The Planning Technique I Used: Part One

So in my previous article, I discussed how I used the time during the exam. In brief, I used half the time for each question planning and half writing my answer, with any remainder for checking the answer.

In this post, I'm going to discuss the method which I used to plan my answers when I passed FD1. Give it a bash and see whether it works for you. If it doesn’t, then adapt it to a method that you find more useful. The important point about the method of planning is that it will allow you to create a structured and balanced answer focused on the issues. As long as it achieves that objective, it doesn’t really matter how it works.

Spoiler Alert: I’ll be sharing answer plans from my mock attempts at the 2018 paper. If you’re planning to sit this as a practice, perhaps don’t look too closely at what I’ve written in each image.

The 6-box Grid Method

As I stated in the last article, I used to just dive into answering a question, and this may well have worked alright for part A, but it really wasn’t working for my part B questions. My tutor last summer suggested to me that I should instead divide a page into 6 boxes, and each box was to deal with a different issue raised in the question. Part A questions are, of course, much shorter than Part B questions, and as a result they generally deal with less issues. In essence, each box should be used to deal with a legal issue presented in the question. Some issues require more than one box, and that’s okay too: you can adapt the method on the fly depending on what you are dealing with in the question at hand.

Part A

To the right (or below, if you’re on mobile) is one page from my plan from when I sat the 2018 FD1 paper as a mock exam, which my tutor marked for me.

As you can see, the page is divided into 6 sections, and it deals with 2 questions, each of which has 3 boxes for planning each. I never divide it up until I read the question, as some questions need more than 3 boxes. You’ll need to practice and implement this for yourself to get a feel for how best to use it as part of your own exam technique.

Each box in my plan was dedicated to a different issue. What this means is, where I spotted a legal issue relevant to a client’s situation (for example, an infringement situation), I would dedicate one box to everything relevant to that situation I could explore. Sometimes the issues are so big that they span 2 boxes, and that is just decided as I plan and in the heat of the moment.

I would sit and think and write down what I thought was relevant. I would spend half of the allotted time for a question doing this, and then once the planning time was up I would jump into my answer. In the actual exam, where I ran out of time and I knew I had to move on, I would just stop planning and jump to writing the answer so that I didn’t run out of time getting my answer on the page.

In addition, there were occasions when I was writing my answer with reference to my plan, and I would realise that I didn’t agree with something I’d written in my plan, so I would change it.

Part B

The only difference in Part B, is that I would dedicate an entire 6-box grid to a single answer. In addition, I always dedicated one box to ‘Actions’, as you will often find that in a Part B questions there are a number of actions which you might advise the client to take. You can see in my example below that I only used 5 boxes for Q8 2018. I scored 17/25 marks in my mock attempt at it last summer: when I sat it for real in 2018 I scored single figures.

Another important consideration is whether a timeline should form part of your plan, and if that timeline is a simple timeline or a parallel timeline. A simple timeline would be used for calculating the deadlines or such for one application. A parallel timeline is where you have a lot of different things going on, and you need a clear way to make sense of what is happening in a given situation.

In questions where dates are given, the first thing you should do is consider whether a timeline is needed, what type of timeline is appropriate, and then crack on putting it together. The plan can come after you have put your timeline together.

I’ll be writing more about my method of putting together timelines in a future article.

Final Thoughts

Start implementing an effective planning technique right away into your revision. Simplify issues down in this way, and use the time intelligently in order to give yourself time and space to see the big picture in a question, and ensure you are answering the question. It’s going to take some time to get used to using these techniques in an exam. For now, try implementing them into the Coffee Table Questions.

If you have an alternative way of planning that you find most effective then please leave a comment and see whether anyone can benefit from your input.