Is Law boring? (and other pre-uni worries)

I have mentioned my worry that I would not enjoy studying Law prior to coming to university quite a bit in previous blogs, so this is to give some insight to future students who might be having the same fears I did. For many students Law is not something you will ever have had the opportunity to study, and while you may have enough of an interest in it to write a great personal statement, that isn’t the same as knowing what it is like to study it every day.

This was the situation that I was in last summer. I knew that from the outside Law seemed like something I would love, especially at Warwick due to the more contextual approach. I knew that the possible careers it could lead to were appealing to me. And I knew that it called to me more than any other subject. However, I had no idea what I would be doing and studying for a whole three years. So the months before moving to Warwick were a bit of an anxious wait, with me wondering if I would end up hating my course or if I would love it. If you’re planning on doing Law, you have probably heard all the horror stories about what studying Law at university is like and so I’m here to reassure you that that has definitely not been my experience.

First, there is variety in what you will be studying. Yes, most of what you will be studying will have to do with Law, but really your modules are so varied that it isn’t that far away from studying different subjects in school. Each module will have its own central issues, cases and methods to work through. For example, this year I found that I enjoyed the analytical side of Property Law quite a lot, and how it was almost mathematical in the way that we were taught to work through problem questions, while in Legal Theory the emphasis was on more on a philosophical overview of the law and on constructing our own arguments, and I was even able to re-incorporate some of what I had learned in my high school Philosophy classes there. I’d also like to add that this worry of Law being boring was rapidly overturned by the famous Tort Law ‘banana lecture’ which I think all first years can recall!

Secondly, learning cases is challenging but so rewarding. I was warned by my family that a lot of English Law, as opposed to French Law, was very case-based and that there would be mountains of names and facts to remember. Having sat my first year law exams in June, I can definitely confirm that yes, there really is a lot to learn, but you do get the hang of it as revisions go on. I had never been much of a flash-cards person but they were a life-saver to quiz myself on cases. Law is hard, but a lot of that simply comes from the fact that the way to study it is quite different from other subjects I had done in the past.

And something that has really helped me in my first year is being aware that when I was struggling I was not alone. So many times during my revisions I went to study with a friend in the Law Hub and we could hear other first years asking themselves the very same questions we were. For many of our modules, our lecturers and tutors set up forums where we could ask all of our questions prior to exams so that it never felt like because lectures were done, our opportunity to ask questions was over too.

This might sound like I was a bit of a pessimist, but I also wasn’t expecting to have so much support throughout the year! I had a fear in my mind that Law might be a bit of a lonely course because of the few contact hours and the fact that most of your work is independent studying, but thankfully it didn’t turn out that way! I met some amazing friends through Law and along with lecturers and seminar tutors I ended up having a bigger support network than I thought I would.

Of course, as with all subjects it has its ups and downs and can be stressful at times, but I truly ended up loving this year and Law as a whole! So I know that the summer before university can be a stressful time, but hopefully this has helped ease some worries (even if just a little bit), and I hope all of you will end up loving the course as much as I have, as well as Warwick! 🙂