FE1 Exam Thread (Read 1st post!) NOTICE: YOU MAY SWAP EXAM GRIDS

LawGirl3434

vid36 wrote: »

We will know the timetable for the next sitting on Friday. It takes place at the beginning of October.
For your first sitting, I would recommend Contract,Property, Equity and Criminal.

Would agree with all of these besides equity - typically many students find this the hardest, and by far has the highest fail rate. With your first three there is that concern of course to get the 'magic three' and so I wouldn't include it in my first sitting. I'd probably say Constitutional, but that's a personal preference as I quite enjoyed it and felt it was quite fundamental in understanding other subjects.

Jimdtug1

Where do you find the pass rates for each subject?

user115

Hey does anyone have that Constitutional book for sale? What's it called again?

Leraf

user115 wrote: »

Hey does anyone have that Constitutional book for sale? What's it called again?

Do you mean the actual Constitution? Its only a couple of euro new. Call the Office of Public Works.

user115

Leraf wrote: »

Do you mean the actual Constitution? Its only a couple of euro new. Call the Office of Public Works.

No there was a good book people were discussing here, gives good insight into main Constitutional topics and cases, I think it was written by a former judge but not sure

lawless11

user115 wrote: »

No there was a good book people were discussing here, gives good insight into main Constitutional topics and cases, I think it was written by a former judge but not sure

The book is called "The Supreme Court" and written by Ruadhan Mac Cormaic. I bought it through the Book depository website. Otherwise you can find it in Easons I think. I'd sell you mine but for now I'm still holding on it aha.

vid36

LawGirl3434 wrote: »

Would agree with all of these besides equity - typically many students find this the hardest, and by far has the highest fail rate. With your first three there is that concern of course to get the 'magic three' and so I wouldn't include it in my first sitting. I'd probably say Constitutional, but that's a personal preference as I quite enjoyed it and felt it was quite fundamental in understanding other subjects.

I cannot recommend Constitutional for a person undertaking their first sitting given the sheer vastness of topics that must be covered. Equity is still a much better bet in my opinion with a good preparation course.

randomrb

vid36 wrote: »

I cannot recommend Constitutional for a person undertaking their first sitting given the sheer vastness of topics that must be covered. Equity is still a much better bet in my opinion with a good preparation course.

Equity can be 50/50 as well though. A lot of people i know struggled with equity so I wouldnt be relying on it.

ally1234

randomrb wrote: »

Equity can be 50/50 as well though. A lot of people i know struggled with equity so I wouldnt be relying on it.

I agree, don’t depend on equity being a breeze. I slaved for equity, I thought I answered a brilliant paper, decent and thorough answers and scraped a bare 50. Constitutional was much easier and might I add enjoyable to study for. I found EU straightforward aswell. Some people shy away from these two in their first sittings but they’re not the worst subjects at all!

moomin2901

has anyone used a tutor as opposed to the prep courses?

roseyp123

Is anyone else absolutely terrified for friday??? I can't stop thinking about it - terrified i failed equity and contract as I got 3-4 OK questions and rubbish for a 5th question. need the magic 3 so fingers crossed

bigtophat13

vid36 wrote: »

I cannot recommend Constitutional for a person undertaking their first sitting given the sheer vastness of topics that must be covered. Equity is still a much better bet in my opinion with a good preparation course.

I'm not sure if I'd recommend constitutional but based on the stats and the fact equity had (one year) the lowest pass rate I saw at 48% I certainly wouldn't recommend equity. Criminal, property, EU (believe it or not) and company for me were the easiest 4. EU seems bigger than it is as he's somewhat predictable, property is the smallest course, criminal is wide but shallow and imo the most interesting and company just clicked with me but that's totally subjective I accept.

Tort is horrific imo, contract is the second lowest pass rate, I love constitutional but it's not the easiest and equity as said before is the lowest pass rate.

lisac223

roseyp123 wrote: »

Is anyone else absolutely terrified for friday??? I can't stop thinking about it - terrified i failed equity and contract as I got 3-4 OK questions and rubbish for a 5th question. need the magic 3 so fingers crossed

Yep! I’m scared for equity and also that awful tort paper. I need the magic 3 as well so just trying to distract myself so I’ll stop thinking about it 😅

Jimdtug1

bigtophat13 wrote: »

I'm not sure if I'd recommend constitutional but based on the stats and the fact equity had (one year) the lowest pass rate I saw at 48% I certainly wouldn't recommend equity. Criminal, property, EU (believe it or not) and company for me were the easiest 4. EU seems bigger than it is as he's somewhat predictable, property is the smallest course, criminal is wide but shallow and imo the most interesting and company just clicked with me but that's totally subjective I accept.

Tort is horrific imo, contract is the second lowest pass rate, I love constitutional but it's not the easiest and equity as said before is the lowest pass rate.

Where are the pass rate stats!!!

LawGirl3434

roseyp123 wrote: »

Is anyone else absolutely terrified for friday??? I can't stop thinking about it - terrified i failed equity and contract as I got 3-4 OK questions and rubbish for a 5th question. need the magic 3 so fingers crossed

Me too! For me it’s just not knowing the standard - I didn’t have any questions that I 100% wasn’t happy with, but had some that made some pretty big mistakes in - just no idea if they cost you the paper, or how harshly they’re marked or anything

Just no idea what to expect to be honest!

Townton

Studying contract for the next sitting, do people think a 2016 IC manual is up to date enough to use or have there been any major changes? That said I may not get the opportunity to sit it till October 2020 or March 2021, I know the latter two are a long way off but just wondering so I can be prepared.

roseyp123

LawGirl3434 wrote: »

Me too! For me it’s just not knowing the standard - I didn’t have any questions that I 100% wasn’t happy with, but had some that made some pretty big mistakes in - just no idea if they cost you the paper, or how harshly they’re marked or anything

Just no idea what to expect to be honest!

I think that is what is scaring me the most, is not knowing how harshly they mark questions - for instance if you were able to recognise what a problem q was addressing and knew the basics but had little to no caselaw just stressing a lot

LawGirl3434

roseyp123 wrote: »

I think that is what is scaring me the most, is not knowing how harshly they mark questions - for instance if you were able to recognise what a problem q was addressing and knew the basics but had little to no caselaw just stressing a lot

Yeah I understand completely and really sympathise! It’s just not knowing what will or won’t cost you a question and thus the paper!

Tony_TwoLegs

This may fly in the face of doing the FE1s.... I passed all the FE1s in October. After spending a year in-practice I've become to realise it's not what i hoped. It's not really what I anticipated post-BCL/LLM. I know myself Kings Inns is more 'me'. I may regret it but at least i'll have tried.
To that end I'm going to sit their exams in August.
Does anyone have up to date Criminal notes?? I have all the FE1 subjects which are up to date ish.

KMPT

Tony_TwoLegs wrote: »

This may fly in the face of doing the FE1s.... I passed all the FE1s in October. After spending a year in-practice I've become to realise it's not what i hoped. It's not really what I anticipated post-BCL/LLM. I know myself Kings Inns is more 'me'. I may regret it but at least i'll have tried.
To that end I'm going to sit their exams in August.
Does anyone have up to date Criminal notes?? I have all the FE1 subjects which are up to date ish.

Are you really sure? I would hate for you to jump ship so soon without being absolutely sure.

username0001

Tony_TwoLegs wrote: »

This may fly in the face of doing the FE1s.... I passed all the FE1s in October. After spending a year in-practice I've become to realise it's not what i hoped. It's not really what I anticipated post-BCL/LLM. I know myself Kings Inns is more 'me'. I may regret it but at least i'll have tried.
To that end I'm going to sit their exams in August.
Does anyone have up to date Criminal notes?? I have all the FE1 subjects which are up to date ish.

I don't know your full situation, but if I was in your shoes I might try switching firms before committing to the King's Inns route. You have already put so much time into becoming a solicitor, a month or two in a different setting might help give you some perspective.

randomrb

username0001 wrote: »

I don't know your full situation, but if I was in your shoes I might try switching firms before committing to the King's Inns route. You have already put so much time into becoming a solicitor, a month or two in a different setting might help give you some perspective.

Id also add that there is a big difference between different seats in firms not to mention big firms v small firms.
Its worth trying different things, what part of the job do you not enjoy?

People are hiring at the moment particularly if you have done all your fe1s

Tony_TwoLegs

Thanks for your replies.
I suppose to put it in context - I was due to do a PhD. Maybe that's indicative of what makes me tick. I enjoy research/ writing/ plus I've attended Court so I've seen it from both angles.
I understand the barrister route is more risky but if you're good - you'll be ok.

As for what I don't like.... it's not I don't like it. I'm just not challenged by doing CA24s, Form 17s, Company Resolutions etc etc.
The firm I'm in is excellent so I can't fault them. I think a year of doing the job has opened my eyes.

That's not to say I don't stick it out. I'd rather start on the Kings Inns study now as opposed to a month time if I decide to plough ahead.

bigtophat13

Jimdtug1 wrote: »

Where are the pass rate stats!!!

Someone popped up a JPEG a few days before the last set started!

Jimdtug1

bigtophat13 wrote: »

Someone popped up a JPEG a few days before the last set started!

Can you put it back up please?

randomrb

Tony_TwoLegs wrote: »

I understand the barrister route is more risky but if you're good - you'll be ok.

This is perhaps the understatement of the year. Being good by itself does not guarantee anything. Before you make a decision try talk to a few barristers who have been in the profession for around 5 years and try and find 1 that is doing well that didnt have significant family connections or supplemental incomes.

Gunslinger92

Jimdtug1 wrote: »

Can you put it back up please?

Just search this thread for "pass rate" and you'll find it

Tony_TwoLegs

randomrb wrote: »

This is perhaps the understatement of the year. Being good by itself does not guarantee anything. Before you make a decision try talk to a few barristers who have been in the profession for around 5 years and try and find 1 that is doing well that didnt have significant family connections or supplemental incomes.

Well if you don't believe in yourself nobody else will. A lot of barristers lack the business/rapport skills that you need. I've run my own business so I have some extra insight.
As for income. It'll be a while taking off but so be it. I'm in my mid 30s and been around the block. Experience precedes income. Anyway and wife has a decent 60k a year job lol.
Of course, it is a gamble so I see your point.

Vegetarian2017

Tony_TwoLegs wrote:

Well if you don't believe in yourself nobody else will. A lot of barristers lack the business/rapport skills that you need. I've run my own business so I have some extra insight. As for income. It'll be a while taking off but so be it. I'm in my mid 30s and been around the block. Experience precedes income. Anyway and wife has a decent 60k a year job lol. Of course, it is a gamble so I see your point.

Good for you, it is a risk yes but to be a faced with a possibility of not being challenged or satisfied you are right. I too was let down by what solicitor work entails but for me i do not have an option to change to kingsinn. Best of luck!

Tony_TwoLegs

Vegetarian2017 wrote: »

Good for you, it is a risk yes but to be a faced with a possibility of not being challenged or satisfied you are right. I too was let down by what solicitor work entails but for me i do not have an option to change to kingsinn. Best of luck!

Well you do have an option. You can convert. And vice versa. I found when asked why do you want to be a Solicitor- I couldn't give a genuine enough answer. Especially after realising it's mostly paperwork and proverbial firefighting. You get a bit of perspective too when you get into your thirties and realise what's truly important. I can always be a Solicitor if it doesn't work out.... that goes for everyone out there