Current Class List

As you may be able to tell from my less frequent posting, the last few days have been quite hectic. I have a lot of reading to do, not to mention assignments and question papers to prepare. This last week, starting Monday 19^th September, was probably my busiest week so far, as I now have all of my first semester classes on my timetable.

• Legal Skills A – IT For Lawyers
• Workshop – Starting Your Academic Career
• Introduction to Law and Legal Systems
• Legal History
• English Writing for Lawyers
• English Oral for Lawyers
• Legal History
• Constitutional Law

In the past five days I have passed my first assignment for Legal Skills A – IT For Lawyers, as well as a test in the same subject. I only have one more assignment to pass for this course and then I have passed this part of the module, however I will only get credits when I have also completed Legal Skills A.

I still have a lot of reading to do for my lectures this week and also need to work on an assignment for Legal Skills A, and prepare work for my working groups in Introduction to Law and Legal Systems, Legal History and both English classes.

Luckily at the minute we only have lectures for Constitutional Law, and no working groups – which basically means that we just have to read a lot and take notes! My working group for this module starts in week 44. For the second half of this course we have to complete a Wiki assignment, which is worth 25 points, but we must also take an examination, worth the final 75 points. I will describe the Wiki assignment in more detail before I must undertake the task, but at the moment it is still a little unclear.

I am planning on going to the library today to get some quiet study time in, and I will probably spend the three hours I have between classes in there tomorrow.

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First LLB Presentation

This post is a little later than I anticipated, but I have had a lot of reading and assignments to keep up with. In this post I am going to talk about the presentation that I had to give on Thursday (15^th), as it was the first one of my course so far, and caused me a few sleepless nights!

The presentation was on the ‘Codification of the European Union’ and had to last fifteen minutes. I worked with a partner and we came up with some good ideas together, and built the PowerPoint presentation as a team, before then splitting it into sections for both of us to present.

Now, I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t nervous, because I was definitely feeling the nerves, although I felt confident that we had all the information we needed in the presentation, I just didn’t feel very comfortable about being one of the first to give a presentation in front of people who I had only known for a week or two.

I had known NOTHING about the topic before it had been assigned to me, however after a lot of researching and planning, I did feel a little more confident. I printed my notes onto A4 paper, three sheets worth of notes, with subheadings for each topic highlighted in yellow, to remind me to change slides on the PowerPoint Presentation.

Days before I was due to give the presentation I was reading my notes on the bus, whilst cooking, before bed, and so on to try and cement the information into my brain. I have to say that it worked somewhat, as I successfully managed to remember the first page of notes – on a topic I had no prior knowledge of. I practiced giving my presentation in front of my boyfriend and other friends and felt quite comfortable after a few attempts. This all changed Thursday morning – the dreaded morning! I woke up with a pounding headache and a sore throat. I made it into class and I think that it was obvious as to how nervous I was, because people in my class were trying to reassure me. Everyone was really great and supportive, which definitely eased the pressure a little. 

Well to keep this short and sweet, I stood up at the front of the class, introduced the presentation and then began. I started off weak and I knew straight away because I could hear the nerves in my voice. After the first subheading change I had picked up a little confidence and had managed to look at every single one of my peers. Time passed quicker than I had expected and soon my part was over, so after introducing my partner, I sat down near the computer to assist in changing the PowerPoint slides.

At the end of our presentation we got some great feedback and I was definitely relieved that it was over and out of the way, but it certainly went better than expected, and just showed that I had no real reason to worry. Classmates are human too, and public speaking is a common fear – more common than the fear of spider or that of dying! 

My advice to anyone preparing a speech or presentation would be just to prepare well and create ample notes – just to make you feel comfortable when you are standing in front of class. Even if I don’t read my notes, they make me feel comfortable knowing that they are there if I do forget what to say. Another tip would be to talk slowly, the faster you speak the more prone you are to making mistakes. Prepare, speak slowly and breathe!

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First Week of University (LLB)

Right, so the first week of university is complete, but how do I feel it went? 

My main worries about starting university were not being able to keep up with the workload, and I think that the workload for the first week was a bit more than I expected before starting the degree. The first week we had a few less classes than we will have next week, as we didn’t have ‘Constitutional Law’ yet this week. Although the contact hours are quite a lot less then high school, there is a lot more mandatory reading and assignments which have to be done after our lecture on the subject, in preparation for our working groups which are normally a day or two later. 

I also met some really nice people from all different countries and backgrounds, which was quite an experience. I did worry before my course started about not getting along with people, or struggling to fit in, however this hasn’t been a problem as I am yet to find a person in the university who isn’t friendly and helpful.

I did worry about having free time to continue with my hobbies, however I think that as long as I manage time effectively, I will still be able to do the things that I enjoy. I just have to make the most and not ‘waste’ time, for example, I read what I can whilst waiting for the bus, or on the bus so my travel time is used constructively, giving me extra time when I get back home to update my blog.

In general, I think that my first week has been very successful, with the exception of getting lost once or twice! There were quite a few early starts and that has definitely taken its toll, but I now have the weekend to have a little lie in to recuperate. The worries I had before starting my LLB degree definitely haven’t come to light – well not yet anyway, so I hope that the next few weeks will also go smoothly…

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First Written Examination!

As I wrote in my most recent post prior to this one, I had a written examination yesterday, Tuesday 6^th September 2011. The purpose of this examination was to decide who needed to attend the first semester English class - if a person achieves a score of C1.1 then they do not have to attend the first semester of English, however they will have to attend the second lecture as it is focused more on debates and forming legal arguments. Native English speakers are not automatically exempt from the first semester, so like the rest of the first year international students on the LLB degree, I had to sit the exam.

The task of this test was to write an  argumentative essay of 500 words, give or take 10% - so no fewer than 450 but no more than 550, or else it was an instant fail and the exam wouldn’t be marked – on one of the following topics:

• Euthanasia – Is it ever right to assist in the death of another person?
• Capital Punishment – Should criminals ever be sentenced to the death penalty?
• United Nations – (Can’t remember the actual question as I didn’t choose it)
• Free Speech – Should Free Speech be abolished?

I was torn between euthanasia and capital punishment, but decided to write about euthanasia. It took a while for my words to flow, but then I fell into the trap of finding my writing flow and just writing down the first things that entered my mind. After a short while of typing, I realised that I had written around 800 words and drastically needed to cut down. I deleted two paragraphs and changed the direction of my essay to make 600 words. I then went through shortening some sentences and removing a lot of the ‘fluff’ and less relevant points until I had 547 words. 

This was the first non-IT examination that I have ever taken on the computer as all of my exams in England were done on paper. I do much prefer using a computer for writing and especially for written exams because it is much faster to type, and also easier to format and edit your document without making the paper look a mess with crossed out writing.

I’m not really feeling too confident, but I never am after an exam, so I guess I’ll just see how it goes when I get my results back! I also have an oral examination next Thursday, which I am REALLY looking forward to… not. I hate examinations but I’d rather do 100 written exams than one oral exam or presentation…

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First LLB Class

At 11:00 today, Monday 5^th September 2011, my academic year officially started with my first class, ‘Legal Skills A –IT For Lawyers’. With this being my first class, it is obvious to say that I felt quite nervous and unsure of what to expect.

 I arrived twenty-or-so minutes early, allowing myself enough time to find my classroom, and let’s just say that it was a good job I did, as yes, I did end up getting a little lost! Now, I admit to being a bit lost, but it wasn’t completely my fault as the university did print the building number wrong, and then change the room to what was listed to a room in the law library. 

The class started at 11:00 and took place in a computer room. The lecturer started off the class by discussing the aims and purpose of the class itself. The aims of the class are to teach us how to research treaties, legislation and directives effectively, ensuring that we use reliable sources and to help us determine whether a source is really reliable or not. 

We were given a hand-out which contained instructions on how to find, and use, ‘libguides’. ‘Libguides’ are put together by the university library and contain relevant links, pages, information and videos on set topics, such as European or International Law. It basically acts as a hub, containing all of the sources that we will need for our assignments. 

Our task for that lesson was also given to us and we worked through it at our own paces, until the lecturer stopped us to recap and check that we all had the correct answers. We worked individually, researching different treaties and directives using different sources to see which were the most useful and reliable.

Overall I think that the class went well and was a nice introduction into legal research, providing us with useful resources to help us with our research. I definitely had nothing to worry about, but it was just the nerves of not knowing what to expect which made me worry a little. Everyone that I spoke to in my group seemed really nice and in the same position as myself, so we could all relate to each other. I have a workshop to attend tomorrow, and also an English Writing Examination, so I will post when I can to let you know how it went!

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First Semester Schedule

Tomorrow is Monday 5^th September 2011. Tomorrow is the day that my LLB degree officially starts. You guessed it, tomorrow is the day of my first LLB lecture. After having a quick look at my first semester schedule, I thought that I would share it with you; hopefully it will be useful to you, especially if you are currently considering applying to study law or haven't received your schedule yet and would like to see what to expect.

All first year LLB students were split into three smaller ‘working groups’ – I was assigned to group 3. These working groups are set out to encourage students to take a more active participation in class, as there are less students in the group, allowing the lecturer more time to interact with each student. 

After a quick look at the schedule for the first semester, it does seem like working group 3, my group, drew the short straw, as we have the majority of the early starts; on the plus side it does mean that we finish earlier and have more of a free day. Our first lecture will be Monday at 11:00 and is expected to last until around 13:00. The class is called, ‘Legal Skills A – IT for Lawyers’ and will last the entire semester. I’m not too sure what to expect from the lecture, but I am fairly confident that I at least know where the class is being held!

As for tomorrow, that is the only class that I have on that day, so will have a bit of free time in the afternoon and will be looking at taking advantage of that time to take my camera into town – albeit that the weather is on my side!

Tuesday I have a workshop to attend – ‘Workshop: Starting your Academic Career’, however this time I will be in working group 3B. 3B is basically the original working group 3, but split into two additional groups, group A and group B. The workshop starts at 11:00 and lasts for around an hour. However, I also have a written English examination from 16:00 to 18:00, giving me a four hour break in between.

Wednesday is also quite a light day, and luckily no more examinations, for this week anyway! My first and only lecture of the day, ‘Introduction to Law and Legal Systems’ starts at 9:00 and ends at 11:00. 

Now we reach what I think are going to be my busiest two days academically. Thursday my class, ‘Legal Skills A’, once again starts at 9:00 and lasts two hours until 11:00, when I then have another lecture, this time on ‘Legal History’ which also lasts two hours. So I start at 9:00 and finish at 13:00; meaning four hours of lectures without a break… definitely getting busier as the week progresses. 

Friday I get a bit of a lie-in, as I start at 10:00! My second ‘Legal History’ lecture for the week, and it only lasts an hour, although it is followed (again, with no break!) with another hour class of ‘Introduction to Law and Legal Systems’ which finishes at 12:00. I then have a three hour break before my next class, ‘Introduction to Dutch Language and Culture’ which starts at 15:00. Luckily, I can get home in around 20 minutes, plus waiting time, on the bus, so I won’t have to wait around for three hours up town.

So as you can see, some days definitely busier than others and quite a few ‘early’ starts. I was told before applying to study law that it was much more of a ‘self-study’ degree, meaning that I wouldn’t have as much contact time with teachers or lecturers as other degrees, such as Business or Psychology, and I think this will be a nice change of pace from what I have experienced in the past. As a whole, I don’t think that the schedule is too bad and should give me a bit of time to do any reading that I have between classes and to also carry on progressing with my hobbies.

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Faculty of Law Introduction

My first apprehensions about the day were abolished almost immediately as I found the correct building on time, and managed to find fellow law students on my second attempt! I was also lucky enough to ‘bump into’ two LLB students who I had already conversed with on FaceBook. It was nice to feel like I actually ‘knew’ someone else and to be able to talk about things that I was unsure of. 

The day started at 14:30 with a few speeches by the head of the Faculty of Law, and also by the senior International Student Co-ordinater. We were given a ‘Study and Information Guide’, which provided us with a vast amount of information, including things such as exam dates and regulations, course details, contact information and the overview of the academic year. A presentation was given to talk us through the important parts of the study guide, and to ensure that we understood what was expected of us. 

A second year LLB student also gave a presentation on how to use the electronic systems that the university had in place, such as Nestor and ProgressWWW. It was nice to get a visual demonstration on how to enrol for courses as well as an actual experienced view on their uses. The presentation also showed us how to use our university mail – showing us where we had to go to login and how to automatically forward any mail we received there to our normal personal email accounts.

Other presentations were given by the head of the Faculty of Law, as well as a student law organisation known as ‘Nexus’. They gave us some information about the organisation and talked about the benefits of becoming a member. The presentation also detailed all of the events that they arrange, such as monthly drinks and ice skating. 

After the presentations and speeches concluded, we were split into groups and given a tour of the university, including the Harmonie Building, the Academic Building, the Law Library, the University Library, the Printing Store and the ‘Wall of Tears’ (this is a wall where all of our exam results will be posted, in full view to everyone who walks by!).

There was then a few drinks and snacks laid on by the university, to help us get to know other people on our course. The day finished at around 17:00 and I arrived back home at around 17:30, so just in time for tea!

In general I think the day was successful as I managed to find my way there on time, gained a lot of useful information, learned my way around a little better and even met some new people who seemed really friendly.

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