Normal
Not a loaded question at all! In fact a completely fair one to have.Two of my vacs involved fixed assessments that weighed heavily into the TC outcome. In terms of standing out for these I don't think it would be any different from if you were doing live work. Focus on doing the basics really well, structure, spelling, clarity of writing. Especially because it is a fixed task, it will be all the more easier to spot people who are falling short on simple things like this. Trying not to write academically is a tough one. Generally I think candidates come across as being too academic when they've chosen to just write huge chunks of text and so it looks like an essay or if they're using particularly long sentences and unnecessarily big words. I think if you stay away from these things your work won't come across as academic at all.It sounds like your feedback had more to do with a slight oversight on your part of some of the key commercial clauses rather than your writing. I think everything you've done so far to increase your commercial knowledge is definitely going to help. I'd highly suggest looking at actual contracts to familiarise yourself a bit more with the role each clause plays. You can find some online and actually since you're a Gold Member I'm pretty sure you Jaysen has examples available on the Gold Members forums. The M&A course on TCLA Premium (again you should have access to this) is also really great and its what I used to increase my own understanding of these kinds of things. The key thing to remember regarding any task you're given is not just to regurgitate generic information but to make sure its specific to the client scenario you're given. So if the deal you're advising on is for a tech company, you'd want to be specific about the kind of warranties - for example warranties on ownership of IP.With regards to rejection, I actually think a certain degree of fear is healthy. I also had a post VS rejection in my second year and I went into my vacs in final year hyperaware that I needed to make every single thing count. Ultimately I think that really helped me make sure I was giving every single day 110% of my effort! Think of it this way, you've actually done a VS before which is a huge advantage to have over everyone else. You know what you need to improve on and you know better than anyone else what it takes to get the TC, you're already ahead of the game imo.
Not a loaded question at all! In fact a completely fair one to have.
Two of my vacs involved fixed assessments that weighed heavily into the TC outcome. In terms of standing out for these I don't think it would be any different from if you were doing live work. Focus on doing the basics really well, structure, spelling, clarity of writing. Especially because it is a fixed task, it will be all the more easier to spot people who are falling short on simple things like this. Trying not to write academically is a tough one. Generally I think candidates come across as being too academic when they've chosen to just write huge chunks of text and so it looks like an essay or if they're using particularly long sentences and unnecessarily big words. I think if you stay away from these things your work won't come across as academic at all.
It sounds like your feedback had more to do with a slight oversight on your part of some of the key commercial clauses rather than your writing. I think everything you've done so far to increase your commercial knowledge is definitely going to help. I'd highly suggest looking at actual contracts to familiarise yourself a bit more with the role each clause plays. You can find some online and actually since you're a Gold Member I'm pretty sure you Jaysen has examples available on the Gold Members forums. The M&A course on TCLA Premium (again you should have access to this) is also really great and its what I used to increase my own understanding of these kinds of things. The key thing to remember regarding any task you're given is not just to regurgitate generic information but to make sure its specific to the client scenario you're given. So if the deal you're advising on is for a tech company, you'd want to be specific about the kind of warranties - for example warranties on ownership of IP.
With regards to rejection, I actually think a certain degree of fear is healthy. I also had a post VS rejection in my second year and I went into my vacs in final year hyperaware that I needed to make every single thing count. Ultimately I think that really helped me make sure I was giving every single day 110% of my effort! Think of it this way, you've actually done a VS before which is a huge advantage to have over everyone else. You know what you need to improve on and you know better than anyone else what it takes to get the TC, you're already ahead of the game imo.