It's been four months since those ghastly examinations and we've had a beautifully long summer to recover from the stress. Many students, law students in particular, strain under the monumental amount of pressure exams cause. I've known relationships to break up because of it, friendships fall apart and mental breakdowns too. I personally end up very ill around exam times, firstly my wrist can't cope with the strenuous and avid essay writing I put it through, I end up with blisters on my fingers, a swollen wrist and a locked arm. Also I become physically exhausted but too scared to sleep more than the recommended seven hours in case I am wasting valuable revision time. I get headaches and nausea from the consistent reading and note taking, only to be made worse by the inevitable crying fit i'll have induced by blind neurotic paranoia that "i'm going to fail, my life is over." And even after the exams are over we all seem to be in a post traumatic daze, it's as if there's an empty gap in our lives, to be precise a 17 hour gap. What do we do with ourselves now exams are over? Of course we drink, and part of the "post traumatic daze" is probably just a hangover but I do find myself rather confused and lost after the exams.
I'm not suggesting those who take other subjects don't feel the stress but obviously I'm so self absorbed in my own stress around these times I only notice how other law students are coping. But I do feel law students are under a hideous amount of pressure to do well in exams. We're under pressure from ourselves, there's pressure from your parents, who've proudly told all their friends, the other mum's in yoga class and the dad's on the golf course that their precious child is a lawyer and now you have to live up to this high expectation. There's also the pressure to beat cocky students who tell you to only expect low grades as you "spend far too much time partying and not in the library like me" just to prove to them that playing World of Warcraft in the Library doesn't make you a legal eagle. There's also the dreaded moment when you've decided you've done enough revision today, log onto facebook or twitter and see everyone else proclaiming how much more revision they've done, "I've done three all nighters" or "I've written 15 pages of notes on easements, your spider diagram is so concise", pressuring us to keep up with them. There's also the fact we're applying for training contracts and these companies expect the highest marks, passing is not enough, we know that we're competing against oxbridge students who's parents have already put in a good word for them at the firm. Those who aren't aiming for a particular career have the luxury of doing "the best that they can", there's no pressure to get a particular mark, a 2:2 in Literature, Maths or any subject really is highly respectable, sure a 2:1 would be better, but at least a 2:2 wouldn't mean the end of their career. So there's slightly less pressure there, for us though it's a case of Do excellent or you've basically wasted three years, vast amounts of money and lost all sanity.
The sort of people who obnoxiously claim a 3rd in law is better than a first in any other subject are kidding themselves. I'll be the first to admit I am quite snooty about "proper degrees" but I include degrees other than law in my list of what I deem to be a respectable degree, such as literature, maths, medicine (obviously) etc. but yes, there are certain degrees that I do turn my nose at and deem worthless which I dare not mention publicly. However, I could never believe a 3rd in law is better than a 1st in Literature. A first in Literature would open so many doors for you whereas a third in law closes all desirable ones.
Basically, what I'm trying to say is, we as law students are under immense pressure to excel, for we have aimed so high and are so determined to achieve that elusive training contract, we cannot allow ourselves to only achieve good marks, we need exceptional ones, else all the hard work is for nothing. This is why we crack during exams & go insane, ironically this actually affects exam performance negatively. It's a catch 22.
I know four months seems excessive for a summer holiday, most degrees could easily be completed in 2 years if we had a normal 6 week holiday like we did back in compulsive education. Which would save much money, especially considering the extortionate prices students will have to pay as of next year. But I feel I needed the 4 months to recover from the trauma. I also had a chance to do a months work experience and visit the legal practice centre in which I hope to go to next year, this reignited my passion for law and reminded me why I was taking the degree in the first place.
So in answer to my question, I don't believe we are over worked more than other students, sometimes we have a heavier timetable whereas other degrees have more coursework and this balances it out. We have set our own standards and expectations too high that we tend to panic and develop neurotic tendencies and whats worse, if we fail to meet those expectations once those results have come out, we make every excuse under the sun. I've seen it all from people claiming it's a harsh marker, to people telling their family that "no one gets above a 2:2 in law" to the worst of all, "well a 3rd in law is better than a high class degree in any other subject so it doesn't matter". We need to relax more as students, revise hard of course, but we need to be realistic about what we are capable of achieving and the amount of pressure our bodies can cope with. we will exceed far better if we could learn to revise effectively rather than trying to out do each other.
