Suzanne O'Donnell

Law student testimonial

I originally took a BA (hons) in Business Studies in a fairly traditional way; at a polytechnic, straight after my A-levels. I fell into my current career at the same time, when I landed a year’s contract as an Assistant in a business systems department.  This fulfilled the industrial experience part of my sandwich course. I loved the job, meeting new people, seeing new places, and racking up tens of thousands of miles on the road and countless nights away. 

When I graduated, I returned to the same employer and continued to work in a number of in-house ICT departments, there and elsewhere, before moving to a software house.  These days I’m a Consultant for a logistics software application, which involves analysing the client’s requirements and advising them on the best way in which to utilise the application, helping them to create their future business processes and a software solution to support those.

On the personal front, I’m married, live in the north west of England and am on the ‘wrong’ side of forty. I still love my job.  However, I also love getting to see my friends and family and sleeping in my own bed whereas, in my current job, I’m often not even in the same country. Over the years, I’ve seen many colleagues divorce in their forties and/or become jaded in their fifties. As I approached this danger zone I realised that I wanted to change my work-home balance so that I am at home more but desperately wanted to still have a challenging and satisfying job.

After much soul-searching and many discussions with my husband and best friend, I decided to look into training to become a Solicitor. After all, I threw away all of my business studies notes years ago, except for my law notes. I’d enjoyed that part of the course too much to part with those.

I could not afford to give up work or even reduce my hours, so distance learning was the way to go. Having grown up with the long-haired and tank-topped Open University presenters of the 70s on BBC2, I did a quick check on the OU website and was delighted to see that I could study for an LLB. Even better, successful completion of the LLB automatically opened the door to a place with the College of Law to study for the Legal Practice Course that I would also need to take.

My original BA enabled me to get a credit transfer from the OU for 120 points, which meant that I only needed to take the four core 60 point courses required for a qualifying law degree:

· W200 Understanding law

· W201 Law: the individual and the state

· W300 Law: agreements, rights and responsibilities

· W301 Law: ownership and trusteeship: rights and responsibilities

For me the highlights have been:

· Making new good friends among the tutors and other students. I really enjoyed the tutorials and many phone calls and emails in between. 

· Exercising my brain in a new way. Considering broader concepts and principles for an essay is very different from setting parameters and designing a software solution.

· Given my ‘advanced’ age, I thought I’d better try to get a grade 2 (to get a 2:1 overall) in order to get a training contract as a solicitor but I managed to get a distinction each year. Each time I was stunned but so, so happy. Getting a first was far beyond what I though I could achieve when I set out. Realising that I could be good at this was a revelation. Picture a forty-plus - and let’s be honest, not exactly slim - woman jumping up and down with joy and excitement.

· Being awarded the OU law student of the year for 2009, completely out of the blue. Picture the same thing!

The low points have been:

· Revision for my first exam in nearly 20 years was truly terrifying. The OU awards the lower of the two grades achieved from the average of the tutor marked assessments (TMAs) and from the exam. Therefore, the pressure associated with that single 3 hour exam is enormous.

· Having a re-sit in my final year. My elderly mother-in-law was rushed into hospital 36 hours before the dreaded exam (happily she is fully recovered). I sat the exam but my head was mush. 

· The relentless workload. The ‘unit a week’ hamster wheel, often for thirty-plus weeks straight is very tiring. 

· Missing out on the summers – the February to October course timetable means you watch an awful lot of sunshine and summer fun going on outside while you’re stuck at your desk.

I will start the Legal Practice Course (part-time at weekends) with the College of Law in Chester on 1 September.

Even though the content of my studies does not directly apply to my job, I am definitely more confident now in my ability to analyse a problem. Having to meet the tight word limits imposed in the TMAs has also improved my report-writing skills. I have more faith in my own opinions and think I’m better at explaining my reasons for holding them. 

I still wish to train as a solicitor and will start the LPC shortly. However, after finishing the LLB I needed a break and so did my family. So, I’ve had my own sort of gap year where I ‘only’ worked full-time. I’m actually looking forward to studying again now!

My law tutors were a mix of current and ex-practitioners and pure academics. It was very useful to hear war stories from the practitioners as these gave additional context to elements of the course. However, in some cases the academics were able to communicate the concepts and spot my misconceptions (and so put me straight) more easily. 

I’ve been very favourably impressed with my OU experience. Where else can you hold down a demanding job and still have access to such excellent course materials, and encouragement and advice from such top brains?  The OU has some outstanding tutors and I really appreciated their willingness to take calls / answer emails during evenings and weekends.

I’d definitely recommend doing the LLB with the OU.  It was exactly what I needed. Unfortunately, a fellow student in my first year fell ill and could not continue with the course at that time. He subsequently got the opportunity to start again at a bricks and mortar university and told me that he now appreciated just how well prepared the OU course materials had been.