Where does the time go?

I have twice started, and then abandoned, a post about recent events. Why? I bored myself with my ranting on about exams in a long winded fashion. Dull! And it has yet again been too long since I posted!

So, I'll try something a little different.



And finally, something to make you smile

Eat, sleep, do exams

I am increasingly aware my blawgging this year has become sporadic, to put it mildly. Now that I am once more clawing back some small semblance of organisation into my life, I will start to post as often as I had hoped. For now, on with the splurge that is my ramblings...

Exams have started to appear with worrying rapidity into my otherwise already busy calendar, leaving me with the prospect of a few weeks propped on coffee, junk food and a pitiful quantity of sleep. If only I can stop the BVC from expanding my wasteline even further, I will not count the year as a total loss.

Chastened by recent poor marks in an opinion mock (gulp), a further poor attempt at drafting (robbed I say, robbed!) and the impending release of the papers on Thursday, I find my waking hours filled with concerns as to my upcoming performance. Hopefully my last few sessions of dedicated note taking mixed with blissful self-deprecation (I was recently banned from a library for full blown flagellation, so decided to tone it down) will leave me swimming in the tranquil waters of the mid-VC.

However, these concerns must exit stage left, for it is my negotiation exam tomorrow. 2 hours of tense reading, writing on the evil that is carbon copy paper, followed by 20 minutes of the cut and thrust of negotiation. I still find the whole process artificial, and like many, difficult to really prepare for. Whilst the overall topic is released a week in advance, there is little to do save brush up on the law and print out a few choice notes. The whole experience of the negotiation exam is an odd one; it feels like spending a week reading books and taking notes before being given two hours to climb to the top of a hill and spend 20 minutes wrestling over a pile of someone else's cash.

Lets hope there's at least jelly involved somewhere.

Is it rude to pack a spoon?

Scraping by

So, the exam results are in. The inevitable conclusion was that perhaps I need to work a bit harder. Whilst I certainly won't sneer at a VC for 3 of my 4 subjects, including the all important advocacy, they were disappointingly at the lower end of the spectrum. The one C I have so far obtained has left me concerned, particularly with the fact that drafting and opinion I find difficult. If nothing else, surviving the first exam period by the skin of my teeth ought to serve as a much needed kick up the proverbial.



Term 2 has already got worryingly under way, giving me the the joys of witness handling and negotiation to chew on. Luckily I seem to have at least some natural ability at witness handling. I am already growing to love the feeling of being on my feet, backing a class mate into an inescapable corner. Once again, having a good group makes a huge difference to the learning process. Having witnesses who are prepared to deviate wildly from the script as their closet-Thespian claws for freedom, eff, blind, talk inanely, try intensely to extract a snigger from your thin professional veneer and generally make the process as taxing as possible certainly forces you to bring out the best. That or gibber quietly as your brain tries agonisingly to coax the procedure for inconsistent statement out of the dark and cobwebby reaches of the mind, whilst the tutor stares deploringly at your quivering form.

Negotiation on the other hand is tedious, artificial and treated by many as a bit of a joke. Once the painful artificiality of the situation is overcome, it still remains ludicrous to reach a negotiation based on pre-determined lowest offers from 2 students, neither of whom is particularly willing to back down in case they breach their written "plan" and destroy their marks.

Now to return to my weekely ritual of completing the item marked as "work I really should have done during the week".

To coin a misquote, "Lead on, Macduff"

Deceit Cookies

Ok, so term one was over, the holidays were ahead of me, looking to be filled in characteristic fashion a frantic mix of revision, sleeping and things I probably shouldn't have been doing when I had so much revision to do. All in all, a fairly standard affair.

The exam, as they are want to do, loomed ominously ahead of me. Given the (oh so justifiable) expenditure on the course that is the BVC, I thought that I really ought to try and do well. So I settled to the post festive spending season with with uncharacteristic fervour,. Considering myself not to be at home to Mr Cockup, I crammed, noted, studied and squinted until I felt prepared. I took the mock, racing through the questions like a hot knife through butter, and tallied up more score.

Damn.

Apparently I knew nothing, and so I returned to the drawing board for round two. It was then my coffee addled brain received a confidence boost. Sitting, surrounded by the detritus of the ritual takeaway, I cracked open the fortune cookies supplied to sneer scornfully at their superstitious scribbles. Low and behold, I was greeted with the following:

"You will pass a difficult test that will make you happy"

Questionable English aside, this small act of clairvoyances was at least close to the money. Not bad for a fortune cookie. Onto number two.

"You should think before you answer questions on Thursday".

Thursday was my exam day. I was, I must confess, at least slightly disturbed by this point. Not being the superstitious type, I was at least amazed by the chance involved in the presence of these particular two sayings, in my bag of sweet, free, crunchy goodness.

The exam day came and went, despite the best efforts of the snow to postpone the impending event.

It did not go well.

Apparently, I had been deceived by the cookies! These biscuity soothsaying deserts had led me astray! I had been misled by confectionery!

Shrugging my poor performance aside, term began once more. Hoping for a pick-me-up, I waited eagerly for the return of my mock drafting exercise.

It did not have the desired effect.

Ah, Mr Cockup. We have the penthouse room available. I'll have your bags sent up, along with my self-respect, immediately.

Oddy

I am assessed....

Tomorrow, weather permitting, is the 3 hour long slog that is the multiple choice test on civil and criminal so far.

It's fair to say.... I'm bricking it.

Returning from the wilderness

I have, it must confess, been somewhat lax in my blogging. Once term kicked in, I rarely found the time as things became more chaotic. Moving to the Big Smoke, the BVC's constant workload and generally trying to swim not sink means that I have failed to post.

And when I fail, I like to fail with flair.

So, now that the Christmas horror is upon us, I intend to return to this venture with renewed gusto, and hopefully some will carry on to the next term.

Since my last post, much has happened. In fact, the majority of the first term has slipped by with an alarming speed. There has been much rumbling in the criminal world too, and Labour's intended bills for the coming year will no doubt have attracted some attention to those interested. I will hopefully post on some of the highlights of the last few weeks that caught my eye n due course. I have also finished another mini, and will post up my idle ramblings shortly on mini's.

For now however, a few thoughts on the first term of the BVC...



Term 1 has been, for the most part, enjoyable. It is however, a mountain of work from week to week. I think it can perhaps best be described as 'relentless'. That is not to say that it isn't manageable, and spending a working week in the library means that it can more or less be done without eating into weekends or evenings. Unfortunately, I failed to be quite so organised after a few weeks, and soon slipped back into the student ways of slipping off for coffee (ahem, beer) at lunchtime with friends similarly inclined.

The abhorrent legal research in particular drove many to the early stages of alcoholism. For any pre-BVC students reading these ramblings, I should warn you now of the horrors of legal research. Being asked to produce the answer to a legal problem is, in itself, interesting. However, being forced to provide along with it upwards of 20 pages of "research trail" is mind numbing to say this least. What is this "research trail" I hear you cry? Is it a fun foray into the woods of knowledge? By calling it a trail, it sounds almost like a weekend activity for the under 12s at Butlins, complete with kendle mint cake, a compass that you won't use and green wellies half a size too big.

No such joy. It is, in short, cutting and pasting from the material you find. Worse still, proof of hardcopy research means that you have to copy verbatim text from hard sources, and edit to show that you can do so. Of course, photocopying the relevant passage and highlighting is not acceptable! It does not show the required editing. Apparently. Most infuriating of all, is the fact that the question is stolen wholesale from a real case. Many, like myself, quickly found the case and were therefore painfully aware that despite knowing the answer, the correct authority, and everything you need to answer the question, that you then had to spend several days slumped in front of the computer producing the trail of hell. Propped up on coffee, and gibbering slightly to myself, I did hand the answer in, complete with its research trail, loving crafted from a range of sources despite knowing the relevant ones within 10 minutes.

Adding salt to the wound, we were informed that we were to be the last year to suffer this task set by beelzebub himself. So, if this prediction comes true, then I state for the record that you are all lucky, lucky people.

Whilst mostly enjoyable, I have found the course incredibly frustrating. The questions often prevent thinking outside the box, the subjective nature of the marking of the oral skills can drive one to distraction, and the penchant for leaving students blundering in the dark is nothing short of infuriating. It is the last which is the most painful. On many occasions, we were tasked with something for advocacy and would then proceed to give it our (collective) best stab. We would then be criticised for having done X or Y wrong, and have it explained how it should be tackled. Often, we would have a lecture after the week's seminars explaining how our esteemed provided want said blunder to be approached or even a seminar in a separate skills subject covering it. The worst was the assessment. Required to edit a draft order for an interim injunction, I found myself fumbling inanely as to the best way of editing their provided version. My wild stab in the dark complete, I handed it in on time. The following day, we had a drafting seminar on how best to produce draft orders for interim injunction which was, most painfully of all, on almost an identical topic. This left myself, along with a fair few others, seething and ultimately left unable to do anything but await our fate in the marks apportioned for this with the assessment still a week away.

For now, I shall return to the laborious task of cleaning the detritus of a terms chaos. Negotiating the treacherous path from my desk to the kitchen is still of labyrinthine difficulty, and is a minefield of papers, cups of half drunk tea and notes that look like the inept scrawling of the insane.

Let the holiday begin.


Oddy