Would Law Be Like This?

stainluss

What is studying for law exams like? For anyone who did LC Business, is there any similarities in the type/method of studying you do for both? (Not in the actual material:P)

I am dying trying to study business for the LC today (aiming for >95%) and if this is anything like law (learning off pages and pages of similar definitions) then I may have made the wrong CAO choice.

I tend to be better studying sciences and technology and yet i would like to become a lawyer (Not if its too much like this ****e, though:()
At least if this was interesting, it would be something

Have I made a mistake?

muffinman

I didn't do LC business but studying law has nothing to do with learning off definitions. There's a lot of reading of cases and articles to be done but a lot of it is interesting if you're genuinely interested in the subjects of law

dan_d

As far as I know, law students tend to have about 12-15 hours of lectures a week and a heavy load of reading case studies.
I didn't do law but that's based on knowing friends who did.
Learning stuff for the LC is nowhere near the same as learning stuff for college, so don't try and compare. But in terms of subject matter - there's a lot of external reading to do, off your own bat. And to my knowledge, it's not optional reading it has to be done.

lemon_sherbert

There's a lot of reading in law, but it's manageable if you do it during term and not the few weeks before college. I didn't do LC business, but I find law to be a little like studying history. Reading from a range of sources, forming a narrative, reducing it to concise points and then learning the points off. But that's my process, and I think you'll find people approach it in different ways.

One of the most helpful things I did before final choice of the CAO was to head into a bookshop and have a look at some of the law books. It gives you a real idea of what the subject's like.

stainluss

lemon_sherbert wrote: »

One of the most helpful things I did before final choice of the CAO was to head into a bookshop and have a look at some of the law books. It gives you a real idea of what the subject's like.

Yeah, what sort of ones? What ones would ya be using in college? (might have a look)
I have a Black's Law Dictionary, but, its just a dictionary :pac:

Is it all long essay q's in the test?

Pandoras Twist

[QUOTE=dan_d;66414382ase studies.
I didn't do law but that's based on knowing friends who did.
Learning stuff for the LC is nowhere near the same as learning stuff for college, [/QUOTE]

Learning stuff for Management/marketing/human resources college exams is EXACTLY like learning stuff off for LC business

lemon_sherbert

stainluss wrote: »

Yeah, what sort of ones? What ones would ya be using in college? (might have a look)
I have a Black's Law Dictionary, but, its just a dictionary :pac:

Is it all long essay q's in the test?

Pick up a Constitutional Law book maybe, by Casey or Forde - it's probably the most accessible without having studied in college. There are also series of revision books, Essential Law Texts or Nutshells series. They would give you an idea of the issues covered.

The exams are a mix of essay questions and problem questions. Problem questions are hypothetical factual scenarios, where you are asked to identify the legal issues in question and advise the person involved.

stainluss

I'd be up to a B standard in HL English, but is it a different sort of writing from that essay wise or would you need to have been great at LC English?

I always found myself good at personal essays, but would the business ones would be more like informative? So it wouldnt matter really?

Rothmans

stainluss wrote: »

I'd be up to a B standard in HL English, but is it a different sort of writing from that essay wise or would you need to have been great at LC English?

I always found myself good at personal essays, but would the business ones would be more like informative? So it wouldnt matter really?

If you're good at personal essays that'll be a great help doing law, especially the essay questions because you are basically asked you're take on a certain legal issue. Of course you have to back up your opinions with the relevant cases and legislation.

stainluss

Rothmans wrote: »

If you're good at personal essays that'll be a great help doing law, especially the essay questions because you are basically asked you're take on a certain legal issue. Of course you have to back up your opinions with the relevant cases and legislation.

Oh, I thought that there was a right and wrong answer. I didnt know you could choose one and back it up:p

Jev/N

stainluss wrote: »

Oh, I thought that there was a right and wrong answer. I didnt know you could choose one and back it up:p

There's very rarely a right or wrong answer for exams - it's generally shades of grey, same as in real life. You need to be able to point out the possibilities and then determine the likely outcome.

errlloyd

Hey mate, I didn't do LC business either unfortunately, but I can tell you about my experience with law. To me a law essay is half evidence, half persuasive. To get that evidence you have to read quite a significant amount. Usually what you read are actual cases, and there are different ways to manage that. Some people stick to summaries, some people read entire cases and the branches with the hopes of leaning on just one main ruling and some people read topics (for example evidence discovery) and simply learn of the names of cases that refer to discovery.

The other half of a legal essay is persuasive, using the evidence with your own logic to show your client why they are right, wrong or both. (Btw almost all law essays involve advising a client). You also try to use different interpretations of law in order to make your point.

I find law essays pretty interesting and fairly challenging. Unlike objective subjects where there is a limit to how right you can be, law really challenges you to do a little bit extra to make your point as strongly as possible. The disadvantage to this is like all subjective subjects its difficult to get very high marks. The plus side is you can do **** all work and still do ok.

stainluss

errlloyd wrote: »

its difficult to get very high marks.

Would there be a lower than average 1st class degree %?

errlloyd

Hard to tell. I can't honestly answer that question.

An A1 in UCD is only 76.67% or higher, truth is though people in law are generally pretty good at exams, like up until last year it was fair high points, even last year they were pretty high. Even still I am fairly sure only very few get firsts.

A first is 3.8+ GPA.

So between 76.67 and 40 there are 11 grades (A2-D3). The easiest way to remember this is each grade is 3.33 unlike LC where each grade is 5. Each grade is worth .2 on your GPA.

So

A1 : 76.67-100 : 4.2
A2 : 73.33-76.67 : 4.0
A3 : 70-73.33 : 3.8
B1 : 67.67 - 70 : 3.6

And so on.

So a first is a minimum of an A3 average. Which is quite high. Like an LC a average is tough to get.

Fad

errlloyd wrote: »

Hard to tell. I can't honestly answer that question.

An A1 in UCD is only 76.67% or higher, truth is though people in law are generally pretty good at exams, like up until last year it was fair high points, even last year they were pretty high. Even still I am fairly sure only very few get firsts.

A first is 3.8+ GPA.

So between 76.67 and 40 there are 11 grades (A2-D3). The easiest way to remember this is each grade is 3.33 unlike LC where each grade is 5. Each grade is worth .2 on your GPA.

So

A1 : 76.67-100 : 4.2
A2 : 73.33-76.67 : 4.0
A3 : 70-73.33 : 3.8
B1 : 67.67 - 70 : 3.6

And so on.

So a first is a minimum of an A3 average. Which is quite high. Like an LC a average is tough to get.

A First in terms of GPA is 3.68 and up.