How I passed CLP on my first attempt

Hello everyone!
I'm sorry for being away for a long period as it has been a very very busy year.

Let's get straight to the point - I passed CLP on my first attempt!
I was asked to share my experience by many people, mainly my junior, and yeah, I do have many things to share.

For those who have no idea what CLP is and trying to figure it out...but unfortunately happens to be here, please proceed to my friend Weera's post here.
Weera and a number of young lawyers are sharing their experience in this blog, some of the post are really worth reading, like a comparison between CLP and BPTC, how to comply with certain formalities as a pupil, etc. Please take some time to read up: https://brainylaw.wordpress.com/

Do have a look at this post too: Ten Tips to Pass CLP, One stop shop for prospective students
I found this post by accident before taking CLP, and I find it really helpful.
These ten tips are really helpful and I am going to write another ten tips to pass CLP.

I'd also like to take the opportunity to tell you guys that my friend Caely is operating a blog now: https://www.caelyyo.com/full-blog/how-i-passed-the-clp-exam-in-my-first-attempt
While the all mighty Caely Yo requires no introduction, do look have a look at her Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl62fULrtbMKKxy_EDz0_Mg
Congratulation to Caely too! She also passed her CLP on her first attempt!

Now, I do not bother to take the time to tell you guys what CLP is, its ridiculously low passing rate and its infamous rumours. The posts above-mentioned have more than enough information.\
I will focus on the obstacles I've encountered in the course of it, and how I get through them.

---------------------- THE WALLY EFFECT http://thewallyeffect.blogspot.com/ ----------------------

How scary CLP is?

Figures tell the story.

The traceable record of CLP exam can be summarized as follows:

2005 - 35.67%
2006 - 26.24%
2007 - 36.52%
2008 - 45.54%
2009 - 41.11%
2010 - 48.87%
2011 - 52.43%
2012 - 40.81%
2017 - 41.35%

The passing rate are around 30% to 40% in recent years.

Hence, it can be seen that over the years the failure rate exceeds the passing rate, with the exception of year 2011.

I shall mention that these figures are inclusive of those candidates who managed to pass their referral paper on October/November. The passing rate of the main examination are way lower.

In 2012, the passing rate of the main examination was 26.63%.

In July 2015, out of 1200 candidates, only 240 of them managed to pass in one go. That's exactly 20%.

In July 2017, out of 1514 candidates, only 300 something of them (my senior is working hard in looking for the record, I'll come back to this when I'm given the accurate figure) managed to pass in one go.

Do tell me if you are in possession of any official record of pass year CLP exam.

What's the moral of the story?
Please take the exam seriously.

1. Exam philosophy

The exam usually held at the exam hall of University of Malaya.
There are even some videos available on youtube, navigating you to the exam hall from the entrance.

Please be there at least 1.5 hour earlier otherwise you gonna have problem to find a parking space.
It is not advisable to walk to the exam hall from the Universiti LRT station because it is very very far. I was told that there are some 5 kilometers in between the exam hall and Universiti LRT station.

The exam usually takes around 2 weeks, and most of the time there would be a one day gap between the subjects.

At first glance, it appears unreasonable.
However, having attended the exam, I gonna clarify my stand now. It is ABSOLUTELY INSANE.

Let's make it clear now - I have goldfish memory.
I do not have photographic memory.
I do not have good memory.
I do not have reasonable memory.
I have goldfish memory.

Over the years I've developed my own method to memorize stuff, and it is very complicated and nasty (?) to some extent.
But still, I can't possibly remember a single case (unless it is a really famous one, like PP v DSAI) without revising it the day before.
Even if you have good memory skill, it is very likely that you gonna forget a big chunk of what you had memorized after a 3-hour paper anyway.

Hence, the one day gap is very CRUCIAL.
Please make use of it to the fullest.
The goal is to scan through everything you have studied for the paper you are about to sit for.
I was able to do this for all papers, with the exception of professional paper.
It is too bulky and I only managed to revise about three quarters of the subjects.

That being said, you have no choice but to memorize everything (all subjects) before the very first paper.

2. Understanding and practising

Before memorizing stuff, you shall understand what you are about to memorize.

I know this sounds stupid, but over the years from LLB to CLP, I have observed a great number of my fellow classmates and juniors have been memorizing stuff without reading the proper material.
And yes, most of them FAILED without surprise.

BAC has published a great number of QnA, and me myself have copies of these books. They are well-written and very good for quick reference, but if you are taking it as the sole material and thinking that you may pass without going to class and reading textbooks, chances are you are going to fail. This applies to lecturer notes too. I'm going to tell you WHY now.

CLP exam consists of five papers, and they have both academic and procedural.
While some of the questions are testing you on the procedure and even a monkey can pass it (as long as he can memorize and re-produce), some of the questions requires your understanding and you can't possibly answer the questions by memorizing QnA and lecturer notes.

Furthermore, some of the examiners tend to be creative and harsh on candidates, you may sometime find a question that is not even mentioned in any textbook and only a very senior practitioner will be able to answer.

For instance, there was a solid 20 marks in professional practice paper which I had no idea what to answer (Q2(ii) and Q5(a) July 2018, if you are interested), as it was not covered in the lecture and any textbooks I bought. I had no choice but to answer these questions, as the other parts of these questions are so ridiculously easy for me. I goreng the question and I'm pretty sure I won't get any credit from it because the questions were asking for a very specific provision in the statutes.

There was also a criminal procedure question asking if bail can be dealt by a judge in his chamber room (Q6(c) July 2018). Once again I goreng the question with common sense and I suppose I may be able to get a minimal mark if the examiner pity me and give credit to my 1-page bullshit.

For civil procedure I could not finish on time as I left blank for several parts of different questions. These are all questions that requires you to copy provision from the Rules of Court 2012 and I was thinking that I'll come back to the question once I finish the difficult one...and the rest is history. I made a count after the exam, 13 marks were gone and these questions literally requires you to copy the statutes. What a waste.

However, notwithstanding these dramata, I still manage to get C for my Professional Practice, Criminal Procedure and Civil Procedure.

I strongly believe that I was given a fairly high mark for the other questions of these papers, which of cause boost up the overall grade of these papers. There is no way to improve yourself but to read up text and material.

Practising, on the other hand, may not be necessary, depends on individual candidates.
I did not attempt to answer pass year question and submit it to my lecturer and tutor (so they love me), but I do read through many pass year questions to see if I have miss out anything.

3. Text and material

These are the books and statutes I used throughout the year. Most of them are available in the library, both BAC and ATC.
I may write a post giving some comments on these books if anyone is interested.

4. Research

Please get yourself a LexisNexis and CLJ account.

From time to time you may find the information in QnA, lecturer note, and even textbooks erroneous or outdated. The lecturer are not completely reliable and in fact, you are supposed to do your own research as you are going to be a legal practitioner eventually.

Do research yourself every single time you feel something is suspicious. You may even find out some new information in the course of research.

Furthermore, you can observe what are the authorities that the legal practitioners and judges have been using in practice. You will be surprised that many of the authorities that the lecturers have been using all these while are outdated.

---------------------- THE WALLY EFFECT http://thewallyeffect.blogspot.com/ ----------------------

5. Memorizing stuff and be organised

At this point of time I suppose everyone has get their facts right - CLP is very very bulky.

I made a rough count after the exam. I had memorized about 800 cases for the entire exam. On top of that you are also expected to memorize certain statutes, practice direction and even academic opinions.

As a late patient of goldfish-memory-syndrome, I am only able to take in about 20 cases everyday. More importantly, the memory fade away sooner than you think. Thus, you must reserve some time to refresh your memory every single day.

Speaking for myself, I started to memorize stuff three months before the exam. However at that point of time I haven't finish my study yet. Hence, as a guide, what I have been doing three months before the exam can be summarized as follows:

6 - 8 a.m. - Study new stuff
8 - 9 a.m. - Breakfast and rest
9 a.m - 12 p.m. - Revising and refreshing what I had memorized
12 - 1 p.m. - Lunch and rest
1 - 6 p.m. - Memorizing stuff
6 - 10 p.m. - Play (?)
10 p.m. - Bed time

Yes, I do not study at night. I tried it many time and I realised that it is so inefficient to study at night.
The thing is that you have to figure out the way suits you the best.

As a reasonable human being, I take a day off every week and go to a mysterious place to enjoy myself (?).

I even took a 2 weeks break, study nothing and skip all the revision class. That was two months before the exam, when I had mental breakdown. I'll talk about it later.

However, I was still able to memorize more than 800 cases in 3 months. You simply have to do it all over again and try your best not to stir up any negative emotion.

6. Figure out the method to memorize stuff which suit you the best

While I can't teach you how to memorize stuff, Caely has shared a number of time in her blog and vlog some ways to memorizes stuff, have a look if you are really desperate in modifying your own method.

At this point of time, being a law graduate you must have figured out your own way to memorize stuff. It is very likely that it suit you the best since you have get used to it and you have obtained your law degree by adhering it.

Sometime, all you have to do is just do it without thinking or worrying. The ordinary way may be gross - but all of the more effective because of it.

7. Write your own note

As I mentioned above, QnA and lecturer notes cannot be your sole material.
On top of that, you shall also write your own note.

By grasping information from text and material, you are on the right path.
By summarizing all the information to your own words, you are basically revising the law for the first time.
By reading your own notes, be it written or typed into computer, you are revising the law for the second time.

It does speed up the process of memorizing. I guarantee you.

This is especially crucial when it comes to the one day gap during the exam period, when you are supposed to pick up everything within one day. Reading your own notes are sort of a cheat at this point of time, as these notes are like your baby, and you do recognize your baby once you look at it, isn't it?

I may upload some of my notes as guidance, if anyone is interested.

8. Be familiar with your statutes

While the lecturers are so familiar with the statutes and you are seldom asked to flip your statutes in class, you must be very very familiar with your statutes.

In the exam hall, the lecturers ain't there, your note ain't there, your textbook ain't there, your highlighted copy of statutes ain't there. All you have is a clean copy of statute.

By the way, the first time my friend Selina flipped her Criminal Procedure Code was one hour before the exam. There were a great number of missing pages in her clean copy of statutes. This kind of thing does happen. Although she managed to borrow a copy of the CPC 10 minutes before the exam, but I'm pretty sure the incident is an unpleasant one.

Thus, please spend some precious time with your statutes.

9. Don't skip class

This is beyond explanation.

However I do admit that some of the classes are really really useless and some of the lecturers do you no favour as all they do is read their notes word by word.

But for me these are the opportunities to build connection with classmates, peak at beautiful girls (?) and more importantly you must believe in karma.

I have no idea how LPQB giving the grade, but one of my friend who get second lower (Congratulation De Quan!) told me that his result is straight C.

The only subject I get D is evidence (keterangan), and it so happen that the only subject I skipped for revision class is evidence (I'm sorry Ms Mariette Peters). I swear to the moon that evidence paper was one of the easiest paper in my opinion.

What a shame.

So, yeah, do not skip class.

10. Positive thinking and contingency planning

This is the most important thing amongst these tips.

The 9 months period is basically a mental game and those who manage to consistently and persistently carry through the end will make it.

This is a stupid exam which only foreign law graduates are required to take. No worry, this is what makes us the outstanding one.

This is a stupid exam where you are asked to memorize statutes, which is absolutely meaningless to legal practice. No worry, take this as a practise as there are more to come when you are a pupil.

While a good memorizing skill does not make you a good lawyer, the skill to handle unreasonable and difficult stuff does, isn't it?

Do not give up the remaining papers even though you think you had screwed up a particular paper. I could not sleep well for months after the professional practice paper and who know it turns out to be a C.

I had a mental breakdown two months before the exam and I could not take in any single new case anymore. This was because I started to forget cases after some time the amount of stuff I had memorized went far beyond the amount of memory that my brain can fit in - it went to a stage of saturation. I tried and struggled for days, and I realised that my brain can no longer take in new cases. It will simply vanish away after a few hour, no matter how hard I try.

Initially I have decided to give up.
I went for yoga and studied nothing for two weeks.
Thereafter I decided to give it a try, and guess what, my brain takes in new cases again.

However, I have decided to take it easy this time and I have decided to give up memorizing a great number of cases that are less necessary.
I have also decided to skip the subject that triggered the incident - Bankruptcy and winding up.

I shall mention that initially I was planning to memorize all the cases written in my notes. I do not bother to count, but they are definitely more than one thousand.

Be FLEXIBLE, make room for contingency. If it comes to the point that you really cannot take it anymore, do what you can is the last option. Don't waste your time and effort that you have been spending on it.

My family has witnessed the entire incident, and I have been telling them that my plan doesn't work and what I'm doing now is merely trying to make my effort count. Eventually I passed the exam with 4C1D, and it is far beyond my expectation at that time.

Do one's level best and leave the rest to God's will.
盡人事，聽天命。

Keep going, and never give up.

---------------------- THE WALLY EFFECT http://thewallyeffect.blogspot.com/ ----------------------

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