Slattern - n - a slovenly woman or girl.
My slatternliness (yes there is such a word!) let me down a little this weekend. Having spent so much time preparing for the MCT Criminal/Civil exam, my Conference and Advocacy were somewhat neglected and as such, I was marked accordingly. It seems to be a continual game of catch-up and no sooner have I taken on board feedback from the previous month's tutorial, my provider ups the stakes yet again. This week I chose the wrong court for my pretend client, I thought Magistrates was best, provider thought Crown Court. I completely missed the point on one or two things that should have been dealt with in much greater detail (well ok, one of them I didn't deal with at all), and as such I'm going to have to up my game once again. Still, I didn't fail, so it's not too gloomy and it's all part of the learning process. The pretend clients were played by actors who'd been briefed to be quite grumpy and unco-operative, it seems that 'real' clients can be like this too:-)
How anyone can graduate from Bar School with their post LLB/GDL arrogance retained is quite beyond me, they must be extremely thick skinned, or extremely, amazingly bright!
I'm still pitching too high in Advocacy, it seems that Barmaid still can't do subtle, but the 'judge' did have a smile about it and said that I stood up well to the judicial intervention.
The MCT was ok and when I say ok, I mean ok. I don't think I've failed, but there were quite a few questions that I was unsure of and one or two that had me stumped completely. The revision was tough and tiring, but I'm so relieved that it is over. Although the revision for Civil Litigation seemed to be easier than Criminal Litigation, I've a feeling that I scored better in the latter? Not sure when the results are out, but I'm guessing April. The exam post mortem was painful and I got that sinking feeling when realising that I'd picked the wrong answer to one or two stinkers, oh well too late now. I'm amazed how many people whizzed through the exam in about half of the allocated time and I did wonder if they are true geniuses or perhaps they thought "bugger it, I'm off down the pub"? Whilst hanging around in the corridor I noticed the MCT results were posted up for the full-time BVC students and there were a fair few fails in there, which of course set off the post exam jitters.
I had the results from my mock Opinion this weekend and did ok for a first attempt. I will take encouragement from it because it was marked as though it was the real exam, so there is plenty of time to improve before the real thing next year. It helps when the tutor is good, and luckily mine is excellent, she leaves no stone unturned, but the criticisms are dealt with methodically with advice on how to improve.
This coming month looks heavy, but fingers crossed, April and May look much quieter, so I'm gearing myself up for a final slog towards the finishing line. My mood has changed too, for the last 2 months I have been quite despondent, particularly when the study workload basically cancelled out any sort of Christmas break, but I'm now feeling as thought the worst is over and I may even get to have a life of sorts in the coming months.
3 comments:
You're doing WELL Maid - you really are far, FAR too hard on yourself, you know! Take a look back at your work,if you get a chance, and see just how far you've come!
My guess is the people who whizzed through were thinking a combination " Wheres the Pub" and "S**T, this is a NIGHTMARE, get me out of here!!!" Dont pay any attention to any of them when they tell you it wasn't as BAD as they expected, or that it was really EASY, because you know as well as I do that it is a TREMENDOUS Porkie, and that, in ANY event, you are more sopshisicated ant intelligent than to fall for silly mind games!
Thankyou so much for your words of wisdom LM. I'm up to my neck in homework this month, but it does look as though the worst is over.
Roll on June and fingers crossed no re-takes.
My Dear Maid,
I am absolutely POSITIVE that you will be COMPLETELY FINE. I was in the self same position as you in the first year of my Personal BVC Horror, and detested the volume of work soooo much that on one occaision, I threw both White Books out of my upstairs window! NB: Whilst this is a deeply CATHARTIC exercise, it is not recommended for the following reasons:
1: You have to go and pick it up off the front lawn,assuming it hasn't landed in any cat/dog pooh, and that you havent actually hit any innocent passers by as it floats disgracefully to Earth.
2: You are forced, with EPIC regularity, to explain all the grass and pollen stains that go with the coffee rings and blood (yes, BLOOD, I had a nosebleed all over Part 20 ) to anyone that wants to look something up in it!!
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