LPC Resits

[lpcstudent2021]

Evening all,

Just had all my January exams back for ULaw and have failed three of my exams (legal writing- unsure by how much, wills and estates 1-mark off a pass, accounts-10 marks off). Apart from this I got firsts in all my grade weighted mocks, passed my other pass/fail exams and the real exams went fairly well, so this came as a very unpleasant surprise as I did the prep for them. I got a first last year on the GDL and got a mid 2.1 from Russell group before that so I'm taking the risk of self-funding to get through it in the hopes of getting a TC at some point at a large firm, but I'm aware most of them have a first-time pass policy on their exams. Has my failing of these exams ruined my chances of training at these places? I have read ULaws policy and as these aren't weighted exams, and therefore they won't affect my overall average. However, These exams are shown on my transcript and it would show that I resat them, I was wondering how much of an adverse effect this has on pursuing big law?

I'm assuming my best bet may be to laterally move somewhere big when I'm qualified instead but that idea doesn't sound too appealing at this moment in time. I have read stories of trainees at major firms not making the cut by one mark and losing training contracts as a result. If this is the case, should I just not bother applying for these firms in the future?

If anyone has any advice on this that would be brilliant. Furthermore, I'm doing the city electives (Banking, M and A, Equity finance) and was wondering if it may be worth me changing to do something which may suit a smaller firm and not wasting effort and money on something that will be out of my reach for some years PQE at best, not at all at worst?



As you can imagine I'm having a major panic about this as I really don't want to jeopardize my future career over three exams that are not even grade-weighted due to my own idiocy. I don't have any mitigating circumstances for this and just screwed up by focussing too much on finishing vac scheme apps before the January deadlines and not revising enough. If it is as binary as that's me written off for a while then fair enough, would be good to know so I can focus on smaller firms or qualifying via 2 years of work experience instead.

Any advice on what to do would be massively appreciated.

 

[Jessica Booker]

Evening all,

Just had all my January exams back for ULaw and have failed three of my exams (legal writing- unsure by how much, wills and estates 1-mark off a pass, accounts-10 marks off). Apart from this I got firsts in all my grade weighted mocks, passed my other pass/fail exams and the real exams went fairly well, so this came as a very unpleasant surprise as I did the prep for them. I got a first last year on the GDL and got a mid 2.1 from Russell group before that so I'm taking the risk of self-funding to get through it in the hopes of getting a TC at some point at a large firm, but I'm aware most of them have a first-time pass policy on their exams. Has my failing of these exams ruined my chances of training at these places? I have read ULaws policy and as these aren't weighted exams, and therefore they won't affect my overall average. However, These exams are shown on my transcript and it would show that I resat them, I was wondering how much of an adverse effect this has on pursuing big law?

I'm assuming my best bet may be to laterally move somewhere big when I'm qualified instead but that idea doesn't sound too appealing at this moment in time. I have read stories of trainees at major firms not making the cut by one mark and losing training contracts as a result. If this is the case, should I just not bother applying for these firms in the future?

If anyone has any advice on this that would be brilliant. Furthermore, I'm doing the city electives (Banking, M and A, Equity finance) and was wondering if it may be worth me changing to do something which may suit a smaller firm and not wasting effort and money on something that will be out of my reach for some years PQE at best, not at all at worst?



As you can imagine I'm having a major panic about this as I really don't want to jeopardize my future career over three exams that are not even grade-weighted due to my own idiocy. I don't have any mitigating circumstances for this and just screwed up by focussing too much on finishing vac scheme apps before the January deadlines and not revising enough. If it is as binary as that's me written off for a while then fair enough, would be good to know so I can focus on smaller firms or qualifying via 2 years of work experience instead.

Any advice on what to do would be massively appreciated.

Moving laterally from a smaller firm to a larger one isn’t necessarily straight forward, and therefore may not be the easier option. Unfortunately there are too many variables to say what would be easier though.

You may want to consider taking the SQE instead, especially if you have to take the whole of the LPC again.

 

[James Carrabino]

Evening all,

Just had all my January exams back for ULaw and have failed three of my exams (legal writing- unsure by how much, wills and estates 1-mark off a pass, accounts-10 marks off). Apart from this I got firsts in all my grade weighted mocks, passed my other pass/fail exams and the real exams went fairly well, so this came as a very unpleasant surprise as I did the prep for them. I got a first last year on the GDL and got a mid 2.1 from Russell group before that so I'm taking the risk of self-funding to get through it in the hopes of getting a TC at some point at a large firm, but I'm aware most of them have a first-time pass policy on their exams. Has my failing of these exams ruined my chances of training at these places? I have read ULaws policy and as these aren't weighted exams, and therefore they won't affect my overall average. However, These exams are shown on my transcript and it would show that I resat them, I was wondering how much of an adverse effect this has on pursuing big law?

I'm assuming my best bet may be to laterally move somewhere big when I'm qualified instead but that idea doesn't sound too appealing at this moment in time. I have read stories of trainees at major firms not making the cut by one mark and losing training contracts as a result. If this is the case, should I just not bother applying for these firms in the future?

If anyone has any advice on this that would be brilliant. Furthermore, I'm doing the city electives (Banking, M and A, Equity finance) and was wondering if it may be worth me changing to do something which may suit a smaller firm and not wasting effort and money on something that will be out of my reach for some years PQE at best, not at all at worst?



As you can imagine I'm having a major panic about this as I really don't want to jeopardize my future career over three exams that are not even grade-weighted due to my own idiocy. I don't have any mitigating circumstances for this and just screwed up by focussing too much on finishing vac scheme apps before the January deadlines and not revising enough. If it is as binary as that's me written off for a while then fair enough, would be good to know so I can focus on smaller firms or qualifying via 2 years of work experience instead.

Any advice on what to do would be massively appreciated.

@lpcstudent2021, I am sorry to hear that you have found yourself in a situation which you are upset about, but my first piece of advice would be not to panic. These things happen and as you find yourself amidst the transition between two different qualification routes, you may have some flexibility.

I am sure that others will be able to provide more in-depth insight into your particular situation, but if worst comes to worst then you could consider @Jessica Booker's suggestion to take the SQE exam and qualify via the new procedure. My first recommendation, though, would be to set up a meeting with your adviser if you have one and find out what recommendations they have on next steps.

Good luck and let us know if you have any further queries about this - we will try to assist as much as possible.

 

[crispychicken]

Hi! I was in this situation this time last year, and I had to resit a core module which means that my overall result was capped to a pass. I thought this was game over for me, but I still managed to get several interviews from large US firms and secured a VS at an international firm this cycle. So don't lose your hope!

My understanding is that many firms' pass at first sit policy only applies to individuals sponsored by them. Some examples are Taylor Wessing, BCLP and Stephenson Harwood. But some firms do have stringent LPC grade requirement, such as Macfarlanes. For those firms, you will need an extenuating circumstance. I think you should email the graduate recruitment before you apply and ask for their LPC requirements.

 

[Lisa Lowe]

You’ve got a decent 2.1, first in GDL and you can still get a distinction in the LPC - you have proven yourself academically.

I don’t think failing these relatively small exams will hugely impact your applications - although Im definitely no grad rec expert. But I know trainees who have got 2.2s in their undergrad and a trainee who had to resit a LPC module. Also, a lot of City firms just require their trainees to get a pass grade.

The fact that these three exams were sat together will surely make it easier for you to address/explain in interviews - you made the error of concentrating too much on VS apps.

I know the advice above is to do the SQE, but I’m guessing if you drop out of the LPC now, you’ll still have to pay the fees - which isn’t ideal. For the next couple of months, I would just concentrate on getting decent results in the upcoming electives and passing the resits. You’ve still got time to get a really good grade on the LPC - try not to loose sight of that.

Regarding changing modules to appeal to a smaller firm, I would just follow the modules you’re most likely to find interesting/do well in. If you didn’t find wills interesting, you’re probably not got to enjoy private client etc.

 

[Jane Smith]

I do not think it will matter and you should just do the resits, pass them and forget about those modules - they are not very important and I would be surprised if every City firm had a policy on a failure of one of those ones. I agree with the advice above that before applying to a firm email them to ask their LPC requirements, however, so you do not waste your time on any firm which might have 100% pass policy. If you obtain a job as a paralegal job after the LPC they will be more interested in how you do on the job and that in everything else you have really good marks so far. In fact in my day on the solicitors' Finals course (before the LPC) we had no skills subjects (although we did have accounts - I even remember the textbook which was read - Halberstadt) and it was thought that during your 2 years of a training contract you could learn skills of interviewing etc.

I would stick with the city electives. Just focus on how well you have done to date and I am sure there will be firms in the City who will have no problems with it. Also even with mid sized firms those City electives are fine. My two solicitor daughters, one of whom was sponsored by her law firm (who required those options) both did your chosen electives. I am only on this website because my twin sons are both on the LPC at the moment (not with UoL) and I was checking something (I am a solicitor too in London). Just in case of use, my sons about to start BPP electives in private acquisitions, commercial and IP (which at BPP but not UoL is one elective) and employment law which we thought was a reasonable mix between City and commercial law (but not high street). If you do think you might end up at a mid range commercial firm or in-house may be private acquisitions, commercial and intellectual property would be good, but it sounds like you want to go into big City firms and therefore I would stick with your current choices.

BPP does all the electives this term unlike UoL (one of my sons finished his last thing on Friday afternoon - worst slot of the week for Interviewing I&A although I think it went okay). We have certainly taken the view at home that if anything is failed (hopefully not but you never know) then do the resit and go from there. (BPP resits are just about all in August and no BPP marks are out yet for this year's work.)

By the way back in the olden days I went from a medium sized, but well respected, London firm to what was then a top 3 firm when I qualified. That was very rare, but not impossible then and it was, in part, because I had done a whole year's course in my LLB of a particular specialism of that City department and had won the university prize in it. In other words it can be a bit random why someone is hired on qualification. However I agree with the comments of others above that that is an unusual and not easy move - from medium London firm to top firm, even then in the past. Other people I know have been at medium sized and even regional firms that have moved via mergers and other changes up and up to bigger firms and moved in that way, although I accept that is not very common.

The main advice I have is do not lose heart. I wasn't kept on after my training contract which as very surprising for me, but gained offers from 3 much bigger better firms immediately which was very satisfying. Things go wrong in life, even very unfairly, and it is more how able you are to dust yourself down and just get on with it that counts.

I do not know if there is a right of appeal at UoL or you can ask them just to check your marks were added up correctly but as there were 3 exams which were not a pass perhaps that is pointless as it was not one weird outlier of an exam.

 

[Lisa Lowe]

Just a second thought - you could probably get feedback on your legal writing by giving your submitted copy to your personal tutor/workshop tutor, to gain some informal feedback or you could ask someone in your class (who passed) if they can send you their submitted work, so you can compare against yours.

 

[rlaura02]

Hi! I was in this situation this time last year, and I had to resit a core module which means that my overall result was capped to a pass. I thought this was game over for me, but I still managed to get several interviews from large US firms and secured a VS at an international firm this cycle. So don't lose your hope!

My understanding is that many firms' pass at first sit policy only applies to individuals sponsored by them. Some examples are Taylor Wessing, BCLP and Stephenson Harwood. But some firms do have stringent LPC grade requirement, such as Macfarlanes. For those firms, you will need an extenuating circumstance. I think you should email the graduate recruitment before you apply and ask for their LPC requirements.

This is so helpful to read - I failed one of my core modules at first attempt but got distinctions on all the others so I think I can only get a pass overall. I've got a 2:1 from a Russell Group and good experience so I really hope it won't affect me too much. Just gutted that I did well in the other exams and its brought the whole overall grade down to a pass

 

[sami.abdullah.shah]

Hi! I was in this situation this time last year, and I had to resit a core module which means that my overall result was capped to a pass. I thought this was game over for me, but I still managed to get several interviews from large US firms and secured a VS at an international firm this cycle. So don't lose your hope!

My understanding is that many firms' pass at first sit policy only applies to individuals sponsored by them. Some examples are Taylor Wessing, BCLP and Stephenson Harwood. But some firms do have stringent LPC grade requirement, such as Macfarlanes. For those firms, you will need an extenuating circumstance. I think you should email the graduate recruitment before you apply and ask for their LPC requirements.

Hi,

As you had to resit the elective, did the cap your overall degree result to a pass, or just the elective in question?

 

[sami.abdullah.shah]

This is so helpful to read - I failed one of my core modules at first attempt but got distinctions on all the others so I think I can only get a pass overall. I've got a 2:1 from a Russell Group and good experience so I really hope it won't affect me too much. Just gutted that I did well in the other exams and its brought the whole overall grade down to a pass

Hi, was your overall LPC classification capped to a pass, or was it for the failed module only?