FE-1 Exams study

BuzzMcdonnell

Hi all,

I'm currently a university student studying business but I am interested in taking the FE-1's upon completing my degree.

I've just completed my final exams and will not be returning to college until the end of September due to COVID-19. This, along with the fact that I have time to burn due to also losing my summer job due to the pandemic, has given me the idea that my best use of this time is to begin my studies for the FE-1's.

Basically my question is, would this study be worthwhile even though it will be at least a year if not 2 before I can sit the exams?

Thanks in advance!

Hamerzan Sickles

BuzzMcdonnell wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm currently a university student studying business but I am interested in taking the FE-1's upon completing my degree.

I've just completed my final exams and will not be returning to college until the end of September due to COVID-19. This, along with the fact that I have time to burn due to also losing my summer job due to the pandemic, has given me the idea that my best use of this time is to begin my studies for the FE-1's.

Basically my question is, would this study be worthwhile even though it will be at least a year if not 2 before I can sit the exams?

Thanks in advance!

While I appreciate your eager nature and youthful zest, studying for the fe1s a year, or possibly two years ahead, is ridiculous. All I had to do to pass most of them was cram two or three weeks before them. Don't waste your time studying until you can actually sit them, and if you're not the type to cram, give yourself three or four months to study for them. Focus on your university studies instead or read some non-fiction on law, economics, finance, politics etc. Give yourself a holistic education of the law. The FE1s can wait until it's time.

Edit: apologies, I just saw you are studying business and not law. I understand your question better now. I don't think studying for the FE1s one to two years in advance is going to be helpful for you. I think you should only really focus on them when you are actually planning on sitting them. The reasons for this are multiple but basically - the volume is insane; leave it until you have completely finished your undergrad, and secondly, I highly recommend you learn it in context by registering for one of the popular FE1 courses. You will find it incredibly difficult to accumulate and understand the knowledge needed if you have not studied law before; you will be doing yourself a favour getting someone to teach it to you. This is obviously better timed after you finish your primary degree.

BuzzMcdonnell

Hamerzan Sickles wrote: »

While I appreciate your eager nature and youthful zest, studying for the fe1s a year, or possibly two years ahead, is ridiculous. All I had to do to pass most of them was cram two or three weeks before them. Don't waste your time studying until you can actually sit them, and if you're not the type to cram, give yourself three or four months to study for them. Focus on your university studies instead or read some non-fiction on law, economics, finance, politics etc. Give yourself a holistic education of the law. The FE1s can wait until it's time.

Edit: apologies, I just saw you are studying business and not law. I understand your question better now. I don't think studying for the FE1s one to two years in advance is going to be helpful for you. I think you should only really focus on them when you are actually planning on sitting them. The reasons for this are multiple but basically - the volume is insane; leave it until you have completely finished your undergrad, and secondly, I highly recommend you learn it in context by registering for one of the popular FE1 courses. You will find it incredibly difficult to accumulate and understand the knowledge needed if you have not studied law before; you will be doing yourself a favour getting someone to teach it to you. This is obviously better timed after you finish your primary degree.

Thanks for taking the time to answer! I need advice such as this because I really don’t know what the fe1’s entail, hence the eagerness to start.

You’re right, more sensible to better my grades in my undergrad anyway and do some general reading in the months ahead.

Really appreciate the help!

ArthurDayne

BuzzMcdonnell wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm currently a university student studying business but I am interested in taking the FE-1's upon completing my degree.

I've just completed my final exams and will not be returning to college until the end of September due to COVID-19. This, along with the fact that I have time to burn due to also losing my summer job due to the pandemic, has given me the idea that my best use of this time is to begin my studies for the FE-1's.

Basically my question is, would this study be worthwhile even though it will be at least a year if not 2 before I can sit the exams?

Thanks in advance!

Adding to the answer above, what I would do in your position is start doing some groundwork to develop an understanding of the law and how it works. I don’t mean ‘studying’ per se, but more so reading up on the fundamentals of law. The good thing about this is that books on these areas are often specifically designed for people who are new to Law, like uni freshers or indeed people like yourself who have studied a different field.

Off the top of my head, “What About Law?” by Catherine Barnard is quite good (this, like other books you will come across, focuses primarily on English law but is still useful as the Irish and English legal systems are both common law jurisdictions and indeed Ireland still tends to be greatly persuaded by legal developments in the UK).

Another book is the now classic “The Rule of Law” by Tom Bingham while on the Irish side of things, Ruadhan McCormack’s “The Supreme Court” is a great and very manageable little book for understanding (in an interesting way) the significant constitutional developments in Ireland over the years. Brexit has also had the effect of really boosting the amount of discourse out there about the nature of EU law (much of which will probably also be relevant to your studies in business).

On the practical side, your business background may lead you towards a career in commercial law — so read around that too. I’ve always found this little video by the law firm Allen & Overy to be a fantastic summary of how commercial law firms operate on a deal : www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK9UaRhsDPM. You can also do a bit of reading around the Irish commercial firms and get to know the industry a bit.

Giving yourself a basic understanding of things like jurisprudence, legal interpretation and indeed other things like the functioning of EU law will make it easier for you when the time comes to delve into FE1 study. So yeah, no need to start studying any time soon — but there is no reason not to be proactively reading around a bit and developing a bit of basic understanding.

BuzzMcdonnell

ArthurDayne wrote: »

Adding to the answer above, what I would do in your position is start doing some groundwork to develop an understanding of the law and how it works. I don’t mean ‘studying’ per se, but more so reading up on the fundamentals of law. The good thing about this is that books on these areas are often specifically designed for people who are new to Law, like uni freshers or indeed people like yourself who have studied a different field.

Off the top of my head, “What About Law?” by Catherine Barnard is quite good (this, like other books you will come across, focuses primarily on English law but is still useful as the Irish and English legal systems are both common law jurisdictions and indeed Ireland still tends to be greatly persuaded by legal developments in the UK).

Another book is the now classic “The Rule of Law” by Tom Bingham while on the Irish side of things, Ruadhan McCormack’s “The Supreme Court” is a great and very manageable little book for understanding (in an interesting way) the significant constitutional developments in Ireland over the years. Brexit has also had the effect of really boosting the amount of discourse out there about the nature of EU law (much of which will probably also be relevant to your studies in business).

On the practical side, your business background may lead you towards a career in commercial law — so read around that too. I’ve always found this little video by the law firm Allen & Overy to be a fantastic summary of how commercial law firms operate on a deal : www.youtube.com/watch?v=hK9UaRhsDPM. You can also do a bit of reading around the Irish commercial firms and get to know the industry a bit.

Giving yourself a basic understanding of things like jurisprudence, legal interpretation and indeed other things like the functioning of EU law will make it easier for you when the time comes to delve into FE1 study. So yeah, no need to start studying any time soon — but there is no reason not to be proactively reading around a bit and developing a bit of basic understanding.

Thanks for the recommended texts and other advice! I’ll make use of the large amount of free time I have this summer to do some casual reading of law. I really appreciate this help, I’m glad I asked here first before going and trying to bury my head in books studying.