Back to law school stationery essentials!
The leaves are starting to turn from green into a beautiful warm amber shade, and you know what that means right? Halloween is coming! My favourite holiday as I love scary movies and candy!
More importantly, September is here which means that a new academic year is upon us. I can’t believe it has been a whole 12 months since I started the LPC. I really don’t know where the time has gone.
I thought I would write a blog post for anyone who wants to do their stationery shopping in preparation for starting the LPC but doesn’t know what to buy!
Laptop/ iPad
If you are an in-person student and will be visiting campus, it is expected that you will have a laptop or an iPad so that you can log on to the Collaborate sessions. For those who haven’t heard of Collaborate, it is the online platform which the University of Law uses so that we can take part in group work from our desks - the ULaw Covid policy means that we couldn’t actually sit together last year and had to sit socially distanced. If you don't have a laptop or an iPad then don’t worry, you can log in using a smartphone. However, if you do have a laptop then it will probably be easier to take this to every lesson.
Tote Bag/Backpack
You will need a backpack or a large bag to take into class because, as I previously explained, you will need to take your laptop to workshops. We also get given print outs of the workshop materials and, although we also have access to these online, I found it easier to have printed copies with me. This meant I also took in a ring binder folder to every class.
You may also want to take your textbook in, although I decided to stop doing this pretty quickly as we do have access online. As you can probably tell, a big comfortable bag will be your best friend this year!
Mask
Current university policy states that we must wear a mask at all times on campus, so you will need a comfy mask. It can be quite suffocating sitting in a mask for the entire class when each workshop is two hours, so definitely make sure you have a comfortable one!
Stationery
Highlighters: I like these pastel highlighters from Amazon - they are really pretty and aesthetic and also good quality. I went through at least two packs of these during the academic year.
Lever arch folders: I had two folders for each subject - one for the workshop materials and one for my condensed legacy notes. The workshop materials are usually really bulky and you won’t need them in your exam so it’s best to have a folder for the workshop notes and then another folder which contains your exam notes.
Dividers: I divided each workshop and topic up using dividers. I prefer the dividers with the contents page (linked here) because they will help you to navigate though your folders faster during the exam. Time is of the essence during assessments, so anywhere that you can save time really does help. You will need two packs of dividers per subject.
Pens and pencils: I found pencil helpful for working out calculations because the maths can get a little messy. I found some really cool eco-friendly pencils on Amazon which are made from recycled newspaper! I have linked them here.
Plastic tabs: Tabs will be your best friends during the LPC. I often found them in very strange places such as stuck in my hair and on my clothes, but they are most useful when used to tab up your textbook and exam notes so that you can find anything you need within seconds during the exam. Some people find it helpful to colour code but I can’t seem to manage to do that. I always run out of colours and then end up just using whatever I have left so any attempted colour scheme goes out of the window!
You can get paper or plastic tabs but I personally like the plastic ones as they are more durable which will come in handy when you are frantically flipping between pages!
Top tip: write on the tabs with capital letters as it looks much neater when the tabs are stuck sideways in books.
Hole punch: If you want to print out any word processed notes then obviously you will need to make some holes in the notes before they go into your folder, so be sure to pick up a hole punch and perhaps a stapler if you want to staple things together.
We often get directed to read PLC articles online which can be 30+ pages long. These articles will help you to answer the workshop questions and provide some context and further reading around the topic . I liked to print these articles out and add them to my workshop folder to read - they aren't typically examinable so I didn't put them in my exam folder - but check this with your tutor!
Wall Calendar: Sometimes I just need to see what I have coming up on my bedroom wall so that I have no choice but to look at it. I used a wall calendar to write all of my assessment dates and deadlines so that I definitely wouldn’t forget anything; I have extreme paranoia about missing assessments! I am going to be using Notion this year as I want to try a new way of managing everything, but I don’t think I am ready to give up my wall calendar quite yet.
As a final note, I want to say good luck to everyone this academic year! I hope that the year goes well for you and that you achieve all of your academic and personal goals!
If you are interested in LPC related articles then be sure to subscribe to my blog to keep updated, and I look forward to seeing you around here again soon!
Camilla x
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