British University Grading System - No Easy A's here?

[image: I think the source is embedded on the photo but I found it on google]

ok that's something that I am not getting used to.  I don't quite understand.  Although I have a better idea than before... (thanks to Wikipedia, which is always helpful)...

One of few things I know now, is that it is very hard (although I have been told impossible but how is that impossible?  so very rough stats will follow) to get the first class honors in law in the UK.  Statistically, it is like only 6.some percent of the total law students get the first class honors.  In Cambridge, base on the past stats it seems about 10% for the first years and a bit higher for the second and third years.  This means that it is not impossible per se as the past stats do not show 0% of the Cambridge law students getting the first class. 

So... ok it is difficult but not impossible.

Definitely needed some adjustments in receiving grades, although they are not formal grades (As we don't get any formal grades until the end of the year).  I have received my essays back mainly achieving 60 something percents.  What? Sixty something???  Sure I have gotten some bad grades but 60's was never my regular grades.  More like 80's and 90's.  So... is it because I was smarter while I was in the American and Canadian university systems? Or was I just better in my engineering and business studies?  Or is the UK university system just that much stingier in grades?

I am not sure...

But I do feel that unless everything lines up - the moon and the stars and the sun and whatever else and I am perfectly prepared and I get lucky in some questions and I am healthy and feeling great on exam days and everything else... it would be a challenge for me to get the first class in my first year in the second year of law programme at Cambridge.  It does not mean that I am not targeting the first class (which is above 70% average) and I will be pretty happy with my 2.1 (the upper second class average - meaning between 60 and 69%).

So it's like this.

1. People are saying it is IMPOSSIBLE to get the first class --> which is a false statement because I have met people who received the first class in other universities or in other majors or etc.
2. Cambridge stat shows that about 10%-15% of law students get the first class (this is rough.. just going by my memory so don't quote me on this).  I have been in those top 10-15% at other schools. 
3. Is law just more difficult than other majors?
4. Are the UK unis less generous than American universities (for sure - I was at Cornell... I felt the undergrads there enjoyed the benefit of some grade inflation) and even the Canadian universities (UBC is known to be far from generous with the students' grades).

Are both Items 3 and 4 true?
If so, then maybe it is really impossible (and the people who get the first class honors are aliens from some special legally-minded land) for someone like me who is better skilled with numbers and business sense?

Well, I guess only time will tell.  I better hit the books to get my first class - at least to make a good attempt for it.

K

Ongoing revision

I am currently in London staying with D and his family.  It is true that staying here is much nicer than my dorm room in Cambridge: the space is larger and brighter, I get fed (this is very important), and the office and the bedroom are separate (as studying and sleeping in the same room becomes too much sometimes).

I still feel like I am in a planning phase of revisions.  I started to revise tort, land, contract and constitutional: i.e. every paper except for international.  Somehow, I think I will be ok with most topics except for tort.  It is bizarre how most of my college mates find tort easiest yet it seems most difficult to me.

Anyways, there is much to plan / review / and study.  I am not sure how they figured out which topics to go on each syllabus for each paper.  It just seems that the amount of information the faculty envisioned for students to put in the brain after 8 wks of lectures is disproportionate.

However, I will not surrender.  I will conquer.  I will enjoy the study - well at least I will try.

K

Lent term reports coming in

 

 

It's mid march.  Is it normal to be this cold and windy in Southern England this time of the year?

I am not really happy with the weather but there is not much I can do.  I am just glad that my big investment I made when I was back in Vancouver last December (I bought a nice Canada Goose Parka) has had a really good use out of it.  Although unfortunately, I got a white one - as they did not have any black one in stock, it is getting dirty at the edges.  But I guess the upside is, my friends here can spot me from milees away.  And I remain quite visible when I am cycling.  So I may look a bit messy but safety is more important, right?

 

I wasn't feeling very well over the weekend.  I think I am just run down.  But after drinking mugs and mugs of honey lemon tea I am feeling much better - thanks to D who took care of me.

 

So this is the end of the term again.  This means that I get my term report cards from all my supervisors.  As I am taking 5 papers, I will get 5 different sets.  So far only one out of 5 was released for my review (Land Law), he said I perform very well in supervisions but my essays could use improved structures.  Yes, this has been the part that I have most difficulties somehow.  My supervisors seem to think I know the law well but I just don't write as well as I should.  Hmm I am more comfortable with the numbers and bullet points, although this cannot be my excuse.

 

One thing for sure is that writing law essays is actually a skill that I think you can acquire.  I am sure some people have better tools to acquire such skill more easily.  Unfortunately I am not one of them.  But I understand... life is fair.  Calculus 101 was so easy for me when it wasn't to others. 

 

I have four more report cards to come in - one of them from my Director of Studies (DoS).  And also I will have a meeting with him this Thursday to talk about how my term went.

 

I am going to say, it was better than last term for sure.  I am finally getting the hang of how to study law more efficiently although I think there still is room for improvement.

 

K

 



80 hour school week

Well not just any thursdays.. even week thursdays are hard.

Originally, in this term, because of rescheduling of my Tort supervision - from Tuesdays, my group ended up with three supervisions in one day.  Which is unheard of... not recommended at all.

Preparing for supervisions is quite a lot of work.  Recommended amount of work for each supervision is about 15 hrs.  so 5 papers (i.e. subjects) then that's 75 hrs per every two weeks.

Which is not much... I know...  yeah I used to work 50-70 hrs a week but I got paid... got paid pretty decent money.

I will take this opportunity to illustrate the amount of work that I would (ideally) allocate for school. Let's say each cycle is 2 wks and each term has 4 cycles.

So 5 papers
Lectures - 3 lectures a wk per paper (in Michaelmas Term) and 2 lectures a wk per paper (in Lent Term)... in Easter terms, only make-up lectures or revisions lectures are held... yup surprisingly small number of classes we have.

So let's just say 3 hr/wk/paper

So that's 15 hrs / wk --> 30 hrs / 2 wks
Downloading / flinging notes / printing stuff --> let's be generous and assign 5 hrs / 2 wks.
Supervision preps 75 hr / 2 wks
Supervision hours - they run from 1 hr to 2 hrs so average of 1.5/supervision per 2 wks --> 7.5 hrs/ 2 wks
Essay writing - each paper assigns 2 essays per term.  10 essays per term.  let's say it takes 5 hrs to write one - unfortunately it takes me longer than that... so that's 50 hrs / 8 wks so let's say 12.5 hrs / 2 wks.

Summing up (for 2 wks)

Lectures - 30 hrs
Prep classes - 5 hrs
Supervision prep - 75 hrs
Supervisions - 7.5 hrs
Essay writing 12.5 hrs
-----------------------------
Total of 130 hrs / 2 wks
so that's 65 hrs a week.

but that's sort of average...
if you are verbally challenged - like me - who wishes the law books were written in numbers - like me...
then you need to add some contingency...

so let's say... 80 hrs a wk for me.. but even 65 hrs for normal average law student.. not a light work load.
crazy right?  yeah I did not even study this much even during exam time.

the scary thing is that you need to have your brain fully engaged at all hours...
yup.. that's what it takes as a law student... i am not sure about other places, at least that's what it is to be a law student here...

anyways, Thursdays are long days... hence my lunch [shown in the photo]...

one more supervision (contract) to go.. and then another one (land) tomorrow and wk 6 will be officially done.

K

Surviving Cambridge as a Mature Student...

neh... life is not too bad.

I remember hearing this - someone who went to Harvard law that you can balance three S's (school social life and sleep).  You just have to give up on one.

I have three S's and one F.  I have family.  Sure I don't have my family here in Cambridge but they (my partner D and his elderly parents) are in London which is not too far away from Cambridge.

So what do I do?  I can't give up on school.  Duh... that's the main reason why I am here.
I can't give up on my sleep - at my age I just can't.  I need to take care of myself before anything.
And I can't give up on my family for the obvious reasons.  They wait for me.  They care about me.  They miss me.

So what's left?
Social life.  What is that?  I dunno.  Is it something you drink after your meal?
Yeah, that's what I gave up.  So far, not too bad. 

Before coming to Cambridge when I learned a term here was 8 week long, I thought it was a joke.  I was used to the semester system where each semester would run for about 13-14 weeks + 2-3 weeks of exam time. 

I thank god every day that each term is only 8 week long.  You cannot physically do any longer.  Although I must say I do balance things quite well - I believe - better than those young ones, who still have much desire to party and to socialise with peers.  I have done that.  I have done that well and a lot.  I got that out of my system.  My priorities are different now.  Yeah sometimes, I wonder if I should be more like them but... I quickly realise the time has passed.  I am no longer 20 yrs old. 

It is not easy to be standing out in any ways.  But definitely got benefits of being different, being more mature. 

It is the end of Week 6.  Two more weeks and my second term is done here. 

K

Should I type the notes? or Write it?

So I had about three hours of official lectures last week.  Somehow at Cambridge each week starts on Thursday?  Yup.. not Sunday or Monday... but Thursday.  Yes... I raised my eyebrow.  But a wise man keeps telling me "resistance is futile..." so I accept it and don't question it.

The first lecture was on Land Law.  5 past the hour, the lecturer starts to lecture (obviously) and you could hear about 200 people madly typing away.  It was weird.  I guess it's because I haven't sit in a lecture with this many students for a long long time.  My last time there were this many students in one room was... 1996?? And way back then, no one had a laptop in a class.  Unfortunately, I was one of them but I couldn't not type everything like some of these kids.  They must be machine.  I wonder if they are actually digesting the material at all or typing the lecture word by word.

Last Saturday, I attended an introductory lecture on "Studying Law", where the professor suggested hand writing the notes instead of typing.  So I think I may try that tomorrow?  But then I will want a set of typed notes eventually.  But I just can't type everything.  What to do what to do.

K

UK Law Schools - Research Phase

I want to have a good set of posts/records of my whole Cambridge journey in this blog, but I know I won't get it done if I make too many constraints.  So I am just going to write whatever whenever.

I use Evernote (I am telling you it is great for those who's never used it but I don't use it as often as I should) sometimes, and I record some valuable things sometimes.

Here is a quick timeline of my application process.

As I also have been planning to mention, I did not write LSAT (or LNAT, for which I felt penalized - i.e. I did not even get an interview with Oxford) so my timeline is quite compressed. 

Although I have been half jokingly tempering with the idea of pursuing a law degree, I was really hesitant on making a move.  I just didn't know what I should do especially that the project that I have been on has been compensating me quite well.  I have also established my own consulting firm and thought maybe that is the way to go forward.

But D had been talking about going to the UK back to his family and I thought about going to a law school a lot for quite some time. 

Sometime in August of 2011, D told me, who had been complaining nonstop about the work that K, you should just apply to law schools in the UK and see.  If you get in, then you can re-evaluate the situation and decide then.  So I opened a UCAS account on August 23, 2011.  I guess things got a bit better being summer and all so for awhile, I didn't think too much about it then.  But as September came and there were more bad days than good days, I started to look into it more and more and September 14, 2011, I decided to apply.

I did lots of online research and found out the following about the UK law schools.

• First law degree is an undergrad degree and a graduate is awarded typically LLB or BA in some cases (both Cambridge and Oxford award BA).
• It is three year degree - as with any other bachelors degrees in the UK.
• Six of top law schools need LNAT (which is LSAT equivalent) - these schools include Oxford and University College London.
• Cambridge has its own law test (called "Cambridge Law Test" duh).
• Some schools allow affiliated students (sometimes interchangeably called, senior status students - students who already have a first degree from a university) let in second year - thus it is possible to finish a law degree in two years.

Anyways, at the time, it made sense for me to apply to the UK schools.

K