#llmguide

Sometimes you just need a place to find a little bit of peace in this crazy city - to read, have a coffee, people watch, or even just scroll on your phone... With that in mind, and as my time is wrapping up in this amazing place, here are my favorite places in the city to hide out:

1. Elizabeth St Garden

This is a quirky 1-acre community sculpture garden in the Nolita (which stands for North of Little Italy) neighborhood of Manhattan, located on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Spring Streets.

Unfortunately, it is set to be redeveloped into a senior’s village - but there is a lawsuit on foot to stop this. Get there soon, and fingers crossed the suit succeeds because this place is a true gem.

2. La Lanterna Caffe, Greenwich Village

Amazing gem of a restaurant/café right across the road from NYU Law School. It’s very non-descript from the front, but opens up to this gorgeous back patio. The perfect spot for an aperol spritz, coffee, or pasta!

3. Conservatory Garden, Central Park

And even though it’s hardly groundbreaking - just Central Park in general through the seasons! 

I saw the fall leaves in November 🍁

... the cherry blossoms in April 🌸

...and the lush summer greenery

4. Brooklyn Bridge Park 

You can walk over the Brooklyn Bridge (like I did in the picture below last August) or get the subway to Dumbo or Brooklyn Heights. There’re plenty of basketball courts in that blue structure over the water, that stellar view of the skyline, and lots of grass to kick back and read. 

5. Brooklyn Heights Promenade

Now this is one of my favorite places in the city - especially since I moved to Brooklyn Heights in March and can sit and take in this skyline view on the benches with lunch or coffee! As you can see, it’s located just above Brooklyn Bridge Park, and there are cute dogs and babies on walks all down the promenade. This is the perfect place to relax in the sun, or take a romantic sunset stroll before dinner in Dumbo. 

This was last night at around 7pm 🙌

Spring tulips along the promenade in April:

6. West Side Highway/Hudson River Park

When I lived in Soho near NYU, this was my go-to running/exercise spot. There are grassy piers and boardwalks, these cool wooden swings, wooden benches overlooking New Jersey, tennis courts, summery bars and restaurants, and even mini-golf!

Hard to complain about running in fall with this view:

...or even in December with that biting winter cold when I got to see this sunset!

7. Wandering around Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

This is a little bit off the beaten path, but you could make a day of heading to Brooklyn Heights Promenade/Brooklyn Bridge Park and then wandering around these nearby neighborhoods. 

There are plenty of good cafes and restaurants nearby, and the well-kept brownstones and incredible care put into gardening just puts me in a good mood!

8. Vanderbilt Hall Courtyard, NYU

Last but certainly not least is NYU Law’s very own courtyard at Vanderbilt Hall. It’s pretty all year round, but especially in Spring when the magnolias, cherry blossoms and daffodils are out.

It’s a great spot to sit with a coffee and start all those readings you’re behind on, or to eat lunch with some of your LLM friends.

Here are some other places I’m hoping to get to in my last few weeks here:

Pier 35, Lower East Side

Fort Tryon, Met Cloisters

Up past the Bronx

Prospect Park, Brooklyn

Preparing for examinations is always difficult. During my final year of undergraduate study, I undertook 3 exams, two of which accounted for my final degree classification. For my LLM, I undertook five exams. Over the years, I have become well accustomed to exam stress and have learnt effective methods of exam revision. I have outlined below my tips of exam success.

Timetabling

In school, we were always reminded that timetabling one’s revision is the key to success. Whilst precise timetables (e.g. factoring in all breaks) may work for some, for me, I found that allocating each day of my week to tackling a particular module/topic of study worked best.

Whilst some argue that it is most effective to cover several topics of revision a day, I have never found this approach very useful. At most, I would tackle two topics per day (one covered from the morning-afternoon, and the other from the afternoon-evening).

Acronyms

If you are studying law, acronyms should be your best friend. They work best when dealing with legal problem questions.

EXAMPLE: say you are studying Family law and have been given a problem question describing a marriage, and then have been asked to identify whether the marriage is valid, a non marriage, void or voidable.

This is how I approached the above question using acronyms: First, I identify my structure, this might look something like:

Introduction: define marriage (Hyde v Hyde and Bellinger v Bellinger), differentiate between non marriage, void and voidable marriages

Non marriage: No statutory basis- origins in R v Bham, Hudson v Leigh- Bodey J test, has there been formality non compliance? (See Al Gamal), is it a forced marriage? (B v I/Re P), did parties intend the marriage ceremony?( Galloway v Goldstein)

I then go on to condense the above information to the following letters: I (for Introduction), N (for Non marriage)

Of course, the pattern continues as I address (in this case) the latter paragraphs of my essay, which inevitably include a discussion of void marriages, voidable marriages, voidable bars, divorce, and divorce bars. In sum, my basic acronym could look something like:

I/N/V/V/VB/D/DB: Introduction Non marriage Void marriage Voidable marriages Voidable bars Divorce Divorce Bars

Remembering a bunch of letters in this way might seem daunting- but the key is to make a sentence out of the letters- preferably something related to the topic studied. In this instance, I would make the letters into a sentence pertaining to marriage/divorce.

Flashcards

Flashcards are another great way to revise- especially if you are on the go. They are particularly useful for law, because you can put the case name on one side, and the legal rule/principle established on the back.

Mind maps

Mind maps are one of the most effective methods of revision. You can condense a whole topic into one mind-map, and/or, you can organise them by sub topics if you want your mind maps to be more detailed.

During the first term students are expected to take 4 courses, each comprising half a unit. Some modules consist of lectures and seminars, others are seminar-based. Although the interactive nature of the latter means that most of the time it’s the students talking and expressing their views on a proposed topic, quite a large part of a seminar is actually a mini-lecture by the professor which is usually done at the beginning. This is a very convenient way to recap all the main ideas and concepts that you studied while doing the required reading. 

The reading lists for each course are uploaded on Moodle, an online learning platform used at LSE. On a course’s page you can also find various resources for studying such as audio and video files, lecture slides, links to video recordings of lectures as well as links to scholarly works recommended for reading. To give you an idea of what it looks like, I attach to this post a screenshot of the Moodle page (intro part) for the course I took this semester - The Law of Corporate Finance. Although it was quite hard at times due to the subject’s complex nature, I enjoyed it immensely. 

The semester is divided into weeks and each week you examine a different topic in your course. There are 11 weeks, with Week 6 being a reading week, that is, you don’t have any lectures or seminars and are supposed to be catching up on all the studying you didn't do or write a formative assignment. But in reality, a lot of people prefer to spend the reading week traveling. I personally went to Scotland and although I loved it there, I probably should’ve stayed and studied in the library the whole week because the workload was very heavy and demanding.

Throughout the term, you can complete a formative assessment which is basically an essay of 1,200-1,500 words. It’s in no way compulsory, but highly recommended because by getting your professor’s feedback you can dramatically improve your writing skills in time for the exams in summer. Your essay is marked but it’s not counted towards your degree, so it just gives you an idea of what kind of grade you can potentially get at the final exam. Some of the formatives are due in the reading week, but it really depends on the module and its instructor. For some of the courses you can choose one of the three options to submit a formative essay throughout the term. I think it’s designed for large-sized courses where it’s rather difficult for the lecturer to mark the assignments in one sitting and give meaningful feedback to each student. 

What I absolutely love about my program is that the law department at LSE organises many events as part of LLM Specialist Seminar Series in Financial, Corporate and Commercial Law. As a student who chose the corporate law specialism, I was very happy to attend talks by leading scholars (both from UK and US) on topical issues of corporate governance as well as other related subjects. Also, we had a lecture delivered by one of LSE professors on finance which was very useful for me personally because I had very basic knowledge of finance concepts underlying the law and it really helped me with my corporate finance law module.

I write this from the beautiful NYU Law Vanderbilt Hall courtyard, in my second last week on this amazing campus.

I start my exams in 4 days (!!!) and I finished classes last week. It’s hard to believe! 

A lot has happened since I last posted. I finished my classes and my externship, got vaccinated, made many more LLM friends who started in the spring and JD friends, and I was interviewing at a few firms in the US. I’m very happy to report that I got an associate role at a firm last week! More on that in my next post, because I know many of you are probably looking for positions in the US after your LLM. 

I went to my first baseball game - Yankees vs Orioles at Yankee Studium, and I had a lot of lunches and coffees in the sun at Washington Square Park with LLM and JD friends. 

I took about 1 million photos of tulips and other flowers around the city...

And I was also able to meet with a few of my professors for coffee and drinks (yay for the US’s roll-out of vaccinations!). This might seem trivial, but it’s been so nice to be able to meet professors and my work supervisors at the DA’s office in person for final drinks - it feels like the world is semi-normal again in NY. 🌞 

On that note, I just want to take a moment and say that I know that many of you in your home countries (especially India and Brazil) are really struggling right now. Many of the students here have had family and friends that have contracted COVID, and if this is the position you are in, I am truly sorry. My thoughts are with you, and I hope you will still be able to travel to the US to undertake your LLM later this year if that is still your goal. 

It’s so strange knowing that my time here is nearly up. I’ve loved this year, but it really has gone by so quickly. And even though I’m so glad I came to start the LLM in the Fall Semester, and I made very firm friends with the small group that started with me, it’s sad leaving our new Spring starter friends behind knowing most of them have a whole semester to go! At least I know I will come visit them, as I’ll still be in the US next semester.

Even the quad has changed so rapidly - from the beautiful magnolia buds above in March, to this equally beautiful summer green of the moment in late April:

Our graduation is coming up in May, and *very* sadly, it won’t be in person. However, you had better believe I will still be getting photos in my cap, tassel, and gown! And we LL.M.s have planned some informal celebrations, especially as we will all be fully vaccinated by then.

I now am going to drag myself into the library instead of procrastinating, but look out for my upcoming posts:

1. How I got a law firm position in the US (in litigation), and what my other LL.M. friends are doing for jobs post-graduation;

2. Making the most of your LL.M. (there’s a million ways to do it, but this will be some tips from my perspective); and

I am blatantly stealing this idea from my fellow LLM Guide blogger at Berkeley, Nathaniel - but thought it might be helpful for those wanting to see what a day is like here in New York at NYU! This is a Thursday.

Morning

8:00am - wake up, lay around for a bit and feel deathly dehydrated from the built-in radiators in my building 😅There’s a blue sky today, but it is very deceptive - it’s cold!!

8:30am - make breakfast, usually a smoothie, cereal or avocado toast with a fried egg. Make my bed to feel minimally productive as well.

9:00am - Finish off my Constitutional Law readings before my 11am class and make my case briefs (with the facts, holding, dissents, etc for each case). I am very on top of readings for this particular class because my (excellent) professor, Melissa Murray, has a cold-calling system where she calls on people for detailed case-specific questions and hypotheticals without any advance notice. It’s a lot of work, and it probably takes me at least 3 hours to prepare for each of my 2 weekly Con Law classes - but it’s such a great subject taught by a fabulous professor, and I like being challenged to keep up.

10:00am - do an online core workout class through Zoom on the NYU Recreation website - I am much more motivated to do a scheduled class than to fit in a Youtube video, although I miss going to a real gym! A lot of my friends have started going to a cheap gym nearby, Blink, so I might join too.

11:00-1:00pm: Con Law class online with 110 other students. I don’t get called on, but I did volunteer at one point 😃At the moment, we are learning about fundamental rights protection under the Due Process Clause and Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment (protecting individual rights from undue interference by the States). We have just started on the right to procreate and the right to abortion before fetal viability - so the famous Roe v. Wade and other related cases, like Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) were the topics of conversation today. It’s all very fascinating.

Afternoon

1:10pm: Go pick up a coffee (latte) nearby from one of my favorite local spots, like Banter, Citizens of Bleecker, Third Rail or About Coffee. It’s not cheap here, but it’s my daily treat! Make sure to keep an eye out for Cuomo....

1:30pm: Make lunch with whatever I have. If I’m feeling fancy, I’ll make some pasta with chicken, or maybe just avocado toast with eggs. I often go for lunch with another NYU LLM friend too and grab some ramen or sushi.

This was a little cherry tomato, basil and chicken fettucine I made 🤤

Here’s a chicken, kale, roast veg, avocado and feta salad I made the other week for lunch as well. I try to eat sort of healthy at home so I can eat allllll the cheesecakes and pizza when I go out.

2:00-2:30pm: Scheduled 1-on-1 check-in with my Government Anti-Corruption Clinic professor. She is fantastic, and we chat about how the class is going, my internship at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office Public Integrity Bureau, and my plans after the LLM. She gives me some great job search ideas.

2:30pm-3:30pm: Try to jam in some last minute reading before my Introduction to Civil Procedure Class on Zoom. This is all LLMs and I usually don’t finish the readings before this class, but there is no cold-calling. Sometimes we get to see our professor’s Welsh Terrier, Monty!

On days when I have less class, like Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I will often go to the library to motivate myself. I’m studying for the MPRE at the end of March (Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam, a component of the NY and California Bar exams), so I need all the motivation I can get!

When I go on campus, I have to complete one of these daily Covid screeners on my phone, and check my temperature with an NYU-provided themometer. Also, don’t forget your student card!

Night

5:30-6:00pm: Zoom call with a Litigation Attorney from my country as a bit of networking. I have a lot of these, and hopefully one will pay off in the form of a job opportunity! She was lovely - I found her through a bit of old-fashioned LinkedIn stalking. Send her my updated resume, and she sends me an email back and some study notes for the bar exam.

6:00-7:00pm: I have a witness preparation session with my ‘co-counsel’ student partner, Jessica (a JD student), and two undergrad pre-law students from NYU for my upcoming simulated trial for my Advanced Trial Simulation class, starting this coming Monday (spanning over two weeks). We run them through the direct examination questions we have drafted as they are playing the role of our lay witness and expert cardiologist witness, as well as cross-examination prep, and our case theory generally. I have a lot of work to do before I am ready to give our opening statement on Monday night, but it’s coming together!

7:00pm-8:30pm: Grocery shopping at a cute grocery store nearby. I love looking at all the freshly made pastas! I made a burnt butter ravioli with walnuts, pumpkin, spinach and sage, but forgot to take a photo of it - so here is all the fresh pasta and then some salmon I made the other week!

9:00pm- too late: Finish off some small tasks and face-time my good friend back home. She’s just moved to the beach, and I’m very jealous. Plan out my day for tomorrow, waste time on social media, hang out with my boyfriend after he finishes work for the day, and then relax before bed!

Hello again!

It’s been a minute. I’ve just had a well-deserved break after finishing my finals, where I managed to get a bit of sun in Florida and Puerto Rico.

It’s been a running start into my final semester of the LL.M. - and I can’t quite believe how fast this has all gone. I have a lot of content ideas coming up about everything I will be doing this semester, including juggling my internship at the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, a Research Assistantship with an NYU Law Professor, the March Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE) for the Bar, a full load of classes, and job hunting/networking - but first things first. I wanted to reflect on last semester’s exams, final papers and overall grades, and think about what I did well, and what I would change!

What are American law school exams like?

I’ll start by giving you an idea of the format of exams to give you an idea of the general approach, and hopefully take away some of the anxieties you as a future LL.M. might have.

There is no uniform exam or grading type for each and every course. American law school professors have a lot of discretion about how they will structure and assess their courses - including what mode of exam you will take (multiple choice, short answers, long problem question responses, policy-based essays, etc), or a final paper, and whether and to what extent class participation counts toward the grade. My assessments ran the gamut. In one class, I had a group assignment worth 30%, a 5,000 word final paper worth 60%, and 10% class participation, and in two others my final exam was worth 100%, with the professor’s discretion to slightly boost your grade based on your overall participation and contribution to the class. My Constitutional Interpretation seminar was 50% class participation, and 50% based on regular pieces of written work we handed in, including a final paper of 2,000 words.

Exams typically last between 2-4 hours, while take-homes take 3-8 hours (I haven’t had a take-home yet, but I will have a 12 hour take-home this semester). We all took our exams from home with a special software (Exam4 or the law school’s own exam software, THESS). Both my exams this semester allowed students to use any notes they wanted, and you could access the internet as well. The main problem with doing that is running out of time! So creating an organized outline of your notes and brainstorming essay ideas ahead of time is pretty crucial.

How do Professors grade? And what is a good grade?

Professors seem to have pretty broad discretion when it comes to grading - and definitely so when I think about Australian law school professors, who grade ‘blindly’ and never know who is behind the student number unless they look it up later, or are awarding prizes for the top students. The possible grades at NYU range from an F to an A+, as follows:

A+, 4.333; A, 4.000; A-, 3.667; B+, 3.333; B, 3.000; B-, 2.667; C, 2.000; D, 1.000 and F, 0.000.

No more than 2% of students can get an A+ in a given class, with a target of 1%. I am proud to say I was the only A+ student in one of my classes - yay! A huge personal achievement for me, and so I will brag a little here because I don’t want to be lame and brag in real life!

About 10% of people get As, and another 20% get A-s, and about 26% of people get B grades (B+, B, or B-). B- and C grades are actually pretty rare, so in all likelihood you will likely end up with an A or B grade of some sort!

It’s kind of hard to work out what ‘good’ grades/a strong GPA are for job applications, but from what I’ve gleaned, in an ideal world you would have all A level grades, or maybe one B+. Personally, my grades were an A+, 2 A- grades and a B+. This gave me a GPA of around 3.8, which is definitely decent for job applications. 

Your chances to get the high grades will depend a big deal on your competition - in the core doctrinal courses (like Constitutional Law, Free Speech, Evidence, Corporations Law, and so on) and in classes of the really famous professors, JD competition is intense. I definitely didn’t make it easy for myself with my classes, and I was usually the only, or one of two, LLMs, along with pretty ambitious JDs (often from elite undergrad schools) aiming for judicial clerkships or other prestigious jobs. Many LLMs have usually been working hard enough back home, and work hard enough to get decent grades, but leave enough time to relax and enjoy themselves. I would say my approach was mixed - I knew I needed to work hard enough to get good grades to make me a strong candidate for job applications in the US, but I also had plenty of fun. 😄 Just less fun around exam time!

On reflection, my top tips for doing well in your classes and exams would be:

1) Play to your strengths

At the time you select your classes, you’ll be able to see what the format of the assessment is - long paper, exam, practical assessments (like in a clinic or simulation course), etc. My top advice would be to think about your strengths when picking classes. 

I have always been much better at hand-in assignments, and my one A+ grade was from handing in a long paper. My lowest grade (a B+) was from a very time-pressured exam that I wasn’t happy with how I handled the timing. So - if you know you are much better at one type of assessment, make sure you are considering this when picking classes to pave the way for great grades, especially if you are relying on your grades for finding a new job or for a JSD application.

2) Understand your professor’s idiosyncratic preferences

When it comes to law school exams, the key to succeeding is really knowing who’s grading them. Some professors prefer you to be ‘quick and dirty’ and to really jump into the key issues and answers, while others prefer a more formalistic recitation of the rules and then a close application of the rules to the facts. Pay attention to how they explain what they want, pore over any model answers and exam keys they give you, be familiar with the way they write problems, and ideally hunt down past students’ papers with comments or overall feedback from the professor (if you know anyone that took the class before).

3) Make study enjoyable and social

Even in these COVID times, I really benefited from spending time at the library studying with LL.M. friends, and broke up study sessions with coffee hangs, lunches, and going to see the Christmas lights. Your friends will keep you sane and motivated, so don’t hide yourself away for the whole month or more!

Friends! A well-deserved dinner break in December a week or two before finals.

4) Argue both sides of legal issues you spot

This is something that is really emphasized by NYU professors. A good lawyer can, when identifying a legal issue, show how it is a weak point in a plaintiff’s claim or in a defendant’s defense, and then demonstrate how both sides could argue their case. The best answers don’t ‘fence sit’, but come to a reasoned judgment/prediction about which side of the argument is stronger.

5) Be precise and concise

You should try not to include unrelated material in your answer as this could backfire if your professor believes you struggle to separate relevant material from irrelevant material. One of my professors was clear ahead of time and said he did not appreciate an ‘info dump’ and graded accordingly, but I think this is true of all professors.

6) Be *really* aware of your timing

I can’t stress this enough. Effective time management is imperative on law school exams. My Evidence exam was so unbelievably time-pressured (27 short-answer questions in 3 hours = less than 7 minutes per question to read a few sentences-long question and answer it), and I did not handle this as well as I could have, affecting my grade. Make sure to be really aware of this and try to be strict with yourself so you don’t leave any questions untouched.

7) Remember public policy concerns

After applying the legal rules to the issues presented in your fact pattern, if time allows, include a sentence or two about the policy implications of your conclusions, or how your chosen approach fits best with the policy rationale underpinning the legal rule. This is something that is valued more in US law schools than my law school back home. Not critical, but definitely something that could boost your grade a little!

8) Just try your best, and don’t be too hard on yourself

We have all worked hard to be here, and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. English might not be your first language, you might struggle with exams, or it might just not be the best day you’ve ever had. If you find yourself in the unfortunate position of either not understanding the issues presented in a question, or not remembering the rules related to such issues, just do your best to write the best possible answer in the time limit. 

During the course of my LLM I soon realised that I was stronger at writing coursework than I originally gave myself credit for. In most of my attempted coursework pieces I achieved distinction grades, and in my final dissertation I obtained 68%. This blogpost outlines some of my best tips for writing an excellent piece of coursework.

1. Structure

Structuring your essay is key. You need to take the time to plan the sections of your essay. Broadly, these sections fall into: the introduction, main body and conclusion.

A. Introductions

Your introduction should address the question and lay out the arguments you will cover in the main body of your essay. You do not want to focus on addressing too many arguments, since this will make your essay superficial. Rather, you need to be engaging in depth with the arguments you present.

Now, this may be difficult if your essay question is very broad. To address this, you may want to narrow the scope of your work. For example, by stating, ‘ this essay will focus on A,B and C factors, as they pertain to topic D. It is argued that these factors are most relevant to topic D since….’

Another way to narrow the scope of your work is to make your argument ‘contingent’. What do I mean by this? Well, one of my essay questions was as follows:

‘Roe v Wade represents the best possible solution to the abortion question, and should be adopted by other national courts- discuss.’

This question required me to, from the outset, define what I believed the ‘best possible solution’ to the abortion question was. I therefore made my argument contingent, stating:  ‘Whether Roe v Wade can be deemed to offer the best possible solution to the abortion question and therefore ought to be adopted by other national courts, is contingent on whether the following can be satisfied: that the United States Supreme Court engaged in conceptually sound reasoning, where such reasoning has given effect to the autonomy rights of women, etc.

B. Main body and conclusion

You are encouraged to use subheadings to structure your LLM work. Using my example above, my subheadings were: ‘ Roe: abortion as a privacy right’ (addressed the United States Supreme Court’s reasoning) and ’The implications of Roe: feminist critiques’ (addressed whether Roe gave effect to the  autonomy rights of women amongst other feminist criticism) and so on.

2. Theory

Whilst you might not need to incorporate legal theory into every essay you write, in my experience undertaking human rights based modules, extra credit was always given when I showed a sophisticated understanding of legal theory.

What do I mean when I say legal theory? Well it depends on the module you are studying but, for example, when talking about ‘rights’ in general, you might want to discuss what a ‘right’ truly is and how conceptions of it have differed over time, with reference to several academics such as Moyn, Donnolley, and Jackson.

When I was discussing Roe v Wade, I made sure to include feminist theory, in particular, writing about ‘intersectionality’, a particular subdivision of feminist theory that looks at the interaction of race, class and gender.  

3. Arguments and opinions

Another sure fire way to get a good grade is to ensure that you are comparing academic opinions AND offering your own opinion as to whether an academic opinion is convincing.

A good formula may look like this:

A. State your argument

B. Counter argument What have critics said that might challenge your stance? Or, what weaknesses can you foresee with your argument?

C. Counter your counter argument Dismiss the challenges made against your argument- point out why they are weak

4. The bigger picture

If you’re an international student who is new to the UK, you will likely want to utilise your free time exploring the many cities that the UK has to offer; even if not an international student, you might want to seize the opportunity to travel across the UK more. This blogpost discusses a few of the cities I visited during my LLM with my friends, and outlines the things we saw and did.

                                                  EDINBURGH

Edinburgh during the Christmas period is unmatched. There is plenty to do in Edinburgh, including the following:

A. Christmas markets

During the Christmas period, Edinburgh is home to Christmas markets- selling food and drink and even rides. Admission is free, so the markets are a free and fun way to spend the day or evening.

B. Chocolate Tree

Edinburgh was very impressive for its selection of restaurants and cafe’s. If you have a sweet tooth you will love Chocolate Tree. They offer an array of chocolate goods, from hot chocolates to artisan chocolates.

C. Museum of Edinburgh

The Museum of Edinburgh is incredibly impressive and is large enough to be able to spend the whole day in. It houses collections relating to the town’s origins, history and legends.

D. Clarinda’s Tea Room

Clarinda’s Tea Room offers a range of delicious home made desserts and speciality teas. There are two things that stood out about Clarinda’s; first, the tea room itself is modelled to look like your grandma’s house, with white nets on the table and fine china being used to serve the food and drink. However, unlike most other tea rooms, there is not an air of pretentiousness about the establishment; rather, it feels cosy and quaint. Another positive is that the prices are very reasonable, especially when compared to the costs of eating out in London.

E. Edinburgh Castle

Edinburgh Castle is one of the best known attractions in the city. Tickets for students are typically priced at £16, though there are discounts if you are booking online. The castle itself is impressive, and there is plenty to see. However, admittedly, Edinburgh Castle is not the most interesting castle that I have visited (Cardiff Castle is superior in my opinion). Nonetheless, I do believe it is worth visiting Edinburgh Castle if only for the views over the city.

                                                    CARDIFF

A. Cardiff Castle

Cardiff Castle is without doubt one of the most impressive castles I have visited. Admission for students is £11.50, plus an extra £2.50 being charged for the House Tour. I would absolutely recommend spending the extra few pounds to go on the House Tour. The Bute House is incredibly grand and impressive, and is thus well worth seeing. My favourite part of the Castle, however, were the Wartime Tunnels.

B. Castle Arcade

The Castle Arcade is a very pretty shopping arcade in Cardiff, housing numerous shops and some fantastic places to eat. Here are a few of my favourites:

Madame Fromage

I am not a massive cheese fan, and so was not initially convinced when my friends wanted to visit Madame Fromage- but my skepticism soon vanished when I tried their cheese on toast. Both the bread and cheese was home made; it was the best cheese on toast I have ever tried.

Fabulous Welsh Cakes

When in Wales, you must try a Welsh cake. Welsh cakes are a traditional Welsh sweet ‘cake’ (though more like a mini pancake). You can try them in an array of flavours and I recall that they were particularly good (and well priced) at Fabulous Welsh Cakes within the Arcade.

Coffee Barker

Coffee Barker is a great cafe within the Arcade. I went here for both lunch and breakfast during my Cardiff visit. The cafe is cosy and large- though it does get extremely busy.

C. Bute Park and Boat rides

Bute Park is situated right next to Cardiff Castle. The park itself is very pretty and there is a very nice Tea Room situated within it called Pettigrew Tea Room. Pettigrew offers the best afternoon tea and is well worth visiting. Notably, there are also boat rides, taking you from Bute Park to Cardiff Bay for £4.