14-01-2012 @ 13:21

From the 3rd-6th January 2012 I sat my 4 mocks, Civil Litigation and Evidence MCTs and SAQs, Criminal Litigation and Evidence MCTs and SAQs, Drafting Mock, and RODOC (Resolution of Disputes Out of Court).

What a week it was.

It was a useful exercise, because under the strict time contraints (1hr 50mins for both papers) I had to answer the questions and make sure my writing was legible for the SAQs answers!

One thing that I did not expect was how much common sense I had!! Now that sounds like a given when studying this course. However since doing this course, I have had to learn criminal and civil procedures, the exception to such procedures, the rules of evidence, exception to these rules, and so I felt like my brain was in overload! But when faced with the question it brought to life these procedures. What would happen if the Defendant was unrepresented when entering a plea in court, and can the hearing continue? THe SAQs and the MCTs gave a realistic scenario and questioned you on what to do, what can be done, what cannot be done. And while studying this course, I couldn't see the wood from the leaves: meaning I needed to put all this theory into context. But when faced with the question I thought to myself, "if I was in court now, and my client did X what would I do?"

This is something I will certainly learn from, and bear in mind when studying this year.

SAQs were tough. You are given a longer scenario and several questions with a certain amount of marks. I haven't had such a question since my GCSEs and A Levels!! So it certainly brought back memories about writing 5 points in order to answer a 5 mark question. To be honest I did not do well in this section, because the questions were examining my depth of knowledge. Although I had the breadth my depth of knowledge wasn't as thorough. So another lesson to learn!

An integral part to the course is being able to write legal opinions, documents and arguments. The third mock was to draft a defence and counterclaim. I actually really enjoyed this mock! I enjoy drafting such documents, because it is all about precision and being succinct. I can say that I have really improved in this area!

The final mock was on RODOC, and it was in the similar format as the Criminal and Civil Litigation and Evidence papers.

Big lesson to learn from these mocks is to be practical. These are practical questions that require practical (and realistic) answers. Let's hope the next set of mocks will be a vast improvement from this set of  mocks!

Until next time, AnitaVeer