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Message: <blockquote data-quote="average_jo123" data-source="post: 212215" data-attributes="member: 15838"><h3>Before starting the prep course</h3>I took a gap year before starting my prep course, and I remember feeling extremely anxious about getting a headstart.<h4>What I did in the few months leading up to the start of the course: </h4> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I started the course at the end of September. I practically did nothing leading up to September.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I knew that there was a lot of content to learn. But just didn't know where to start.</li> </ul><h4>What I wish I had done differently: </h4>SRA assessment specification<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Start familiarising yourself with the spec for SQE1. On the SRA website it is laid out in the most horrible way. Copy and paste this into a Word or Excel document that you can use to check off your understanding on each topic as you go through the course. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Have a look at the SRA SQE1 sample questions to get a rough idea on the type of questions you will need to get used to. I heard that ULaw has already incorporated single best answer questions (SBAQs) into their PGDL course so if you have done the PGDL lately you probably would already be familiar with this. But if you haven't, just have a look at the questions to get some idea. Don't worry about 'wasting' these practice questions — by the time you re-attempt these questions 4 months down the road, you probably would have forgotten its contents. Knowing how the questions would look like would help focus your note-taking / flashcard-making technique later on.</li> </ul>Outline, outline, outline<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I wish I had spent less time during the course doing admin and putting my notes in good order. Because I had no time to deal with admin and formatting, I basically had no solid database of long-form notes on hand - which added to a lot of my stress. Whilst you have time before the course starts, create a master document for each subject with different tabs with the contents of the SRA spec as headings. This way, as you are going through the course, you will be more assured that you are actually covering the content in the spec bit by bit. ULaw's manuals are actually laid out quite helpfully and covers each item in the spec quite methodically in a logical order. So as you are making your outlines, just have the ULaw manual's table of contents and the SRA spec side by side and see how you can line up the content and have a very comprehensive set of notes by the end.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">This was probably one of my biggest mistakes, as I kind of just winged it and stuck to only the ULaw manuals throughout the course without even properly looking at the SRA spec more than once in the first 3 months of the course. And towards the end I was in a mad panic because I felt like there were so many gaps in my knowledge as I was checking off topics from the spec. It wasn't because I actually didn't know the content required in the spec (if you tested me on the substantive content under that heading, I probably will get a good handful of questions correct), but more so because I was so disorganised - so it felt like there was a lot of stuff in the spec I didn't know. From my experience, just making my way through the ULaw manuals and doing the practice SBAQs meant that I knew enough to cover the spec to a good degree, but I just could have saved myself from the last minute panic if I had been more organised from the start and methodically checked things off and tested my understanding on each topic as I went along.</li> </ul>Revision techniques<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Try and work out what works for you early on rather than waste the first month of the course figuring this out. Of course there will inevitably be some trial and error after you start the course, but I think there are certain things you can pretty much figure out beforehand whilst you still have free time. One such example of trial and error is that I realised halfway through the course I simply could not keep up with making long form notes. I chatted to my classmates about this and a few of them thought the same. So for certain subjects I had to somewhat wing it, ditch the long form notes and instead, just read through the manuals, go straight to practising questions and fill in the gaps from there. I personally wouldn't recommend this as the topics that I took shortcuts on were the very ones that haunt me and keep me up at night lol because I knew I didn't understand them in enough detail and I was just so worried that the SRA would trap me with loads of these questions on specifically these very weak topics of mine.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I figured out in the first month of the course that flashcards work well for me. This is very much a matter of personal preference - some of my classmates swore by not using flashcards at all and it worked for them as they all passed in Q1 as well. But I personally preferred flashcards given active recall and spaced repetition as learning techniques is science-backed and I felt more comfortable knowing that I am testing myself consistently rather than just reading reading passively from words on a page. If you do decide on using flashcards, then comes the question of what tools you will use for flashcards — handwritten, Quizlet or Anki. IMO handwritten wastes way too much time (there is so much content I knew it's not worth the effort + you don't have a spaced repetition algorithm to know which decks to review and how frequently) and I wasn't sure if I could take full advantage of Quizlet without paying for the premium subscription, so I personally went with Anki as it is completely free on Mac/Windows and my medic friends swear on Anki's spaced repetition algorithm. You can also share decks on Anki with your classmates if you do decide to help each other out and exchange decks. I'd say spend time before the start of your course familiarising yourself with Anki + all its features and shortcuts (this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zaKVFC9Eu4" target="_blank">tutorial</a> on Youtube is a good crash course) so when the course starts and you need to bash out flashcards, you can make them very quickly. A lot of people think Anki looks too complicated - but trust me, once you get the hang of it, it's really not that deep. I don't find it any less user-friendly than Quizlet and I especially liked the fact that I could customise my cards with things like clozes and customise my study sessions with tags. I might make a separate post on how I used flashcards on Anki — what worked and what didn't work + some of my other thoughts on note-taking in general. But for the purposes of this post, what I recommend is just - whatever it is that you plan to do, try to get the admin out of the way because all this admin will just slow you down once the course starts. I had to learn Anki from scratch the past year as I've never had to use it for memorising in my undergrad years, so if it's your first time using Anki as well, best to get to grips with it before the course starts.</li> </ul>Accessing ULaw materials early<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Once you are enrolled with ULaw, I'm pretty sure you will have access to the virtual learning environment and the online library pretty early on. You won't have access to Westlaw / Practical Law / Lexis+ until you start your course but you don't need those to get started on your learning / revision. All you need is the ULaw SQE manuals - so get your hands on them early if you can. From there, just start learning and revising from those manuals, and as explained above, start making outlines for them and make notes if you have the time.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I'm not sure when exactly you get access to the ULaw practice app i.e. the platform / app that houses all the practice SBAQs - but if you do get access to it early, you can even start doing some practice questions as you learn the content.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't worry too much about learning the practice modules e.g. Business Law and Practice, Property Practice, Criminal Practice, Wills and Admin, Legal Services, Solicitors Accounts — these subjects are quite a lot harder to understand without teaching from the tutors as it will be the first time you encounter them. If you do want to start early, just start with the academic law modules first i.e. Contract, Tort, Trusts, Public and EU, Criminal, Land. The academic modules are straightforward and easy to understand just from reading the manuals, as you would have learnt the basics of it already from either your law degree or PGDL and from there it's just building on your understanding with content specific to the SRA SQE1 spec.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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