Hello!

Today has been a very exciting day at Brighton Journalist Works. We’ve received our provisional Media Law and Court Reporting results, and I got an A in Media Law and a B in Court Reporting (a true Christmas miracle, given how hideous that paper was). In fact, I don’t want to say this myself, so I’ll let BJW’s Facebook status say it for me:

Well done all fast-trackers on NCTJ Law results (provisional): everyone passed essential law at C or above with a record 9 As; 2 Bs and 1 C and good court reporting results too: 1 A; 6 Bs and 4 Cs. Big shout-out to Natalie for 2 As and to Kayleigh for highest mark in essential law Matt has ever had!

Hooray! I tried ruddy hard in that exam, so I’m pleased.

We were also given an indication as to what grade we might receive in the Reporting exam. The NCTJ Reporting exam is notorious for being an absolute joke, so it’s hard to know what to think, even in light of our feedback today. To get a C (required for the Gold Standard qualification), you need to have everything pretty much perfect, so Bs and As are basically unattainable. My tutor said she thought I was pretty safely in the C grades (it sounds absurd to me, to be aiming for a C, but that’s just the way this exam works. I’ve never aimed for a C before!), but we were given the chance to take the exam again for free, so I thought I might as well. Another flaw in the NCTJ system is that the Reporting resit is before we receive the official results for the exam we’ve just sat, so we might end up retaking, and then finding out a couple of days later that we easily passed anyway. Oh NCTJ…

Also, tomorrow is Shorthand results day. I find out the results of my 80wpm and 100wpm, so get excited for those. We discovered that as a result of the NCTJ being grrr8, there is no opportunity to take the 110wpm or the 120wpm until around November, as the NCTJ shuts for summer in a couple of weeks, meaning that if I’ve passed the 100wpm, I’ve finished shorthand, potentially forever. It’d be insane though, considering how fast our course has done this. Surely 100wpm in 10 weeks is some kind of record, if we’ve managed it?!

Next up is the PA exam. There is SO much to learn, so I’m just doing a bit a day so it’s not overwhelming. It IS overwhelming to be honest, but I’ll try my hardest for y’all.

OK, going to have some Kayleightime now. SMASHING. Did I ever tell you all how much I hate my name?

Kayleigh