Law preparation

Adopt an active and enquiring mindset

Recognise at this stage that success involves an active partnership between staff and students and seek out opportunities to optimise your part in that partnership. Degree-level learning requires students to take responsibility for their studies and advance preparation is part of this. This said, we will give you all the teaching and direction that you need once you arrive – for now this advice is about putting yourself in the best position to embrace that opportunity when it arises.

Engage with our resources

Before you arrive (shortly after the University registers you as a student), you will be sent various account and log-in details. As soon as you receive them engage with opportunities offered including the following:

• University email account: important information will be sent to you on this account – you should get into the habit of checking at least once a day
• SurreyLearn: this is the University’s virtual learning environment. This is where many of your teaching materials will eventually be found. While there will not be much there initially, do take time to have a look around and familiarise yourself with the structure and format of the environment
• Library: take a tour of the Library and locate the subject resources section for law to find the various research resources/databases that are available to you
• Social media – follow us on Facebook, Twitter but in particular on Instagram.

Consider some advance reading to help contextualise your studies

This could be a guide for the study of law (such as The Successful Law Student ’An Insider’s Guide to Studying Law’, by Imogen Moore and Craig Newbury Jones, (OUP); or a guide for the skills that law students will require (such as Legal Skills, by Emily Finch (A member of School staff) and Stefan Fafinski (OUP)); or a guide that introduces the law and its component parts (such as What About Law? Studying Law at University, by Catherine Barnard, Janet O'Sullivan, and G J Virgo (Bloomsbury)); or a legal autobiography (such as Spider Woman – A Life by Lady Hale [former President of the UK Supreme Court] (Vintage)). Alongside this you should be watching and reading the news via good quality media outlets and seeking to identify the myriad ways in which the law is present in many of the items reported.

Make arrangements to attend Welcome activities

Welcome Week is the formal introduction to University life. In particular, it provides a schedule of events during which the School and University will communicate key information that will be of use throughout your studies. It is the first opportunity for staff and students to engage in person and to foster that sense of community that we pride ourselves upon. As well as meeting staff, it is also the first chance to meet fellow students. It is not an exaggeration to say that long-term relationships will be made at this time. Attendance is the simplest and most effective way to engage and make a successful start to your degree.

Don’t overdo it!

There will be plenty of time for sustained effort over the course of your degree. As well as considering these tips you should enjoy the time and space that you might currently have before you start. There will be times when you will be required to work hard and times when you will feel under some ‘healthy’ pressure to get things done, however, you should never feel overwhelmed, and now is certainly not the time for this. Now is as much about thinking (contemplation) as doing. Specifically, it is about expectation, optimism, and excitement for what the future holds.

We look forward to meeting you and your fellow students very soon.