Student Resources

Are you a Student currently enrolled on a course with ILSPA? ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma and Single Subject Legal Courses are excellent qualifications that will teach you the legal knowledge and procedures you need to become a competent and successful Legal Secretary.

We would like to highlight some other resources that will complement your studies by giving you access to even more knowledge, learning and support.

ILSPA’s Glossary of Legal Terminology

If you are currently studying a Legal Secretary course with ILSPA, there is a high chance you will be required to submit at least one achievement test as part of your course. Achievement tests are designed to assess your legal knowledge and for you to show how well you have understood the course material. For this reason, they are a very important part of your course. Your achievement test result is a reflection of your grasp of a particular area of law and goes towards your final grade.

Here is some advice on how best to complete the achievement tests.

1. Study the course material thoroughly

If you regularly read our journal, you will have probably heard us use the term study schedule before. The benefits of organising your study time so that you stay on track are pretty obvious. Study schedules help you stay on top of your workload, avoid stress and help you meet targets. They also help you fit studying around your other commitments and allow you to have regular down-time to recharge, without falling behind. These things are all important to ensure that you study effectively and do the best you possibly can in your qualification. 

But how do you create a study schedule? Here are some steps for creating a schedule that will work for you. 

Work backwards

A key feature of ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma course is the exposure that it gives Students to different areas of legal practice. Each unit integrates the teaching of legal concepts (sometimes referred to as black letter law) with their application in the real world. This approach has employability at its heart and this month we will give you the lowdown about what it is really like to work in some key areas of legal practice. Because there are so many areas of specialisation there is not enough time to consider them all, but we will illustrate some of the close links that exist between legal specialisms. 

One of the great things about ILSPA’s Legal Secretaries Diploma is that it is not assessed through closed book exams. The focus is put on your understanding of the course material, rather than how well you can memorise it. Law and procedure can require in-depth study and a lot of concentration. Students who are able to train their brains to retain information will find it easier to process and move through the learning material with confidence.

Here are eight quick and easy tips to help you retain information: 

1. Repetition

The past few months have been a time of unprecedented change and disruption for many of us in our normal day-to-day lives. While for some this has led to additional time at home to dedicate to things such as courses and self-care, for others it will have led to the opposite. With work, family and schoolwork all needing to be squeezed in at home, there is little time left for other responsibilities such as studying.

Returning to study after a period of time off can sometimes be a daunting task. People can be prevented from studying due to various reasons such as work commitments, health issues and looking after family. Whatever the reason, here is our advice to ease you into studying your course again with confidence:

Think ahead

ILSPA’s tour of the Royal Courts of Justice has always been a popular and interesting element of our Legal Secretaries Diploma course. Over the years hundreds of Students have benefited from attending a unique and specifically tailored tour from our Patron and former evening class tutor, Amanda Hamilton. Our guided tour is created to help Students put their learning material into perspective and really understand the court system and processes they are being taught.

So far in our series looking at different learning methods, we have looked at both visual and audible learners. This month we will be taking a closer look and discussing the best study methods for kinetic learners.

As the word ‘kinetic’ suggests, this type of learner processes information by movement. They find it easier to learn and remember things when they are physically engaged and actively participating in what they are learning. You may think a legal qualification like a Legal Secretaries Diploma, which is traditionally considered a ‘book-based’ subject, would be difficult for people who need to be more active and practical in their learning style. However, you will see that there are some great ways to adapt your study practices to make yourself more active even when you’re studying from written course materials.

Last month we looked at the best ways for visual learners to study and process information. We learnt that people who are visual learners often respond to things such as colours, pictures, diagrams and other visual information. This month we are going to be taking a closer look at the second type of learner, the audible learner.