How hard is it to pass the LPC?

[JYP]

I started the LPC in January and everything has been moved online and with living in remote area the wifi is not great and most times the live lectures lag by 10seconds meaning I can barely understand what is being said.

It is really difficult to self-teach everything and quite frankly ULaw have been abysmal in their handling of the teaching and exams (no proctor showing up to ALL FOUR of the CPAs).

Now the elective exams are around the corner and we then have to do the CPAs in December, some 6 months after teaching stopped; I dont care about distinctions and commendations I just want this nightmare course to be finished. So I need some advice; how hard is it to merely pass it? What sort of methods would people recommend for revision?

Emailed my tutor 4 weeks ago and still no reply; heres hoping TCLA can come to the rescue.

 

[Alice G]

Hi there,

I just wanted to let you know I’ve seen your post but sadly I can’t be much help as I only just started the PGDL! I hope someone else may be able to who has done the LPC! Wishing you the best with it and just remember that it’s not forever and it’s hopefully a gateway to do your dream job!

 

[LegalNim]

I started the LPC in January and everything has been moved online and with living in remote area the wifi is not great and most times the live lectures lag by 10seconds meaning I can barely understand what is being said.

It is really difficult to self-teach everything and quite frankly ULaw have been abysmal in their handling of the teaching and exams (no proctor showing up to ALL FOUR of the CPAs).

Now the elective exams are around the corner and we then have to do the CPAs in December, some 6 months after teaching stopped; I dont care about distinctions and commendations I just want this nightmare course to be finished. So I need some advice; how hard is it to merely pass it? What sort of methods would people recommend for revision?

Emailed my tutor 4 weeks ago and still no reply; heres hoping TCLA can come to the rescue.

I can't help with your question as I've not done the LPC but I was studying the GDL with them this year and it has been absolutely horrendous so I feel your pain. For one module I had no access to the online material. IT emailed to say they were working on it and they'd let me know when it was fixed. They never followed up. I contacted them again and got told they were working on it. I didn't get any access until after the exam. I then made a complaint to the uni and the uni said it's my fault I didn't have access because I should have contacted them sooner... except their email said that they knew it was an issue, were working to fix it and not to contact them! Also, some people studying online have had recorded lectures and tutorials for everything they would have had in person and some haven't had any recordings at all so it's completely inconsistent - and yet everyone sits the same exams and gets graded the same way. Someone I spoke to on LinkedIn just failed their LLM (that they were doing alongside their LPC) and said they'd never been assigned a supervisor or had any help with their dissertation. The scholarships team also "lost" my application for scholarships at the beginning of my course after doing the test (the wrong one - they gave me the one for students who had law degrees not non-law degrees) and my essay (that they gave me a 48 hour deadline on because they hadn't responded to my multiple emails in the previous six weeks).
Essentially, I really feel your pain and I'm sorry I can't be of any real help. The whole university is a complete shambles in m experience.

 

[JYP]

Hi there,

I just wanted to let you know I’ve seen your post but sadly I can’t be much help as I only just started the PGDL! I hope someone else may be able to who has done the LPC! Wishing you the best with it and just remember that it’s not forever and it’s hopefully a gateway to do your dream job!

Thats okay! I hope your experience on the GDL is better

 

[JYP]

I can't help with your question as I've not done the LPC but I was studying the GDL with them this year and it has been absolutely horrendous so I feel your pain. For one module I had no access to the online material. IT emailed to say they were working on it and they'd let me know when it was fixed. They never followed up. I contacted them again and got told they were working on it. I didn't get any access until after the exam. I then made a complaint to the uni and the uni said it's my fault I didn't have access because I should have contacted them sooner... except their email said that they knew it was an issue, were working to fix it and not to contact them! Also, some people studying online have had recorded lectures and tutorials for everything they would have had in person and some haven't had any recordings at all so it's completely inconsistent - and yet everyone sits the same exams and gets graded the same way. Someone I spoke to on LinkedIn just failed their LLM (that they were doing alongside their LPC) and said they'd never been assigned a supervisor or had any help with their dissertation. The scholarships team also "lost" my application for scholarships at the beginning of my course after doing the test (the wrong one - they gave me the one for students who had law degrees not non-law degrees) and my essay (that they gave me a 48 hour deadline on because they hadn't responded to my multiple emails in the previous six weeks).
Essentially, I really feel your pain and I'm sorry I can't be of any real help. The whole university is a complete shambles in m experience.

You can say that again

Its funny as you know this is the first time I have heard that you were supposed to have a supervisor for the LL.M addition. I have not even been given approval of my essay title and the submission is 4 weeks away. The LLM is the least of my worries as quite frankly just getting the LPC is fine by me at this rate.

A course which was supposed to end this week and I dont even know when my CPA exams are. The funnier bit is that they took our course materials away as we were supposed to somehow know that the proctor would not show up and save everything to our computers. For anyone just about to start at ULaw; please take your money to BPP or infact anywhere but here, it is a literal dumping ground of awful tutors, dire management and the "head of the LPC" who does not even understand SRA rules.

 

[lisa0410]

I started the LPC in January and everything has been moved online and with living in remote area the wifi is not great and most times the live lectures lag by 10seconds meaning I can barely understand what is being said.

It is really difficult to self-teach everything and quite frankly ULaw have been abysmal in their handling of the teaching and exams (no proctor showing up to ALL FOUR of the CPAs).

Now the elective exams are around the corner and we then have to do the CPAs in December, some 6 months after teaching stopped; I dont care about distinctions and commendations I just want this nightmare course to be finished. So I need some advice; how hard is it to merely pass it? What sort of methods would people recommend for revision?

Emailed my tutor 4 weeks ago and still no reply; heres hoping TCLA can come to the rescue.

I finished the LPC with ULaw in June and did all of the elective exams online. If you are really stressed and worried, my biggest piece of advice would be to buy legacy notes for all of the CPAs and electives. You can get them on eBay - they range in price but are worth every penny. They were an absolute life saver for me and everyone I knew at ULaw. They break down all of the modules by topic and a lot of them have flowcharts showing you how to answer problem questions.

They made up the bulk of my notes in all of my exams. I just annotated and added to them. If you do get them, make sure you actually go through them and organise them in a way that works for you. Everyone's mind works differently.
I truly believe that aside from the IPP exams, the LPC is more a test of your organisation than anything else. You have all of the information you need, you just need to make sure you know where to find it. Annotate, tab, highlight etc. and you will be fine!!

Also, one last thing - they won't examine you on things that haven't been covered in your workshops. So really focus on the topics that are covered in the guides (including consolidation) and you will do great!

 

[SportsThoughts]

I finished the LPC with ULaw in June and did all of the elective exams online. If you are really stressed and worried, my biggest piece of advice would be to buy legacy notes for all of the CPAs and electives. You can get them on eBay - they range in price but are worth every penny. They were an absolute life saver for me and everyone I knew at ULaw. They break down all of the modules by topic and a lot of them have flowcharts showing you how to answer problem questions.

They made up the bulk of my notes in all of my exams. I just annotated and added to them. If you do get them, make sure you actually go through them and organise them in a way that works for you. Everyone's mind works differently.
I truly believe that aside from the IPP exams, the LPC is more a test of your organisation than anything else. You have all of the information you need, you just need to make sure you know where to find it. Annotate, tab, highlight etc. and you will be fine!!

Also, one last thing - they won't examine you on things that haven't been covered in your workshops. So really focus on the topics that are covered in the guides (including consolidation) and you will do great!

This is interesting. My experience differed greatly and I don’t say that pejoratively.

Legacy notes were useless for me. I had to learn it myself, because I struggled with the examples below. I found the LPC being about how to think, not what to think.

I worked through the LPC purely based on the material provided to us and what was covered in workshops and did just fine (distinction overall but all you need is the pass, TC covenants depending of course). I think what most people struggle with is the application and ability to identify facts which might not be consistent across different scenarios (this is where the legacy notes fell down for me). I.e. are you able to look at a question asking whether a tenant can move a temporary partitioning in a commercial property, find the relevant clause in the lease, apply the relevant law and articulate it so a layman would understand. But in the same breath are you able to look at a plan of a residential property and think practically about the river behind it needing a flood search, based on what county you’re in needing a mining search, is there a church nearby for a Chancel search, who’s responsible for repairing the road in the estate? The same goes with the other modules. Bob wants to sell his shares in his company. How do we help Bob do that?

It’s much more practical and if you’re able to depart yourself from S.1(1) LP(MP)A 1989, Lloyds Bank -v- Rossett and Inter alia, the wonderful latin phrases other law grads might be guilty of throwing about verbatim - you’ll be fine.

I do echo the organisation point above, it’s demanding, not in terms of intellect but volume of work. Tabulate, highlight and be familiar with what you’ve been taught.

Don’t fall behind, do enjoy it! Any Qs, drop me a line

 

[Mo M]

I finished the LPC with ULaw in June and did all of the elective exams online. If you are really stressed and worried, my biggest piece of advice would be to buy legacy notes for all of the CPAs and electives. You can get them on eBay - they range in price but are worth every penny. They were an absolute life saver for me and everyone I knew at ULaw. They break down all of the modules by topic and a lot of them have flowcharts showing you how to answer problem questions.

They made up the bulk of my notes in all of my exams. I just annotated and added to them. If you do get them, make sure you actually go through them and organise them in a way that works for you. Everyone's mind works differently.
I truly believe that aside from the IPP exams, the LPC is more a test of your organisation than anything else. You have all of the information you need, you just need to make sure you know where to find it. Annotate, tab, highlight etc. and you will be fine!!

Also, one last thing - they won't examine you on things that haven't been covered in your workshops. So really focus on the topics that are covered in the guides (including consolidation) and you will do great!

I agree with this. I worked full-time whilst doing the LPC in the evenings and if I had to do urgent work, I would end up missing classes, which wasn't great. All in all, I didn't really have a great experience with class-room learning anyway as I found I worked more productively in my own time. The Law textbooks are good and the bought notes were a lifesaver for me too. I completely agree that organisation is key and the best piece of advice I can give is to organise your folders like you are going to take the exam the next day. That way when exams do hit, it won't feel so overwhelming and you can focus on the actual content.

 

[JYP]

I agree with this. I worked full-time whilst doing the LPC in the evenings and if I had to do urgent work, I would end up missing classes, which wasn't great. All in all, I didn't really have a great experience with class-room learning anyway as I found I worked more productively in my own time. The Law textbooks are good and the bought notes were a lifesaver for me too. I completely agree that organisation is key and the best piece of advice I can give is to organise your folders like you are going to take the exam the next day. That way when exams do hit, it won't feel so overwhelming and you can focus on the actual content.

I work full time too and end up spending most nights trying to do the notes but come the morning or when I come back to it I cannot remember a single thing. I think alot of it is me overthinking as its open book but for the large part nothing really seems to stick with me on the LPC as it did during undergrad.

 

[J123]

Compared to the GDL, I found the LPC a lot easier as it's less theoretical and more practical so to score well you just need to focus on applying the law to the facts in front of you. I found legacy notes pretty helpful as you can just build on these and update them as you go along. I went to ULaw as well and for our RE open book exam, we basically got the same question almost word for word as the specimen exam(!), so make sure you do all the practice exams as they are really helpful in predicting the style of Qs you get in the exam.

 

[lisa0410]

This is interesting. My experience differed greatly and I don’t say that pejoratively.

Legacy notes were useless for me. I had to learn it myself, because I struggled with the examples below. I found the LPC being about how to think, not what to think.

I worked through the LPC purely based on the material provided to us and what was covered in workshops and did just fine (distinction overall but all you need is the pass, TC covenants depending of course). I think what most people struggle with is the application and ability to identify facts which might not be consistent across different scenarios (this is where the legacy notes fell down for me). I.e. are you able to look at a question asking whether a tenant can move a temporary partitioning in a commercial property, find the relevant clause in the lease, apply the relevant law and articulate it so a layman would understand. But in the same breath are you able to look at a plan of a residential property and think practically about the river behind it needing a flood search, based on what county you’re in needing a mining search, is there a church nearby for a Chancel search, who’s responsible for repairing the road in the estate? The same goes with the other modules. Bob wants to sell his shares in his company. How do we help Bob do that?

It’s much more practical and if you’re able to depart yourself from S.1(1) LP(MP)A 1989, Lloyds Bank -v- Rossett and Inter alia, the wonderful latin phrases other law grads might be guilty of throwing about verbatim - you’ll be fine.

I do echo the organisation point above, it’s demanding, not in terms of intellect but volume of work. Tabulate, highlight and be familiar with what you’ve been taught.

Don’t fall behind, do enjoy it! Any Qs, drop me a line

You are absolutely right - the application of the law to the facts is what gets you the marks but I personally found that the legacy notes were like cheat sheets of what facts to pick out and apply!

What I found during the course was that the material was all OK and the workshops were very helpful, but when it came to preparing and organising notes to take into the exams, I struggled working out what the best method / approach was. That's where the legacy notes really helped me. Everyone learns differently of course! But if you are like me and you need a bit of inspiration I would recommend the notes!

 

[NLaw18]

I started the LPC in January and everything has been moved online and with living in remote area the wifi is not great and most times the live lectures lag by 10seconds meaning I can barely understand what is being said.

It is really difficult to self-teach everything and quite frankly ULaw have been abysmal in their handling of the teaching and exams (no proctor showing up to ALL FOUR of the CPAs).

Now the elective exams are around the corner and we then have to do the CPAs in December, some 6 months after teaching stopped; I dont care about distinctions and commendations I just want this nightmare course to be finished. So I need some advice; how hard is it to merely pass it? What sort of methods would people recommend for revision?

Emailed my tutor 4 weeks ago and still no reply; heres hoping TCLA can come to the rescue.

Hi,
Sorry if the reply comes in a bit late, but I just finished my LPC with BPP University in July and passed with a distinction. I am not gonna lie it was definitely some hard work and sleepless nights but you can definitely get through with a little organisation and consistent effort. I had to do the CPAs in person and the electives online so I sort of have experienced both of those different styles of examination. I did mine with BPP but I am presuming the modules are more or less the same for ULaw as well.
Feel free to pm me if you need any specific advice.

 

[ZH]

I started the LPC in January and everything has been moved online and with living in remote area the wifi is not great and most times the live lectures lag by 10seconds meaning I can barely understand what is being said.

It is really difficult to self-teach everything and quite frankly ULaw have been abysmal in their handling of the teaching and exams (no proctor showing up to ALL FOUR of the CPAs).

Now the elective exams are around the corner and we then have to do the CPAs in December, some 6 months after teaching stopped; I dont care about distinctions and commendations I just want this nightmare course to be finished. So I need some advice; how hard is it to merely pass it? What sort of methods would people recommend for revision?

Emailed my tutor 4 weeks ago and still no reply; heres hoping TCLA can come to the rescue.

Hi there!

Sorry to hear your experience has been like so at ULaw. I studied the LPC there and graduated last year. My tutors used to say it is easier to pass the exams than fail them and I would probably agree! You don't need thorough reading but good understanding of the foundations. Also go over the specimen paper because they tend to follow the same structure/questions and sometimes you can copy the answers out of there!!

I've shared so many resources on my blog so I thought it would be easier to share:
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/untitled-1
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/how-to-create-lpc-exam-notes
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/how-to-achieve-a-distinction-on-the-lpc

I've also shared a few of my checklists, both for core modules and electives - just to give an idea of how they would look or what to include:
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/company-procedure-template
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/searches-enquiries

I'm happy to help if you want to directly message me

Z

 

[Alice G]

Hi there!

Sorry to hear your experience has been like so at ULaw. I studied the LPC there and graduated last year. My tutors used to say it is easier to pass the exams than fail them and I would probably agree! You don't need thorough reading but good understanding of the foundations. Also go over the specimen paper because they tend to follow the same structure/questions and sometimes you can copy the answers out of there!!

I've shared so many resources on my blog so I thought it would be easier to share:
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/untitled-1
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/how-to-create-lpc-exam-notes
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/how-to-achieve-a-distinction-on-the-lpc

I've also shared a few of my checklists, both for core modules and electives - just to give an idea of how they would look or what to include:
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/company-procedure-template
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/searches-enquiries

I'm happy to help if you want to directly message me

Z

Thank you for always contributing so much on this topic @Zainab H - it's so interesting and reassuring to hear your take on things and the links you shared are amazing!

 

[ZH]

Thank you for always contributing so much on this topic @Zainab H - it's so interesting and reassuring to hear your take on things and the links you shared are amazing!

My pleasure Alice, means a lot to me! I appreciate your kind comment.

Since completing the LPC and having taken the time to get used to it myself, I started sharing a lot on my blog It's always helpful to know from others that it is possible to do well, with hard work and perseverance

 

[lawgirl101]

I can't help with your question as I've not done the LPC but I was studying the GDL with them this year and it has been absolutely horrendous so I feel your pain. For one module I had no access to the online material. IT emailed to say they were working on it and they'd let me know when it was fixed. They never followed up. I contacted them again and got told they were working on it. I didn't get any access until after the exam. I then made a complaint to the uni and the uni said it's my fault I didn't have access because I should have contacted them sooner... except their email said that they knew it was an issue, were working to fix it and not to contact them! Also, some people studying online have had recorded lectures and tutorials for everything they would have had in person and some haven't had any recordings at all so it's completely inconsistent - and yet everyone sits the same exams and gets graded the same way. Someone I spoke to on LinkedIn just failed their LLM (that they were doing alongside their LPC) and said they'd never been assigned a supervisor or had any help with their dissertation. The scholarships team also "lost" my application for scholarships at the beginning of my course after doing the test (the wrong one - they gave me the one for students who had law degrees not non-law degrees) and my essay (that they gave me a 48 hour deadline on because they hadn't responded to my multiple emails in the previous six weeks).
Essentially, I really feel your pain and I'm sorry I can't be of any real help. The whole university is a complete shambles in m experience.

I have heard pretty much similar with BPP and awful standards/ teaching! The teachers/examiners forgot that my friends had an exam so no room was book and they ended up doing it semi outside with pigeons! I know hard to believe when people are really paying £17k!

 

[PhoebeL]

Hi there!

Sorry to hear your experience has been like so at ULaw. I studied the LPC there and graduated last year. My tutors used to say it is easier to pass the exams than fail them and I would probably agree! You don't need thorough reading but good understanding of the foundations. Also go over the specimen paper because they tend to follow the same structure/questions and sometimes you can copy the answers out of there!!

I've shared so many resources on my blog so I thought it would be easier to share:
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/untitled-1
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/how-to-create-lpc-exam-notes
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/how-to-achieve-a-distinction-on-the-lpc

I've also shared a few of my checklists, both for core modules and electives - just to give an idea of how they would look or what to include:
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/company-procedure-template
https://zaiblogs.wixsite.com/blog/post/searches-enquiries

I'm happy to help if you want to directly message me

Z

Thank you so much for these fab links. I just started the LPC + MSc so these will be great.

 

[ZH]

Thank you so much for these fab links. I just started the LPC + MSc so these will be great.

I'm so glad to hear they're useful Phoebe! Best of luck with your studies - give a shout if you need help with anything

 

[AOD]

Hi everyone,

All your advice is so useful - thank you very much! I've not yet started my LPC, but I am trying to prepare for when I have to make all the decisions and start the work on it so I don't get overwhelmed when the time comes in September.

I have a question - if you had a Law degree, did you find that the electives in the LPC were at the same level as optional modules in undergrad? I have an interest in certain topics but wouldn't want to just repeat what I did in undergrad.

 

[ZH]

Hi everyone,

All your advice is so useful - thank you very much! I've not yet started my LPC, but I am trying to prepare for when I have to make all the decisions and start the work on it so I don't get overwhelmed when the time comes in September.

I have a question - if you had a Law degree, did you find that the electives in the LPC were at the same level as optional modules in undergrad? I have an interest in certain topics but wouldn't want to just repeat what I did in undergrad.

Hi there!

Do you mean same level of depth of the content of a certain topic for example I studied Commercial law elective on the LLB and did the same elective on the LPC and it covered very similar topics - the basics of the Sale of Goods Act but the difference is the LPC is practical so you will be advising a client whilst on the LLB it requires you to know the law, its history and write a few essays too. I did other similar electives and there was some overlap but on the LPC your focus shifts.

Or did you mean the level of difficulty? in which case as above, the practicality is what differs the LPC but doesn't make it difficult just a new type of learning

I hope this helps - happy to answer any other questions

Z