Exams, Masters and Two Halves United - Lessons From a Second Month in Germany

Exams, Masters and two halves united – Lessons from a second month in Germany

Another Brexit date passes England by and another month goes where Germany simply does not care. The news from the UK compared to that of Germany is incomparable in its division. Here, currently, there are celebrations of the fall of the Berlin wall 30 years ago. A great symbolic sense of unity sweeps the land and people come together to rejoice the of a bitterly divisive and divided time which nearly plunged a nation into war. Meanwhile, I find my home country increasingly hostile to the idea of change, unity and communal spirit which we arguably the first to say we are proud of. Having looked at my home objectively, that feeling of coming together in times of shared anguish, I feel, has very much been lost in recent times. Maybe Great Britain can look in these troubled times to a country that was once its sworn enemy, see it united, and take some inspiration as to its own etiquette on the world stage as well as domestically. 

Anti-England rant over from the stuck up, year abroad know it all side of this column, let us get into what you’re really here for, a breakdown of my recent times in Hamburg. I must confess, a good portion of this hiatus between entries has been spent back in the UK, hence my above cynicism about what I feel is becoming of Britain. However, I have managed to gather enough diary points, memories and social events to manifest a meander through another stage of my year abroad experience.

As the title suggests, I had exams recently. This is something I had become used to at home as Sheffield University provides a comprehensive Law exam structure with problem questions, essays and the like to be submitted either in a timed session or over a period of days/ weeks as coursework. I expected those of the German legal school to be of such high calibre that I would trip at individual words and become lost in great complex problems which would absorb every molecule of knowledge I had and swallow my ambitions along with it. To my amazement, however, this didn’t happen initially. I found myself in the auditorium of Bucerius being informed that all of my exams would be on computers. ‘Amazing!’ I thought, finally a place where talent can be shown in a modern way. 

My first exam was German Law, comprising of the fundamentals of the German legal system from the five books I mentioned before to the basics of criminal, company and arbitration law. When it came to the exam I expected there to be some form of problem or scenario based question. This institution prides itself on turning out quality candidates with high grades which the proudly paste on the wall to highlight the achievement of the candidates who dare to apply. I was surprised therefore to find myself in a multiple choice, one hour exam on tiered seating where the only thing I had to worry about was ensuring no one behind me was spotting my selections and copying them. This format continued for the second exam which was on corporate law. 

By this stage of my exams I had been lulled into a sense of security, this semester won’t be so challenging I thought, I’ll have grades to be proud of that I’ll have worked for. This belief was compounded when I found that results of these tests could be viewed and compared with others who completed it within the first hour of the exam being over. Huddled together, all us internationals frantically opened our laptops and darted madly for the ‘Review’ button on Bucerius’ exam interface. Mercifully my results were of a standard I could be proud of, many around me were less fortunate. For an exam, we had been explicitly told would be so easy it would be impossible to fail, a good few people had failed. However, my feelings of pride were soon to be wiped as I had one, final exam to complete. This I knew would be the most challenging as we had been told it was more than simple multiple choice. It composed of a number of questions each sub-categorised into issues dealing with corporate governance, strategy of law firms and company management. 

It may surprise you to know that I am extremely young for the program I am on here at Bucerius. Their candidates are usually Americans who have completed both an undergraduate degree as well as a further law degree. This entails a fair amount of ‘catching up’ to people who are far more experienced and versed in complex legal issues than yourself. For instance, many others on this course have previous legal experience with firms in high management and consulting roles, having taken time between their undergraduate and post graduate study to gain valuable knowledge and develop their ambitions. 

The intricacies of the American legal education system aside, it should be clear to you that this exam in particular to me was an enormous challenge. I found myself floundering on specifics of corporate governance. Studies seemingly universal among my fellow examinees were completely alien. Though the exam was in English, our ‘former managing partner at Allen & Overy’ examiner had fiendishly laced the questions with definitions and sources in German to test our metal. It’s fair to say, I don’t feel I came out well from this experience. 

The stress was then lulled by a break in which I travelled home to recuperate. I know everyone has had bad exams but I’m sure you’ll agree, it is far more jarring when you don’t see it coming. 

However, while I feel as though I will struggle with convincing the examiner with my rambling on vague themes in the management of law firms, the exam did provide significant food for thought. Studying a subject which I found challenging and haven’t previously had any experience with, showed me the knowledge and experience that the highest echelons of this profession requires. Therefore, I began to enquire about the master’s department here at Bucerius. I know it seems fairly ballsy to go from an exam you feel you may have only scraped a pass on to wishing to apply to the same schools’ highest legal and business education course. I knew, however, I had a window in which they wouldn’t know how badly id done on that final exam as it had to be marked externally, so as far as they knew I was currently a star pupil. 

The Masters program here is one which combines teaching in both business and legal skills and concludes with a work experience placement which can be done in either English or German depending on your bravery. I felt this sort of opportunity was far too exciting to not even consider, I haven’t made any concrete decisions yet as its application for law firms season (I’m sure you’re all too aware). It would be foolish to pin myself to one or the other without first seeing what happens to my various applications. That will be a story for the next post I suspect.

This brings you right up to now, I’ve experienced exams, felt the wrath of the German legal education system and considered applying for even higher education that I almost certainly am dangerously underqualified for. This week’s blog, I feel, is about more than simply about the law and how Germany’s exams work. 

I hope you can take away something from the initial feelings I expressed in this post. There is a feeling of division back home which I sensed from the news I heard and have been reading while here. There is a need for unity in these divided times and with an election now on the horizon, my fear is that we will only grow further apart. Regardless of the trading block and politics, Europe is a neighbour of ours until we somehow manage to do an action similar to the intro on Have I Got News for You. Subsequently, 30 years from one of the world’s great divides being torn down in favour of a greater good, maybe the UK can find some consensus. Though, from where I am sitting, it seems unlikely I would urge readers of this post to see facts through identify politics and fake news. What little I can do with a public forum from Germany won’t change my home country but I hope you can see a definite change in the rhetoric of everyone in the UK as I have through this international experience. Politics has become more toxic and divided than ever, the old norms are being eroded and etiquette slung in favour of buzz words and false promises. I have little to offer in comfort on that other than to let you know that where I am, people have come through an even more divided time and shown such barriers can be dismantled when we realise they’re archaic. 

On a lighter note, I have to dash now to meet a friend who’s come from the UK to see exactly what I’m on about when I rave about this place. If those experiences end up in the next article, you know I’ve really run out of ideas.