dropping law

[misericordia]

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hia everyone, i'm studying psychology and law, and i'm a second year student.
i was just wondering how bad it is to get Ps in law? because all the assignments i've done (not including class participation, etc) are all Ps, few were low Crs... whereas i'm getting high Crs, Ds and occasionally HD in psychology... i don't really know if law is worth continuing if all i'm going to get are Ps. i'm not thinking of practicing law in future, and i'm interested in working as a clinical psychologist. any advice would be much appreciated!

[Marmalade.]

If you're sure that you want to be a psychologist, then all that matters is that your psych grades are good enough to get you into honours. Do as well as you can in law as well, but focus on psychology.

[Lara1986]

You're only in your first semester!

Don't let your marks be the sole determining factor in a decision to continue or not - i know a lot of people who got Ps in first semester but thereafter got Cs and Ds as their usual marks.

If you don't want to do law, then don't do it - but make that decision based on what you want to do with your degree - as Marmalade said, as long as your marks in psych are good enough to progress then that's all that matters really.

You'd be surprised at how much a law degree can come in handy in other professions and can open up career opportunities for you - eg your knowledge of law may allow you to venture into legally related psych areas.

[MichaelJackson2]

Not too many of us get good marks in our first semester of law. I don't see what's so bad with getting low credit averages... is it not the case that at many sandstone law schools a 5.2 gpa constitutes second class honours??? How is that bad? I'm in my penultimate year and my law gpa is an extremely low credit average yet I still managed to get a clerkship interview at a big 6 firm. Look at the profiles of judges and leading silks and many of them never even achieved second class honours so surely that means a low credit average is not that bad. My advice is to stick to it (unless you don't enjoy it) even if you're not intending to practice because the skills you learn from completing a law degree cannot be learnt anywhere else and will most likely benefit you for the rest of your life.

[Strawbaby]

One of the QCs in the chamber near where I work failed property first time around.
If you're happy enough studying law, I think you'd be best off sticking with it, even if you don't get the greatest marks. As has been said before, even if you don't become a lawyer, a law degree can help in other ways.

[misericordia]

Hey everyone,
thanks for giving me helpful advices. I guess I should keep doing law, because as Lara said, law would open up more opportunities and it'd be useful (because I'm hoping to study forensic psychology) Studying law makes me feel like I'm incompetent (today the lecturer told me that my practice exam response was like a 'fruit salad') but I know if I quit now I'd feel pretty bad about running away from it all, so yeah... I just hope that I don't fail much law units...

[twistedtigers]

Now is the time of semester I always think about quitting law. Concentrate on getting through those exams and then put serious thought into it when you're not so stressed (and depressed, overwrought, terrified).

I'm always glad I stuck with it as soon as the exams are done.

Think of your law exam answers like preparing a road map with directions to get to a set destination. Take your lecturer through your journey step by step, never skipping a direction or assuming they know where you're taking them.

If you approach your answer logically and coherently (with lots of headings for clarity), you're much more likely to get the exam marks because the lecturer actually understands where you're taking them. I think this may be the reason I often get better marks than some of my smarter peers....

Good luck and keep breathing....

[melsc]

Originally Posted by misericordia

Hey everyone,
thanks for giving me helpful advices. I guess I should keep doing law, because as Lara said, law would open up more opportunities and it'd be useful (because I'm hoping to study forensic psychology) Studying law makes me feel like I'm incompetent (today the lecturer told me that my practice exam response was like a 'fruit salad') but I know if I quit now I'd feel pretty bad about running away from it all, so yeah... I just hope that I don't fail much law units...

Re: the exam response being fruit salad, here are some tips I learnt.

1. Headings are your best friend, use them in assignments and exams, it helps you structure your response and helps the tutor fingure out where you are going. If its a hypothetical/problem question you are doing give each issue a new heading.
2. Roadmapping: this works in essays, hypotheticals and moots. Tell the reader how you intend to answer the question. E.g. This paper will examine the suitability of the doctrine of confidence as a protection of privacy by examining the history of the doctrine of confidence, then looking to the current issue in Australia and finally looking to the experinces in other jurisdictions
3. Problem questions should be structured in the following way:
Identify issue
State the law + Cite Authority
Apply law to the facts
Conclusion

If you do this for each issue your response will be more structured.
Good luck! and don't worry, my first problem question I structured it by dealing with duty of care for each of the cases, then breach, then damage...it was all over the place.

[misericordia]

thanks twistedtigers and melsc! i'm definitely going to use headings and other things in the exam - i never thought about it, so i really appreciate your suggestions thanks heaps