Kings inns BL - modular

the headbanger · 26-05-2013 9:24am #1

Does anyone know if they enforce that 90% attendance requirement. Im certainly aware in previous colleges I went to there was always something in the student handbook that said you were expected to attend 100% but was never really enforced. Is it enforced in KI?

Also, do they religiously follow the timetable of 9-5.15 or do they finish up early?

Tom Young · 26-05-2013 10:10am

1. Yes;
2. Not on modular due to being limited to weekends.

NoQuarter · 26-05-2013 2:08pm

the headbanger wrote: »

Does anyone know if they enforce that 90% attendance requirement. Im certainly aware in previous colleges I went to there was always something in the student handbook that said you were expected to attend 100% but was never really enforced. Is it enforced in KI?

Also, do they religiously follow the timetable of 9-5.15 or do they finish up early?

If you dont attend 90% you are expected to complete and hand in all the class assignments you missed. It happened to a few friends last year and was an absolute nightmare.

Hippo · 26-05-2013 2:43pm

the headbanger wrote: »

Also, do they religiously follow the timetable of 9-5.15 or do they finish up early?

This timetable applies on the weekend mod course. Once in a blue moon you might finish slightly early, but I wouldn't be depending on it.

LowKeyReturn · 26-05-2013 2:55pm

Does the modular course run every year or is there only an intake every other year?

Hippo · 26-05-2013 4:00pm

LowKeyReturn wrote: »

Does the modular course run every year or is there only an intake every other year?

Every year

johnnyskeleton · 26-05-2013 6:23pm

Hippo wrote: »

Every year

They must be churning em out so! How many degree students do they have at the moment, do you know?

Hippo · 26-05-2013 7:13pm

Bit of a drop over the last couple of years, but there's about 50 in Mod 1 this year and just over 100 in the full time.

the headbanger · 26-05-2013 7:40pm

Is it absolutely miserable dragging oneself up there on weekends after a full weeks work?

Hippo · 26-05-2013 7:53pm

the headbanger wrote: »

Is it absolutely miserable dragging oneself up there on weekends after a full weeks work?

Ha! Not easy, but the course is very good. Only every 2nd weekend and sometimes less. Much less in year 2.

johnnyskeleton · 26-05-2013 9:21pm

Hippo wrote: »

Bit of a drop over the last couple of years, but there's about 50 in Mod 1 this year and just over 100 in the full time.

150 per year is more than were qualifying 10 years ago. Not bad, considering the poster earlier in the week who was convinced there was no point in qualifying as a barrister.

Hippo · 26-05-2013 9:43pm

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

150 per year is more than were qualifying 10 years ago. Not bad, considering the poster earlier in the week who was convinced there was no point in qualifying as a barrister.

Not bad indeed. I was making a comparison with recent years which have been quite heavily subscribed. The bar's appeal is enduring despite the obvious difficulties in establishing a practice!

NoQuarter · 26-05-2013 10:25pm

Hippo wrote: »

Not bad indeed. I was making a comparison with recent years which have been quite heavily subscribed. The bar's appeal is enduring despite the obvious difficulties in establishing a practice!

But the advice on the difficulties is never heeded. I was aware of how difficult it is because I had been warned but you only truly understand when you are so broke you get annoyed!

I wouldn't change my path though. Maybe I'm just stubborn.

Hippo · 27-05-2013 8:45am

NoQuarter wrote: »

I wouldn't change my path though. Maybe I'm just stubborn.

I'm so old my stubbornness knows no bounds. Unfortunately.

the headbanger · 27-05-2013 6:33pm

Perhaps i should have started another thread but you may bare with me in the context of the thread title.

It seems to me that a fundamental change in study approach is required to study for the entrance exam compared to a degree.

For example the strategy with a degree seems to be "try score the highest you can". This leads to selecting a small number of chapters and studying them to death including all 30-40 cases per chapter.

Clearly with the entrance exam one wants to hit 50%. How does one adjust one's study? Clearly one must cover almost the entire course. Is it important to learn every case in every chapter (surely not, cause we could be taking over 500 cases per subject). Or should one focus on say the pivotal chapters in detail and learn enough to get by in the smaller chapters (like a high level of the general points of law as opposed to a list of cases exploring every nuance).

Any practical advice would be apprecaited

NoQuarter · 27-05-2013 8:43pm

the headbanger wrote: »

Clearly one must cover almost the entire course. Is it important to learn every case in every chapter (surely not, cause we could be taking over 500 cases per subject). Or should one focus on say the pivotal chapters in detail and learn enough to get by in the smaller chapters (like a high level of the general points of law as opposed to a list of cases exploring every nuance).

Yes and yes. The problem is the compulsory question. It means that the whole course must be studied. What would be the point of studying 90% of the court to take that 10% risk and skip a chapter only for that chapter to come up in question 1 and for you to fail the exam.

You, if you're beginning to look at the syllabus now, may be thinking "but this is crazy" or "there are 31 tort topics in the syllabus, surely I dont have to study them all, its madness". Well yes, but you do have to study them, and study them all. So my advice is to accept you have to learn the manuals cover to cover and start now.

The plus side of that? Well, when you open that exam paper, you will be able to answer every question and therefore have a choice and that is a great feeling.

Hippo · 28-05-2013 8:22am

I'd go with all of what No Quarter says, there's no getting away from studying the whole course. I wouldn't get so hung up on trying to learn the relevant 2000 or whatever cases on every topic - I think you can use quite broad brushstrokes when answering, while of course being accurate.

It's not like a university exam that looks sometimes for a fairly theoretical in-depth discussion, the point in nearly all of the entrance exam questions is to advise a client - so make sure you do! A grasp of the basic cases on most topics will suffice as long as you identify the key issues and advise accordingly. You won't have time to dig very deep.To that extent it's an excellent introduction to the BL, as that's what you spend most of your time doing (and learning the relevant procedure). The Nutshell series is more relevant than you might imagine.

A final point on the killer 50% Question 1: it's not necessarily a portmanteau catch-all question of the type so beloved of Tort examiners. If I recall correctly (and I did try to exorcise the memories as quickly as possible), Q1 on last year's Evidence paper was fairly narrow, and if you didn't know the topic sufficiently well you were gone. Leave no gaps!

Kings inns BL - modular

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