About Debora Dorn: Debora is a trainee patent attorney at Appleyard Lees IP LLP. Debora has broad insight into various areas of physics and mathematics, and a particular interest in machine learning and its various applications – from health care to self-driving cars.
At Appleyard Lees, trainee patent attorneys prepare for exams in a number of different ways. There is informal on the job training, such as drafting replies to client emails, studying for the exams in your own time, and in-house tutorials, then there are external revision courses. I’ve found that each of these components plays an important role in revising for the exams.
The Appleyard Lees trainees sitting foundation exams this October recently attended the JDD revision courses. This year, some of the courses were held in person and others online. For me, this meant travelling to Milton Keynes for half of my courses, while I joined a Zoom call for the other half.
The JDD revision courses provide a structured overview of all topics on the syllabus. Most of the courses include the opportunity to try some past paper questions and get feedback on your answers, giving a good idea of what to expect on the real exam. So far, answering past paper questions has been a really helpful revision tool, during in-house tutorials, my own revision, and the formal revision courses. The exams that trainees sit are focused on the legal aspects of the job, and because trainee patent attorneys come from a scientific background, answering these questions is quite different from sitting university exams.
The revision courses help to structure revision and provide useful notes, they also provide the opportunity to meet and network with trainees from other firms, who are at similar levels in terms of exams. At Appleyard Lees, there are currently several trainees, including myself, who will sit foundation exams this October, and it’s great to be able to study together (and give each other moral support).
In summary, attending revision courses has been a great experience, and a good starting point for further revision and sitting the exams in October!
