FE1 Exam Thread (Read 1st post!) No trading

13545327 wrote: »

Anyone hear when the results for the last sitting of FE1's will be posted by the Law Society?

Week of the 24th of may

Hey guys,

Does anyone know what exactly is the hybrid PPC course or able to give information on it? I'm considering doing it and need to present a case study at work but the information on the law society website is confusing
Thanks

fe1fi20 wrote: »

Hey guys,

Does anyone know what exactly is the hybrid PPC course or able to give information on it? I'm considering doing it and need to present a case study at work but the information on the law society website is confusing
Thanks

I too would love some information on this.

I get the basic concept of it, but would like to know what it's actually like- is the workload huge, is there tutorials outside the weekend works, does it require a lot of evening work (the firm I'm in has very late hours as it is), what happens if you need to miss a tutorial due to illness... etc.

Anyone who has any insight, that would be great!!

fe1fi20 wrote: »

Hey guys,

Does anyone know what exactly is the hybrid PPC course or able to give information on it? I'm considering doing it and need to present a case study at work but the information on the law society website is confusing
Thanks

I'm doing it at the moment like others have said it's geared to people who are working while doing ppc1. firstly it's longer than the standard ppc1 (9 or 10 months instead of 6) but if you are working I a solicitors office during this period you can use some of the time to finish your training early. the lectures are all online on demand(and you can play them at up to 2x speed which is a god send)

Generally every second Friday and Saturday there is live sessions from 9/10 till 6 this varies, depending on what's on and because of this the majority of people on the course don't work any Fridays. Any of the people on the course I've talked to were somewhat surprised at the amount of course work given that the course is longer than the standard corse particularly at the start but we have been told that the course is front loaded.

in a weekend with live sessions there is generally 6 tutorials and 1 workshop each tutorial has 2 or 3, 1 hour lectures behind it and specified reading if you were doing it 100% and then preparatory work to do in advance of it the workshops range from legal research to advising hypothetical clients to formal letter writing which all require work done in advance of them.

separate to the weekend live sessions each module has a live catch up session sporadically usually on in the middle of the day during the week these are not mandatory. and then there is reflective sessions once a month in the evening.

I'm lucky that where I'm working I'm able to do some lectures and tutorials in work when it's not busy but if your plan was to work long hours somewhere and not touch course work till later id say not to do it. you can get by without doing all the preparatory work and could take time off at the end to cram for the exams but you won't get the most out of the course, which is actually teaching you the practical parts of practicing as a solicitor, if you don't watch your lectures and adequately prepare for tutorials each fortnite (and this is coming from someone who didn't go to any tutorials in college) and if you are working late like one of the other people here said they were going to be you wouldn't be home till maybe 7 or 8 so you'd have a Sunday, Saturday and Sunday and then evenings from 7 till you go to bed to do the course you will be broken burnt out and make yourself sick in my opinion.

I'm in need of some super-specific advice and wondering if anyone can weigh in. I'm a non-law grad with a 1.1 LLM, moved to the UK right before COVID to try get some experience and see a new city, but obviously that didn't work out amazingly. I've sat two FE1s in March just gone, but I'm now scratching my head and wondering whether I would be better off doing a course here in the UK and trying to qualify here instead. This is almost solely due to the lack of training contracts in Ireland, they seem non-existent at the moment and it just seems like a huge risk to put years into exams only to potentially come away with no means of qualifying. Will things pick up in terms of training contracts, or should I just make the most of where I am now, where there is probably a good deal more opportunity?

johnnash2020 wrote: »

It's definitely plausible that you could get a training contract with a UK firm, especially outside London, but if you get one, that means doing the full time GDL (their FE-1 equivalent but mandatory classes) and LPC (their Blackhall equivalent - you do it prior to starting in the firm). So that's the guts of two years and you won't get paid a salary to do either of them, you'll just get the fees paid for you. Comparatively, you get paid to go to Blackhall in Ireland and can work alongside FE-1s. If you're lucky enough to get a training contract with a top London firm though, they'll give you £7-10k in a grant for each of those two years, but you need to have been top of your year to even have a chance with those places. Aside from them however, I agree that there are definitely more law opportunities with smaller / midsize UK firms than there are in Ireland and more career options in general, but the GDL and LPC are a problem. If you're happy to shelf law and try something else I'd definitely go to London. But if you want to be a solicitor, Irish route seems more viable so best bet is probably to pick up FE-1s while you work somewhere and try get an Irish contract in the meantime.

Training in the UK is changing in September no longer do the GDL or LPC you do now the SQE and then two years of qualifying work experience in up to four different firms !

I’d say go for training in the uk if you like it over there !!!

https://www.prospects.ac.uk/jobs-and-work-experience/job-sectors/law-sector/solicitors-qualifying-examination-sqe

Ianmc97 wrote: »

I'm doing it at the moment like others have said it's geared to people who are working while doing ppc1. firstly it's longer than the standard ppc1 (9 or 10 months instead of 6) but if you are working I a solicitors office during this period you can use some of the time to finish your training early. the lectures are all online on demand(and you can play them at up to 2x speed which is a god send)

Generally every second Friday and Saturday there is live sessions from 9/10 till 6 this varies, depending on what's on and because of this the majority of people on the course don't work any Fridays. Any of the people on the course I've talked to were somewhat surprised at the amount of course work given that the course is longer than the standard corse particularly at the start but we have been told that the course is front loaded.

in a weekend with live sessions there is generally 6 tutorials and 1 workshop each tutorial has 2 or 3, 1 hour lectures behind it and specified reading if you were doing it 100% and then preparatory work to do in advance of it the workshops range from legal research to advising hypothetical clients to formal letter writing which all require work done in advance of them.

separate to the weekend live sessions each module has a live catch up session sporadically usually on in the middle of the day during the week these are not mandatory. and then there is reflective sessions once a month in the evening.

I'm lucky that where I'm working I'm able to do some lectures and tutorials in work when it's not busy but if your plan was to work long hours somewhere and not touch course work till later id say not to do it. you can get by without doing all the preparatory work and could take time off at the end to cram for the exams but you won't get the most out of the course, which is actually teaching you the practical parts of practicing as a solicitor, if you don't watch your lectures and adequately prepare for tutorials each fortnite (and this is coming from someone who didn't go to any tutorials in college) and if you are working late like one of the other people here said they were going to be you wouldn't be home till maybe 7 or 8 so you'd have a Sunday, Saturday and Sunday and then evenings from 7 till you go to bed to do the course you will be broken burnt out and make yourself sick in my opinion.

That sounds grim af? Are there any benefits at all? Does the continuous assessment go towards your final grades or is it pointless?

LawBoy2018 wrote: »

That sounds grim af? Are there any benefits at all? Does the continuous assessment go towards your final grades or is it pointless?

Benefits are that you are able to work throughout it pretty much full time, and you don't have to worry about renting in Dublin or commuting and they give you a free ipad.

continuous assessment is all on a pass fail basis and your exam is 100% based on the end of Term exam.

but yes its very much a means to an end and not a big blow out celebration of having completed the fe1s on the piss every evening which we have all heard tell of from yester years. I know myself I am doing more now between the lectures and preparing correctly for tutorials and now starting to think about exams than I did in college. and while working at the same time

LawBoy2018 wrote: »

That doesn't sound like a benefit to me... How does it compare to the regular Blackhall re in office experience? I was under the impression that a student doing the hybrid would qualify sooner, but based on what you've said, it's just 4/5 months of a difference? (Assuming that regular Blackhall students can also write off their preseat (5 months).

You get an extra credit of 4 months along with the max number of months for pre ppc in office time. it ends up being about the same time as the longer course gives you a credit for around the same amount of time.

I think the main benefit is not having to go to dublin full time, trying to find somewhere to rent for 6 months. also in my case I got my results in January and started the Course in January my other option would be to wait until September and start PPC then and I would be fully qualified about a year later than im aiming for currently and would have had to either commute to dublin or pay through the nose for rent

bobbyness wrote: »

Hey. Just paying it forward. If anyone needs any notes/help on Company or EU law. Send me a message. Happy to forward

Courtesy of @Awsah on this forum. Please don't bother Awsah and let them revise in peace. Send me a message

Best of luck guys

Please send to kellygillis2017@outlook.com. I really appreciate it!!

Diamond_Hands wrote: »

I thought PPC1 was supposed to be good fun lol

It's hardly going to be fun during covid.

A lot of people on the course don't want to go on the piss with 23 year olds or commute / move to Dublin.

And it's a lot easier to convince your employer to sign your indentures when you're not asking for over half a year paid leave along with it. Particularly as I have to do a secondment so I'll be gone 6 months anyway.

You don't need to be so flippant. I'm getting a lot of great opportunities cos I decided to start early rather than hang around until September 2021 and have to deal with other members of staff finishing their FE1s. I like having fun as much as the next person but take a look at the milkrouds thread and remember people with TCs are very fortunate and not to be so disparaging to someone trying to inform someone else.

Wonderstruck wrote: »

It's hardly going to be fun during covid.

A lot of people on the course don't want to go on the piss with 23 year olds or commute / move to Dublin.

And it's a lot easier to convince your employer to sign your indentures when you're not asking for over half a year paid leave along with it. Particularly as I have to do a secondment so I'll be gone 6 months anyway.

You don't need to be so flippant. I'm getting a lot of great opportunities cos I decided to start early rather than hang around until September 2021 and have to deal with other members of staff finishing their FE1s. I like having fun as much as the next person but take a look at the milkrouds thread and remember people with TCs are very fortunate and not to be so disparaging to someone trying to inform someone else.

Jesus take a chill pill.. Don't be so serious 24/7. It was a lighthearted comment.

For anyone slagging off someone for considering a training contract for the living wage, circa €22K per year, do a google search for "Be grateful for what you have" and try and understand humility. Just replace the desired helicopter with "a training contract".

The training contract is temporary. It is only one milestone on the road to qualification.

From a qualified solicitor who was once where you are now!