When I graduated from my law degree, I was very close to achieving a First Class. I genuinely enjoyed studying law at university so achieving good grades made me feel more content with my efforts.
So when it came to the LPC, I really wanted to excel and achieve great results. This is not a requirement for any firm but it motivates me to work harder. As I studied the LPC part time, I used the lessons I learnt from my first year experience to improve during my second year and this definitely helped.
These are my my 7 tips on how to achieve a distinction on the LPC:
1. Grow an understanding for the topics - this helps you answer questions well and means you have fulfilled the outcomes for each workshop. The LPC is very practical and procedural so an understanding for what you are learning, as opposed to memorisation, is key.
2. Attempt all workshop tasks - at the end of the day the exam questions will be based on the workshop tasks. To be fully prepared for any question that could come up in the exam, attempt all your workshop tasks and ensure you can re-do these confidently.
3.Create checklists - this one is my favourite since it covers the above two very nicely. The process of creating checklists is to understand the topic, complete the workshop tasks and then create an outline/checklist which guides you through an exam question. During the exam, I use this checklist to guide me through the answer and hit all the important points - tick tick tick !!! I've shared some of my checklists
4. Cover all topics - unlike a law degree where you can choose to miss out some of the topics, you have to cover all aspects of the modules on the LPC since it is all examinable. Therefore each topic is just as important as the other. Prioritise the topics in order of what you are less confident with to strengthen your knowledge and work your way through each topic.
5. Stay organised - this is super useful since there are many workshops and each one will cover a different topic. Your notes need to correspond accordingly and help you find what you are looking for efficiently. To do this, I had a ring-binder for each module and within that I separated my notes workshops chronologically.
6. Practice makes progress - attempt the specimen paper when you feel fairly confident with the content then go though the answers and identify what was lacking. Closer to the exam, re-do the specimen in timed conditions to get a feel of the exam and focus on the points of improvements.
7. YOU CAN DO IT!! It is possible, people have done it before and they will do it again. A distinction is not impossible, it just requires your belief that you can achieve and you will achieve. Put the hard work in and the fruits of success will reap.