Ask a Student: All about Law!

Hi everyone!

I’m Tola, a second year Law Student at Reading University. I’ll be posting some blogs to share my Law journey with everyone, so let me know if you have questions!

To let everyone know, we also have a Law taster day coming up this month, so if you read my blogs and want to come and see Reading for yourself, definitely sign up!

Tola

2nd Year Law Student

(edited 9 months ago)

Reply 1

UniofReading

Official Rep

Hi everyone! It’s Tola again, and today I’m going share a bit about life as a law student at Reading University. If you’ve got any questions feel free to pop them down!!!

So, how did I end up studying Law at Reading??

In Year 12, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to study. I was sure that I enjoyed writing and reading, and wanted something that I could apply to the real world but at that point, I wasn't set on Law. I also didn’t really know what I wanted to do for work after University and settled on choosing a degree which could have lots of different career options after University. I’ve always had an interest in law (partly because watched Suits 😂) but wasn't super sure that I wanted to be an actual lawyer. After doing some research I found that law offered a diverse mix of career options and people who studied law went on to various jobs.

When researching Universities, I looked for places that had good graduate work opportunities. Reading itself has a lot of industry links which you can discover more about through internships/placements. A lot of alumni find work in Reading and end up staying here long after University. It is also close to London with a direct train that only takes about 25 mins, so you have that as a further option, and the Law School organised my year an insight day at a law firm in London so we could get a feel for that pathway.

The course structure was also important to me. My degree is split into core and optional modules. These core modules are designed to help you to transition your existing skills to apply them to the world of legal studies easily. As someone who didn't do any legal work experience or Law A level and so was afraid that I might struggle with all the new legal words, having this support was crucial to my success. I did a module on Legal Skills, which really helped to get me up to speed on a range of issues in legal studies.

I completed all of my compulsory modules in my first and second year, alongside some optional modules, so now in my third year all of my modules are now optional, meaning I get to choose from a huge list. These can be done within the Law school to further your legal knowledge, or with another school on campus, so you can tailor your degree to your interests. For example, I did a Spanish module last year, because I wanted to combine my degree with the opportunity to learn a language. It is also really helpful because it counts towards your credits for that year.

I hope this blog has given you some insights into how I came to choose a Law degree. In my next blog, I’ll talk about more about my favourite modules so far!

Tola :smile:

2nd Year Law Student

University of Reading

Reading

Heyy! It’s Tola, and I’m going to talk a bit about modules and how they work at the University of Reading. If you’ve got any questions feel free to pop them down!!!

To get a qualifying law degree in England every university must teach students 7 compulsory modules (being Constitutional/Administrative Law, Contract Law, Criminal Law, Equity & Trusts, EU Law, Land Law, Public Law and Tort Law). I know it sounds like a lot but that is broken down into 3 years of study so you’ll be fineee.

Additionally, you also get to choose an optional module that you complete, which counts towards your final degree grade. Not to stress though. What I love about Reading is that there are so many optional modules that you can choose to do alongside the compulsory ones.

In my first year you’ll get one optional module, second year I had 2 optional modules and since at Reading we finish all the compulsory within in first 2 years of the course so by my final year I get to choose all the modules which will count towards your final year grades. especially since 3rd year counts for 2/3 of your degree its nicer to just be able to choose all your own module for that year 😂.

My favourite module this year was the Research Writing Project. It’s your chance to conduct research on a topic that your choose. You’ll get to spend a whole year learning about this specific area of law and work with a professor whose a specialist in their field (mine helps form consumer law practices in the EU) and they’ll help you find an area within your topic that you can do lots of research on. I really loved the independence you get to complete the work at your own pace throughout the year.

I also love that at Reading we can choose to do modules within different departments in the university. So whilst I don’t do Spanish as part of my Degree(My degree is just LLB Law not Law with Spanish) I do a Spanish module which counts towards my credits for the year and I get to work on my language skills, which employers love.

Choosing an optional module outside of the law department might make you think about other career options after you’ve graduated. I have friends who have done module in Business or in psychology and have loved it so I would recommend thinking about choosing a module in a different department.

I hope this has given you some insight into what studying Law is actually like at Reading! Let me know if you have any questions, and if you’re interested in learning more, sign up for our Law Taster Day here!

Tola :smile:

2nd Year Law Student

(edited 9 months ago)

Reply 3

Stiffy Byng

Can I just add to this thread that at Reading there is the wonderful Professor Rosa Freedman.

https://www.reading.ac.uk/law/our-staff/rosa-freedman

Good luck with your finals, Tola.

(edited 2 months ago)