Up and down this country, law graduates on the Legal Practice Course (LPC) are waking up to the fact that they aren’t in Kansas anymore.
While the LPC does have a fairly high pass rate – LL.B students shouldn’t fool themselves into thinking the course is a piece of cake. The fact is, many people who did well on their LL.B. struggle to keep up with LPC.
Perhaps the biggest culture shock is the style of teaching. While your LL.B. professors were interested in developing your cognitive skills and critical thinking, the solicitors on the LPC are trying to teach you how to run a case.
Actually, not “a” case, but civil litigation, conveyancing and criminal litigation cases etc- all at the same time. There is no lecture you can listen to that is going to substitute rolling your sleeves up, getting into the books and working out the rules and procedure.
As LPC students are presented with a barrage of papers, my first suggestion is to ensure you’re very organised. I suggest a lever-arch file with dividers.
Welcome to bundle prep 
If you still can’t see the wood for the trees, my second suggestion is to make use of the practitioner texts in your library. My favourites include the following:
Stuart Sime on Civil Procedure;
Frances Silverman on Conveyancing;
Hannibal & Mountfort on Criminal Litigation; and, of course
Weston & Montague’s Legal Practice Companion
It’s not too late to get a grip. Many will have the Christmas holiday before their first exams. Don’t use it to have a melt-down. Take a deep breath, use the time to get organised, look to the practitioner texts, ask questions and nil desperandum!
