Prof Gary Slapper, from New York University, is a true Scholar, and anyone who’s met him will know that his scholarship is truly infectious. I feel his students are very lucky indeed. In a move which caught a number of #legaltweeps by surprise, Gary took to the twitter tom-toms to divulge some top revision tips. Gary’s had the delight of marking probably thousands of finals scripts in his time, probably. In a move unheard of, Gary effectively performed an “online revision surgery” for students who couldn’t believe their luck. With Gary’s permission, I am delighted to be able to share some of these tips here in a blogpost, in case you happened to miss the advice. You’ll note that the tips are either REVISION TIPs or EXAM TIPs.

This one is particularly crucial for the GDL, where you don’t get credit for answering more than the number of questions requested (at many institutions):

Gary evidently feels that the right sort of presentation is preferable.

Gary suggests that a ‘scattergun’ approach is not that desirable.

Precision is a current theme unsurprisingly for Gary.

When revising, Gary “goes for” quality-revision time.

In your exams, you only have a limited amount of time, so everything you write should be for a reason, and there seems to be no shame in stating uncertainties in some answers.

I don’t know of anyone who uses “cheat sites”, but Gary has a very good way of looking at their use. I did my GDL contract exam, having prepared all of the previous day for an exam in Con+ Ad (and still passed), so I sympathise with the second point in this set.

The manner in which you revise is not a trivial point, either.

I like the #AvoidSurprises tweet the most! #justsaying

Well worth a #ff @garyslapper – you will learn lots of law even if you don’t intend to!

or te intelligere legem melius…

Gary continues to be utterly inspirational in his teaching of law and its idiosyncrasies, weird or otherwise. Take for example his article on how bigamy has been dealt with by international courts!

Both @garyslapper and @charonqc certainly do not treat teaching as their “job”; they have inspired countless students through their love of their law; here they are ‘in action ‘s part of the hugely successful “Without Prejudice series”, episode 17.