Two weeks ago my course books arrived for the two new courses that I intend to study for the December exams. I chose to start with the smaller book which was P1 and was immediately reminded of how I felt when I first started studying corporate and business law.
Most of us want to be accountant because we like numbers but here is a whole course where the calculator will stay sadly redundant in your pencil case. Law is quite a complex subject and without a number in sight to comfort the trainee accountant, the subject can seem quite daunting.
As well as learning and understanding the laws and how these are applied, case law is a very important area. In fact within my text book there were over a 100 case laws given as examples. I expect there are very few people who would be able to remember over a hundred cases including the names of the parties involved and the details of the case. If you don’t have a photographic memory, don’t panic. It is still possible to pass law without remembering hundreds of cases and there are ways to remember sufficient to get a good mark.
What matters most is the principle established by the case (i.e. the case viewed as a source of law), not the names of the parties involved. Having stated the principle mention anything else you can remember about the case as this will help you get more marks. Therefore in order of priority, state the legal rule, explain this is from case law, give details of case, give details of the parties involved and finally the date and court.
We all have different ways of memorising information so use which ever technique you find easiest. Some people like to visual information while others find rhymes useful. During my revision for the exam I managed to commit to memory 50 cases by memorising them in small groups of six related to distinct subject areas. It certainly helped me and in fact learning the cases help me have a greater understanding of the law.
Good luck to you if you are studying the law course. There may be no numbers but it is very interesting and I have found the information useful in my work. Perhaps anyone who has done P1 Professional Accountant can give me tips on how to memorise and understand what looks like a lot of material!
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