Sunday 28 September 2008

BVC Week 2 - grumbling over

So, grumpy as I was last week to have to be dealing with tube travel, and unpredictable London weather patterns again, I'm now much happier on the BVC.

I think the work is going to be manageable, although I'm going to have to push myself to stay on top of it (having been a chronic last-minuter in previous years) as I don't think a last minute cramming will cut it this year!

My group seems a cool bunch, and so we should be able to muddle through the year and maintain a sense of humour. There's a smattering of different accents from around the world, different ages (well, a couple of mature students), mix of lasses and lads, northeners and southerners, and even a bit of totty. (I think that's the word the kids are using these days?)

I heard some girls talking behind me in a lecture the other day (sorry, Large Group Session) about the dismal romantic prospects on the course which I found highly amusing. I had not given this any consideration. It seems there are only 2 men on the course worth anything. I felt rather offended on behalf of all the other lads on the course. I've chatted with a good handful of nice men on the course, so I think some people need to stop judging books by their covers!

Talking of books, having been given a stack of College manuals we are now advised that we are not to use these in classes, but only to refer to the practitioner's manuals in class. Whilst there is some merit in this (it's a good idea to not get in the habit of referring to an ICSL idiot's guide to Criminal litigation in court) I can't help but feel that the motivation is more to try and maintain this idea (for the benefit of the Bar Standards Board) that the course is a Master's/ LLM level course. Given that it seems clear we are to use the ICSL manuals for background reading, and that we are being spoonfed in all other respects, it seems highly doubtful to me that it is infact being taught at LLM level.

As I missed the first week and the first advocacy tutorial I'm only coming round to my first advocacy session this week, eek! Getting butterflies in my tummy just thinking about it. Can't wait - I love that feeling.

7 comments:

Barmaid said...

Good luck :-)

Anonymous said...

Yeahhh

Glad your feeling better.

Android said...

Interesting about the manuals.

How big is your group?

Mel said...

12 for some tutorials/ SGS, 6 for advocacy SGSs.

Equal mix of girls and guys, so far only one of them annoys the hell out of me (complete know it all who really needs to work on his general look of complete disdain for all around him) which is pretty good. The rest are pretty cool.

Mel said...

PS - Ta Ginge, I'm just a moody so and so :P

Poppy said...

Glad things are going well

Groups of 6 for advocacy is good- we had 12 for quite a lot of those sessions at my provider and it was a total waste of time.

LL

Lacklustre Lawyer said...

Good to read that you're settling into your new course.

I've been looking into the BVC course as its something that I will be doing next year hopefully. Just wondering: how is the course divided up in terms of subjects areas? I've only grasped that there are a lot of advocacy sessions but are these just general things on advocacy or specific to a particular area of the law?

Sorry if that's a strange/incomprehensible question, I'm just trying to get a clearer understanding of how the course is structured.