E-law resources

FROM A FORMER LAW LECTURER

To Help You Survive Law School

​Karolina Sieler, Former UK LLB Lecturer

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Are You Too Old For Law School?

It's never too late to pursue your dreams, including attending law school. People of all ages choose to go to law school, and many successful lawyers have started their legal careers later in life. Ultimately, the decision to attend law school depends on your personal circumstances, goals, and the specific requirements of the institution you are considering. It's always a good idea to research and speak with admissions counsellors to determine the best path for you.

How to Write a Law Essay Conclusion

Writing a conclusion is perhaps the most tedious part of the law essay writing process. You have already put so much effort into researching the relevant cases and statute sections, writing up an introduction and doing the whole “evaluate and analyse” part in the main body of your essay. You’re probably desperate to just finish working on that essay and forget all about it. Yet, a good conclusion needs to be written or you risk getting a lower grade even if the rest of your essay is well-written. The tips below will help you get this task done and over with quickly and - most importantly - in a way that will help you produce a conclusion worthy of a first in law!

How to Answer Law Essay Questions

“How to answer law essay questions?” must be one of the most commonly asked questions by law students. Now, as you can imagine, the answer to this question is quite complex and it’s not something I can cover fully in a short article such as this one. But I will try to give you some basic guidelines, so that you can start learning about how you should approach answering essay questions in law.

How to Write a UK Law Essay

Writing essay-style assignments in UK law can be a challenge because it's different from writing answers to problem-style questions, which most law students prefer. Problem-style questions require you to explain and apply specific sections and cases to solve the issues mentioned in the scenario. Essay-style assignments, on the other hand, ask you to present an opinion about a particular area of law, which can be much harder than simply finding the right cases or statute sections and applying them to the scenario. This is why many students make common basic mistakes when answering essay-style questions in law. Those mistakes often lower their grades and prevent them from getting a first. If you're one of those students, then let's see how you can avoid that.

How to Answer Law Questions Using the IRAC Method

One of the frequently asked questions by students is "How to answer problem-style law questions in the most coherent manner?". The method that is often recommended by lecturers is the IRAC method, which consists of four elements: Issue, Rule, Analysis and Conclusion. The IRAC method allows you to answer problem style questions in law, i.e. questions that involve a real-world scenario and ask you to provide your advice to any parties involved. Although it is not the only method that you can use to answer problem questions in law, its advantage is that it enables you to break down the scenario questions into four comprehensive sections. If you want to learn how to use the IRAC method, keep on reading.

Top Secrets on How to Pass Law Exams

​If you are wondering how to pass your law school exams with flying colours, you are not alone. The reality is that revising several law modules at the same time can be quite a stressful period, especially if you don't have a proper revision strategy in place and attempt to revise everything. What happens is that you end up spending a lot of time on things that aren't as important, and you are left with little time to focus on things that are actually really important. This has a direct impact on your exam performance, as you struggle to reproduce concepts that you haven't spent much time revising.​ ​What students generally experience is that instead of being able to recall everything about a single topic during their exam, they are only able to recall bits and pieces of all topics, which isn’t that useful for tackling the question they are trying to answer. That being said, you can make the revision process far less stressful and ensure that you pass all your exams and get a first by following the tips that I have mentioned below.

The Truth about Finding a Job after Law School

Many students get discouraged from getting a law degree because they buy into the myth of not finding a job after law school. It's true that there are many law graduates who struggle to find a decent job after they graduate. But this usually happens in situations where students are only focused on getting the highest grades and don't take any initiative to get some experience in the legal profession. While it is crucial to build a theoretical foundation in law, it is also equally important to familiarise yourself with real-world scenarios and situations, so you can actually apply the law in real life. Some students believe that only grades will define their worth on the job market once they have graduated. But those types of expectations are just unrealistic. If you are keen to make yourself more employable after graduation from law school, don’t fall for the myths mentioned below.

How to Organise Law School Notes

Your performance in law exams depends on your ability to revise strategically, and for that you need well-organised law revision notes. While you may not pay a lot of attention to this at the beginning of your law school journey, having a proper system for how to organise law notes can be very useful. Without having organised revision notes you will struggle to revise properly for your modules, and that will definitely affect how you perform in your exams. Fortunately, you can easily learn how to organise your law notes by applying a few easy-to-follow tips.

How to Remember Statute Sections for Law Exams

Even if you are excited about a legal career that requires you to argue before courts, negotiate deals or resolve disputes, studying the law may be a bit disappointing at times. Before you can do all those exciting “lawyerly” things, you actually need to learn the basics, which involves a lot of tedious work, such as memorising statute sections for your exams. While you can’t avoid memorising statute sections, there are steps you can follow to tackle this seemingly boring task strategically and perform better in your law school exams.

How Hard is Law School Really

How difficult is it to study law? This is a question you might be asking yourself not only before starting your degree, but also during the course of your law education. Now, you might think that law school is extremely difficult and may question your abilities, thinking about whether you should continue with your LLB law degree or not. But the truth is that passing law school isn't that difficult. In fact, even getting a first class degree in law isn't that big of a challenge as it is made out to be – as long as you follow an organised plan and implement smart studying techniques. So once again, how hard is law school? Not that hard. Let me prove it to you. Below are a few myths about law school that make law students think that law school is difficult.