Brand New to FE1's - What text books must I have?

Call Me Ishmael

Hi all...

I am a non law grad and was wondering what books must a non law grad have in his arsenal to tackle the FE1's?

I should have all eight manuals from either Griffith or IDC so the text books would be in addition to these.

Are there any subjects one could focus solely on the manual and ignore the textbooks??

Also, if I was prepared to study full time for the March FE1's is it possible to pass all eight??

Much love

Ishmael

purpleglory

As a law grad who sat some of the exams at the last sitting I would say the manuals go a long way to preparing you (I used the GCD manuals w/o the lecture materials). I used a lot of my university notes as primary sources and added notes from the manuals for areas for which I had no notes or they needed updating.

If you are to use textbooks also I would print off the syllabus available online as they reference the primary text books. These are generally accepted as the main Irish text books in the area and I would imagine most people will use them.

For example: Equity - Delany
Company - Courtney (although Keane's book is more concise)
Contract - Clark etc

_JOE_

Call Me Ishmael wrote: »

Hi all...

I am a non law grad and was wondering what books must a non law grad have in his arsenal to tackle the FE1's?

I should have all eight manuals from either Griffith or IDC so the text books would be in addition to these.

Are there any subjects one could focus solely on the manual and ignore the textbooks??

Also, if I was prepared to study full time for the March FE1's is it possible to pass all eight??

Much love

Ishmael

Do you intend on doing the prep courses, all eight?

Doing & passing all 8 are tough for the best of law graduates.

Unless you are very very disciplined, you will find it very difficult to pass all these exams on the first attempt. Not alone will you have difficulties with the legal terminology, but also how to structure / lay out the exam / technique.

I would suggest you attempt four first and then when you've the lay of the land, complete any outstanding in the following sitting.

Call Me Ishmael

_JOE_ wrote: »

Do you intend on doing the prep courses, all eight?

Doing & passing all 8 are tough for the best of law graduates.

Unless you are very very disciplined, you will find it very difficult to pass all these exams on the first attempt. Not alone will you have difficulties with the legal terminology, but also how to structure / lay out the exam / technique.

I would suggest you attempt four first and then when you've the lay of the land, complete any outstanding in the following sitting.

yeah I am planning at working full time on the law exams....effectively studying on a professional basis.....it may be over ambitous but im gonna give it a shot. Time is not my friend any more......

tks for advise tho - i'll let you know how I fare out

RJunior

There's a book called Learning the Law. I think it's by William Glanville. Very old school and probably quite academic but it's short and I think it would give you a solid base to start from as a non-law grad. Some people might disagree but you've a reasonable amount of time and I think this book would be worthwhile.

Terminology wise, you have to have a copy of Murdoch's Dictionary of Irish Law.

Doing a law degree over 3 or 4 years gives you the luxury of going into a lot of detail on most aspects of each subject. In your case though, you just want to get through the FE-1s. In that case the Nutshells series are a must. Again some people would criticise that approach but the nutshells are short and snappy and again give you a good base before you get into the Griffith manuals and heavier textbooks. A law degree is a nice base but I've come across a number of really excellent lawyers who know practically nothing about underlying concepts and caselaw. In fact caselaw is a real rarity in practice.

There is a huge amount of information to remember for each subject. I found it really useful to do a topic, take notes on it, re-do my notes and condense them down. Then I'd talk my notes into a dictaphone and play it back to myself at what would typically be non-study times, driving the car, dropping off to sleep, whenever. It sounds a bit wanky but you're gonna have to get used to dictating and hearing your own voice when you're qualified and practising as a solicitor. It also means that the information has been processed by you a number of times between writing notes, re-writing, dictating and then listening back. When I was doing written notes alone, I'd study all day. In the evening I'd review the notes that I took in the morning and it'd be like I never wrote them, like I was looking at the topic for the first time again. I found dictating notes got me over this.

You'll get lectures on the ILAC approach from Griffith (I think it was identify issues, state the law, apply the law to issues and give conclusion) and this is invaluable in terms of structuring your answers. Otherwise you're liable to witter on about a whole bunch of stuff that the examiner just doesn't have the patience to read.

The other thing that I found useful was a programme called Case Stated on RTE Radio. I think you can download it. There were a couple of episodes where Gerard Hogan came in and discussed seminal Constitutional cases like Ryan and Norris. You could spend all day reading about these cases but if you hear a really interesting discussion about them, you take much more away from it.

Best of luck with doing the 8 in one go. It's doable. Just study with the intention that you're guaranteed to get three of them and then look on the rest as a bonus.

Call Me Ishmael

RJunior wrote: »

There's a book called Learning the Law. I think it's by William Glanville. Very old school and probably quite academic but it's short and I think it would give you a solid base to start from as a non-law grad. Some people might disagree but you've a reasonable amount of time and I think this book would be worthwhile.

Terminology wise, you have to have a copy of Murdoch's Dictionary of Irish Law.

Doing a law degree over 3 or 4 years gives you the luxury of going into a lot of detail on most aspects of each subject. In your case though, you just want to get through the FE-1s. In that case the Nutshells series are a must. Again some people would criticise that approach but the nutshells are short and snappy and again give you a good base before you get into the Griffith manuals and heavier textbooks. A law degree is a nice base but I've come across a number of really excellent lawyers who know practically nothing about underlying concepts and caselaw. In fact caselaw is a real rarity in practice.

There is a huge amount of information to remember for each subject. I found it really useful to do a topic, take notes on it, re-do my notes and condense them down. Then I'd talk my notes into a dictaphone and play it back to myself at what would typically be non-study times, driving the car, dropping off to sleep, whenever. It sounds a bit wanky but you're gonna have to get used to dictating and hearing your own voice when you're qualified and practising as a solicitor. It also means that the information has been processed by you a number of times between writing notes, re-writing, dictating and then listening back. When I was doing written notes alone, I'd study all day. In the evening I'd review the notes that I took in the morning and it'd be like I never wrote them, like I was looking at the topic for the first time again. I found dictating notes got me over this.

You'll get lectures on the ILAC approach from Griffith (I think it was identify issues, state the law, apply the law to issues and give conclusion) and this is invaluable in terms of structuring your answers. Otherwise you're liable to witter on about a whole bunch of stuff that the examiner just doesn't have the patience to read.

The other thing that I found useful was a programme called Case Stated on RTE Radio. I think you can download it. There were a couple of episodes where Gerard Hogan came in and discussed seminal Constitutional cases like Ryan and Norris. You could spend all day reading about these cases but if you hear a really interesting discussion about them, you take much more away from it.

Best of luck with doing the 8 in one go. It's doable. Just study with the intention that you're guaranteed to get three of them and then look on the rest as a bonus.

Seriously impressed with your info above rjunior - tks for your time.

Wud u believe that I just received Glanville Williams book from Amazon two days back along with Disciplin of Law by Denning!! Hope to conclude them next week.

Re the dictaphone - hw much are they? Wud u recmnd a brand ? They strike me as a reallygood way on embedding all the gobbledegook! Sterling idea my good man......

Tks again mate

Ishmael