TCLA Direct Training Contract Applications Discussion Thread 2024-5

[Ram Sabaratnam]

Hi everyone, I’m hoping to get some guidance.

I’m currently pursuing an LLM in the UK, and I did my undergraduate law degree in India. My issue is how to address my academic grades in applications. My overall percentage is 57%, which looks quite low by UK standards. However, my university had a very strict marking system—60% is considered a first class, and 55–60% falls into the “high second class,” which can roughly correspond to a 2:1 in the UK. Despite the percentage, I was ranked 6th out of a batch of over 300 students, and I have a letter from my university confirming this.

I’ve also done over 36 months' worth of internships, won several moots, and have a strong profile in terms of practical experience.

According to TCLA’s review, my application (cover letter, commercial awareness responses, etc.) was good, so I’m wondering if the grades are possibly hurting my chances.

How should I address this in my future applications? Should I include a brief explanation in the cover letter or attach the university’s grading policy?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Hiya @Antariksh Singh Jamwal

I've posted a reply to your question here: https://www.thecorporatelawacademy....grade-high-ranking-in-class.9708/#post-214645

In short, it’s definitely something worth flagging in your application. Law firms are generally familiar with the fact that international grading systems operate differently, and they’ll often use conversion guidance (similar to what UK universities use) to interpret overseas qualifications. That said, if your class rank places you in the top 5% or 10% of your cohort, I'd absolutely include that detail in the academic section of the application. Many firms give you the option to add context (whether in the grade box itself or in an additional information section) and this kind of context is exactly what those sections are for.

 

[👩🎓]

Hiya @👩🎓

Just to clarify: a percentile is not the same as a percentage. A percentage is your raw score (e.g. getting 75% of questions correct), whereas a percentile tells you how well you performed relative to others in your norm group. So if you’re in the 75th percentile, that means you scored better than 75% of people in that group, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you got 75% of the answers right. Even with the same number of correct answers, your percentile could shift dramatically depending on the norm group.

What makes this tricky is that you don’t know what norm group you're being compared against; it could be everyone applying to that firm, or a broader population. You also don’t know how the firm is using the result. Some use it as a hard filter, others as just one factor among many. For now, I'd just focus on trying to get better and understand the type of reasoning demanded by each section.

Hope this is helpful and not rehashing anything you already know.

Thank you, this is really helpful @Ram Sabaratnam