Changes to be expected for D 2020 and later
At yesterday's Tutor’s meeting in Munich, the D committee indicated that there are no big changes to be expected for D 2019 compared to the papers of the last years. As before, the D paper will be a 5 hour + 30 minutes paper. The D paper is a single paper with a DI part (legal questions – to test legal knowledge) and a DII part (legal assessment – to test ability to implement the knowledge), as described in Rule 26 IPREE. The committee indicated that it can be expected that D 2019 will have, as before, about 40% DI and 60% DII.
However, no specific ratio is indicated in Rule 26 IPREE and both parts are equally important. The D committee indicated that after 2019, there will still be ONE Paper D, but the ratio between DI and DII may vary: “any reasonable variation (e.g., between 40:60 – 60:40) should be expected”.
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Update 18 December 2018:
In epi Information 4/2018 (page 25), T. Rijns published the following annoucement:
[begin citation]
Announcement on the EQE - Paper D
T. Reijns
Article 1(4) REE and Rule 26(1) IPREE specify that the purpose of Paper D is "to assess candidates' ability to answer legal questions and to draft legal assessments".
Over the last 4 years we have noticed a decline in the quality of candidates' answers to the legal questions in Paper D. The candidates appear to be less well prepared on the legal documentation in the syllabus. It also appears that candidates focus more on the preparation for the legal assessment part (part 2) of Paper D than the legal questions (part 1).
With the formal merger of the two parts of Paper D into a single exam some years ago, candidates have shifted their focus to the legal assessment and moved to answering the legal questions only in the time they have left after completing the legal assessment. This in itself is a way of time management that is allowed and could be a good strategy for some candidates.
What is not desired is when candidates do not prepare for the legal questions enough and focus only on the legal assessment. Fifteen years ago, more emphasis was given to the legal assessment by changing from a 50:50 point distribution to 40:60, because candidates at that time put most of their effort on answering the legal questions and gave little attention to the legal assessment. We have now reached the other extreme.
In order to be considered "fit for practice", candidates must know the law and be able to apply it. Only being able to do one of these, is not enough.
For this reason, the point distribution between the legal questions and the legal assessment will be floating with a variation between 60:40 to 40:60 from EQE 2020 onwards.
Since the purpose of the floating point distribution is to encourage candidates to prepare well for both parts of Paper D, the distribution will not be announced before the date of the exam. Of course, the point distribution will be clearly indicated on the exam papers.
[end citation]
However, no specific ratio is indicated in Rule 26 IPREE and both parts are equally important. The D committee indicated that after 2019, there will still be ONE Paper D, but the ratio between DI and DII may vary: “any reasonable variation (e.g., between 40:60 – 60:40) should be expected”.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 18 December 2018:
In epi Information 4/2018 (page 25), T. Rijns published the following annoucement:
[begin citation]
Announcement on the EQE - Paper D
T. Reijns
Article 1(4) REE and Rule 26(1) IPREE specify that the purpose of Paper D is "to assess candidates' ability to answer legal questions and to draft legal assessments".
Over the last 4 years we have noticed a decline in the quality of candidates' answers to the legal questions in Paper D. The candidates appear to be less well prepared on the legal documentation in the syllabus. It also appears that candidates focus more on the preparation for the legal assessment part (part 2) of Paper D than the legal questions (part 1).
With the formal merger of the two parts of Paper D into a single exam some years ago, candidates have shifted their focus to the legal assessment and moved to answering the legal questions only in the time they have left after completing the legal assessment. This in itself is a way of time management that is allowed and could be a good strategy for some candidates.
What is not desired is when candidates do not prepare for the legal questions enough and focus only on the legal assessment. Fifteen years ago, more emphasis was given to the legal assessment by changing from a 50:50 point distribution to 40:60, because candidates at that time put most of their effort on answering the legal questions and gave little attention to the legal assessment. We have now reached the other extreme.
In order to be considered "fit for practice", candidates must know the law and be able to apply it. Only being able to do one of these, is not enough.
For this reason, the point distribution between the legal questions and the legal assessment will be floating with a variation between 60:40 to 40:60 from EQE 2020 onwards.
Since the purpose of the floating point distribution is to encourage candidates to prepare well for both parts of Paper D, the distribution will not be announced before the date of the exam. Of course, the point distribution will be clearly indicated on the exam papers.
[end citation]
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Surely this will affect how candidates plan their time in the exam. A bit unfair to just find out on the day and to have to adjust timing accordingly. How long will the notice be before the exam. 4 weeks before would be reasonable to allow practice.
ReplyDeleteI donot agree.
DeleteAs T. Reijns indicated, the D committee wants all candidates for rpepare optimally for both parts. I.e., if the ratio is 40:60, 60:40 or anywhere in between, a candidate should be prepared.
You can thus not prepare to pass mainly on DI.
You can thus also no longer prepare to pass purely on DII.
I agree that this changes the rules of the game (see comment below from Anonymous 20 December 2018 at 15:36), but the committee announces it well in time (I assume it will also be in an official annoucement, i.e. in the OJ EPO) and the rules of the game have changed before (e.g. when the paper was changed from 3h DI in the morning and a seperate 4h DII in the afternoon to a single 5h combined DI+DII paper). That is all fully fine.
Kind regards, M.
I can see Anonymous point and also M's point.
DeleteM - the point is that all candidates know beforehand how much time they can spend on DI and DII sections in all previous changes. This change will not allow a candidate to effectively prepare their time management on the day.
It would be better if candidates are given 10-15 mins in the exam to calculate and work out their time management based on the weighting of the questions in the exam. This should be better for all candidates - if you want candidates to be better prepared - give them time to work out how much time they need to spend on each section.
AH
Candidates always need to prepare their time management on the day: it is never said in advance how many D1 questions would be asked and how many marks each of them would be. DI questions varied between 4 and 10 marks over the last 6 years... Makes quite a difference to have 4 10-mark questions or 10 4-mark questions. If there is only 40 marks for DII, you are expected to be able to do that in 2 hours and the complexity will be accordingly. I think it is a fair proposal.
DeleteAnd... candidates already got 30 minutes extra, so the 10-15 minutes they can spend. The REE/IPREE define that the paper is designed as a 5hour paper. The 30 minutes extra were awarded by the Supervisory Board to do this 5hour paper, not to design a 5 1/2 hour paper.
M
Otherwise, all candidates before 2020 would have the knowledge about the paper and would be able to practice on their time management for the exam. I think it is highly disadvantageous for the students in 2020 onward, who would not be able to have the same amount of practice in time management.
ReplyDeleteThere are no papers before that with this sort of weighting either. It will be a disadvantage.