Will law firms take first year results into account despite an overall first?

Thanks everyone for your responses. Unfortunately I don't think I'm going to go down the mitigating circumstances route for two reasons. Firstly, depression and paranoid schizophrenia are not looked at kindly by employers. People do not have a sympathetic approach in the working world. Secondly, despite having good evidence for missing the first exam, the second one happened in the second year when I was seemingly better. At least my results would show that (Mostly high 2:1s and firsts) and so it is hardly credible to say that again I experienced depression in the run-up to this particular exam.

I think my best option is to work as hard as possible, come out with the best results possible (hopefully a first) then simply explain those exams as a mixture between short sightedness on my part, as well as an ambiguity in the school rules which I managed to bring to light through my case (I was kicked out for it but appealed on grounds of an administrative error). The 'final' chance I missed because I hadn't paid my accommodation fees on time, and was suspended. A corollary of this was that I was not able to sit my exams. It was never established in the university rules that this would still count against me, and yet it did. But I appealed since the rules were not sufficiently clear and I eventually won at the last stage of appeal - Thank God! My academic referee I'm sure will state that this is not indicative of my ability or my character in any way.


What do you guys think? Poor, shoddy excuses?

Aha, OK, well if it's the sort of form that then goes to a sort of central-sort, that is less clear (you are write: mine was a lot longer than ten years ago) - I'm honestly not sure these days (because I'm no longer in law or, indeed, a law department) how many typical applicants you would see for a vac placement scheme, or, indeed, for a TC. In the case you describe, where there is an EC section, I think you are perfectly correct, and that the best course of action is indeed to try to be as articulate as possible within the limited space allowed. I suspect you are indeed correct, and that large firms would take a dim view of subversion! The most important thing, for the OP, though, I think, is to keep up the current good work and try as hard as possible for a first -and hope also for a lucky break. So many of these things are now rather a lottery, in all honesty, as there are so many excellent candidates all of whom have apparently excelled at the same level.

This, unfortunately, is where things like full transcripts, A levels and even GSCEs can be used as a means of distinguishing between candidates. In the OP's position, I would do my best and play by the rules to begin with - but in all honesty, as a much older person, if I found I was not getting anywhere (perhaps because of the issue of first year problems) I would probably still be tempted by subversion for later applications, simply on the grounds that I wasn't getting anywhere anyway, so I would have nothing further to lose.

Thank you for clarifying the current process for me - it now sounds even more gruesome than it was before the OP was born!

Yes, the process is very anonymous these days. You submit the information they ask for, write the most sensible answers you have time to put together and hope for the best. Often the only email address for graduate recruitment which the firm provides is a generic one which will reach the inboxes of the whole grad recruitment office. It is a very impersonal procedure in the early stages.

In terms of applicants per place for vac schemes and TCs, I have read that the average across the market is around 65 per place. For the more prestigious firms it's usually more like 35-40, but obviously there's a certain amount of self-selection involved.

I agree with the above posters, you need to allude to mitigating circumstances. It's not just your grades they look at, they want to see improvement in grades (if poss) and reliability and consistency. Wild swoops in your academic record are worrying for an employer as they might indicate someone unreliable and they need you to be on the ball every day.

There is much more self selection than that! It really depends on the size of the intakes but it can be less than 25 applications per place!




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I used to.


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I think you may have quoted the wrong person!

There is much more self selection than that! It really depends on the size of the intakes but it can be less than 25 applications per place!




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Some firms manipulate their application numbers to make them look more "impressive". They will sometimes count incomplete applications (for instance those that don't complete testing if that's a required part of the application) and/or those who applied for vacation schemes (as they will then apply for training contracts).


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