S-K-O-O-L spells 'school'

Just because Centinel has mentioned law school, Pea talked about her experience with a professor and E.McPan wrote about her exams, my mind cast itself over my own memories of attending university in London.

Overall, I think the experience was a lesson in how to study as little as possible to aim for an overall median grade, rather than to be profoundly academic, and this prepared me well for my bar exam (which is exactly an exercise in learning how to pass, rather than aiming for the top score).

The first term, I was so stressed out that I lost around five kilograms (11 pounds). I'd like to blame it on one of my crusty old professors who gave me a C for my first essay on the English Legal System. She had written in the margin in spidery red ink, 'Did you read the cases? I don't think you understood them at all'. That cursory deflection of my five hours' efforts in the library, together with the glowing praise and 'A' grade received by a fellow classmate who had spent all of thirty minutes typing his up, made me realise one thing: it is not about how much you study, but what you study. But getting to that realisation was tough. I had also underestimated the amount of homework I was to get and had joyfully joined the committee of four student societies in Freshers' Week. Time management crises ensued, but by my second term I had worked things out to the point where I was carefully coasting along by getting 'B's and 'C's instead of 'A's. My aim was to be respectable, not knowledgable.

The first year exams were a disaster. I barely passed, not because I wasn't used to the essay exams - all exams in UK secondary and tertiary education are based on writing four essays in 3.5 hours in one subject - but because I had no clue how to write the essays the way the professors wanted it. Luckily, the first year in the British legal education is only marked as 'pass' or 'fail'. I reflected on my downgraded student achievements (downgraded from my brilliant marks as an 'A' level -high school - student, that is) with a French friend who had come to my university from a lycee.
"These exams are really tough, aren't they?" I mused to her. She looked at me carefully, before saying in her accented English, "Well, in my old school we have five hours for each essay. So I ran out of time after I had written the introductions to mine."
"Wow. That's a bummer," I said. She nodded.
"They gave me a B," she said, a little sadly. I choked - my grades had been stable Ds.

The second year rolled around, and by that time I had found out the appropriate case-to-essay ratio (maximum quote of eight cases in an essay) and learned how to abbreviate. Things were looking up, so I decided a little slacking was in order. All the while I had noted with puzzled amusement how my fellow classmates cut classes for a multitude of reasons and somehow survived while I diligently attended every single lecture and seminar without fail. One glorious Monday morning, it was my turn to give playing hooky a go. I spent the day running around far away from school grounds. Indeed I had completely forgotten that I had skipped a class when, the following week, the European law professor called me aside after a lecture. I was more shocked that he knew my name (out of two hundred students, what was the odds of that happening?)than by anything else.
"J-A, I noticed you weren't in class last week and I wondered if there was anything the matter," the professor said, in a pleasant but concerned manner. Christ, I swore to myself. I miss one class and he notices. I gave some lame excuse about not having felt well and ended up promising to let him know if I had to miss any in the future!

In my final year I fell in love with the publicly-maligned Public International Law('P.I.L.' to those in the know) and had fantasies of studying it for practice, although I already had accepted a job to work in finance at a City practice. In the end, I got a respectable degree because of my outstanding grade in P.I.L., otherwise my usual academic torpor would have resulted in a damaging final degree.