better course to do?
Also I seem to have a real problem passing company although i don't find the content too hard as opposed to EU, has anyone else the same prob or is it just me. The questions recently seem to be next nor impossible, especially the directors question. Has the company manual changed much since 2008/2009 with the 2009 Act for those who have the latest manual?