Term 1, Year 1

At the end of Michaelmas, I can certainly appreciate why they have eight week terms here! It's not so much the amount of work (although there is a lot), but rather that the intensity of the way they teach here really gets to you. Having three lectures a day four out of five days a week immediately removes a good chunk of the day from you being able to do anything else, and in weeks where you have supervisions in the afternoon, you often only have an hour or two hours in the middle to do some work.

The toughest part is finding the time to review what you've learnt in lectures whilst also preparing for your supervisions. Even though they're on a fortnightly basis, it's a balancing act between trying to get the work done well in advance, and then risking forgetting it, or frantically doing something the night before. I tend to err on the side of the former, as I'm certainly not one of those people who stays awake until 2am writing an essay (although there are certainly some here!)

Sometimes it can be difficult to find time to do extra-curricular things, but you have to make sure that you do have some time to yourself. I certainly appreciate the weekends, as it means I can have a lie-in!

I think everyone is glad to be getting away from here for the break, as it's an extremely pressurised environment. We'll obviously all be busy over the holidays, but sometimes you just need to physically remove yourself from a place in order to get away from its 'atmosphere'. Even so, it'll be lovely to go home for a while.

Merry Christmas!

1st year books

It might be useful if I share the books I've bought for this year. I should point out that Constitutional and Tort are IA (first part of the tripos/Y1 of a regular undergrad.) courses, whereas the remaining three are IB (second part of the tripos/Y2 of a regular undergrad.). You normally have between 2-3 books for each subject, although you're by no means obliged to get any books at all (although this would be a bit silly if you didn't!) There is normally an introductory text, a textbook and a casebook, although the latter two often tend to intersect, and for Constitutional there is no specific 'casebook'.

I'm listing my copies in this order, with a dash to show if I don't own the recommended title for that part. I'm also putting an asterix at the beginning of the book that I find most useful/use most often for each course. More info on these texts (i.e. years) and other recommended books can be found in the Law Faculty's handbook, which can be accessed here

Constitutional
Munro, Studies in Constitutional Law
* Bradley & Ewing, Constitutional and Administrative Law
Turpin & Tomkins, British Government and the Constitution

Contract
* McKendrick, Contract Law
Chesire, Fifoot & Furnston, The Law of Contract
McKendrick, Contracts, Cases and Materials

International
---
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Harris, Cases and Materials on International Law
(I only own one book in this paper, but I tend to use various texts from the library for this topic, so I don't have a particular one which I use most often)

Land
* Gray & Gray, Land Law
Smith, Property Law
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Tort
* Mullis & Oliphant, Tort
Markesinis & Deakin, Tort Law
Hepple, Matthews & Howarth, Tort: Cases and Materials

You also need the relevant statute books for all of these (aside from Contract and Tort which are together).

I bought nearly all these books (aside from the statutes as you need the newest editions) from individuals, or at the book fair, where you can get some really great deals. I would advise that people wait to attend their universities' book fair (if one is held) before they buy books online, although make sure you have figured out what is a 'good' price for a book by researching first. I found that most of the books at the fair were often 1/2 the best price that I had found online. However, make sure that you're purchasing the newest edition of the book, or that you aren't buying something which has a new edition in the pipeline, as this effectively renders the old book useless.