I also was wondering this but from what I've read on here I think it's 60 seconds to record and 15 or 30 seconds to prep
TCLA Vacation Scheme Applications Discussion Thread 2024-25
- Thread starter Jessica Booker
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Do law firms use a candidate's preferred name? I haven't received any communication using my preferred name so far...
Instead of my first name, one firm referred to me by surname, which was also spelled wrong 🤣
Hi @Jessica Booker @Ram Sabaratnam @Andrei Radu
I have a slight issue. I just got a call for the vac scheme offer for a spring scheme. when i was applying the firm had dates 1-11 april on their website, they still do. but on the call, i was told it will be from 25th march to 11th april. i am an international student and my term at uni ends on the 28th of march. when i applied, i attached all visa documents keeping in mind that i can work legally more than 20 hours during the 1-11 april period. however i cant work from 25th march to 28th since that will be more than 20 hours and will fall in the term time. how do you suggest i proceed? it is my first vac scheme offer so im a bit sceptical if they will rescind it on this basis.
I have a slight issue. I just got a call for the vac scheme offer for a spring scheme. when i was applying the firm had dates 1-11 april on their website, they still do. but on the call, i was told it will be from 25th march to 11th april. i am an international student and my term at uni ends on the 28th of march. when i applied, i attached all visa documents keeping in mind that i can work legally more than 20 hours during the 1-11 april period. however i cant work from 25th march to 28th since that will be more than 20 hours and will fall in the term time. how do you suggest i proceed? it is my first vac scheme offer so im a bit sceptical if they will rescind it on this basis.
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so most people who have been rejected by LL were at 66% and for Spring?
Any thoughts on acceptable practices for online tests, from the point of view of academic honesty?
I did a 'virtual' AC, which I felt was slightly poorly managed. There were two prior rounds: the form, then a proof-reading task using skillsarena, which had video proctoring activated.
The AC consisted of a group exercise, which makes sense, followed by what turned out to be another written task via skillsarena with video proctoring. It wasn't really clear why this second task was considered part of the AC, because the schedule read:
1. 11:10-11:40 - written exercise; zoom link provided
2. 11:40-12:00 - written exercise; zoom link provided
whereas in fact what happened was they sent out the skillsarena link at 11:02am, and then between about 11:10 and 11:15 were explaining that we'd need to log off zoom (because the skillsarena task is video-proctored), do the task, then rejoin afterwards. Since the allocated time within skillsarena was 30 minutes, it was quite disconcerting as the schedule implied that you were expected to rejoin at 11:40, whereas you probably wouldn't even have started your task until about 11:18, and only at that point would have learned that you had been allocated 30 minutes to complete the task. (As it turned out, when I joined the 11:40-12:00 session, it was just a "thanks for coming", and the entire second hour of the AC could just have been done offline.)
The fact that video proctoring is activated by skillsarena suggests that they are trying to stop cheating, but they don't define what cheating is.
One candidate asked "can we use Microsoft Word?" (it was a drafting exercise, and a formatted box was provided to reply within skillsarena)
In my opinion the answer to this should be "no", unless you've got a dispensation or something, because Word will identify grammar and spelling errors, and now has AI features as well that could generate the entire email.
However, the answer was given "yes".
I did not use Microsoft Word, out of an abundance of caution, and also did not use the full 30 minutes because I was concerned about being late back, even though this turned out not to be an issue. I did however ctrl+c my answer and checked it in Word AFTER submission, where it spotted a typo, and suggested a couple of missing commas.
It turned out that although you could copy out, Skillsarena disabled paste into the box, and two or three candidates were unable to submit because they had done their answers in Word and then copy + pasted them at 29:30, and then found out that it didn't work. So they had to email them manually, lol.
I've noticed in other online tests that they say they have "behind the scenes metrics". It's not clear what this means, but technologically apps can detect when you switch to other windows, and can also detect copy pasting (although often this is disabled), track response times. In SJTs where they have numerical questions I would tend to use Excel unless it's trivially simple to do by mental arithmetic, because that just seems like the only sensible way to do things, but it's not really clear whether Excel use is somehow frowned upon.
In addition, AI can accurately answer many types of question, and while this is presumably deemed cheating, it's not necessarily spelled out, nor do they typically make even minimal efforts to stop this (e.g., by using a locked-down exambrowser-type tool). (Although I suppose such efforts might be deemed OTT in that these are not exams but merely one of several stages in a recruitment process).
I did a 'virtual' AC, which I felt was slightly poorly managed. There were two prior rounds: the form, then a proof-reading task using skillsarena, which had video proctoring activated.
The AC consisted of a group exercise, which makes sense, followed by what turned out to be another written task via skillsarena with video proctoring. It wasn't really clear why this second task was considered part of the AC, because the schedule read:
1. 11:10-11:40 - written exercise; zoom link provided
2. 11:40-12:00 - written exercise; zoom link provided
whereas in fact what happened was they sent out the skillsarena link at 11:02am, and then between about 11:10 and 11:15 were explaining that we'd need to log off zoom (because the skillsarena task is video-proctored), do the task, then rejoin afterwards. Since the allocated time within skillsarena was 30 minutes, it was quite disconcerting as the schedule implied that you were expected to rejoin at 11:40, whereas you probably wouldn't even have started your task until about 11:18, and only at that point would have learned that you had been allocated 30 minutes to complete the task. (As it turned out, when I joined the 11:40-12:00 session, it was just a "thanks for coming", and the entire second hour of the AC could just have been done offline.)
The fact that video proctoring is activated by skillsarena suggests that they are trying to stop cheating, but they don't define what cheating is.
One candidate asked "can we use Microsoft Word?" (it was a drafting exercise, and a formatted box was provided to reply within skillsarena)
In my opinion the answer to this should be "no", unless you've got a dispensation or something, because Word will identify grammar and spelling errors, and now has AI features as well that could generate the entire email.
However, the answer was given "yes".
I did not use Microsoft Word, out of an abundance of caution, and also did not use the full 30 minutes because I was concerned about being late back, even though this turned out not to be an issue. I did however ctrl+c my answer and checked it in Word AFTER submission, where it spotted a typo, and suggested a couple of missing commas.
It turned out that although you could copy out, Skillsarena disabled paste into the box, and two or three candidates were unable to submit because they had done their answers in Word and then copy + pasted them at 29:30, and then found out that it didn't work. So they had to email them manually, lol.
I've noticed in other online tests that they say they have "behind the scenes metrics". It's not clear what this means, but technologically apps can detect when you switch to other windows, and can also detect copy pasting (although often this is disabled), track response times. In SJTs where they have numerical questions I would tend to use Excel unless it's trivially simple to do by mental arithmetic, because that just seems like the only sensible way to do things, but it's not really clear whether Excel use is somehow frowned upon.
In addition, AI can accurately answer many types of question, and while this is presumably deemed cheating, it's not necessarily spelled out, nor do they typically make even minimal efforts to stop this (e.g., by using a locked-down exambrowser-type tool). (Although I suppose such efforts might be deemed OTT in that these are not exams but merely one of several stages in a recruitment process).
Has anyone heard from Sidley post-AC for summer? Do they call for both offer and PFO?
Jessica Booker
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I would speak to the firm to see if it possible to get the first week contracted at 20 hours and only attend 20 hours (just under 3 days) on that first week (eg miss the Friday and leave slightly early one other day that week).
The firm doesn’t need to rescind the offer though - if it is the case the can’t accommodate 20 hours in the first week, then you cannot meet the terms of the offer, so they don’t have to rescind because the you cant meet the employment contract’s terms.
Has anyone still not heard from LL summer vac scheme? Is it surely a PFO at this point?
I’ve seen around 3 people on this forum with partner interview invites so far. The AC itself takes place during the VS I think. People that pass the partner interview get SVS offers.
anyone heard from Mishcon re Spring scheme yet?
Hi, I did my interview this week. I got the feeling it's very much still ongoing 🙏🏼
Hi - I think we must’ve been in the same AC group as I had the exact same experience in a virtual AC at the beginning of this week, with the same issue of people writing it on word and being unable to paste it back into skillsarena. I’m glad grad rec said they could email it, though, as the candidates seemed kinda stressed out and I felt so bad.
I did find it a little strange that we weren’t required to be on the zoom call for the written task, and that the timings didn’t match up with the final call. I was slightly panicked when I saw that the task was thirty minutes but we didn’t get to start it until 11:20 ish (which made us late for the final call) - though eventually the final call finished before the allocated time anyway.
Jessica Booker
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Assessment centres are notorious for not running to time. With every intention and amazing planning in the world, they so easily fall behind schedule.
I wouldn’t worry too much about when your exercises started - it’s just about getting the amount of time for exercises like written assessments/case study prep etc.
No, they're still doing them. Travers gives VS AC invites mid-Feb to early March so don't panic until then.
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