#they are rather small (half a A4 page each) so they don't take up much space but hm idk | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vivrepourleslivres · 5 years

Note

Hey, I know you already graduated so sorry if this is a bit off topic! I'm starting at Oxford next month to do law, and I'm a bit panicked about the reading. I feel like I read pretty slowly, especially if I'm taking notes (which I kind of have to if I want to focus at all), and it just seems like they're so much raw material I don't know if I'll keep up. Is that something you ever struggled with? How many pages did you tend to have to read in a day? I worry I'll have to stop sleeping ngl

Well, congratulations on getting into Oxford! That in and of itself is not an easy task so it’s always a good thing to remember when workload is stressing you out that your tutors must have picked you for a reason, and that they think you can handle it even if sometimes you feel like you can’t. Also, I may not be able to give as many examples as I would like because I’m currently in the process of moving so all my old reading lists and breakdowns are in a box somewhere…

First, everyone struggles with reading. EVERYONE. Even if they don’t admit it. Law is one of, if not the most, intensive subjects when it comes to the sheer amount of reading you have to do. The Law Faculty describes the workload by saying it should be around 30-40 hours a week – a fulltime job essentially. However, this is quite a bit exaggerated. Of course, it all depends on what college you’re in and who your tutors are, but you can get by just fine without forcing yourself to be glued to a textbook/casebook/WestLaw all day:

· You do not have to read the entire reading list of cases. Your tutors will hopefully make this clear to you, and if they don’t then the finalist lawyers in your college definitely should. Every reading list I was ever given by a tutor had certain cases in bold or marked by an asterisk. These are the must-reads, which you will have to know and come exam time will likely be referencing often. You should read the entirety of these cases, including all the judgements, even if there is no dissent in the case. It’s by knowing the little details in each judge’s reasoning in these cases that you get in the 67-74 mark realm, which is where you want to be. There’s usually a couple of these per reading list, but no more than ten on any one list I would say. For cases that are not bold or marked, your tutor will probably tell you to read these anyway. I did this in my first year and it just stressed me out without helping much. It’s kind of a thing you have to get a feel for. I would read the headnote of the case (so the facts and the summary of the judgement), and decide whether it was important from that. If the case is mentioned a lot in the important cases because it was at one point important precedent, it’s probably still a good idea to read it. If not, and if it is on a very small subsection in the reading list (like trustees de son tort in trusts), I wouldn’t bother. The only other thing I’d add with regards to cases is that recent cases (so for you anything that came out [2017] or later) is probably worth reading because tutors like to bring them up. If your tutor insists that every case is important, look up the faculty reading list for that subject on WebLearn, as the most important cases are highlighted there as well. You can also use the faculty list if you want some more cases/articles for your essay but the tutor hasn’t provided many.

· Textbook reading can be hit or miss. A good chunk of your weekly reading can come from the assigned textbook chapter. From what I remember it’s usually around 70 pages per subject per week, and for your first two years you’ll be on a subject and a half a term so around 70-140 pages a week from the textbook? Tutors have their own textbook preferences, and will probably point you towards a certain one, but some subjects do not really (in my opinion) fully warrant investment into a textbook – I barely ever used my EU law or my administrative law textbooks, I think I only opened the second for my final! I also think there is something to be said for trying to understand the cases in your own way before reading the textbook, as some of the authors are very biased in their explanations. Other subjects however (especially Intro to Roman Law) are more focussed on textbooks because of their nature. You’ll figure it out pretty quickly though were textbooks are important and where they’re not. I would however highly suggest the Text, Cases, and Materials series though! These combine a textbook and a casebook, and are pretty up-to-date on new developments. My contract one was honestly a god send, and I cut a lot of cases and textbook reading out of my week because of those books.

· Articles. I’ll be honest, I would usually only read an article if it directly correlated to the essay, or was under 20 pages. Articles are your tools for getting a 70s, but you can get very high 2:1s without having to read many of them. Articles in my opinion are more time consuming than textbook reading – there was a week of admin reading that ended in five 60 articles on the same topic and that was actual hell. It’s also rather difficult in an exam setting to remember many articles and academic viewpoints unless you completely drill them into your head so… Yeah – you don’t need to read many, and you certainly don’t have to read all of them (but if you’re really interested in the subject and have the time – go for it!)

· Legislation. This applies mainly to land law and it’s heavy reliance on statute – literally glance at the sections on the list and post them all into a word document which you keep open during tutorials. You’ll get to know the really important sections through the cases, so don’t waste time on trying to remember it all (especially since you’re allowed statute books in exams). For EU law (which also relies on legislation quite a bit), maybe have a closer look at the actual wording and the implication of it, but again you get a statute book so…(also EU is a finalist subject so I’m getting a bit ahead of myself)

· Your finalists are your friends. I mean upper years in general, but the finalists are the ones with all the tips and tricks because you get so stressed you learn all the ways to cut corners :D Do not be afraid to ask your seniors for notes! This does depend somewhat on college (again), but in my college a dropbox is made each year by the graduating cohort of all their finals notes (so I’ve just done this), and second years add in their moderations notes as well. These are great because they let you skip cases (providing the notes include case summaries) and can even point out those little differences in judge’s reasoning that I was talking about earlier (like the three-way split in Re Baden’s 2). So don’t be afraid to ask for notes, or even for advice on what you can safely skip knowing your tutor.

· They ease you into it. You’ll do criminal law, constitutional law, and an introduction to roman private law over your first two terms, doing a subject and a half per term. Of those three, criminal law is the only case-heavy subject. Constitutional law and roman are mainly textbook/article based. So you shouldn’t have a very intense workload until Trinity term at the earliest (outside of revision for mods in Hillary) at which point you should have found your ideal work pace. So try not to worry too much about it all happening too much at once.

Honestly, I think it’s kind of an Oxford thing that we somewhat exaggerate how much work we do. Personally, I would divide my reading list into chunks (usually about a third of a side of A4) and say – this is how much I’m going to get done each day. Most reading lists are 2/3 sides of A4 I would say? I could still have days where I wouldn’t get that chunk done and would still be okay and reach the deadline. So I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Also you could make arrangements with other fresher lawyers to take certain parts of the reading list, but I maybe wouldn’t do that until you know them and how they approach cases/reading/notes, etc.

I hope this wasn’t too ramble-y and did somewhat help. I’m totally happy to answer any questions you have about Oxford/law despite graduating because it helps me relieve my youth and avoid the real world :L Good luck for your first year!

#ask #oxford #oxford university #university of oxford #law

4 notes · View notes