Hi all,

I am fortunate to have been offered a place on one of the full time LLM courses at Edinburgh Law School and I'm really happy about it. However, I did a science undergraduate with no social sciences content and haven't done anything like the CPE before. I'm a quant type of guy but I do read a lot.

I am concerned that I will be so far behind everyone else in the class that I will be playing catch up all year. What do you guys think? Any book recommendations are extremely welcome (and needed!) - if I spend the summer reading on my commute to work, I'm hoping there's a chance that I will be in a good position to do well on the course.

I would be hugely thankful for any advice that any of you can give. Should I quit my job and do the LLM?

You will not have incredible problems imo. You lack some legal knowledge, but a lot of people that do the LLM have a civil law background and thus don't know much about common law either.

Moreover you will be able to use your knowledge in exact science to provide a different angle on topics :)

Try to get the contact from someone from the same school you will atend and ask them if there is any book, manual that this person thinks might help you to catch up a little be during summer time...
but do not worry so much...many students are from different countries, normally civil law countries and also have very especific backgrounds - civil, criminal, international, tax....thus, I believe if you have brains you will be able to rapidly get on track!
good luck!

Thanks for your help Santa - there's a sentence I didn't think I would be writing! Thanks Gab2009 too!!

Thanks for your encouragement as well. The problem is that I still remain apprehensive. I really need to learn the basics - e.g. what is tort, what is common law, what is civil law, etc.... I really need help if I am to undertake this course.

I spoke to the admissions director (the guy who accepted me) and I asked for some reading material which he has kindly advised on. I'll go through this stuff.

In the lectures, aren't tutors going to be talking in depth about legal concepts? If that's the case, I need to know about that first surely?!

Any other advice?

Hi Trader.
Congratulations. If you are coming to Edinburgh for the general LLM, you really won't be that focused on some of the more basic concepts of law. Did you apply for a specific LLM programme (ie: Innovation and Technology?)? LLM programmes are designed to give more advanced knowledge of a field but, as others have indicated in their posts, you needn't be familiar with every basic concept in a common law jurisdiction. You mention tort (which is actually Delict in Scotland) and rest assured that this shouldn't come up in your courses unless you choose a very specific type of course. Here is the link to this year's course list. http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/courses/
When I did the LLM there were several non-law grads in the programme and they all did just fine so don't stress too much. You'll have plenty of time to read when you arrive.
Good luck.

PS-there are not tutors for the LLM. All of the courses are run seminar style with lots of discussion so everyone can learn concepts from one another. It is far different than undergrad and very helpful.

Thanks EDIpostgrad

Your comments were really helpful - thank you. The more I research, the less I am concerned about the workload, which is a positive development. So as far as this discussion thread goes, I'm content!

However, I am still unsure whether to go or not. It's a tall order to voluntarily give up a very decent banking salary in the hope that I will come out on the other end with better prospects...

The pondering continues!! ;-)