Ethics How to pass from former BPTC students

Ethics is a feared exam on the BPTC. Being a centrally set assessment, providers cannot anticipate the type of questions to come up. Further, because the exam is in SAQ format, with a fixed marking scheme, the answers given must comply with the marking scheme points.

The former BPTC students, having survived the process were, as ever, ready to share their experience and advice to help you make through this very difficult BPTC assessment. As always, I am unbelievably grateful to my contributors for their insights and willingness to help my current students. The City Law School alumni are awesome people, whose help is very much appreciated by me. Thank you, everyone!

Please make sure you finish reading this blog post right down to the bottom, as my final contribution is a revision plan worth following!

The most common theme is the importance of knowing the core duties, verbatim. This advice came up in several times, with different reasons and techniques being suggested for both remembering them and for exam technique.

Tanzim Ahmed said this: “The 10 core duties are the most important, especially for SAQs. It’s very essential to refer the relevant core duties in every SAQ!”

Eloise Turnnidge echoes that advice, adding some useful revision techniques for students to her helpful advice: “Personally, I wrote out the core duties so many times. If you’re stuck for an answer, you’ll be able to cite at least one (and often two or three) core duties as being applicable. Other than that, the usual revision techniques should stand you in good stead. Flash cards, multiple colours, etc. Writing things out repetitively has always been the best way for me.”

Nicola Augousti made sure she had memory triggers to help her recall, an ingenious tip: “I wrote out all of the duties in 'trigger word' form and memorised them. I summarised the guidance with bullet points. I also studied the answers to mock papers because it helped me to structure my answers.”

Careful focus on the core duties has paid off for former student Brendon La Touche: “My approach was to memorize all the core rules under the major headings and apply a 'machine gun' approach in the exam. i.e. I put down all the answers I deemed applicable to the issue as ethics rules are dynamic and can be transferable to other issues. worked for me. got a VC.”

Deepti Bismohun adds that understanding the prioritisation of the duties is vital: “I think one should absolutely learn to identify the "red flags" i.e. know the fundamental duties that you cannot breach and which ones take precedence over the other in case of conflicting duties. Well, it worked for me!”

Lauren Le Franc advocated making use of "dead time", particularly when travelling, along with use of the full text of the Professional Ethics: “Read the additional guidance. Learn all the core duties and rules and apply to the question. Download the app, this helped me revise on the tube.”

Hesh Kumar (in his first contribution to this post) says: “I don’t know how the new exams work, but I found knowing the core duties inside and out can get you through any ethical situation. The most reassuring thing I found about ethics was, once you know and understand the core duties, your instincts are usually pretty spot on, and it’s just a matter of showing your thinking as you go through.”

Learn your core duties so that you have an idea for the kind of issues you need to have a sensitivity for. Then look carefully at the facts in your scenario, and trust your instincts that the ethical concerns you have are going to be the right ones. The idea of “showing your thinking” is a powerful one, make sure your answers achieve this aim.

Clearly, identifying which part of the factual scenario causes the ethical issues to be engaged is part of the thinking process.

Charlie Merrett puts it like this: “You really do get marks for repeating the relevant facts in the questions. Between identifying the core duties that are engaged and the aforementioned facts, you'll already be scoring a surprising amount of marks.”

Make sure you have shown which facts relate to which factual dilemmas, so the examiner knows you have worked out what is relevant, what is not and how they relate to the principles of ethics.

Kevin Lim brings these ideas together with his advice: “I found format to be very relevant. The style taught at City is simple, but it allows the examiner to see that the student understands what is the issue, which rule is engaged, and what is the appropriate course of action. It must be understood what an answer needs all 3 of these points in order to score the marks.

In order to communicate this to the examiner, students must: firstly, know what the rules are, and to that end memorisation of all the rules is important. I read the textbook front to back 2 times in order the get a firm understanding of the rules (not all at once, of course; over the span of 2-3 weeks), but different people have different opinions on this. Students must also take into account what stage they are at in the question (e.g, is this during trial, before trial, outside of court, etc.) and as such need to have a working understanding of civil and criminal procedure.

Lastly, an issue may have several rules engaged simultaneously (e.g, the common question about a client lying will involve rules regarding honesty, confidentiality, civil procedure, process of stepping down etc.). Repeating relevant facts in answers is completely normal.”

Hesh Kumar reminds students that there is no “quick fix”, spending time on the reading and studying is essential. He says: “There is absolutely no substitute for reading the BSB handbook. The textbooks etc will help, but you MUST go through the relevant parts of the handbook. It would be like doing Civil Litigation without touching the White Book or Criminal litigation without an Archbold or Blackstones! Whether you use the app or a paper based approach is definitely about personal preference. I am a big advocate of paper, something about flicking through it, knowing how many pages between each rule, writing on it, but many, many people tell me they prefer electronically. The important thing is to find what works for you.”

Another theme which featured strongly in my former students’ contributions is the importance of practicing questions, trying to do as many SAQ practice questions as possible and regular self-testing.

Kita L. Deveaux says: “SAQ mocks are essential for getting a good feel of the types of questions. Complete the questions in a group setting mark them and the discuss within the group sometimes talking with your peers will help you look at a question in a way that wouldn't have normally. The mark scheme for pass questions will also show what the examiners look for.”

I would endorse Kita’s advice about working with fellow students. Well disciplined peer learning is always a great way to learn.

Pal Krisnaveni puts it this way: “My advice will be to practise all the SAQs as often as you can and it is essential that you time yourself while you do the SAQs as time will go really quickly in exams and it is helpful to practise the SAQs under time pressure.”

I have always felt that not enough students take the opportunity to practice as much as possible. Students fear ethics and therefore avoid it, which, whilst understandable, is a bad, bad, idea! Confronting and thereby conquering the subject in the way Pal suggests is, to me, the right way of going about it.

Sammy Campbell draws these points together and echoes Hesh’s “no quick fix” approach: “Go through each chapter of the textbook, make detailed notes on the rules and memorize. Super important to do as many SAQ's as possible to get a feel for what the examiners want.”

A very innovative, but extremely astute tip comes from Shajib Mahmood: “Going through the past disciplinary tribunal findings found on BSB web-site really helped me a lot with my understanding of the subject overall.”

Seeing how the BSB actually apply their own rules is going to help you understand the rules and their purpose. It is like reading a leading judge’s judgement – you see the reasoning and application explained for you.

Ferdousi Kabir Helaly took a pragmatic approach: “I believe that learning the whole book from A to Z is not going to help. In an exam situation, to pick and drop in the answer in only 2 hours is going to be extremely difficult for an average student like me. I have only solved a lot of questions and learnt the duties, guidance and outcomes as I went through them. The exam paper was, as I remember, mostly based on practical difficulties and facts rather in a robotic or theoretical manner.”

I personally would say that not studying the Professional Ethics manual and the Code of Conduct carefully is quite a risk. But it is clear Ferdousi learned the guidance through practice questions and self testing. I would not read this advice as a suggestion to forgo the reading and revision required of you.

Ali Khan was philosophical, theorising about why students feel so threatened by the study of legal ethics: “Aside from all the wisdom above I would also say don’t take it personally. It’s a simple process of doing what you can to get confidence in jumping the hoop. Something about ethics makes a surprising number of students feel like it’s examining their own core values.”

As you become a seasoned practitioner, the values of the code become your own professional values, but to begin with it can be difficult. Before one becomes cynical, it is easy to trust the client too much. Experience teaches you the rules are there to protect you.

Shireen Cotto makes this point: “My advice is become more interested in humanity and moral obligations. I found it a breeze and got a VC with very little revision because it's in line with my own morals. I did it the year it became centrally set too.”

Understanding the consequences of your professional actions for the client and others is vital. Hence I agree with Shireen that understanding and appreciating your moral obligations in society as a lawyer is important. What we do has a profound effect, not just on clients, but on how the rest of society view lawyers and the legal profession.

Olivia Cork provides some novel advice: “Learning the core duties by heart is definitely essential and I would do that right now. However, I found it easier to apply the duties to scenarios that came up in other classes (particularly the criminal lit/evidence seminars). You can usually think around any of the questions set for the seminar work and practice identifying which core duties and rules etc they might engage. It helps to think as you go along with ethics because it’s based around practical examples and the answers are so formulaic in that you have to mention particular words.”

This is fascinating and astute advice; students don’t always realise that their other subjects present ethical issues. I find that students tend to think each subject belongs in a little box, all by itself. Trying to draw together the contexts will give you better oversight and make you a better lawyer in real life.

Laura Hollingbery took a highly effective systematic approach: “From the practice questions available, I compiled a list of every ethical scenario imaginable. I then wrote model bullet point answers with all relevant Core Duties, guidance, etc. and more or less memorised each one. I had to resit Ethics, mainly because I ran out of time in the exam. I managed to pass a second time using this technique...and being more familiar with the Core Duties than my own family.”

Daniel Herbert rounds off this post with his excellent comments on his revision techniques and his exam advice:

- Compile ALL of the practice questions together from all of the seminars, lectures, powerpoints etc. Attempt each one of the questions and then mark them. Read through the answers. Repeat process until you get full marks for each questions.

- If you haven't written full detailed notes out, do so. Once you have your set of detailed notes, keep rewriting them until you have a very basic set of notes. I found that writing things down on paper helped me recall the information easier than writing notes on a laptop.

- Use colour coordination in your notes. By using different colours, it was easier for me to recall certain information. For example, on my notes I would use red for core duties (or info you needed to know word for word), blue for information/explaining, green for any cases etc. I replicated this format across all modules so when I looked at my notes, certain parts stuck out. Also, if I wanted to skim read my notes, I could skim read through the red and green. I believe this helped me to recall information better when taking the exams.

- Write up the 10 ethical "commandments" (core duties) on A4 paper, and large enough to see from a distance, and put them up on a wall in your bedroom or a room you spend a lot of time in. Test yourself when you can by trying to recite the core duties in order without looking. Do this until you can recite all of the Core Duties every day for a week without looking at them.

- Write up parts of the syllabus on A4 paper and stick them up around your house. When walking around the house doing day to day things, like cooking, cleaning, having a bath, etc., you can revise without needing to look at a book or a laptop.

- I also distinctly remember going into the ethics exam and the first thing I did when it started was to write down all of the core duties at the back of the booklet. This was just in case I got a memory block during the exam due to the stress and pressure, and could not think of a core duty.

This is a brilliant step by step strategy, which I am very grateful that Daniel was generous enough to share with you all.

Good luck to all of you taking ethics. Thank you so much to all of my wonderful contributors. 

Revision tips from former BPTC students for 2017

Dear Current BPTC students,

It is easy, when you’re revising at home, to feel alone and isolated. It is also easy to feel like no-one understands what you are going through.

But you have allies and friends among former BPTC students. Here are their learning tips, tricks, and techniques.

You don’t just have to take it from me, you can learn from people who’ve done the BPTC and made it through to the other side!

Good luck with your revision and exams,

With love

Snigdha

PS – this is a long blog post – but it is worth reading in full. This is the distilled experience of people who have survived the BPTC and are thriving now.

Josh Giddens advocates teaching the subject to a fellow student or friend, as it encourages deep understanding, which helps retention. He also recommends diagrammatic notes, using either spider diagrams, flow charts or procedure diagrams. He says:

“Teach a topic to someone willing to listen! At the end of each topic I draw a spider diagram as a summary to that topic and draw flow charts/process flows for procedural steps.”

Andy Horton, former CLS librarian, legal research guru and quizzing supremo suggests that after putting in good, hard work, you need to know when to take a rest.

“The most useful revision technique I happened on was to take proper breaks - and stop at the end of the day. Formed informal club of finalists who met in bar for one beer and chat every evening, marking end of day's revision.”

Travis Ritch is a student after my own heart and shares my views completely:

“Snigdha, you know what I'm going to say: read the syllabus! You cannot be examined on anything outside of it. This simple shift in perspective from ‘OMG! I have to be a QC by next week’ to ‘Hey, I can manage this’ is critical.”      

Travis goes on to explain in greater detail:

“Allow me to expand on why this mindset is important. The examiner is bound by rules. You on the other hand, while learning (and preparing assessments for submission), are not. In other words, you can approach the task in many ways - not suggesting anything unethical or against the course requirements - and always in the knowledge that you can't be ambushed by something you weren't expected to know. I'm taking into account cultural factors here too. Most BPTC students are motivated by fear of failure, whether they want or have offers of pupillage or they don't, and many feel uncomfortable in the environment or simply uncompetitive altogether. Every assessment you sit has a scope limited by the syllabus. Find out what it is, ensure there are no gaps in your knowledge, and what you get is a feeling of control, which is the same feeling a practising barrister wants to take to court. Read AROUND what you have to know and now you're really on your way. It can all seem so overwhelming - approaching the task from the perspective that your examiner has to play with a straight bat is a smart idea, because it's true. I can also strongly recommend a Sunday roast (being lucky myself to have prep on Mondays!)”

The importance of using the syllabus was seconded by Shireen Cotto, who was candid and honest about her experience (for which I am particularly thankful):

“I failed both criminal and civil until I followed the syllabus and ticked off each area as I went along. I highlighted and discussed the content with a library buddy and I ended up somehow passing both even after deferring a year and therefore having no classroom study for nearly two years. I also used a really well written revision book which followed the syllabus.”

Peter Khoury, a student who has always given excellent and practical advice, agreed:

“Review the syllabus as Travis suggests. Check that your notes address each syllabus topic. Ensure you have questions and model answers for each topic. Study buddies are a must. Re-write your notes on a whiteboard over and over again. Get your study buddies to erase various sections of your study notes on the whiteboard and then you fill in the blanks. Sounds simplistic but it is effective. Good luck!”

Shah Ali Farhad says you should not neglect your need for downtime.

“I would give one general piece of advice, rather than specific revision tips. This helped me greatly during my own time at the BPTC. Notwithstanding the pressure, one MUST take a day off from anything and everything related to the BPTC. Every 3-4 days should be separated by a day off. BPTC is mental and psychological workload. One must give the body and mind that crucial one day to recuperate 3-4 days of gruelling workload. This should be followed during exams too. Believe me, your studies and academic priorities will be benefitted, not hampered, by this time off.”

Yee Ling Cheah has advice on how to use practice questions and how to be self-reflective:

“How I passed the BPTC, being in a blur for most of it?! I got through by doing lots of practice questions and understanding what the question wants. practice after a few topics, or pick questions that are on the topic you've just revised. after you've done all the topics, do all the practice questions again, even if it means repeating a few questions. Marking your own answers, no matter how brilliant or ridiculous they are, forces you to see where you've gotten it wrong, and how to make it right.”

Please read the above advice carefully. Students tend to think practicing exam questions is purely done to see if you pass. This is only half of their purpose. You should use any practice questions, whether from LGS or SGS or from a mock to check your weak areas and examine how the questions are put together. Reflecting on your technique and efficacy is essential.

Joseph Seo began his invaluable advice by giving some general suggestions.

“I passed both civil and crim lit back in 2015. Two things I paid attention to: - The law was written for a reason (i.e. there's an underlying rationale to find and once you do, you can connect the dots and commit it to memory) - Also, understand that many things studied in BPTC come in components, and in an orderly fashion (i.e. the legal requirements to fulfil - which also explains why I make my notes in the form of tree diagrams.”     

These thoughts were picked up by Travis who I hope you thank as much as I do for the time and trouble he has taken to pass on the benefit of his experience:

“Completely agree with both of these points. Having studied jurisprudence helps with the former but is by no means necessary - just get your head around what the rule/law is there for and what contribution it makes. By doing so you will understand when it comes into play. Also, in practice, you really can use things like the overriding objective! Got me a 3 week adjournment once. People learn so differently (diagrams have never worked for me for example) but whatever you have to do to expose the underlying rationale is definitely going to pay dividends when you have to apply the knowledge to a set of facts.”

This is important stuff being highlighted by Joseph and Travis. The "rationale" is often the peg to hang your knowledge from. As children, we used to ask "why?". As adults, we become scared to ask such a basic question. But is it "basic" (as in superficial) or is it actually "basic" as in FUNDAMENTAL?

Joseph Seo went on to share his method of making notes. Here is the diagram he sent me:

Joseph explains the diagram:

“From left to right:
- Blue box for the law
- White boxes for breaking down the law into components
- Then orange to explain each component, often with an attached example”.

Joseph then explains:

“Once you've distilled the law into this, you can read the chart in reverse order (i.e. orange --> white --> blue) to see if it makes sense. And most importantly, keep referring to your chart in the course of your studies. Repetition helps to further commit to memory.”

Joseph’s method is simple yet effective. It is easy to learn, easy to apply, but has strong methodology behind it. It is highly transferrable. Because the main objective of this method is achieving understanding, it begins on a steady foundation. Too many students, in my experience, try to learn/memorise without understanding. Joseph’s technique puts understanding and comprehension at the forefront. This means remembering is much easier, as it builds upon the foundation of the understanding.

David Kemeny, one of my best ever advocacy students said:

“I found the best thing I could do for the heavy knowledge subjects was to find a few study buddies and teach each other parts of the syllabus. If I can explain something to someone else, I find the knowledge sticks more reliably.”

His advice struck a chord with past BPTC students, who added the following brilliant and constructive advice:

Matthew Rees made a very helpful suggestion, which I’m sure the Library or School office can help with…. Get a room!

“And book a room with a whiteboard (such as the one in City's Gray's Inn library) to go through past paper questions with others.”

Dana Munnings agreed with this advice. She said:

“This is the best piece of advice ever. I would learn topic by topic, write them down, call family members abroad and tell them about each topic. They got tired and didn't know what the dickens I was talking about, but it's like talking gossip, make it juicy and it sticks. Another thing I did was record myself explaining it and play it back on the tube, on the way to class, heading to dinner, everywhere. Even if you're not paying close attention, it stays in your subconscious mind.”

Dana’s tip is extremely helpful because it recognises some people are communicators and/or use auditory memory. Too often we think learning is visual, when the reality is that it is linked to all of our senses.

Picking up on this advice, we have more sound advice from Travis:

“Trying to teach someone else is the real test of understanding and a great way to check whether you have it, as well as developing it because it will likely involve expressing your understanding at different levels of detail and abstraction and that does make it stick. Completely agree.”

I will confess, but truest and completest understanding of civil litigation came as a result of teaching it in my first year at CLS. After that, I could understand what I’d had to constantly look up in practice.

Travis’ team-teaching tip was supported by David Kemeny, adding his second valuable tip:

“Yep, particularly if your study partners then stress-test your explanations by slightly tweaking the fact patterns.”

Laura Hollingbery added her superbly honest and highly realistic advice:

“I found myself getting really distracted and procrastinating during revision. I decided to mix things up so I bought myself a whiteboard from Rymans, some coloured markers and mounted it on the wall next to my desk. It was great for drawing diagrams, testing yourself quickly and provided a welcome break from the monotony of pen and paper note-taking.”

I agree with Laura that revision can be dull and boring and I applaud her advice on keeping it interesting. Laura went on to say:

“I think teaching someone is often the best way of checking you've learned something sufficiently. With some of the topics that I found harder to grasp, I either pretended to teach a non-existent class or found some poor but willing, non-legally minded family or friend to explain hearsay and the like to them, forcing them to ask questions on anything they didn't understand. Payment in coffee usually does the trick.”

Faridah Hemani reiterated that if you are an auditory learner and a good communicator, use those skills. She was always good at explaining things and conveying her understanding.

“The best way to study for me was just listening to the lectures and then having group discussions.  Not disregarding the fact that we have to read, but it just makes more sense after the lectures as I personally found it easier to understand and retain the information.”

Suzanne Reece, my amazing former colleague reminds us all that we perhaps have to reflect on what kind of 

a learner we are. We are not all the same, and we won’t respond to different stimuli in the same way.

“Students have different learning styles.  Find yours and you will find learning and revising easier. Learners can be-read/write students (who love note taking). Visual learners love to draw pictures. Audio learners learn by listening and ‘doing’ learners learn by modelling.”

Mohammed Golam Kibria Shimul reminds students that fear, particularly fear of failure can be debilitating, particularly realising such fear can be a cultural thing:

“First, remove fear from you student mind; especially Asian students!! I found if I had no fear then even the BPTC was not that hard!”

Finally, this utterly wonderful contribution from Simone Perry emphasises that using many different skills and techniques together, changing approach from day to day and time to time keeps things fresh. I also totally endorse her comments about taking time to reflect each day.

“Hi Snigdha! I just wanted to tell you that several skills you've posted about on your fb really helped me through my BPTC, and are still applicable in my working life now.

One of it is the Pomodoro technique. It made me more efficient - I avoided procrastination. I found it fun to constantly try to finish a task before the 25 mins interval end. When I managed to get something done just before an interval ends, or if I manage to finish many rounds in a day, or when I reflect on my day and find that I managed to learn many things/get many things done in a day, it feels incredibly rewarding.

Another technique I picked up was to put everything into mind maps (I mean, really, everything). I believe we learn and memorise materials best through visualisation and association. The mind map really does not have to be pretty. It does not even have to be very concise if one is not good at doing it. But it just has to be in a map form, on a piece of paper. Putting certain materials in certain places help you visualise and remember what it is about.

I also found that reconsolidating my notes at least twice, reading them out as I do so, recording myself, and replaying the recording back to myself, helped a lot with memorising a big bunch of materials. Surprisingly, the materials also stayed in my mind for quite a long time.

Every day, one should always spend some time to reflect back and visualise/replay everything that one has learned. You can do it in the gym, in the shower, while eating, or lying in your bed preparing to fall asleep. Visualise it in your head -- remember where you placed certain materials in the mind maps you did, imagine yourself writing them out and also think about how to apply it in certain scenarios or how to put them in an essay/a piece of work.

Lastly, I am a strong believer in visualising your success. Set a goal. Write it down on a piece of paper, stick it near your bed, look at it every morning. Visualise how you are going to achieve it. Visualise yourself attaining it. For myself, all I had in mind when I started BPTC was to pass everything in one go and get called to the Bar in July. I had rather low expectations for myself after hearing about how some people had to re-do the BPTC several times. However, from day 1 after I set my goal, I started to visualise myself checking my final results, I visualised myself being happy, I visualised my family being happy, and most importantly, I visualised myself walking down the aisle of Temple Church and collecting my call certificate. I visualised many details; and I memorised the lovely and happy feelings I thought I would feel at the end of it all.

I replay all these in my head whenever I feel lost, worn out and want to give up. It certainly helped me put things in perspective again and helped me remember how much I wanted that end result.

All these certainly has helped me in many aspects of my life, not just the BPTC. I want to thank you for posting the things that you have on your facebook, they have enlightened me a lot. Of course, these may not be applicable to every single person. One just has to experiment and see what method of working suits them best. And whenever you meet lost and tired BPTC students, remind them that it is okay to feel a fear of failure, remind them that it is all going to be okay at the end, and if they make it, they are going to be so much stronger and better, and they will feel proud of themselves. It also does not matter how long we take to do something, as long as we get it done. Each person has their own abilities and timeline in life, and one really shouldn't beat themselves up for not being able to achieve something as fast as another person. Things will come to us one day when we work hard (and smart) for it.”

Simone’s visualisation tip is excellent. How about doing this – borrow a wig and gown. Take a picture of yourself wearing them. Get the picture printed out. Stick it to your bedroom door or bedroom mirror. Look at it every day to remind you of what you are working towards.

Thank you to all of my contributors. You are amazing.

For the record - record cards

For the record....

Record cards; small lifesavers for revision

When I was doing my GCSEs a very, very long time ago, I had to take three papers in science. "Co-Ordinated Science" was the misleading title given to this subject, which counted as two whole GCSEs.

My notes amounted to three... yes, three... level arch files. I looked at those files come revision time in abject horror. I was 16. How was I going to learn ALL OF THAT MATERIAL??

Then a friendly teacher told me that what I needed to do was "synthesise" the information. As a child of the 1980s, this confused me. What, was I meant to feed it into a computer, and then, like a brilliant Depeche Mode or Pet Shop Boys song, something beautiful yet logical and precise would come out?

The sympathetic teacher then explained; by reducing the information to essentials, summarising, and removing verbiage, I would have a far more simple and manageable amount of material to learn. The teacher suggested small record cards. 

Knowing that 3 level arch files would be the death of me, I was willing to try anything. With six weeks to go before the exams I asked my parents to buy some record cards... I remember the trip to WHSmith on Hounslow High Street... Thankfully nobody else had taken our kindly teacher's advice and the record card packs were there for me to purchase!

I wrote cards out, where necessary I drew diagrams. Where the diagrams were too complex, I photocopied them from books, cut them out, pasted them to the cards and annotated them....

Slowly I found myself learning the material. Probably more from the actual process of sifting and really thinking about the information to make the cards more so than the revision from the cards once they were made. 

I found a technique which worked. I got AA in Co-ordinated science. Just don't ask me anything about science now. I don't have the faintest idea. My box of record cards is at my mum and dad's house where I left it...

I hear my BPTC students ask "Wow, Snigdha, thanks for the trip down memory lane. But how does this help us?"

This method can be used by ANYONE for ANY SUBJECT.

Let's have a look at a couple of civil litigation revision cards by Zara McGlone: 

Note the unifying features:

- A lack of unnecessary words

- Bullet point expression

- Use of colour coding

- Underlining of key information

- Use of indentation to show internal structure - topic, subtopic and relative ranking of information

- Clear hierarchy and relationship to the syllabus

I asked Zara to explain her technique. Here is what she told me:

"I've used various revision methods in the past, but when it comes to exams where there's a lot of material to learn, rather than necessarily lots of detailed analysis, I find note cards really useful. I think that I learn through a combination of lists and visual aids; using note cards means that I both number the things I have to learn (e.g. for Civil Lit, the seven different types of service in the jurisdiction), and picture them on the card when I come to test myself on them. 

I also think that the physical act of writing out note cards helps to start fixing the facts in my head. I use colours to try and highlight certain things or key words, such as the necessary statutes or provisions of the CPR, which assists on a visual level. In addition to all that, the portable size makes learning seem more manageable and makes it easier to try and use tube journeys to revise - or at least harder to avoid using that time!"

Research has proven that "self testing" is the most effective form of studying for information retention, so Zara's method is in line with current thinking on maximising learning and memory. 

I would also advocate her "multi-source" approach; record cards, lists, self tests, other visual aids. The more multi sensory and immersive your revision, the more effective it will be.

I would also say that my experience tells me I remember more of what I write or draw than I type. I will remember more about the diagram of the eye in cross section that I drew up when I was 16 in a couple of months time than this blog post after I upload it. 

Finally, the portability and manageability of revision cards make them ideal. They can be tucked into a bag, referred to on a bus, tube or train journey. They don't take up space or weigh too much, so you can carry them everywhere. The very fact they are small means they are not daunting. Much better to have some small cards than 3 lever arch files, right?

That's exactly what I thought!

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Zara McGlone for her help and assistance with this blog post. Without her, it would never have been possible. Thank you very much.