Super-curricular activities: Exploring Law in Year 12
If you read our latest post on personal statements, you would have seen the words ‘super-curricular activities’ being thrown around a lot. But what are super-curricular activities? How can you access them and why do they matter in preparing for Law at university? Read on to find out!
Super-curricular activities: The basics
Super-curricular activities are defined as:
‘Things that further your knowledge of a subject outside of your school work,
i.e. they go beyond the regular curriculum’
So, if we break down this definition, we are left with three conditions that have to be met for an activity to count as a super-curricular:
- It is relevant to the subject you want to study at university — in this case Law
- It is not part of your school course content/syllabus. It can be related to something you are studying at school but not directly part of the curriculum.
- It includes good quality academic content. No conspiracies about dolphins building the Egyptian pyramids please!
Extra-curricular activities — Where do they fit in?
You might now be wondering — how are extra-curriculars different to super-curriculars and are they still a beneficial way of spending my time?
Extra-curriculars are activities that you participate in outside of your school work but which are not related to Law. They can include sports, music, theatre, volunteering etc. Fundamentally, those activities are not preparing you to study Law and will not normally be considered in the context of your university application.
This does not mean you need to abandon all your hobbies! Doing things outside of your school work is important for your mental health, especially when studying for exams. It just means that you should focus your application, and particularly your personal statement, on your exploration of Law, and not try to impress Admissions teams with sporting or musical achievements that develop wholly different skills.
So how do I find Law super-curriculars?
You are in luck because they are everywhere! And not only are they everywhere, they can also be completely free. There is a common misconception that you have to complete extravagantly expensive activities, tons of work experience and travel across the world to be a competitive university applicant, but this is a far cry from the truth. Exploring Law can be free and easily accessible — and indeed universities and other educational institutions are committed to ensuring that your background, including your financial background, does not hinder your exploration into Law. So, if you are worried that a book or a podcast is lesser than a week’s work experience — think again! The skills and concepts you learn, and the way you engage with them, are more notable than the type of activity. Read more about this in the next section and see below for some suggestions from us on how to engage with Law as a school student:
Reading
From your school and local libraries to online open-access journals, reading is one of the easiest ways to learn more about legal systems, landmark cases, and legislation.
· ‘What about Law’ by Catherine Barnard, Graham Virgo, and Janet O’Sullivan
· ‘Letters to a Law Student’ by Nicholas McBride
· The Guardian’s Law pages — In general, being on top of current legal news is very important.
· JSTOR Journals
Watching
Youtube, BBC iPlayer, and university websites are your friends here.
· Cambridge Law Faculty YouTube (includes recordings of all the academic tasters and admissions sessions delivered during our events)
· UK Supreme Court past hearings on demand
Listening
Podcasts are a great way to discover interesting case-studies and hear from some of the most influential individuals in the sector. And you can do it while travelling to school!
· Law Pod
· Above the Law: Thinking like a Lawyer
Doing
We want to emphasize that work experience, in a law firm/barristers’ chambers or otherwise, is NOT a pre-requisite to apply to Cambridge Law. We understand that these are difficult programmes to access and are not available to everyone across the country. Not having work experience will not be a disadvantage to your application, as long as you have explored the subject in other ways.
But there is a variety of other activities which allow you to effectively engage with the Law:
· Researching an EPQ on legal matters
· Visiting your local Crown Court — most hearings are open to the public
· Online Courses — such as our very own ‘Exploring Law Course’ on FutureLearn
· University essay competitions — those will be advertised on different university websites
· University taster days/mock lectures/summer schools. All universities across the country will run events related to Law — from taster lectures to summer schools or even online Q and A sessions with current students, these are your most useful resource for understanding how Law is taught at university level and what you can do to prepare. Have a quick browse on your chosen university’s webpages using key words such as ‘law outreach’ or ‘law events’. For example, all events we run at Cambridge for prospective Law applicants can be found here.
· A lot of universities will have their own lists of Law super-curricular suggestions — you can find ours here.
Why super-curriculars matter and why more is not better
Most visibly, super-curriculars allow you to discover different facets of Law and help you understand whether that is the right subject for you. But they also build your skills and expand your knowledge — critical analysis, comparing evidence and ideas, as well as constructing arguments are all skills that Law students use every day during their studies. Universities will be looking for students who have already built the foundations of these skills and are able to showcase them through their personal statement, admissions tests (the LNAT in Cambridge’s case) and the interview.
For these reasons, you need to really engage with your super-curriculars. Just attending a lecture or reading a book is not enough — were there any ideas that you found shocking or interesting? What were your own opinions on the subject matter? Did you think the conclusions proposed were backed by sufficient evidence? Was there anything that prompted you to do further reading/research? These are the questions you should be asking yourself and the thoughts Admissions Tutors will be having when assessing whether you are a fit for their programme. Without reflection, super-curricular activities hold little value!
And one more note from us-make notes! Thinking that you will remember all your observations and the details of what you did is a trap and by the time they actually start writing their personal statement, a lot of students realise they are missing crucial elements. Keeping a diary of activities that you have done, your reflections from them, and some notes on the skills you earned can be very efficient and it will prevent you from a mental block when you begin working on your application.
Last but not least, remember to have fun! This process is supposed to be about you exploring your legal interests. It is not homework and there is no right or wrong way to do it-just focus on what fascinates you and everything will fall in its place!
