TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25

[SamiyaJ]

Hi @SamiyaJ

Sorry to hear about the rejection – it's definitely frustrating, especially when you’ve been putting in a lot of effort to master this aspect of the application process. The Watson Glaser test is tricky for many, but I think with the right approach, you can definitely improve your performance on these.

Understand the style of reasoning required for each section: As I'm sure you already know, the Watson Glaser test covers five areas: inferences, recognising assumptions, deduction, interpretation, and evaluation of arguments. While doing practice tests is a great start, it's far more important to fully understand the subtle differences between these question types. One thing I've noticed is that many applicants often struggle to understand the difference, for instance, between deductions and inferences. Doing successive practice tests without understanding the type of reasoning required of each section could ultimately frustrate your efforts. So the first thing I'd suggest is really taking time to think about what the section is asking for and why certain answers are correct or incorrect.

Identifying Premises and Conclusions: A particularly helpful strategy is learning how to break down passages into premises and conclusions. This skill is crucial because once you’ve identified the premises (the supporting facts or evidence) and the conclusion (the main point the premises are trying to establish), you can then better identify the assumptions, deductions, or inferences that relate to the passage. Many questions in the Watson Glaser test revolve around how the conclusion is derived from the premises, and spotting this relationship will put you in a much stronger position to answer correctly. I would REALLY REALLY encourage getting into the habit of breaking down anything you read into premises and conclusions. That way, if the question asks about assumptions, you can think more clearly about what's missing between the premises and the conclusion. If it’s about inferences, you’ll need to assess whether a conclusion strongly follows from the premises. For deductions, the conclusion must be an inevitable result of the premises.

Learning Resources: There are great short textbooks that can help clarify the underlying logical concepts and styles of reasoning, and I'd be happy to share some with you. Do let me know. For a more affordable approach, though, you can just use ChatGPT. For instance, you could ask it to provide more examples of each type of question, explaining why a particular answer is a deduction, inference, or assumption. ChatGPT can also help break down the difference between styles of reasoning, helping you understand the difference between, say, a deduction and more probabilistic forms of reasoning. This makes it a useful tool for both learning and practising critical thinking in a more interactive way.

Practicing Under Timed Conditions: Finally, once you feel more comfortable with the test, start practising under timed conditions. Some Watson Glaser tests are timed, so developing both accuracy and speed can be important. But don’t worry about speed in the beginning – focus on getting the logic right first. For some firms, speed will play an important role in determining your percentile score, while others may weigh certain sections or types of questions more heavily.

Overall, it's important to remember that logical reasoning is a skill that we develop, much like any other skill. It will take time, but I've got faith you can do it! Let me know if you have any other questions, and I'd be happy to assist!

Thank you Ram for taking the time to explain! It’s super helpful. You’re absolutely right, I think it’s the inferences and deductions that throw me off.

On to the next one!!!

 

[addy2004]

offer?

unfortunately not - seeing it as redirection and the feedback report was useful at least. Best of luck to anyone else with their AC's!

 

[yeezyee]

did anyone end up hearing from sidley with an interview this week?

 

[LawyerUpPal]

I made quite a few applications this cycle. Within the first week, I got a PFO from Jones Day and thought, here we go again... But then I said PFO to Jones Day and kept going. Today, I received W&C and HSF AC invites!!! Don't let the rejections get to you; feel it momentarily, but let it light that fire to do more applications. Wish me luck and good luck to all of you!

 

[HelpAStudentOut]

Lol Jones Day PFO in ~ 24 hours post AC. They really don’t mess around

 

[Brandon93]

Hi everyone, on AG's application its states solicitor apprenticeship/training contract/graduate solicitor apprenticeship. How will the firm know which vacancy you're applying for exactly?

 

[Andrei Radu]

@Andrei Radu or @Ram Sabaratnam

Can I ask if there's something similar to this but for VIs instead of AC interviews?

Hi @Aspiringsolicitor01! I do not think there is on because AC interview questions are a lot more expansive than VI questions. Since VI questions tend to be more formulaic and predictable, a question bank for AC questions will likely automatically include most questions you can expect in a VI.

From my own and others' experience, VI questions tend to fit into one of the following categories:

• The classics: Why you, Why the firm, Why commercial law - these almost always feature in one form or another.
• Further motivational questions: Why did you initially decide to study law, What other careers did you consider, What do you like and dislike about different types of work, what practice areas/sectors are you interested in etc.
• Competency questions: Tell me about a time you demonstrated teamwork skills/time-management/innovation/creative thinking/integrity etc.
• Situational judgement questions: What would you do in X scenario (eg. you have multiple competing deadline and you feel your work product will suffer as a result)
• General commercial awareness question: tell us about a news story you have been following and what are its impacts on the economy/the legal market/the firm/the firm's clients, what is a business you admire, who are the firm's competitors and how do you distinguish it? why do the firm's clients keep coming back?

Besides variations of these types of questions, the only other type of question you should prepare for is potential curveballs. However, you can't really predict a curveball, so the only thing you can do it to try to train yourself to think quickly and be flexible in how you leverage your experience. For that purpose, I think you can use the AC interview question bank.

 

[TheInevitableTCholder2024/25🙏]

Did anyone attend/write notes on Covington & Burling's Insight series- specifically the ones before today (there were two I believe). If you could share them, I would super appreciate it!

 

[tkl24]

Considering many people have got ACs for Linklaters and HSF, would you say that if I haven't got one so far. it is a rejection?

 

[bangarangbass39]

Just to clarify. After completing the CRT for the London Addleshaw office, you get progressed to the TI/VI stage or it goes straight to AC?

I ask because the CRT is not automatic and last year and before, they only did App stage, CRT, AC

 

[Aspiringsolicitor01]

Hi @Aspiringsolicitor01! I do not think there is on because AC interview questions are a lot more expansive than VI questions. Since VI questions tend to be more formulaic and predictable, a question bank for AC questions will likely automatically include most questions you can expect in a VI.

From my own and others' experience, VI questions tend to fit into one of the following categories:

• The classics: Why you, Why the firm, Why commercial law - these almost always feature in one form or another.
• Further motivational questions: Why did you initially decide to study law, What other careers did you consider, What do you like and dislike about different types of work, what practice areas/sectors are you interested in etc.
• Competency questions: Tell me about a time you demonstrated teamwork skills/time-management/innovation/creative thinking/integrity etc.
• Situational judgement questions: What would you do in X scenario (eg. you have multiple competing deadline and you feel your work product will suffer as a result)
• General commercial awareness question: tell us about a news story you have been following and what are its impacts on the economy/the legal market/the firm/the firm's clients, what is a business you admire, who are the firm's competitors and how do you distinguish it? why do the firm's clients keep coming back?

Besides variations of these types of questions, the only other type of question you should prepare for is potential curveballs. However, you can't really predict a curveball, so the only thing you can do it to try to train yourself to think quickly and be flexible in how you leverage your experience. For that purpose, I think you can use the AC interview question bank.

Thanks. It’s the situational judgement questions I struggle with. I’m good with the multiple choice questions and online tests generally on this, but when it comes to video interviews that’s a whole different thing.

I’ll just Google/chatgpt the situational questions on on the document for inspiration and go from there.

 

[B101]

Got a an AC for White & Case. Any tips would be appreciated!

 

[Andrei Radu]

Thanks. It’s the situational judgement questions I struggle with. I’m good with the multiple choice questions and online tests generally on this, but when it comes to video interviews that’s a whole different thing.

I’ll just Google/chatgpt the situational questions on on the document for inspiration and go from there.

That's not a bad idea for an initial start, but as you progress with your preparation I would try to personalize it further. If you can make connections to and reference any similar situations you've dealt with in the past, that will make your answer a lot more persuasive.

 

[tarty23]

what are the best ways of researching distinctions between firms? band rankings are fairly surface level - I can’t seem to find much specific info on a firm’s website/other internet searches on where a firm may particularly excel

 

[Andrei Radu]

Got a an AC for White & Case. Any tips would be appreciated!

Hey @B101 and first of all huge congratulations, this is an amazing achievement 🥳! I don't have any W&C specific tips, but I thought it might be useful to quote here a post I made about my interview preparation method:

Hi there! My interview preparation approach, which led to a VS offer 4/4 times I implemented it, was essentially split in four phases:

Step 1 - Preparing ideas for answers

The first and most difficult step in preparing for interviews is learning how to respond to a wide variety of questions. Of course, you cannot prepare beforehand for all potential variations of all potential interview questions. Furthermore, you do not want to learn answers by heart and then just repeat them in front of the interviewers - they are likely to sound robotic. However, by investing a substantial amount of time thinking about how you would go about answering to as many different questions as possible, you start learning how to describe your motivations and experiences in a flexible manner. This decreases the chances that you will not be caught off-guard by any given question. It also increases the chances that, even if you have not prepared for a question you are being asked, you will find a somewhat sensible answer to it.

The first thing I would do when invited to an AC/interview (and for a video interview, but not in the same level of detail) would be to try to build a question bank to practice on. I would create a Word doc with a few big headings (like 'CV based/competency questions'; 'motivations/firm-specific questions', 'commercial awareness questions', situational judgement questions' etc) and firstly write down all the questions I could think of under each relevant heading. I would then look at my CV, and find try to think how I could leverage my experience to answer those questions. Finally, I would write 2-3 short bullet points under each questions to explain how I would answer it - I have found this helps with memorizing the ideas for your answers. Thus enabled me to both have the ideas ready to go in my mind for a high number of questions and to be able to go through the though process of formulating the answer in the actual interview. It is also worth mentioning that at this step I would prepare particularly well for the questions I thought were very likely to come up (such as Why the firm, Why me etc).

The second stage involved searching for interview question banks on the internet - such as the one offered by TCLA here. While reading them, I would spend around 30 seconds on each question thinking of potential ways of answering them. I would then copy the questions I was having particular difficulty with and add them under the relevant heading in my word document. After finalizing this process, I would once again look at my CV and spend a longer amount of time thinking how to best answer each of them. Then, I would note down my ideas in short bullet points.

The final stage was similar to the second, with the only difference being that I would search directly for examples of past questions asked by the firm I was interviewing at - resources that were useful were this TCLA forum and Glassdoor.


Step 2 - Practicing articulating your answers

Once I had found the right ideas as to how to answer most interview questions, the second step of preparation involved improving my ability to articulate them. Despite the initial awkwardness of this method, I have found it incredibly useful to simply turn my laptop's camera on, pick one question at random, give myself a few seconds to think, and then record my answer. Subsequently, I would watch the recording with as critical an attitude as possible to see the parts I was struggling with the most. Then I would repeat this process again and again until I was happy with the way I was answering any given question.

A point worth noting is that as I was deciding at random which question to respond to, I would try to tweak the specific phrasing of the question in my mind. Thus, instead of just learning how to answer 'Why do you want to pursue a career in commercial law?', I would learn to answer many variations of the same type of question, such as 'How did your interest in commercial law originate?', 'Why commercial law rather than another area of the law?', 'Why do you want to be a commercial solicitor rather than a commercial barrister?' and so on. Once again, by following this approach, I would learn how to be flexible in formulating my ideas to best suit the exact question the interviewer would be asking me.


Step 3 - Mock interviews

Especially for any AC/final stage interviews, mock interviews are a really useful preparation tool. After you have improved yourself as much as you could by firstly preparing your best ideas for answers, and then preparing the best way to articulate them, you would now be in the best position to further improve both your ideas and your capacity to communicate them by getting feedback from others. Hence, if you can find someone with VS/TC interview experience (or even just experience with commercial law/interviews in general), it would be really helpful to get them to do a mock interview for you. Moreover, getting more familiar with the 'interview experience' beforehand contributes a lot to your ability to calm your nerves and do your best on the big day. As such, I would advise you to reach out to people who could help you with this, even if they are not part of your immediate circle. You will be surprised how many people will be willing to help you out!


Step 4 - Getting into the right mindset

Finally, although this may sound a bit cliche, try to go into the interview with a positive attitude. Remind yourself that just by reaching this stage, you have demonstrated to be an exceptionally competitive candidate. Acknowledge the fact that since the firm chose to meet you out of so many other applicants, it means you have everything you need to succeed - whether that means success with this particular firm or another. Finally, although I appreciate how hard it may be, try to not put an excessive amount of pressure on yourself. Meditate on your journey and how far you've come and accept that as long as you do your best, you will have nothing to blame yourself for. Going through these thought processes the night and morning before the interviews helped me a lot with reducing my anxiety and my ability to show enthusiasm in my attitude.

I hope this is useful and best of luck with your future interviews!

 

[MayaM0921]

Hi @Andrei Radu! Your tips on the forum have been super useful! I was wondering whether you could share some advice about asking the "Why me" question? How would you structure the answer? My issue is that, in a VI or interview situation, I don't know what competency questions will be asked later. How would I avoid picking qualities / using examples that I might use later in the interview? Thank you!

 

[Lastseasonwonder]

hi does anyone have tips for AG critical reasoning test?

Could I ask please - my understanding is that the AG test is automatic, but how long do we have to complete it?

Also, is it a WG test?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi everyone, on AG's application its states solicitor apprenticeship/training contract/graduate solicitor apprenticeship. How will the firm know which vacancy you're applying for exactly?

That will be on the basis of your qualifications you have I suspect.

 

[bangarangbass39]

Could I ask please - my understanding is that the AG test is automatic, but how long do we have to complete it?

Also, is it a WG test?

AG test isn't automatic. At least it wasn't last year. If it has changed then I am in fact wrong. In regards to how long you have, the email says until the Jan 5th deadline. However, it is strongly recommended to complete this as soon as you feel possible to do so.

I applied for the Direct TC last cycle and they held on my app (pre test), transferring it to this current cycle. So I can only advise you to complete it as early as you can. I plan to complete it before the end of this month as I don't want to spend too much time on prepping.

 

[Apple]

Hi guys, I need to provide academic certificates/transcripts as proof of qualifications prior to my AC. Do they usually accept "candidate statement of marks" instead of the official certificates?