I had my first proper teaching weekend this weekend, and I have to say I'm feeling positive. There are a lot of things to complain about I guess, but on the whole I'm pretty happy. My classmates and I have bonded really well, I was expecting cut-throat competition and point scoring all the time, but so far none of that. We're all pretty supportive of each other and generally just enjoy each other's company.
Legal Research takes up so much time it is untrue! Already I loathe MS Word and its' inability to consistently help me with the formatting of my research record. Sometimes it plays along and that "auto format" thingy works brilliantly, and then it will just stop doing it and I have to try and figure out what it was that it was doing automatically. I'm useless with computers at the best of times, and when you've been working on something for hours and it suddenly decides to change your font, the temptation to throw the damn thing out of the window nearly gets the better of me. The actual process of researching the problems and writing it up is not so bad though, I quite like it, although I wish there was a way of fast-forwarding the slow bits.
Advocacy went really well. I was quite nervous about getting up for the first time, but actually it was pretty fun. I think the key at this stage is probably confidence. Especially getting up in front of my classmates, instead of imagining them being critical of the negatives, I tried to imagine them being impressed by the bits I did well, and it really helped. It meant that I didn't care about them watching, I was just focusing on the job in hand. I really liked the way that the class was structured, and the advice the tutor gave was individual to the person, and dealt with their biggest issue, whatever that was. The best bit though in terms of a confidence boost, was that I got a "Very Competent" for my first go :) very competent and very proud.
Civil remains dull as dishwater in my eyes. The class prep took so long I could feel myself ageing as I worked my through the CPR. I want to get over my dislike of the subject, I want to keep an open mind about which area of law I want to practice in, but the reality is that it just seems so boring in comparison to crime!
Criminal obviously, was better. There was loads of reading for that as well though. I made the mistake of preparing for Civ and Crim last of all, which was not a good idea. This time around I'm going to do them first, because you just cannot rush it if you want to remember any of it. The questions we had to prepare for the class helped though because I was able to focus my reading, but there is very little guidance on whether for the exam we need to know EVERYTHING or just the topics we discuss in the class. Oh and does anyone know if the MCT questions handed out in the SGS are reflective of the questions in the exam in the sense of the level of difficulty that is?? Because they seemed quite straightforward, but I keep hearing horror stories about the exam... and of course, there are no "past papers" we can look at until the mock exam.
Written Skills was taught really well. It was the first time that we didn't seem to rush through the content at break neck speed, instead we were actually being taught an approach to opinion writing and good methods to prepare and plan.
We haven't had Conference yet, which is one that I'm a bit uncertain about. It will hopefully go well, but unlike advocacy, I've never seen a Barrister actually doing the skill, so I find it difficult to visualise myself doing it. But hey ho, for now I've got looking for a job to continue worrying about!
Legal Research takes up so much time it is untrue! Already I loathe MS Word and its' inability to consistently help me with the formatting of my research record. Sometimes it plays along and that "auto format" thingy works brilliantly, and then it will just stop doing it and I have to try and figure out what it was that it was doing automatically. I'm useless with computers at the best of times, and when you've been working on something for hours and it suddenly decides to change your font, the temptation to throw the damn thing out of the window nearly gets the better of me. The actual process of researching the problems and writing it up is not so bad though, I quite like it, although I wish there was a way of fast-forwarding the slow bits.
Advocacy went really well. I was quite nervous about getting up for the first time, but actually it was pretty fun. I think the key at this stage is probably confidence. Especially getting up in front of my classmates, instead of imagining them being critical of the negatives, I tried to imagine them being impressed by the bits I did well, and it really helped. It meant that I didn't care about them watching, I was just focusing on the job in hand. I really liked the way that the class was structured, and the advice the tutor gave was individual to the person, and dealt with their biggest issue, whatever that was. The best bit though in terms of a confidence boost, was that I got a "Very Competent" for my first go :) very competent and very proud.
Civil remains dull as dishwater in my eyes. The class prep took so long I could feel myself ageing as I worked my through the CPR. I want to get over my dislike of the subject, I want to keep an open mind about which area of law I want to practice in, but the reality is that it just seems so boring in comparison to crime!
Criminal obviously, was better. There was loads of reading for that as well though. I made the mistake of preparing for Civ and Crim last of all, which was not a good idea. This time around I'm going to do them first, because you just cannot rush it if you want to remember any of it. The questions we had to prepare for the class helped though because I was able to focus my reading, but there is very little guidance on whether for the exam we need to know EVERYTHING or just the topics we discuss in the class. Oh and does anyone know if the MCT questions handed out in the SGS are reflective of the questions in the exam in the sense of the level of difficulty that is?? Because they seemed quite straightforward, but I keep hearing horror stories about the exam... and of course, there are no "past papers" we can look at until the mock exam.
Written Skills was taught really well. It was the first time that we didn't seem to rush through the content at break neck speed, instead we were actually being taught an approach to opinion writing and good methods to prepare and plan.
We haven't had Conference yet, which is one that I'm a bit uncertain about. It will hopefully go well, but unlike advocacy, I've never seen a Barrister actually doing the skill, so I find it difficult to visualise myself doing it. But hey ho, for now I've got looking for a job to continue worrying about!
