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Which LPC? BPP or University of Law?
- Thread starter Lawgirl1012
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- lpc ulaw law gdl lpc
I've chosen ULaw to do the GDL and the main reason for that is because with ULaw you do 3 exams in Jan and 4 exams in May/June whereas with BPP I believe you sit all your exams at the end of the year (i.e. 7, 3-hour exams in around 2 weeks) which seems to be very tough
With the new PGDL that BPP will offer from september 2020, half of the exams will be sat in December and the other half will be sat in April.
Hi, I did the LPC at ULaw, so I can answer on the following:
2. This depends on which mode and how many days you choose - part time vs full time.
PT over 2 years: can do weekday - Wednesday once a week, or 2 evenings or every other weekend.
FT 9months: 4 days a week or 2 days a week.
I studied it part time, weekdays - workload was manageable alongside my full time work but it required a lot of effort and hard work (it was a challenge but doable) The LPC is very independent so workload will depend on how much you want to get done. Obv there is compulsory prep reading and tasks you have to do but you can choose what is best for you - do reading before or after class, closer to exams etc.
I know people who worked part time and studied it full time - I think this is quite intense because then the workload is full on!
3. Yes mostly open book - for each core module there was an open book written exam (80% of mark) and closed MCQ exam (20%)
For electives - open book exam and coursework
I don't think the actual exams were more difficult but it was tough to revise for an open book. Obv for the core you had the closed book so you had to memorise regardless. You need to really be organised, notes need to be good, checklists for pre-planned answers for exam questions, loads of MCQ practice, text book tabbed, folders organised and tabbed.
After my law degree and the amount of revision i did, I don't think I wanted to go through it again so I guess I preferred open book.
4. Moorgate is lovely!! I studied in Bloomsbury but some of my exams were in moorgate and I preferred moorgate library so would go there. The library is awesome and the building is larger than other campuses (bloomsbury and bpp).
I would recommend you go to open days and get a feel - I did this and enjoyed ULaw more than bpp so then made a choice. Also, look at elective choices and career services provided.
Let me know if you have any other qs or need help
My pleasure!
You can choose to have classes over 2 days per week or 4 days per week - so more or less spread across the week. Reduces the days you come in but then you have time between classes to go library or chill a bit.
For FT, you do the core modules and professional skills all at the same time so 2 hours per module = blp, dr, prop + professional skills so about 8 hours per week. (I hope I didn't confuse you!)
I did the Accelerated LPC at BPP Holborn so cannot really comment on 1-3, but BPP Holborn is a tiny building and constantly stuffed to the rafters with students - if you're intending to just pop in and pop out for classes this might be fine for you but in terms of study space and library capacity sometimes it was mildly challenging to find a place to study. Also wifi at BPP Holborn is super flaky.
(Sorry for the mild BPP hate haha)
(Sorry for the mild BPP hate haha)
What's the contact time like at BPP Holborn for the accelerated LPC? How often do you need to be in uni?
Hi! I did the full-time LL.M. Legal Practice (Solicitors) at BPP Holborn. I did the LL.M. so that I could get the postgraduate loan.
Before the course started we were given a survey to complete whereby we could indicate how many days we wanted to go in for for our Core Practice Area modules (i.e. first term). You either have to go in for two days a week (so your timetable is more packed that day) or three days a week. It is full on, the material itself isn't particularly difficult but the workload is nonstop. The majority of the tutors are ex Magic Circle/Silver Circle/US firm solicitors so their insight was really valuable and the teaching was great. You will have your Core Practice Area exams in January.
For second term, you will have your skills and elective courses. During skills, you will only have to go in about twice a week, it is a really chill time up until the end of March. The skills exams take place all throughout February and March. For elective term, I had to go in for four days a week for the first month and then it was cut down to three. Those exams were in June.
As someone already mentioned the building is small and the cafe is in the basement so it's not the cosiest of places haha.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
My teaching experience really differed from tutor to tutor. On a whole I thought the LPC was a lot more spoon fed than uni - you’re given solutions for almost everything you cover in tutorials - but also a lot more rote learning and memorisation than my uni experience.
For the Accelerated LPC I think I had more contact time in Stage 1 than Stage 2. You do all your skills and core modules in Stage 1. Then your three electives over six weeks in Stage 2.
In Stage 1 I was in for scheduled tutorials maybe 2-3 hours a day, 5 days a week. In Stage 2 it was more like 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week. In retrospect it doesn’t sound like a lot but this is excluding the time you spend preparing for your tutorials (roughly 1 hours of prep for 1 hour of tutorials, but could be more depending on the particular tutorial), reading/watching/attending lectures, going over your past tutorials, and doing the occasional skills assessment in Stage 1.
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Hey, I'm currently doing my LPC at ULaw Manchester so I can answer 2 and 3 for you:
2. Depending on your studying mode, if you do full-time like mem you'd have 4 workshops a week. You can submit your preference for what days you wanna have your workshops. You can submit to pick a set of 2 or 4 days (this is determined on a first-come-first-serve basis). My friend who is studying at BPP does not get this timetable flexibility so I guess this is a big plus for ULaw.
Regarding workload, I doubt there is be a huge difference between ULaw and BPP. You'd be required to do the prep for each workshop beforehand. The longest prep for a workshop I have done probably took me about a whole afternoon with a break to complete, just because there was a lot of reading.
3. For the core modules, you will be allowed open book for your 3-hour written exams. The MCQ exams for them will be Close Book. Other than that Wills is also Open Book and Solicitors' Accounts you are allowed to annotate on 8 pages behind your SRA Account Rules.
I wouldn't know if they are harder but it'd make sense if they expect your answer to be more thorough.
Hope this helps!
Just for comparison, my exams at BPP weren’t open book. We had permitted materials that we were able to tab and highlight and bring to the exam, but we certainly couldn’t annotate or write anything in our materials and we could not bring in our own notes for exams (except for Wills and Administration).
Hey! I was wondering if you could expand on this a little bit. So, how did you find the whole experience of having mostly closed-book exams? (To me, it seems like it's going to be quite tough considering how much syllabus there is to memorise.)
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