Exclusive: ‘Significant errors’ spotted just in the nick of time
Students studying for the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at The University of Law (ULaw) came within a hair’s breadth of exam chaos this week — when their papers were recalled and reprinted at the final hour.
The public companies and equity finance exam — sat by future trainees at magic circle and US law firms on their accelerated LPC — was due to start at 9:30am on Wednesday at ULaw’s Moorgate branch. However, a source has told us that “literally at 9:29am” a member of the assessments office entered the exam room, halted proceedings and made students aware the papers had to be withdrawn immediately.
Another staff member then told students — which include Linklaters’ offer-holders — there were a “couple of significant errors” in the paper that meant a full reprint was necessary. Legal Cheek has been in touch with ULaw and has been told it cannot provide a comment at this time.
A total exam meltdown was avoided when papers were redistributed, the assessment beginning at 9:45am. However it was hardly the best start to the exam described by one law student as “arguably the most difficult on the LPC”.
“People were a little bit off kilter after that, having to sit silently until the papers were reprinted,” one law student said, “and it made a lot of people question why the exams were not checked adequately before they were printed.” As well:
“Some of the papers were stapled in the wrong order too. My multiple choice questions 1 and 2 came after question 7, for example.”
This is certainly not the first exam-based cock-up to feature on the pages of Legal Cheek (though they don’t tend to be as late in the game as this one was).
At the London School of Economics (LSE) for example, the property law exam was brought forward by a whole month only to then be moved back to its original date after students kicked off. Over in the West Country, students at the University of Bristol were left reeling when an exam paper was accidentally uploaded onto Blackboard two weeks before it was due to be taken. And at BPP University, its law school was forced to replace a Bar Professional Training Contract (BPTC) exam paper after the university circulated a recording of two tutors talking about it. Lawkward.