Studying law - a brief guide

Ian Kilbey (De Montfort University) shares an introductory paper he wrote for students on his first year joint honours course in Obligations. Whilst written with that course in mind, it also provides a useful overview and practical tips for all students embarking on a law degree.

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introduction | how to study | what to read | coursework | final tips

Introduction

1. Now that you have arrived at university to study for a degree, it would be surprising if you were not both excited and nervous. You may not be sure what to expect from university, or what university expects from you. These next few paragraphs are intended to give you an insight into both these areas; informing your decisions about what you want to achieve in the next three years. What you do with this information is up to you; it’s your life!
2. The education system allows you to develop slowly over many years as you move from infants’ school, up through the system. The A levels that you have just completed were harder than the GCSEs you did a couple of years ago. You have chosen to go beyond the compulsory stage of your schooling and into higher education. A degree is harder than an A level and is evidence that you have developed higher skills and greater knowledge than you had when you left school.
3. Higher education will itself bring new challenges – it has to. Here you develop the skills that you will need in your future career. You will be asked to do new things and acquire new skills; new methods of acquiring and applying knowledge. You will be set tasks that require you to research the law on your own in order to produce an answer, or more usually with legal problems, to be able to identify the range of possible answers that might be available.
4. One of the things that you might not be aware of is that the study of law is as much about language skills as it is about the law. Knowledge is wasted if it cannot be demonstrated in written work, so good English is important. Over the course of the next three years you will be required to demonstrate that you can both understand and apply the law. To do so you will need to write essays and answer problem questions, where you are given a scenario and have to advise the parties. Your answers will need to be properly structured, grammatical and the words you use must be correctly spelt.
5. You will also have to explain how and why you have arrived at the answer to the question. Usually this will entail you explaining why a particular case is or is not relevant. To do this you will need to read cases – lots of them. Twenty years ago law students spent all day in the library reading case reports. Now you can do this anywhere you can access a computer and the internet. Modern methods of accessing information do not mean that there are new methods of studying and applying the law. You still need to read cases whether you read the printed page in the library or access the report on-line. Your application of the law to the facts of the question that you are answering still has to be done by reference to law reports.
6. Some of this may sound familiar. However, even if it does, you may still be surprised by the standards that your answer is required to meet. The first thing to do is to look at the learning outcomes and the marking guidelines in this handbook. Here you will see that you will be required to demonstrate a broad understanding of what legal obligations consist of. You will also have to demonstrate an ability to apply and evaluate these duties and present competent and coherent written arguments.
7. To get a high mark your written work will have to demonstrate a high level of understanding and engage critically and analytically with source material (cases, textbooks etc). You will have to come up with arguments other than those provided by lecturers. To get a mark in the 60s only minor errors are allowed.
8. Already in these notes and certainly in the rest of them, you may come across words that you have not seen before or are not completely sure of the meaning. If so, look the words up in a dictionary. To be proficient in English language you need a wide vocabulary – the more words you know the better. Whilst you were at school you were a pupil, now you are a student. What, if anything, is the difference? Could you describe yourself as a scholar yet, or must you wait? The answer to these questions can be found in a dictionary.
9. This probably seems like a mountain that you have to climb at the moment. The good news is that we do not expect you to achieve all of this overnight. The first year at university is a bridging year, where you acquire these new skills by practising them under direction from tutors. You are unlikely to get it right straight away and it is for this reason that the first year results do not count towards your overall degree classification. It is the marks that you get in your second and third years that determine whether you leave university with a pass degree or first class honours – or somewhere in between.
10. Be aware, however, that you do need to achieve the minimum standards in all your courses in order to be allowed into the second year. Different rules apply to those seeking to convert to studying a qualifying law degree in years two and three. This is a degree that exempts students from the academic stage of training required by the Bar Council and the Law Society. With this sort of degree the requirement is that all modules are passed – including those undertaken in the first year. Those students staying on a joint honours course may be allowed to carry a marginal fail in one module under the scheme of compensating credits. Either way, it is a mistake to think that you can simply coast through the first year, making minimal effort. The better students will use this year to gain the greater self respect that comes from testing their abilities to the full, knowing that the second year here will be harder than the first and the third harder again.
11. Another way in which university differs from school is that here you have usually got only one opportunity to get it right. Some of you may have come from schools were a low mark could be corrected by re-doing the coursework. At university, if you fail a piece of coursework then you may have to re-take it over the summer and even then your mark will be capped at 40%. You should also be aware that the results that you achieve during the year will stand and there is no opportunity to re-take the year, just to get a higher grade. It is important to remember this in years two and three, when your degree classification will depend on what you achieve in those years. If you do not do enough work first time round, and there is no second time round, then your degree classification will reflect your lack of application. University (and life) is not a computer game: you can’t press ‘reset’ if you don’t achieve the level that you want first time round.
12. The second bit of good news is that this course, like other first year courses, is structured in such a way as to enable you to acquire the skills you need at the same time as you learn the knowledge that you need. This, though, comes at a price. If you are to learn the skills and achieve the best mark that you are capable of this year, and the grounding you need to improve next year, you have to complete all the tasks that you are set.
13. You must prepare for all the tutorials. This will involve you in the reading of cases and textbooks and coming to class prepared to discuss a question. You should complete all the coursework and, just as importantly, you should read the comments that your tutor makes on your coursework. It is seeing where you have gone wrong that allows you to improve. It is also by discovering what you did right that you know what to do in future. Your tutor will always be willing to clarify exactly what the good and bad points are and how you can improve.
14. At school your teachers told you what to do and how to do it. At university you will be set a task (e.g. advise A what her/his legal remedies are if X, Y or Z happens). You will have been told what the general law is on this topic and you will have to select the particular aspect of the law that applies. Law is based mainly on previous court decisions, so it is important to determine the correct cases to use.
15. To be a good lawyer and to get good marks, you need to engage with the subject. You cannot sit back and wait to be told what to do and what to think, because this is not going to happen. You have to work for yourself. It can be hugely satisfying to find an angle that no one else has seen. To do so, you need to know what the general principles are and what others have thought before you.
16. There are books that can help you learn the skills that you need. Here are six suggestions; there are other options available.
    Bradney et al How to Study Law (5th edition Thomson 2005)
    Haigh Legal English (Cavendish Publishing 2004)
    Knowles Effective Legal Research (2nd edition Sweet & Maxwell 2009)
    Strong How to write law essays and exams (Oxford 2006)
    Webley Legal Writing (Cavendish Publishing 2005)
    Wilson & Kenny The Law Student’s Handbook (Oxford 2007)
17. You can also acquire other skills as you learn. The above list of books is set out in the same way that you should produce a bibliography at the end of your coursework. Note that the list is in alphabetical order by author. The title is in italics. Four of the books are in their first edition (no edition number is cited), and the other two are in their 2nd and 5th editions. As with a bibliography, the publisher and year of publication are set out.
18. When you read a text book, do not just look at it to find out what the law is. You should read it a second time and think about how the author has set out the information. You can pick up pointers about grammar and sentence structure by seeing how other people do it. Reading a case or textbook a second time also helps you to see things you missed first time round.
19. The sooner you start to think like a lawyer, the easier all this becomes. To think like a lawyer you have to look for what you need – it is not looking for you. Embrace the skills that you have to acquire, not just because they are a way of getting through the course but because you will need these skills throughout the rest of your life.

introduction | how to study | what to read | coursework | final tips

How to study at university

1. Learning at university is different from learning at school. At school you have been told all that you need to know and also what the question and sometimes what the answer is. At university you will be given general information in large groups – lectures. You will be set a task to complete in time for a tutorial or seminar. You will have to do the research (reading textbooks, articles and, of course, case reports) in your own time. How many of you, when you got your time table exclaimed “Look how much free time I’ve got!” In fact you will have very little free time out of a 35 hour working week. You may not have timetabled classes to attend but you will be working – on your own.
2. Your timetable does provide you with freedom but with that freedom comes responsibility. You are now responsible for managing your time efficiently, ensuring that you turn up to classes fully prepared and that coursework is submitted on time. Your tutors will assume that you are capable of working independently, without the need for them to breathe down your neck. This is just like work, where your employers will expect you to manage your time efficiently – that’s what they pay you for.
3. Managing your time is not an issue that involves only academic work. Many of you will be living away from home for the first time – free from parental nagging! Also free, of course, of someone to cook, clean and tidy up for you – all things that take time. Many of you will want or need to take a part-time job to help pay for your studies or simply for the extra cash. So managing your time involves juggling at least three time consuming things – studying, housework and paid employment – and that is before you start thinking about socialising. So the word here is – prioritising. You have to make choices about what to do first or spend most time doing. What sort of student you want to be is up to you. However, your tutors (all of them) will want you to prioritise your academic studies. If you choose not to, you should not be surprised by their lack of sympathy about missed deadlines.
4. Whilst the quality of the result is more important than the quantity of effort, there is a link between the two. If you aim to do the minimum amount of work possible, you are likely also to end up with the minimum mark possible too. Whilst there is no guarantee that because you spend a long time doing something it will get a good mark, if you put very little effort in to doing something, it is almost guaranteed that you will get a bad mark.
5. Lectures may seem boring but they are a vital part of university life. They are a way of communicating a large amount of information to a large amount of people, in a small amount of time. You may wonder whether it is necessary to go to lectures when you can read a textbook. However textbooks, especially legal textbooks, quickly become out of date as the law can change depending on how it is interpreted by the courts. It may only be the decisions of the senior courts that matter, but there are many court hearings every day.
6. A textbook will cover all of the law on a particular subject. All universities teach only certain elements of a subject. In Contract Law, for example, we are not going to cover either capacity or mistake. There are many Torts but we will only cover two aspects: negligence and vicarious liability. Another point to note is that the lecturers set the exams. Attending lectures offers clues as to what will be in the examination paper.
7. You may also find that you do not understand or understand quickly, what a textbook writer is saying. There is greater scope for interaction in lectures. Additionally, something read for a second or third time is easier to understand and you gain additional depth when you read something more than once. Reading the relevant part of the textbook will make the lecture easier to understand and the lecture may make the textbook easier to understand and will provide additional depth. It is the depth of knowledge that really separates the school pupil from the undergraduate.
8. Take notes in lectures. You will not be able to write down everything that a lecturer says in fifty minutes but you will be able to note the general thrust of the points made. In any event, you will be given outline notes of lectures. Another good reason for taking notes is that listening attentively and making notes reinforces the learning. If you just sit there passively, the chances are that your mind will wander or that you will be tempted to talk to the person next to you. Either way, you will not gain much from your own attendance and you may diminish the value of attending for those that are near you in the lecture theatre.
9. Seminars and tutorials do not just provide you with an opportunity to have some input into the learning process. These are the sessions where your tutors will expect you to contribute your thoughts and ideas. They are also a place to clarify your own understanding – or lack of it. Do not be afraid to ask questions. You will never ask a silly question (unless you do so deliberately) because you will not be the only person who does not immediately or fully understand everything you are asked to learn. Do not listen to someone else’s question and think that the answer is easy. There will be questions that you ask that may seem easy to others. Everyone finds different things easy or difficult to take in. There is nothing wrong with being different.
10. It can be demoralising to feel that you do not understand something. This is where reading a textbook more than once, as well as taking notes in lectures, helps. The student who says to a tutor “I don’t understand any of this” is a student who is making little, if any, effort to engage in the subject. If, on the other hand, a student says to a tutor, “I’ve read the textbook and the lecture notes but I am not sure if the law here is X or Y” then the tutor will be more than happy to find different ways to aid your comprehension.
11. There is more on the points above in two of the books mentioned. See Bradney et al p. 172ff. or Wilson & Kenny p. 46ff.The latter gives a practical example of how to take lecture notes. (The abbreviation ff. stands for forwards. Begin at page 172 or 46 and read onwards for a few pages until the end of the section).
12. You will be shown around the library within the first three weeks of your first term here. The Library is a major resource and you will be using its facilities, in person or on-line, for the next three years. Make sure that you know where to find the law reports – it is not always possible to access reports on-line. You will want to know how to access law reports and information about cases on-line. Make a note of how this is done. Better marks are gained by students who demonstrate the width of their reading as well as the depth. The library has specialist books (monographs) and journals as well as textbooks, so it is a good idea to learn how to find the relevant material.

introduction | how to study | what to read | coursework | final tips

What to read and what to make notes on

1. No one can make a complete set of notes on everything that they are told at university. There is too much information. The important thing is to know what to read and make notes on and what can be missed. For this course there are two recommended textbooks – one on contract and one on tort. You should become familiar with those parts of each book that deal with what is on the syllabus.
2. When you choose material to use in an essay, you should prefer primary material over secondary. Primary source material consists of Acts of Parliament, or official versions of other legislation (Statutory Instruments, European Law) and the reports of Court cases. Secondary material consists of textbooks, monographs and articles. The difference and the reason for the preference for primary sources is accuracy. The primary sources will always be accurate. Secondary sources can be inaccurate (even textbook writers can get the law wrong) and they may merely reflect the authors’ opinions on the issues.
3. On-Line sources do not have to go through the same rigorous vetting as books and articles do. When a book or article is submitted to a publisher, the publisher will usually arrange to have it read by an independent expert. The expert may require changes to be made and will usually identify any factual errors that need correcting. This does not happen in all on-line resources, especially Wikipedia, which is notoriously inaccurate. Some on-line resources can safely be used – Westlaw, Lexis, on-line editions of textbooks, legislation from the official government or EU websites. Everything else is suspect. One thing to look for in on-line texts is the presence of references. If what you are reading makes reasonable use of other sources, you can be reasonably sure that it has been fully researched. The only way that you can be certain that it is accurate is by checking a textbook. If you are going to read a textbook anyway, why bother with an on-line resource?
4. And another thing – you are studying the law of England and Wales. Just because the website that you have googled is written in English, it does not mean to say that the author is referring to English Law. Students have used websites belonging to American, Australian and other English speaking countries when preparing essays. This is wrong. Although there is a common root to the law in all these countries and in other former members of the British Empire, the laws of these other countries have developed in different ways. Look at the website address. Only if it contains the abbreviations ‘ac.uk’ will it be a British university’s website. Even then remember that the legal system in Scotland is different to that in England & Wales, so it is risky to refer to the former when writing about the latter (and vice versa).
5. When you read something, you should make a note of where you read it. If you later quote from that source in your coursework it is essential that the source be identified. Failure to do so is a form of cheating. It is plagiarism. Plagiarism is an academic ‘offence’ that can lead to expulsion from the university with no degree. This form of plagiarism is the easiest to avoid. It is expected, especially in the first year, that you will be quoting from academic texts. All you have to do is make it clear which part of your essay is a quote and which part is your own work. Be aware that it is not enough merely to mention the book/article that you quote from in your bibliography. To avoid an allegation of plagiarism you must footnote a reference to each source as and when you use it in your answer.
6. When you write your essay simply say, for example, Duxbury states ‘…blah, blah…’ and insert a footnote that sets out the author, title and page number. Do not copy out long sections of a textbook. You can copy a sentence or two but anything longer should be put in your own words, whilst still acknowledging that they are a particular author’s views that you are paraphrasing. Footnotes can be accessed via the ‘insert’ or ‘references’ menu in whichever version of Microsoft Windows you are using. (Duxbury is the author of the textbook recommended for the contract law part of this course. You should insert, of course, the name of the author of the book/article that you are referring to).
7. There is a pecking order for books and journals and for the courts. For example, in contract law, the most authoritative text is Chitty on Contracts. It is a practitioner text, i.e. it is intended for use by solicitors and barristers. Only the seriously rich should even think about buying practitioner texts as they are usually several hundred pounds each – ten times or more than the cost of a textbook. Practitioner texts also aim to set out what the law is rather than debate how the law is evolving. In this way they are limited for purely academic research purposes. Some textbooks are written for postgraduate students or undergraduates at Oxford or Cambridge. Treitel on Contract Law, now edited by Peel, is an example. Winfield & Jolowicz is the equivalent in Tort law. These books are good authorities to use but are heavy going.
8. The core textbooks selected for this course will give you a good basic guide. The authors have designed them to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. For essays the core textbook should be supplemented by one of the other textbooks and any specialist texts that you can find. Look at the information provided about the author. Is s/he a professor? What claims are made about the author’s expertise in this particular field? This will give you an idea about the weight to attach to the book or article. It also helps you to assess what weight to attach to material available on the internet.
9. You will learn about the court structure in Public Law. You will know that there is a system of ranking for the courts. From 1 October 2009, the court of final appeal in the UK is known as the Supreme Court. For many centuries before that date the court of final appeal was known as the House of Lords. Many people will find it difficult to adapt to the new name and of course all the law reports will refer to the House of Lords, as will textbooks issued before that date. Below the Supreme Court is the Court of Appeal. This court is divided into two specialist divisions; one division deals with appeals on civil matters and the other criminal appeals. Below the Court of Appeal lie the Crown Court (dealing with Criminal cases) and the High Court (dealing with civil cases). Below these two courts are the bottom tier of the structure – the Magistrates’ Courts dealing mainly with criminal matters and the County Court dealing with a range of non-criminal cases. There are other courts and your Public Law notes will fill in the gaps.
10. When deciding which cases to read always check which court the matter was heard in. The more senior the court, the more authoritative the decision. Remember also that the system of precedent means that the higher courts bind those courts below them where the same legal principle falls to be decided. So, given the choice between reading a House of Lords or Supreme Court decision in a case or the Court of Appeal’s decision in the same case, read the judgment of the House of Lords/Supreme Court. Resolve a choice between the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court or High Court in favour of the Court of Appeal. Sometimes you will be referred to a judgment from a lower court, where a point is made that is later followed by the more senior courts. It may also be that the High Court or Crown Court is the most senior court that determined a particular matter.
11. The EU is a collection of states that have signed up to an international treaty. This treaty is almost unique in international law because it sets up institutions with powers to compel Member States to obey the treaty and legislation made under it. Cases involving European Union (EU) legislation are not dealt with by a central EU court but by the national courts in each Member State. Sometimes a national court will be uncertain as to how a piece of EU law should be interpreted. If so, that court can seek guidance from the European Court of Justice (ECJ), based in Luxembourg. Decisions of the ECJ bind national courts with regard to the meaning of EU legislation, but not as to how that law should be applied. The application of law usually involves mixed issues of law and fact. The ECJ can only deal with the law.
12. Even the Supreme Court/House of Lords is bound by decisions of the ECJ regarding the interpretation of EU law. However, the ECJ is not an appellate court. A party to an action dissatisfied with the decision of his/her national court can only appeal to a higher national court. Once the decision of the court of final appeal has been handed down, there is no further appeal, even in cases involving EU law, to the ECJ.
13. There are, in fact, two European Union courts based in Luxembourg. The ECJ is the original court but when it became overloaded with work, a second court was set up. The Court of First Instance (CFI), set up in 1989, is the junior court. From December 2009, when the Lisbon Treaty came into effect, the CFI was renamed the General Court. Precedence works between these two courts as in the UK. The ECJ is the senior court and its decisions are final. Decisions of the General Court can, in certain cases, be appealed to the ECJ. Only the ECJ currently deals with requests from National Courts regarding the interpretation of EU law. Both the General Court & the ECJ deal with issues other than the interpretation of EU legislation. As far as EU law is concerned, all you need to worry about for the moment is set out in this paragraph and the two that precede it.
14. There is another international organisation in Europe which states have agreed to join. It is known as the Council of Europe. The Council is bigger than the EU (44 members not 27), but does not have the means to compel Member States to abide by its rulings. The Council is completely separate from the EU and is probably most famous for the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Disputes about breaches of Human Rights are determined, ultimately, by the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg. This Court makes recommendations, but has no direct power to compel compliance by Member States.

introduction | how to study | what to read | coursework | final tips

Coursework

1. There is a knack to answering questions in law. The same general principles apply whether you are answering an essay type of question (Consideration is an out-moded concept in contract law. Discuss), or a problem question where you are given a scenario and asked to advise one of the parties mentioned what legal remedies are available. The first thing to do is to look at the learning outcomes to see what skills you will have to demonstrate.
2. The next thing to do is to read the question – properly. Some of the information in a problem question is important, some less so and some irrelevant. A vital skill therefore, is to be able to identify what the question is actually asking. Vital as this skill is, it is not necessarily an easy skill to develop. That is why some of the tutorial questions are problem questions from past exam papers. Attendance at all tutorials will help you get used to spotting what a question is actually asking, but only if you make the attempt to answer the question yourself before you attend the tutorial. Remember, there is nothing wrong with making mistakes as long as you learn from them and (preferably) don’t repeat them.
3. Lectures will have provided you with some idea of the issues that you need to consider and the textbook will provide more information. At the end of the day, the only way of knowing what parts of a question are relevant, is to know and understand the legal issues. Having said that, the question may give you some clues (confine your answer to X; advise whether or not good consideration has been given in the following situations…).
4. So the third thing to do is research. This can be as simple as re-reading your lecture notes and the textbook. This is the minimum that you need to do. Better marks may be gained by reading a practitioner text as well. The inclusion of material that you have found for yourself will certainly impress your tutor! Note, however, that all this additional reading is wasted if it is not used appropriately. What you say must be relevant and correct.
5. Step four is to write up the answer. This is where the skills in English come to the forefront. Of the books mentioned in paragraph 16 above, three deal specifically with writing essays. Start with a plan. You should always have an introduction, followed by the main body of your answer. You end with, wait for it… conclusions! In the introduction you may merely say which area of law the question deals with. The main body of your answer sets out the various options that are available. Your conclusion will set out which of these options will be preferred in what circumstances if answering an essay question, or gives the advice that you have been asked for in a problem question.
6. Problem questions rarely provide you with enough factual information to be able to arrive at a single answer. This is because they are designed to test the width and the depth of your knowledge. After identifying the law and the cases that apply, you will usually conclude that if fact X applies the answer will be A, based on such and such a case, but if fact Y applies, then the answer will be B, based on a different case.
7. The final step is to proof read your answer before you print it. Have you identified the question? You usually have to set it out on the front page. Check the punctuation and spelling. Do not rely on your computer’s spell checker as it does not know the difference, for example, between their and there. Check your grammar. Check the structure of your answer. Have you set out the points you make in a logical sequence? Logically, you will set out your answers in the order in which the issues arise in the question.
8. You will have to hand in two copies of your coursework attached to one copy of the Declaration Form. The form is self carbonating. Make sure that it has both parts. You need only write on the top part. You must also submit a copy of your answer electronically to Turnitin via the BlackBoard site for the module. Your tutor will mark your essay, making comments on your script. This will then be returned to you with the top copy of the Declaration Form. This way you will have both detailed and general comments on your work, and we will have a copy with the general comments (on the second copy of the Declaration Form). The better student will read the comments to ensure that the good points are adopted for future essays and to learn what improvements need to be made to get better marks in future. The poor student, who still thinks of studying as something to be endured rather than embraced, will look only at the mark. It is up to you which sort of student you want to be – it’s your life!
9. The previous paragraph refers to Turnitin. What is this? It is a software programme that is designed to identify those who cheat. When you upload your essay into Turnitin, it will check what you have written against other electronic sources, including the essays of other students. Your tutor will check your Turnitin score. The higher the score, the more likely it is that cheating has taken place. So if you do chose to ignore the advice given above and use Wikipedia, your tutor will know. Wikipedia is for the lazy. Lazy students do not get the skills they need for a successful career, or good degrees.
10. It is acceptable for students to work together and to discuss a coursework question with a view to agreeing what the answer might be. It is, of course, a comfort to know that you are thinking along the same lines as other people. However, it is also cheating if only one of you then writes up the answer. Even if you agree what the answer should be, you must each write out your own answer. This sort of cheating is also picked up by Turnitin, so do not attempt to fool your own tutor by copying the work of someone with a different tutor. As Turnitin also compares your essay with all other electronic sources and these sources include essays submitted at DMU in previous years or to different universities. Your tutor will be able to see whether you have copied from someone you know who answered the same or a similar question whilst a student here or at another university. You cannot get around this by not uploading your essay onto Turnitin, as this failure is penalised in the same way as non-submission of the hard copy – zero marks.

introduction | how to study | what to read | coursework | final tips

And finally…

In life there are things that you do which quickly become boring and things that always stay interesting. The thing that makes law such a fascinating subject that will engage you for life, is also the thing that makes the law a nightmare to learn! This ‘thing’ is that there is rarely a right answer to a question. Instead there are a range of possible right answers and which one applies is determined by the facts of the case under discussion. Even then there is scope for different interpretations of what the law is. In every case that goes to court there are at least two parties who each believe that their interpretation of the law is correct. Solicitors and barristers thrive on such distinctions but not all students do. If you want to be a solicitor or a barrister, then you will have to learn to love this uncertainty. If you do not want to be a solicitor or barrister but do want a good degree, you will also have to learn to love this uncertainty.

The easiest way of getting through not just this course but all your courses is to engage with it. Getting a degree is not a case of suffering through what someone else does to you but making what you are learning part of your life. It is, after all, what you came here to learn how to do for your career after university. Get away from treating university like school. Treat it more like a job where your employer will expect you to perform or be sacked.

Remember – even though for most courses the first year does not count towards your overall degree classification, you need to use it to learn how to get the best possible marks in the next two years. The better class degree that you leave with, the wider your job choices are and the better paid those jobs will be.

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About the author

Ian Kilbey is a qualified solicitor (non-practising) and a senior lecturer in De Montfort University’s law school. To read more about him and his interests, see his online profile.

Last Modified: 9 December 2010