By Brigitte Whyte
As this is exam week, I will be sharing some of my exam preparation tips to help you make the most of your revision time and achieve the best possible results. While BPP highlights the importance of SGSs preparation and being an active participant in your classes, examinations should be your main focus, since 100% of your marks will be based on how you perform on the exam.
Strategy
Do pay attention how each of your exam will be marked.
Most of the skills modules on the LPC are only marked as competent or not yet competent which means that you should not stress about the actual marks you will
be getting, your only concern is making sure that you pass the exam.
I have made the mistake of overpreparing for a skills exam or spending too much time on something that did not end up scoring me all that many marks. This not only wastes your time but will also make you tired early on, right before your core module exams.
Taxes for example, are assessed within the BLP module and are assessed as competent or not yet competent. The taxes chapter on the VLE is unnecessarily long and although it explains a lot while preparing for your SGSs, there is no point in re-reading the chapter or assuming that that anything in the chapter might come up on the exam.
The level of knowledge expected on the LPC for tax is lower than what you would expect after reading the chapters. Apart from learning the basic structure and being quick and precise in your basic calculations, it is safe to assume that none of the exceptional circumstances listed in the chapter will come up on your exams. If I would retake the exam, I would focus on practicing the SGSs activities in detail, leaving anything above that to consolidate only if you have time after going through everything else.
LPC Notes
You must make sure that you have a good set of LPC notes before your exam. This should be something you have read a number of times. It is best to use notes you have prepared or reviewed yourself, but if you do need to use notes from others, make sure that you have a full understanding of the LPC notes and where things are. You should be able to solve exam questions using these notes and find the rules you need quickly. It is key to have all the rules you will need in your exam referenced in your notes as this would save you time from having to flick through your statute book under time pressure.
The LPC is a very intense course with lots and lots of reading, and by using your revision notes, you will not need to re-read the chapters while preparing for your exams. What the examiners are looking for is very different from having the basic knowledge the chapter provides. This is the reason why, your LPC notes should be focused on solving problems rather than going into the theoretical part of law and should be structure in a way so that you are ready to answer exam questions.
Consolidation & Revision
In general, when consolidating, what I would look for the most when revising is the SGS Activities, mocks and past examiners’ reports.These will cover anything that could come up in the exam and will save you time as you don’t need to re-read the chapter before going in to the exam. This is not to say that you should not read the chapter, it does give you a very good background and understanding for you SGSs and helps you in your activities, but ultimately, for exam preparation, what is often important is that you revise the SGSs.
Good luck with your exams!