This blog post is for students on the Bar Course. I am most aware of the course design of the BVS at City Law School. However, there should be general advice which applies to other providers.
The course has been going for seven weeks now, and you should be fully familiar with the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), the modules you are currently studying and the overall course design. Well done for making it this far. It has not been easy.
I hope you will not mind me giving you some advice for reading week?
I am going to suggest that you catch up on anything you have fallen behind on in your skills. Once you have done that, I am going to suggest you spend the majority of your time on the knowledge subjects.
If you have not already done so, I strongly advise you to start to make your revision notes. Ideally you shouldn’t have two sets of notes – in course notes and revision notes. You should be trying to make a single set of notes ready for when study leave starts.
I am aware that if you are learning online, you will have a great many learning materials online. Because everything is on the VLE, you can convince yourself that there is no need to make any notes. But given the size of each knowledge subject syllabus, you will have a lot of work to do in your revision period to reacquaint yourself with these materials. You need to organise the information in a way which means something to you, rather than rely on materials created by someone else to achieve the best understanding.
How should you make your revision notes for the knowledge subjects? Do this by sorting out the information under headings from the syllabus (go through the syllabus carefully, ticking off what you have covered in your notes). Have it with you on the desk when you work. Always use the syllabus. Cover any gaps you have missed.
Always double check which rules, PDs, and paragraphs are on syllabus. Check which cases are on syllabus – download the judgment, make bullet point notes about the main points made in the judgment and keep those safely. You do not want to go back to reading the whole judgment in the revision period – ensure your notes cover enough that you don’t need to revisit the judgment text.
I CANNOT say this enough, reading and re-reading through the text book is never going to be enough for you to pass. Reading and re-reading also gives a false sense of security – you feel familiar with the material, but don’t actually retain the information. You will need to learn from a set of your own notes.
For civil litigation, use the Moodle podcasts and videos, your notes from SGS, your reading from the White Book and APA Civil (Sime) to make your notes. You ideally want all these different sources of information in one set of notes. Be Civil by Virginia Dunn is also a great primer text.
You will need several different note making techniques, as no single one will be right for all of the information. Strip out the detail you don't need - you don't need to know rule numbers, PD paragraph numbers or any cases other than the 6 on civil litigation syllabus.
Try to shorten down the WB commentary to bullet points. Once you have done this, you don’t need to worry about it again. All you will need to do is revise from your notes.
For criminal litigation, use the Moodle materials, Blackstone’s Criminal Practice. It’s Criminal by Virginia Dunn is a very good primer text.
For ADR, check the syllabus carefully, and make notes from the Jackson e-book. Don’t forget you may need to check the PI Protocol, the PD on Pre-Action conduct and the judgment in Halsey.
For ethics, start with the Bar Standards Board (‘BSB’) handbook. However, you will also have to refer to the Code for Crown Prosecutors and the Farquharson guidelines.
Try where you can to draw up flow charts: http://snigsclassroom.blogspot.com/2015/03/go-with-flow-flowcharts.html
You will know I love diagrams - see which elements of the information can be reduced into simple diagrams. It doesn’t matter if they are silly!
Record cards to test yourself are useful: http://snigsclassroom.blogspot.com/2015/03/for-record-record-cards.html
Comparison charts can help you quickly compare and contrast things - eg Default judgment, summary judgment and setting aside default judgment.
Think about using self-testing as a learning technique. You can do something as simple as covering up your notes and seeing how much you remember. Or you can go back over class questions, particularly the multiple choice best answer questions from your previous classes. Self-testing will help you train your recall and help you remember more. Students are generally scared of testing themselves, because they are worried they won’t get all the answers right. But you are testing yourself to train the recall process at this stage, not to gain the pass mark. All the best quizzers (some who have won a million pounds!!) test themselves constantly.
Here is some food for thought on learning techniques which are supported by educational research: https://theconversation.com/3-ways-to-study-better-according-to-cognitive-research-140230
You might want to read this blog post, written by Brian Mondoh on how he succeeded in getting though the BPTC: https://snigsclassroom.blogspot.com/2017/12/nuggets-of-wisdom-for-smashing-bptc.html
Please, try to catch up on your sleep. Do have at least one day free of the BVS and law. Look after yourselves!
See you when we return in the week commencing 2 November 2020!
