If you are like me and you like purchasing books whether its hardback or not to simply read when you have a little time or on your commute to work then these are perfect, bearing in mind that they are most definitely law related but also provide a different perspective to the legal world as we know it. 

Firstly, 'Unlawful killings' by Her Honour Wendy Joseph QC, this I simply found when browsing through the books in WHSmith. Just flicking through this book quickly was enough to entice me to purchase it and start reading it as soon as humanly possible. With each chapter set out as a trial, unfolding horrific but mostly tragic details, the book takes you through five separate cases. 

Secondly, 'People like us' by Hashi Mohamed, this I discovered after attending an online qualifying session with Middle Temple, where he discussed his book and read a little passage from it too. It was incredibly inspiring watching a muslim barrister speak about his journey to the Bar. 

Thirdly, 'In Black and White' by Alexandra Wilson, now I am sure this book might be easily recognisable simply because of how well it was portrayed in the media. This tells the story of a young barrister's story of navigating race and class in a broken justice system, as described by herself. This truly does open your eyes in a world that is still typically male dominated despite the neverending strive for diversity at the Bar. 

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It has been over a year since I last posted on here. Why, you may ask? There is no simple explanation but this past year has been a whirlwind to say the least. It was one of the busiest, most stressful, and most eventful years to this date and I am grateful for every single thing that has happened. While I will not detail every single thing that has happened this year (simply because you would get bored) I shall tell you about what has single handedly consumed me this year. 

From my older posts you may have gathered that I am studying to become a barrister. What no one tells you is that the bar course is probably one of the most hardest and gruelling things you will do in becoming a barrister (until you get to pupillage applications and tenancy, another whole ballpark) and studying online (the cherry on top of this cake) only makes your life much more difficult. I have one exam left and so help me god I WILL GET CALLED TO THE BAR THIS YEAR! Nonetheless, there is light at the end of the tunnel all you need is faith, a lot of resilience, and a really good support system. 

I turned 22 last year, it was bittersweet, I celebrated my birthday whilst finishing off the last bit of my masters. My masters project started out as being this one issue I wanted to examine, domestic abuse in relation to the pandemic, but in reality it was far too large to write up 8k words on. I managed to streamline my vision by thinking about its use in practice and decided upon the use of special measures in court for domestic abuse victims amidst the pandemic. One thing I can say for sure is I will not miss education, but that's because it never really truly stops. 

After completing my last set of exams I began job hunting and applying with the intention of wanting to leave my part-time job. While it had served me well it was no longer relevant to my next stages in life. As someone who's sole focus was education for a large chunk of my life, whilst working part-time, finding a job was not on my list of priorities. That was until handing in my last assignment for my course, from having absolutely no free time to having 5 days free was extremely new and slightly unsettling. I buried myself in countless job applications, another painfully long and daunting experience but it paid off eventually. 

I began doing things I simply did not have the time for before because of studying full time, little things like reading more books. I managed to read 8 chapters of Alexandra Wilson's 'In Black and White' over the course of a few hours, it may not seem like much but for me it was amazing! I look forward to this year because there is so many things I want to do, both related and unrelated to my career. 

As some of you may know I start the BTC, the Bar Training Course, this month. And for any aspiring barristers you are more than familiar with the several things you must do before commencing the course. One of the several requirements is to pass the Bar Course Aptitude Test to determine whether or not you are 'fit for the Bar'. It is based on the Watson-Glaser test designed to test logic, critical thinking and reasoning. It costs an extortionate £150 and personally in my opinion it is pointless. Nevertheless, here are a few things I did to prepare for the test. Bear in mind I prepared a few days before my test and managed to pass. 

1. TalentLens practice test. This test provides you with example questions and answers along with the explanation as to why the answers are what they are. This is by far the closest practice test online that mirrors the actual one. Unfortunately this is the only test online, I tried searching for more and I quickly learnt the sources to practice are extremely scarce. 
2. Watson-Glaser practice tests. Instead of searching for BCAT tests what you can do is practice using the W-G tests online as they are more accessible but ensure the question and answer style is similar to the BCAT. 
3. YouTube videos. The ones I found the most useful were by CareerVidz. There are two videos, one outlining the types of question and the second one revealing answers to questions from the first video. I found it helpful to watch and pause the video answer the questions myself and then going back to check if they were correct or incorrect and the reasoning behind each one. 
4. The RED model. This is the 'recognizing assumptions', 'evaluating arguments' and 'drawing conclusions' from the information provided to you. This is extremely helpful and can be memorized quickly and referenced to when taking the test, so make use of it.