General Tips:

- Attend all lectures and use them as a skeleton of what the topic entails
- Studying a few topics in depth is better than studying all topics but in breadth (still do
compulsory readings and lectures and class work for all topics)
- Only do further readings for topics you will choose for the exam
- Making essay plans and summaries can all be done during exam season (March). During
term time focus on settling in, understanding the content, and finishing all the compulsory
readings.

Organising revision:

For exam revision me and my friends looked at past papers and made a decision based on the most
common topics and by searching for patterns to predict what topics could come up. We also used
past paper questions to make essay plans.

1. ILS/Property I
2. Criminal/contract/tort
3. Public

1. ILS/Property I
o Most if not all the topics come up as a question in the exam and you only need to
answer 2 questions in each exam. Therefore, pick the topics you like and you know
you can write about and revise those only – 3 to 4 topics is a perfect amount for the
exam. Become an expert on these topics by:
▪ Lecture
▪ Compulsory readings
▪ Further readings
▪ Own research
▪ Converting content into summaries essay plans etc.
o For the purpose of contributing to the class and getting to know what topics you
enjoy, aim to do about 2 of the compulsory readings for each topic. If you are
absolutely sure you won’t study that topic for the exam, perhaps read the
introduction and conclusions so that you can contribute to class. You can absolutely
skip everything else.

2. Criminal/Contract/tort
o You won’t get all the topics in the exam
o Need to be more strategic and basically predicting questions and preparing for
select topics – but could be risky.
o Contract and tort will each have 3 PQs and 4 essays to choose from (you have to
choose one PQ and one essay for each)
o Criminal will have 3 PQS and I think 8 essays questions (can’t remember) – you have
to answer 3 questions; either 2 PQs and one essay or 2 essays and one PQ
o I picked 2/3 topics for contract and tort essays and 4 topics for criminal essays
o For contract/tort the textbook is the main reading
o I skipped the textbook for criminal law – instead I made summaries of the cases on
the reading list by making tables for them and read articles and further readings
online (mainly for essay-based topics and topics I wanted to do for the exam)
o Different approaches for problem and essay questions
Problem Questions Essay Questions
1. Lecture notes 1. Lecture notes which will introduce you to the debate in each topic
2. Lecture + textbook/further 2. Readings and cases
reading combined 3. Content for debates:
3. Class notes o Contract – Great Debates Book
4. Turn that into PQ summaries o Tort – McBride and Bagshaw textbook was good enough
(which I will share with you) o Criminal/tort/contract – law trove was good as well
5. Make case tables with clear o Criminal – articles were useful
themes 4. Convert content into essay plans using past papers questions
Only do this for essay questions you will answer in the exam.

3. Public Law
o Divided into 3 categories:
▪ Topics 1-2: Conceptual Framework, Central Government and the Executive,
Courts and the Constitution, Parliament
▪ Topics 4-5: EU and Devolution
▪ Topics 6-7: Civil Liberties and Human Rights
o The highlighted 2 bulks are important and cannot be missed as all the topics relate
to each other. The bulk (EU and Devolution) are standalone topics and do not
overlap much. You can skip these completely.
o You will have to pick 4 out of 9 essay questions to answer (no PQs)
o I skipped EU and Devolution and revised majority of the other topics but some in
more detail than others
o My steps were:
▪ Lecture notes
▪ Textbook notes
▪ Further research
▪ Convert content into essay plans and summaries

How to make good notes?

- This is a learning process and you’ll find that by the time you get to March (exam season),
you will redo some of your earlier notes!
- My main tips are (1) using textbooks as a GAPFILLER for lecture notes and (2) looking at past
paper questions for every topic to see the sorts of debates you will be examined on
- Also try to take notes in your own words – when you don’t make sure to note this down so
you wont accidentally plagiarise when using your notes.

Writing essays:
1. Highlight everything that might be relevant to the essay question
2. Organize ideas into a rough essay plan
3. Organize ideas into a neat essay plan and make it detailed
4. Type up essay

Further tips:

Dealing with readings:

- You will get a lot of readings and there is no point denying that. Do not leave them till last
minute. If you don’t get the readings done before your next class, it will be nearly impossible
to find the time to go back to them.
- I and many other students divided readings between classmates and friends – if I didn’t do
that I doubt I would have had the time to finish all my readings
 - How I divided readings?
o I took the lead on this and asked my class group chats to takes readings notes
together.
o For those who said yes, I shared a OneNote for readings and a deadline to get them
complete by. The deadline usually was a day before class so that is why it is easier to
divide it between those who have similar class dates.
o Every week before the lecture, I would organise the OneNote page with participants
names and which pages to do.
o Everyone did their readings under their name
o I suggest copying all the reading notes to your own non-shared notes to not
accidentally lose any of the notes.
o Before class I tried reviewing all the reading notes and using them to answer class
questions
- You guys might feel uncomfortable about dividing readings as you are worried others might
miss out on some points from the readings BUT I don’t think you should worry. It is
impossible to get everything done alone. If someone’s notes are particularly lacking you can
either talk to them about it or redo their notes when free or during exam season.

How I took lecture notes?

- I inserted the lecture slides onto my OneNote and typed my extra notes on the side.
- Let me know if you are confused on how to do this.

Cases:
- For criminal/contract/tort, I mainly used case summaries or articles I found online and took
notes from them. I never read the entire case
- For public, reading the most important cases and taking notes from them is required. Do as
much as you can and the rest during exam season. Overall, just take detailed notes for these
cases and make sure you understand the main facts, judgement and key takeaways.
- Using law teacher and Elaw resources was really useful to understand the cases and for a
summary

Careers:

- Apply to diversity schemes ASAP such as

o SEO City Solicitors Horizons – 3-year programme
o SEO Corporate Law
o Aspiring Solicitors
▪ AS FIRST
▪ ASAP – summer
▪ ASPIRE
▪ Commercial competition
o Vantage
o Pathways to Law
o Rare
o Bright network
- Make a tracker for first year schemes deadlines
- Make research tables for law firms you are interested in and research them (ask me for a
template)
- Read All about the city and the commercial handbook for commercial awareness
- Make a key terms table for commercial awareness
- Build your commercial awareness regularly – even if 15mins a day
 - When a news story interest you or something important happens take notes on it and do
further research around the topic thinking of its legal, social and economic implications and
how it relates to law firms you are interested in
- Practice Watson Glaser regularly
- Follow + subscribe to law careers Instagram and YouTube pages
- Call up local high street law firms and ask for some work experience – I did work experience
at an immigration law firm every Friday
- Make a LinkedIn account and keep it up to date
- Use LSE careers
- Don’t worry if you do not get a First-year scheme, just attend as many insight events as
possible
- Use Forage for virtual work experience
- For commercial awareness read the Financial Times (LSE has a subscription with them), BBC
Business, Legal Cheek etc.
- Subscribe to commercial newsletters such as Finimize, morning brew, the lawyer, LittleLaw
(personal favourite)
- Listen to podcasts – wake up to money, FT daily, BBC business etc.

Useful websites:

Website What it is?

Law Teacher Especially useful for case and topic summaries
Elaw Resources
Law trove Great for extra readings especially for criminal and sometimes
contract/tort
Studocu You can find some notes, resources etc that LSE students have
uploaded
@llb.helpline An Instagram page run by LSE law students.

Had amazing guides as well as always answered questions on

stories. You can also message them they are really helpful.
They also uploaded some model essays
Criminal, obligations and public I will share these with you.
revision guide Also made by LSE students but not everything might be up to
date
Public topic summaries, I will share my own ones with you
criminal/contract/tort PQ
summaries
Essays If you guys are set a formative and are struggling with a
question, message me and I’ll see what I can offer and share
with you. If I have a good essay I might share it with you