Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge

Project Management Professional (PMP) globally recognized certification tells employers, peers, and the world you know what you’re doing in project management eherever you are in your career.

Even if “project manager” isn’t part of your title, the PMP applies to anyone who helps bring a project to completion. Just like a CPA validates expertise for accountants, the PMP recognizes your ability to manage projects—and the hard work you’ve done so far.

To earn your Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential, you need to meet the experience and education requirements, and pass the PMP examination, a 200-question, multiple-choice exam.

Regardless of how advanced your project management experience or education might be, you should still prepare vigorously for the exam. Successful PMP candidates typically use multiple study aids, including courses, self-study and study groups.

On average, successful PMP candidates will spend 35 hours or more to prepare, so make sure you leave yourself plenty of preparation time before you take the exam.

Tips to Prepare for the  PMP Exam Online

NEW: Take the PMP Exam Online
Review the PMP handbook .
Review the Current PMP Exam Content Outline
Familiarize yourself with PMP Sample Questions
Enroll in a formal study course offered by PMI chapters or accredited Registered Education Providers (R.E.P.s). You can also review self-study books published by R.E.P.s and other reputable training organizations.
Review the latest edition of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide).
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College Admissions Essay Secrets
EssayEdge.com contains thousands of pages of free admissions essay advice by Harvard-educated editors

Each year, Harvard rejects four out of five valedictorians and hundreds of students with perfect SAT scores, leaving applicants and parents wondering what went wrong. While there is no secret formula for gaining admission to a top school, there are many ways to ensure rejection, and the most common by far is taking the admissions essay lightly. 

Over one-third of the time an admissions officer spends on your application is spent evaluating your essay. Admissions officers use the essay to compare hundreds or even thousands of applicants with similar grades, activities, and SAT scores. To stand out, your essay must not only demonstrate your grasp of grammar and ability to write lucid, structured prose, you must also paint a vivid picture of your personality and character, one that compels a busy admissions officer to accept you.
Fortunately, unlike every other aspect of the application, you control your essay, and can be sure that the glimpse you give the admissions committee into your character, background, and writing ability is the most positive one possible.

As the founder of EssayEdge.com, the Net's largest admissions essay prep company, I have seen firsthand the difference a well-written application essay can make. Through its free online admissions essay help course and 300 Harvard-educated editors, EssayEdge.com helps tens of thousands of student each year improve their essays and gain admission to schools ranging from Harvard to State U. 

Having personally edited over 2,000 admissions essays myself for EssayEdge.com, I have written this article to help you avoid the most common essay flaws. If you remember nothing else about this article, remember this: Be Interesting. Be Concise.

TOP 10 ESSAY WRITING TIPS

1. Don't Thesaurusize Your Essay. Do Use Your Own Voice.
Admissions officers can tell Roget from an 18-year-old high school senior. Big words, especially when misused, detract from the essay, inappropriately drawing the reader's attention and making the essay sound contrived.

Before: Although I did a plethora of activities in high school, my assiduous efforts enabled me to succeed.

After: Although I juggled many activities in high school, I succeeded through persistent work. 

2. Don't Bore the Reader. Do Be Interesting.Admissions officers have to read hundreds of essays, and they must often skim. Abstract rumination has no place in an application essay. Admissions officers aren't looking for a new way to view the world; they're looking for a new way to view you the applicant. The best way to grip your reader is to begin the essay with a captivating snapshot. Notice how the slightly jarring scene depicted in the "after" creates intrigue and keeps the reader's interest. 

Before: The college admissions and selection process is a very important one, perhaps one that will have the greatest impact on one's future. The college that a person will go to often influences his personality, views, and career.

After: An outside observer would have called the scene ridiculous: a respectable physician holding the bell of his stethoscope to the chest of a small stuffed bear.

3. Do Use Personal Detail. Show, Don't Tell!
Good essays are concrete and grounded in personal detail. They do not merely assert "I learned my lesson" or that "these lessons are useful both on and off the field." They show it through personal detail. "Show don't tell," means if you want to relate a personal quality, do so through your experiences and do not merely assert it.

Before: I developed a new compassion for the disabled.

After: The next time Mrs. Cooper asked me to help her across the street, I smiled and immediately took her arm. 

The first example is vague and could have been written by anybody. But the second sentence evokes a vivid image of something that actually happened, placing the reader in the experience of the applicant.

4. Do Be Concise. Don't Be Wordy.
Wordiness not only takes up valuable space, but it also can confuse the important ideas you're trying to convey. Short sentences are more forceful because they are direct and to the point. Certain phrases such as "the fact that" are usually unnecessary. Notice how the revised version focuses on active verbs rather than forms of "to be" and adverbs and adjectives.

Before: My recognition of the fact that the project was finally over was a deeply satisfying moment that will forever linger in my memory.

After: Completing the project at last gave me an enduring sense of fulfillment.

5. Don't Use Slang, Yo!
Write an essay, not an email. Slang terms, clichés, contractions, and an excessively casual tone should be eliminated. Here's one example of inappropriately colloquial language.

Well here I am thinking about what makes me tick. You would be surprised. What really gets my goat is when kids disrespect the flag. My father was in 'Nam and I know how important the military is to this great nation.

6. Do Vary Your Sentences and Use Transitions.
The best essays contain a variety of sentence lengths mixed within any given paragraph. Also, remember that transition is not limited to words like nevertheless, furthermore or consequently. Good transition flows from the natural thought progression of your argument.

Before: I started playing piano when I was eight years old. I worked hard to learn difficult pieces. I began to love music.

After: I started playing the piano at the age of eight. As I learned to play more difficult pieces, my appreciation for music deepened.

7. Do Use Active Voice Verbs.
Passive-voice expressions are verb phrases in which the subject receives the action expressed in the verb. Passive voice employs a form of the verb to be, such as was or were. Overuse of the passive voice makes prose seem flat and uninteresting. 

Before: The lessons that prepared me for college were taught to me by my mother.

After: My mother taught me lessons that will prepare me for college.

8. Do Seek Multiple Opinions.
Ask your friends and family to keep these questions in mind:

• Have I answered the question?
• Does my introduction engage the reader? Does my conclusion provide closure?
• Do my introduction and conclusion avoid summary?
• Do I use concrete experiences as supporting details?
• Have I used active-voice verbs wherever possible?
• Is my sentence structure varied, or do I use all long or short sentences?
• Are there any clichés such as cutting edge or learned my lesson?
• Do I use transitions appropriately?
• What about the essay is memorable?
• What's the worst part of the essay?
• What parts of the essay need elaboration or are unclear?
• What parts of the essay do not support my main argument?
• Is every single sentence crucial to the essay? This must be the case.
• What does the essay reveal about my personality?

9. Do Answer the Question.
Many students try to turn a 500-word essay into a complete autobiography. Not surprisingly, they fail to answer the question and risk their chances of attending college. Make sure that every sentence in your essay exists solely to answer the question.

10. Do Revise, Revise, Revise.
The first step in an improving any essay is to cut, cut, and cut some more. EssayEdge.com's free admissions essay help course and Harvard-educated editors will be invaluable as you polish your essay to perfection. The EssayEdge.com free help course guides you through the entire essay-writing process, from brainstorming worksheets and question-specific strategies for the twelve most common essay topics to a description of ten introduction types and editing checklists.

SAMPLE ESSAY

The sun sleeps as the desolate city streets await the morning rush hour. Driven by an inexplicable compulsion, I enter the building along with ten other swimmers, inching my way toward the cold, dark locker room of the Esplanada Park Pool. One by one, we slip into our still-damp drag suits and make a mad dash through the chill of the morning air, stopping only to grab pull-buoys and kickboards on our way to the pool. Nighttime temperatures in coastal California dip into the high forties, but our pool is artificially warmed to seventy-nine degrees; the temperature differential propels an eerie column of steam up from the water's surface, producing the spooky ambience of a werewolf movie. Next comes the shock. Headfirst immersion into the tepid water sends our hearts racing, and we respond with a quick set of warm-up laps. As we finish, our coach emerges from the fog. He offers no friendly accolades, just a rigid regimen of sets, intervals, and exhortations. 

Thus starts another workout. 4,500 yards to go, then a quick shower and a five-minute drive to school. Then it's back to the pool; the afternoon training schedule features an additional 5,500 yards. Tomorrow, we start over again. The objective is to cut our times by another tenth of a second. The end goal is to achieve that tiny, unexplainable difference at the end of a race that separates success from failure, greatness from mediocrity. Somehow we accept the pitch--otherwise, we'd still be deep in our mattresses, slumbering beneath our blankets. In this sport, the antagonist is time. Coaches spend hours in specialized clinics, analyze the latest research on training technique, and experiment with workout schedules in an attempt to defeat time. Yet there are no shortcuts to winning, and workouts are agonizing. 

I took part in my first swimming race when I was ten years old. My parents, fearing injury, directed my athletic interests away from ice hockey and into the pool. Three weeks into my new swimming endeavor, I somehow persuaded my coach to let me enter the annual age group meet. To his surprise (and mine), I pulled out an "A" time. I furthered my achievements by winning "Top 16" awards for various age groups, setting club records, and being named National First Team All-American in the 100-Butterfly and Second Team All-American in the 200-Medley. I have since been elevated to the Senior Championship level, which means the competition now includes world-class swimmers. I am aware that making finals will not be easy from here--at this level, success is measured by mere tenths of a second. In addition, each new level brings extra requirements such as elevated weight training, longer weekend training sessions, and more travel from home. Time with friends is increasingly spent in the pursuit of the next swimming objective. 

Sometimes, in the solitude of the laps, my thoughts transition to events in my personal life. This year, my grandmother suffered a reoccurrence of cancer, which has spread to her lungs. She had always been driven by good spirits and independence, but suddenly my family had to accept the fact that she now faces a limited timeline. A few weeks later, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, my grandfather--who lives in Japan--learned he had stomach cancer. He has since undergone successful surgery, but we are aware that a full recovery is not guaranteed. When I first learned that they were both struck with cancer, I felt as if my own objective, to cut my times by fractions of a second, seemed irrelevant, even ironic, given the urgency of their mutual goals: to prolong life itself. Yet we have learned to draw on each other's strengths for support--their fortitude helps me overcome my struggles while my swimming achievements provide them with a vicarious sense of victory. When I share my latest award or triumph story, they smile with pride, as if they themselves had stood on the award stand. I have the impression that I would have to be a grandparent to understand what my medals mean to them.

My grandparents' strength has also shored up my determination to succeed. I have learned that, as in swimming, life's successes often come in small increments. Sometimes even the act of showing up at a workout when your body and psyche are worn out separates a great result from a failure. The difference between success and failure is defined by the ability to overcome strong internal resistance. I know that, by consistently working towards my goals--however small they may seem--I can accomplish what I set for myself, both in and beyond the swimming pool. 

About EssayEdge.com - EssayEdge.com offers all users free access to the most extensive Admissions Essay Help Course on the Internet and over 300 Free Sample Admissions Essays accepted by the United States' top undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. Named "the world's premier application essay editing service" by the New York Times Learning Network and "one of the best essay services on the Internet" by the Washington Post.

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NUC To Approve 15 More University Online Learning Centers

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Law School is No Longer Necessary - University Faculties Can Train Students For Bar Exam AS is Done In America, Canada and Other Jurisdictions

In America, Canada and other jurisdictions, potential lawyers
are not assembled in a place to be prepared for Bar
examinations. The Council of Legal Education (CLE)
supervises this practice in Nigeria and holds the mandate of
running the Nigerian Law School. They decide who or which
school to admit to law school or not, even if the school is a
creation of the federal or state governments and passed the
accreditation of the National University Commission (NUC).

With the upsurge in number of law graduates stretching
existing facilities, CLE created additional campuses to absorb
the pressure. Still, the campuses appear inadequate compared
to the number of students that graduate from law faculties in
Nigerian universities and across the globe yearly. Former
director general of Nigeria Institute for Advanced Legal Studies
(NIALS), Professor Epiphany Azinge (SAN) in this interview
with JOSEPH ONYEKWERE and BRIDGET CHIEDU ONOCHIE
said keeping the law school is no longer necessary. For him,
university faculties should prepare their students to write the
examinations and get called to Bar when they pass. He also
explained his position about lawyers addressing the press
after court sessions and cautioned that the practice could
sway the opinion of judges if unchecked.

On the argument about whether the council of legal education
should be restricted to only setting bar examinations, while
law graduates prepare themselves for the bar examination, he
said law school should be abolished. “I canvassed this system
about five years ago and they came after me. It generated a
lot of controversies such that very senior judge’s were
castigating me. But it just did not affect anything because I
know that we cannot continue like this. They said Azinge
called for the abolition of law school. That is still my position.
How many are we? We are just about 170,000 out of over 170
million people and the number is growing everyday. There are
schools that have backlog of about four, five years. When you
throw these people into the system, you have 3000 people.
May be 10,000 is still queuing up in the law faculties.

We should also consider making law a graduate programme. I
think we are gradually going to a point where we are going to
make law a graduate programme. Take a degree in anything
and come and read law. The idea of making law an
undergraduate programme is fast losing its shine so to speak.
Two, we have to stem the tide and check the backlog that
seems to be blossoming at a very fast rate. What is taught in
the law school that a law faculty cannot teach? Some of
those that teach in the law school are lower in cadre than
those who teach in the law faculties, in terms of experience
and exposure. If it is a five-year programme, you make it a
six-year programme. Graduate with your LLB and stay back
and do additional one year. The only challenge is: are you
going to have a central body like JAMB to set the exams,
coordinate the grading and marking of the examinations? That
is all you need. Most people study in their various institutions.
You don’t have a central place where you go to do your last
examinations after SS3. You do it on your schools. It is not
centralized. All we are saying is: why can’t it be done for law
school? We shy away from this? But if we are the ones at the
receiving end, we would have been shouting. Why should
government fund the law school? Other professional bodies
such as doctors, architects, engineers and so on, are they
being funded by government? Why is law so special? What
I’m saying is that it is only going to be for a while and people
would speak out so loudly that things would come to an end.
Why can’t people see tomorrow and start planning for it? One
day, one pharaoh that knows no Joseph will come to the
throne and say it is all over, go and sort out yourselves. The
council of legal education go to accredit law faculties.
If you accredit law faculty, it means that that law faculty is
capable of training students that can take those exams,
capable of training students that are good enough to come to
the law school. In other words, capable of training students
that are good enough to move a step higher by taking the
qualifying examination for BL. We now have a lot of
universities including the private ones. How can the law
school prepare 3000 students at once? Even if you create
additional 10 campuses, it cannot. We are saying, in a class
where you have 150 to 200 people, that is a big class.

Now you have 1000 people you are facing in a programme. I
have been to law school to deliver a talk and it was like a
stadium. How can you really get to the students intellectually
and otherwise? It is a number we cannot manage. For me,
that is really a big challenge and the earlier we address it, the
better for us. I feel that time has come for us to get out of the
law school and do other things. Where is the law school in
America and Canada? They do their bar exams. They prepare
themselves and go and do their bar examinations. I think we
have gotten to that stage now. It is a self-indictment for the
director general of the law school to go to conference in Port
Harcourt to report that people write exams for others. What
have you done to checkmate that and what are your plans
against it. It is not a matter of moralizing, what has that
added to the value of lawyers? Tomorrow they will start
looking at lawyers as people that can’t write their own exams.
There are things one has to manage well. You don’t have to
put such thing in a report in a public place.
On the issue of lawyers addressing journalists after court
sessions, Azinge said even though the law guarantees freedom
of speech, lawyers must avoid statements that are pre-
judicious.

His words: “I took cognizance of few points. One, the freedom
of expression is guaranteed by the constitution and to that
extent, anybody can say anything within the confines of the
constitutional provisions. In other words, bearing in mind that
there are certain things that ought not to be said as far as
derogation is concerned. But the issues of matters subjudice
is one that every lawyer at an elementary stage ought to be
conscious of. This pre-supposes that we should not be
discussing matters that are pending in court at a point in time
in a way and manner that may be prejudicial to the outcome
of that particular case. What are we trying to guard against?
We are trying to guard against a situation where public
opinion will now become the basis for determination of
disputes because the judges also read. Their opinion or
thinking can be shaped by what they read and if they feel that
the preponderance view seems to be on one side, for them to
be in tandem with public opinion, they may be swayed. To
that extent, it is contextually better not to discuss matters
that are pending.”

If you accredit law faculty, it means that that law faculty is
capable of training students that can take those exams,
capable of training students that are good enough to come to
the law school. In other words, capable of training students
that are good enough to move a step higher by taking the
qualifying examination for BL. We now have a lot of
universities including the private ones. How can the law
school prepare 3000 students at once? Even if you create
additional 10 campuses, it cannot. We are saying, in a class
where you have 150 to 200 people, that is a big class.
Now you have 1000 people you are facing in a programme. I
have been to law school to deliver a talk and it was like a
stadium. How can you really get to the students intellectually
and otherwise? It is a number we cannot manage. For me,
that is really a big challenge and the earlier we address it, the
better for us. I feel that time has come for us to get out of the
law school and do other things. Where is the law school in
America and Canada? They do their bar exams. They prepare
themselves and go and do their bar examinations. I think we
have gotten to that stage now. It is a self-indictment for the
director general of the law school to go to conference in Port
Harcourt to report that people write exams for others. What
have you done to checkmate that and what are your plans
against it. It is not a matter of moralizing, what has that
added to the value of lawyers? Tomorrow they will start
looking at lawyers as people that can’t write their own exams.
There are things one has to manage well. You don’t have to
put such thing in a report in a public place.

On the issue of lawyers addressing journalists after court
sessions, Azinge said even though the law guarantees freedom
of speech, lawyers must avoid statements that are pre-
judicious.

His words: “I took cognizance of few points. One, the freedom
of expression is guaranteed by the constitution and to that
extent, anybody can say anything within the confines of the
constitutional provisions. In other words, bearing in mind that
there are certain things that ought not to be said as far as
derogation is concerned. But the issues of matters subjudice
is one that every lawyer at an elementary stage ought to be
conscious of. This pre-supposes that we should not be
discussing matters that are pending in court at a point in time
in a way and manner that may be prejudicial to the outcome
of that particular case. What are we trying to guard against?
We are trying to guard against a situation where public
opinion will now become the basis for determination of
disputes because the judges also read. Their opinion or
thinking can be shaped by what they read and if they feel that
the preponderance view seems to be on one side, for them to
be in tandem with public opinion, they may be swayed. To
that extent, it is contextually better not to discuss matters
that are pending.”

His words :”I don’t think that is an impossibility. But again,
the ball is in the court of the media because we want to see
the maturity that people must exhibit for them to cover
matters of such nature live. What do I mean? Let me give you
example of football. Some fans now go out of their ways to
gain attention. What do they do? Millions of people are
watching Manchester United playing Manchester City and a
fan who craves for publicity jumps into the field to go and hug
Ronaldo. It is not the hugging that is the issue, it is that
publicity that he craves for.

So what do the media do? Once they see such situation, they
pull out the camera and deny you the cravings of being seen
by millions of spectators across the globe. So, my own
position is that there are certain things that can happen inside
the court during proceedings. Are we matured enough to know
that we are not supposed to air them? Assuming that there is
a scream by a prisoner being tried, or a statement which is
provocative or otherwise inciting by a witness or a suspect in
court, which is likely to impact negatively on the society,
whether Muslims or Christians, is the media matured enough
to know that they would cut off the scene? That is the kind of
thing you see in South Africa.

It gets to a stage, a judge may be doing something such as
picking his nose, you cut off. Will the cameraman through
training know he shouldn’t cover that? Assuming somebody
doses off? There are certain things they try to guard against.
So, if you know that the maturity is there and cameraman can
guard against all those, there is nothing wrong in that. Yes,
I’m for automation. What does the constitution say? The
constitution says public hearing. Public includes live viewing
as the case maybe. But all I’m saying is that we must be
prepared for live streaming so that people would now know
what they are expected to do or not.

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Source: guardian

Practical Training To Those Aspiring To Become Legal Practitioners in Nigeria At Nigerian Law School

The Nigerian Law School was set up by the Federal Government of Nigeria in 1962. The aim of the institution was to provide for the local needs of the then foreign trained lawyers and to provide the much needed practical training to those aspiring to become Legal Practitioners in Nigeria. The School started at Igbosere Street, near Obalende in Lagos State, Nigeria, and was later moved to Ozumba Mbadiwe Street in Victoria Island, Lagos, in 1969. In 1997, it was relocated to Bwari, a suburb of Abuja, Nigeria`s Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The need to accommodate the ever-growing number of law graduates from Nigerian universities (and their foreign counterparts desirous of becoming lawyers in Nigeria) led to the decentralization of the Nigerian Law School in 2001, with the creation of three additional Campuses -— Enugu, Kano and Lagos —- in addition to the Headquarters in Bwari, Abuja. Two more Campuses were later created in 2011 in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State and Yola, Adamawa State. In all, the Nigerian Law School now has six fully functional Campuses —- (1) Bwari Abuja (the headquarters); (2) Agbani (Augustine Nnamani Campus), in Enugu State; (3) Bagauda, in Kano State; (4) Victoria Island, Lagos; (5) Yola, in Adamawa State; and (6) Yenagoa, in Bayelsa State. The Council of Legal Education (CLE) the parent-body of Nigerian Law School, was established in 1962, and saddled with the responsibilitie for legal education of persons seeking to become Legal Practitioners in Nigeria and with such other powers and functions as the Council may consider expedient for the purpose of performing its main functions. 

In addition to having the Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) degree from a Nigerian University officially recognized, duly approved, by the Council of Legal Education, an applicant for an admission into the Nigerian Law School must also be a “fit and proper” person for admission into the legal profession. For example, an ex-convict, a member of a secret cult, a drug addict or peddler, or an armed robbery gang member, etc., would be considered not fit and proper, and accordingly disqualified, even if the person graduated from a university with a first class honours degree in law. Persons graduating from university law faculties outside Nigeria, but who aspire to become members of the Nigerian Bar, are made to undergo a three-month/four-month Bar Part 1 training course at the Law School headquarters, Bwari, Abuja, before being formally admitted into the mandatory Bar Part 2 (Bar final) programme; note that only students who are successful in the Bar Part 1 programme are considered for an admission into the Bar Part 2 course. The Bar Part 1 programme is aimed chiefly at introducing the “foreign” law graduates to basic aspects of the Nigerian legal system, such as Nigerian Land Law, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Law of evidence, Nigerian customary law, etc. A student admitted into the Nigerian Law School could be posted to any of the six Campuses of the School for the Bar Part 2 programme. The School has prescribed certain conditions, which its students must satisfy in order to qualify for call-to-bar and enrolment as lawyers[vii] in Nigeria. 

These conditions include: 1) The aspirant must be fit and proper; 2) The aspirant must be successful at Nigerian Law School’s Bar Part 2 (bar final) examinations; 3) The aspirant must have participated in the mandatory three- dining (Law Dinner) terms at the Law School;[viii] and 4) The aspirant must be successful in the mandatory Portfolio Assessment exercise organised in the Law School;[ix] and 5) The aspirant need now not be a Nigerian citizen. As shown above, the bar aspirant’s country of origin or nationality is immaterial for purposes of his/her admission into Nigerian Law School.

 At the end of each bar part 2 academic session, the Council would recommend students who meet these requirements, among others, to the Body of Benchers for call to bar. They are admitted into the Legal profession during call-to-bar ceremonies, usually held in Abuja, after which they are enrolled at the Supreme Court as Barristers and Solicitors of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. 

It needs to be emphasized that the concept of “fit and proper” is a continuous one. Accordingly, every aspirant to the Nigerian bar is expected to maintain a high standard of ethical conduct, failing which he may be disqualified from admission into the Law School, or, if already admitted, may be shown the way out. Even after call-to-bar, a legal practitioner who fails to observe the professional code of conduct would be made to face professional discipline and, if found guilty, could face serious punishments, such as warning, suspension from practice or his name could be struck out from the roll[xii], meaning that he ceases to be a member of the bar in Nigeria. The idea behind this is that the legal profession is a noble one; hence only those worthy in learning and character are expected to be admitted into, and to remain in, it. 

The Bar Part 2 academic programme runs for one year, comprising three semesters or terms. It usually begins in October or November of every year and ends in August or September of the next. There could be variations, depending on the university calendar. The academic session usually begins with registration of students, which would last about one week, after which the students are made to undergo a one-week-long induction programme, designed to enlighten them on the systems and working of the School, the rules and code of conduct, as well as academic and professional expectations from both the students and the lecturers, among many other things, during and after the bar training. 

Teaching in the Law School under the New Curriculum is practice- based, and is aimed at producing lawyers who would be in a position to measure up to contemporary benchmarks and international best practices in the legal profession. So, as part of the induction programme, there are also mock trial sessions organised for the students, and undertaken by the students themselves, under lecturers` supervision. This is usually tagged “induction mock trials,” and is held simultaneously in all the six Campuses. During the mock sessions, the student is made to play a part in simulated court trial proceedings, designed to inculcate in the student basic advocacy skills and courtroom decorum. Formal classroom coaching in the Law School lasts twenty weeks, and a total of five subjects are taught, namely – Criminal Litigation, Civil Litigation, Property Law Practice, Corporate Law Practice, and Professional Ethics & Skills (formerly known as Law in Practice). Normal classroom interaction takes the form of one course per day for each of the five working days in a week. Criminal Litigation is taken every Monday for twenty weeks; Civil Litigation on Tuesdays; Property Law Practice on Wednesdays; Corporate Law Practice on Thursdays; and Professional Ethics & Skills on Fridays. All lecturers in each subject/department are expected to be in class at the same time, and participate, during every classroom interactive session on their course/subject. 

Each class starts with an overview of the topic for the day, followed by small group and individual presentations on various aspects of the topic, role-plays, debriefing, etc., depending on the department. But, generally, it is a skills-based, interactive and clinical method of learning that adequately prepares the graduates for their roles as lawyers and equips them to function optimally as barristers and solicitors. Every student is made to participate actively, while the teachers play the role of facilitators. At the beginning of each academic session in the Law School, students in each Campus are broken into groups. Each group is expected to elect a Group Leader and an Assistant Group Leader, who preside over activities of the Group. A Lecturer is assigned to each group to act as the Group’s Mentor and Advisor, with the primary responsibility of supervising the Group’s (small group) meetings and assisting in resolving all issues arising from such meetings, etc., and generally ensuring a smooth functioning of the Group, in addition to disciplining erring members of the group. In Lagos Campus, as in most other Campuses, about four or five days before each next class/lecture, the affected department sends to the students the Lesson Plan, Contents, and Outcomes for the class as well as scenario-based tasks for each of the student groups. Every student is expected individually to study the topic in advance. 

Then, on the eve of the class, each Group would hold a group meeting, during which the topic slated to be taught in class the following day is discussed extensively by members of the group. The tasks assigned to the group are also discussed and solved during the meeting. On the lecture day (the day after the group meeting), each group is expected to submit their solutions to the group tasks to the class lecturers/facilitators, not later than 9.00am; classes begin at 9.00am on each lecture day, and end at about 1.30pm, though in some Campuses, this may extend a little beyond 1.30pm — that is, till when the lesson contents are fully completed and outcomes satisfactorily attained, depending on the circumstances. Each Group must additionally submit an attendance record of students that were present and participated in the Group meeting the previous day, together with their registration numbers and signatures.

 In some departments, submission of Group tasks is done online, before the lecture day, to official emails of the department (or of lecturers in the department). Students who stay away from group meetings are made to get queries, or to suffer other punishments, in line with extant rules and regulations, for nonattendance. This continues every day, every week, in each subject for twenty weeks. Attendance at classes throughout the twenty weeks of lectures is mandatory; students who fail to meet the mandatory 75 per cent attendance requirement are disqualified from sitting for the bar part 2 exams; in other words, their admission is deferred to the next session. Biometric record of attendance is taken twice daily, in the morning before class, and in the afternoon, immediately after class; in some Campuses, manual signing of attendance registers is still retained as a form of back-up. In the same vein, each student is expected to attend all classes in strict regulation dress[, failing which the defaulting student is not allowed entrance into the lecture hall, and would consequently be adjudged absent from class for the day. Every student must be attired in a proper and dignified manner and abstain from any apparel or ornament calculated to attract undue attention to himself or herself. At the end of the twenty weeks of lectures, students are sent out on court and law office placement (externship programme). Each student is placed in a court of law for about seven weeks and immediately thereafter in a Law Office for about five weeks. 

The objectives of the externship programme are to develop the extern’s lawyering skills; to make the extern understand various aspects of the legal system as well as the legal profession; to inculcate in the extern a sense of professional responsibility and values; and to develop the extern’s ability to reflect and learn from his or her experience. At the conclusion of the externship programme, each student is made to appear before a Portfolio Assessment Panel, the aim of which is basically to determine to what extent each student has applied himself or herself to the goals of the programme. Any student who scores below 70 per cent is disqualified from call-to-bar for that academic session, even though he is still eligible to sit for the Bar Part 2 Exams for the year. Depending on the nature of the problem that led to his or her failure, the student would be sent back to repeat the externship programme, and thereafter he/she would join students in the next academic year during their own portfolio assessment, and if successful, then, would be called to bar with them. 

What is more? There are two other assessment tests administered on the students before the bar final examinations. Snap tests are held any time during the first and second terms (semesters), as each Campus may decide, and thereafter there is the Pre-Bar (mock) examinations which take place during the third and last term/semester, usually immediately after the end of portfolio assessment, depending on Management decisions. And then the Portfolio MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions) Examinations, which were introduced recently and are expected to hold immediately after the conclusion of the Externship Programme. The Portfolio MCQ examinations account for 20 per cent of each student`s Bar final examination assessment and grades in each course. Beside the aforesaid, there is another round of mock trial proceedings after the portfolio assessment. Participation by each student in the Mock Trials is mandatory. During the mock trials, several Judges and Magistrates from High Courts, Federal or State, and Magistrates` Court, located around the states surrounding each Law School Campus, are invited to preside over simulated court proceedings, the essence of which is essentially to perfect the students’ advocacy skills in preparation for real life practice as legal practitioners. 

Finally, for each Campus of the Law School, there is established a Law Clinic, operated by Law School students (under their lecturers’ supervision) and designed to, among other objectives, provide pro bono legal services to members of the public. At the end of all these activities, the students would sit for the Bar Final Examinations in all the five courses taught. And those who succeed in the exams and who have met all the other requirements, as stated above, would be recommended to the Body of Benchers for formal call-to-bar and enrolment as Barristers and Solicitors of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, while those who are unsuccessful would wait and prepare for Bar Final (resit) exams, which usually hold in or around April/May in every year. All in all, it could be seen that vocational training at the Nigerian Law School under the New Curriculum is not just business as usual. 

The system appears somewhat challenging, and is designed to ensure that only serious-minded people are enrolled into the legal profession, which itself is rather tasking. Accordingly, success in the Law School depends much more on hard work and determination than on mere possession of talent; at the Nigerian Law School, hard work would beat talent if talent does not work hard. There is no room for anything goes; the School is not a dumping ground for the “never-do-wells,” who try to get enlisted into the legal profession through the back door. The good news, however, is that, with focus, determination and hard work, making a first class in the Law School is just as easy as reciting ABCD. 

Many have come, many have seen and many have conquered bar part 2. If they could do it, just anyone else can, with the right frame of mind and a positive attitude! Like life itself, bar part 2 has no limitations, except those limitations one decides to set for oneself. 


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Getting Admission Into Nigerian Law School

The Council of Legal Education (CLE) is the only body entitled or legally empowered to prescribe conditions or additional pre-conditions for admission into the Nigerian Law School. Section 1 (1) of the Legal Education (Consolidation) Act, 1976 establishes the CLE (Council of Legal Education) as a body corporate”with perpetual succession and a common seal.” Section 1 (2) then provides that it (the CLE) “shall have responsibility for the legal education of persons seeking to become members of the legal profession” in Nigeria. Note also that the CLE has the responsibility of continuing legal education in Nigeria (under section 3). The Nigerian Lawschool is the final coaching ground for all who intends to be a lawyer before they are finally called to the bar. All over the world the legal profession is widely seen and regarded as one of the noblest profession in the history of mankind. Law being one of the most dignifying and prestigious course to study in the world alongside with Medicine and Engineering most parents secretly or openly wants to have one in the family. As the saying goes “Nothing good comes easy”, so it is in wanting to be a lawyer. To qualify as one in Nigeria, you must first of all obtain a law degree which must take you five years or more depending on certain factors like internal or external strikes or crisis seen in most higher institution in Nigeria. Then when you are done with the battle, you will have to be admitted into the Nigerian Law School (NLS), which comprises of 6 campuses, namely: Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Kano ,Bayelsa, and Yola. All these campuses are headed by the Deputy Director-Generals. The NLS grades her students final performance using first class, second class, pass, conditional pass and fail. The method of grading is of very peculiar in nature, in the sense that a student is graded based on his/her lowest grade in any of the courses. This simply means that if a student takes 5 courses and gets 4 As and 1C, such student automatically gets a pass grade regardless of the other As he had in other courses. NLS, is of two parts , the Bar part 1, which is designed for those who obtained their law degrees abroad (ie foreign students), the following courses are offered in this part 1;Nigerian Legal System, Nigerian Land Law, Constitutional Law and Criminal Law. While the Bar Part II is made for both the local and foreign students. The Bar Part 1 comes before the Bar Part II. Courses for Bar part II include: Civil Procedure Law, Company Law and Commercial Practice, Law Office Management and General paper, Professional Ethics, Drafting and Conveyancing and Legal Practitioners Account. The NLS requires much preparations, determination, focus and dedication for you to scale through. It is not a place of jamboree. Especially if you want to be hired by a top law firm, you must strive to come out with a good grade like first class or second class. Though most law firm are not after the grade, all they are interested is for you to be called to the Bar, the choice is yours. As a law student who wants to excel in law school, you must keep to this CODE OF CONDUCT The Legal Profession is an honorable profession and all who belong or aspire to it must exhibit that trait and strength of character. Good character is most crucial for admission to the Law School and subsequently to the Bar. The Council of Legal Education, conscious of its responsibility for the Legal Education of persons seeking to become members of the Legal Profession, and in conjunction with the Body of Benchers, responsible for regulating the practice of the in Nigeria i.e. to train for the profession disciplined gentlemen of honour, approved a code of conduct for the information and compliance of Law Students who intend to seek admission into the Nigerian Law School, qualify for the Bar, and subsequently enroll as Legal Practitioners in Nigeria. 1.0 A Law Student must be honest and of good behavior. He/She should be a responsible and reliable person. 2.0 DRESSING: All students must be well dressed at all times in Regulation Wear. 3.0 MALE: Dark suit, white shirt, black tie (not bow tie), white breast pocket handkerchief, black socks and black shoes (Sandals are not allowed). During hot weather, male students may be permitted to wear white long sleeve shirts with black tie, black trousers (charcoal grey may be allowed) and black shoes to class. 4.0 FEMALE: Dark gown or dark suit, white blouse, black skirt covering the knees and black covered shoes. (Sandals are not allowed) There should be no embroidery and or trimmings of any type on the gown, suit or blouse; and only moderate jewelry should be worn- (No large dangling or coloured earrings, or bracelets are allowed). Also, glitters or colouring of any type in the hair is prohibited. During hot weather, female students may be permitted to wear white translucent blouses (not tee-shirt), black skirts covering the knee (charcoal grey may be permitted) and black covered shoes to the class. 5.0 ALL Gowns and Skirts – (a) Must be graceful, but not cling provocatively to the body; (b) Must not be above the knee; and (c) Must not have high slits (i.e. above the knee) 6.0 ALL Blouses or Shirts – (a) Must be graceful, but not cling provocatively to the body; (b) Must not expose sensitive parts of the body i.e. it must not expose your cleavage, upper arm stomach and/or navel. • The above mode of dress is mandatory for both male and female Students for attending lectures and other extra Curricula activities, and for attendance at Magistrate Courts and all Superior Courts. 7.0 ATTENDANCE AT LAW SCHOOL: Attendance at Lectures and other programmes of the school is compulsory. All lecture Attendance is taken using the THUMB PRINT DEVICES placed at both entrances of the Auditorium. The Morning Attendance is from 7.00a.m. – 9.00 a.m., while the Afternoon Attendance is immediately after the last lecture for the day. 8.0 PUNCTUALITY: Students must be punctual for Lectures which start by 9.00a.m. All students are expected to thumb print before entering the Lecture Hall in the morning and also at the end of the last lecture for the day. In case a student has to be absent from school, a written application with necessary evidence stating the reason and number of days to be away from school should be forwarded to management, and approval must be secured before proceeding. Applications submitted after proceeding on leave will not be attended to, except emergency ca cases, and the application must be accompanied with a Medical Report. 9.0 LECTURE HALLS: All students must enter and leave the Lecture Halls/Auditorium by the main door. Smoking, Eating and Drinking of any kind are strictly prohibited in the Auditorium and other Lecture Halls. 10.0 MOBILE PHONES: Use of GSM and other Mobile Phones are not allowed in the Auditorium, Lecture Halls, Library, at Dinners and at all other formal events. Phones used in these places will be confiscated. 11.0 DECORUM: This must be adhered to at all times, even when in disagreement with a staff or colleague. 12.0 LAW DINNERS: Students must be punctual for Law Dinners and must be in Regulation Wear and observe table manners. 13.0 MATERNITY LEAVE The school does not grant any type/form of Maternity leave, whether it is Ante natal, delivery or Post natal as contained in your Admission Letter and Students Prospectus. In consequence, any student that chooses to be pregnant in the course of the School Year, is not eligible for Maternity Leave. 14.0 EXCURSIONS OR VISITS: No student or group of students is/are allowed to invite any outsider (individual, government, company, group etc) into the school premises for talks, Seminars lectures, Symposium etc., or pay a courtesy visit to any individual, government, company, groups etc without prior approval from the school authority. Any student or group of students that act in violation of the above may be expelled from school. NOTE (1) The Law School Programme is full time and as such, students must not engage in any form of employment or other occupation during their course of study at the Nigerian Law School. This includes periods of interval holidays and during the Externship Programme. Penalty for this is outright termination of studentship. (2) Please note that there is a compulsory Biometric Data Capturing exercise for all Students. During this exercise, all your facial features, including your ears must be exposed for capturing. This is also applicable to all our female Muslim Students wearing the Hijab. (3) All complaints should be channeled to any of the following offices for necessary action: * Deputy Director General’s Office; * Director of Administration’s Office; or * Students Affairs Office (4) Matters of great concern and/or those considered of benefit to the system may be forwarded in writing to the Deputy Director General or Director of Administration, when they are not available to grant immediate audience


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Minimum Academic Standards (MAS) and Benchmark Style Statements (BMAS) - Training in Law Aimed at Producing Lawyers Whose Level of Education Will Equip Them With Competencies To Serve as Advisers, Solicitors or Advocates to Government Agencies, Companies, Firms, Associations, Families and More...

Future of legal education in Nigeria is patterned after the system in England except that whereas lawyers in England are solicitors or barristers, all lawyers in Nigeria qualify and can practice as both barristers and solicitors.

Legal education in Nigeria consists of academic study for 4 to 5  years (depending on the mode of entry) in a law faculty and a year in the law school followed by call to the Nigerian Bar and enrollment as a legal practitioner at the Supreme Court.

It is the National Universities Commission (NUC) that established minimum academic standards for the conferment of law degrees (LL.B).

Likewise, the Council of Legal Education has established requirement which a law degree must satisfy before it can qualify its holder for admission into the Nigerian Law School for a BL. This therefore subjects law faculties to two accreditations: one by the NUC and another by the Council of Legal Education (CLE).

In recent times, there has been growing concern about the deterioration of Nigeria’s educational system stemming from the quality of our university graduates, which has become less than satisfactory and the law graduates are no exception. Hence the growing demand for reforms not only in legal education but of the entire educational system in the country.

Since lawyers are required to have legal education before they can be called to the Bar, what constitutes the purpose of legal education?

According to NUC’s document on Minimum Academic Standards for law in Nigerian universities: “Academic legal education should therefore act, first, as a stimulus to stir the student into the critical analysis and examination of the prevailing social, economic and political systems of his community and, secondly, as an intellectual exercise aimed at studying and assessing the operation, efficacy and relevance of various rules of law in society.”

Undoubtedly, all human activities in their social, economic, political and environmental contexts, take place within a legal framework. It is therefore necessary, according to the NUC revised Minimum Academic Standards for Law, “that the student of law should also have a broad general knowledge and exposure to other disciplines in the process of acquiring legal education.”

In line with contemporary global practice, the NUC considered the merger of the revised Minimum Academic Standards (MAS) with the Benchmark Style Statements into one new document known as (BMAS), wherein, “the training in law is specifically aimed at producing lawyers whose level of education would equip them properly to serve as advisers, solicitors or advocates to governments and their agencies, companies, business firms, associations, individuals and families, etc.”

The above aim underscores the fact that “the role of lawyers is a pervasive one, straddling the political, economic and social life of the society. After all, lawyers are instrumental to whatever situation any country may find itself. Lawyers, as judges, in private or corporate practice, in the academics or in government, shape the society and the lives of their fellow human beings.”

However, a lawyer can only be as good as the system of legal education that produced him. Legal education (both academic and vocational) is a vital ingredient that affects the quality of our justice system and the role of lawyers in the political, economic and social development of our country.

It has been rightly argued that “the study of law must not end with the imbibing of general principles of law; it must involve law in action; in all its ramifications. The relationship of law to social, economic and political realities of life must be encompassed.”

Improving the quality of legal education and of young lawyers

A number of legal scholars, jurists, legal practitioners and the Nigerian Bar Association, have, in recent times, repeatedly pointed out the following standards in legal education and in the performance of young lawyers and all have identified various factors responsible for this disturbing phenomenon. These factors include: lack of consistency on the part of both NUC and CLE in ensuring compliance with the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standards (BMAS) for law in Nigerian universities and other stipulated requirements by the Council for Legal Education; grossly dishonest people adopted by some universities/law faculties to secure accreditation (full, provisional and interim) when in reality they are yet to meet the minimum requirements (in terms of staff mix, facilities, student- staff ratio, library holdings etc) stipulated by both NUC and CLE; poor quality and scope of the teaching and learning processes; lack of compulsory pupillage for young lawyers; inadequate mentoring and ridiculously low welfare package for young lawyers and poor funding/financing of education (legal education inclusive) in Nigeria.

Hence the need for improving the quality of legal education and of the performance of young lawyers in Nigeria. As of how, several proposals have been offered at several fora ranging from: - making the Nigerian Law School programme a two-year programme, to introducing practical/clinical training into legal education, making law a postgraduate degree programme, scrapping the Nigerian Law School entirely and making the Council of Legal Education an examination board (the USA system) etc.

Strategies for improving the quality of legal education and of the young lawyers in Nigeria

From the above analysis, the outstanding question remains unanswered: what are the effective strategies for improving the quality of legal education and of the young lawyers in Nigeria?; are we to continue with our reactionary and curative approach to the challenges at hand or are we determined to be more proactive in our approach to addressing same and in earnest search for durable solutions to addressing national problems using law.

For example, does the answer to the falling standard of legal education or declining quality in the performance of young lawyers lay necessarily in the proposed two-year period at the law school?

Respectfully, the answer is no, because for a durable solution to the crisis at hand, we must collectively address the need for more skills-based and practice-oriented syllabus and scope of learning within the existing calendar; promote compulsory pupillage for young lawyers after graduation from the law school before graduates can practice on their own; ensure adequate mentoring and a dignified and sustainable welfare package for young lawyers to motivate them to work harder; advocate for improved financing for qualitative academic legal education and prudent management of resources at the universities/law faculties.

Undoubtedly, the introduction of Clinical Legal Education (CLE) in law faculties will lay the foundation for law students to carry with them throughout their professional career a great sense of professional commitment to the ethics and values of public service, subject however, to the availability and management of basic and relevant Information and Communications Technology related infrastructural facilities.

This leads to our next discussion on the future of legal education in Nigeria.

The future of legal education

Undoubtedly, the future of legal education in Nigeria lies essentially, though not exclusively, in the following:

I.      Our collective efforts to develop a plan of action and strategic implementation framework to address the identifiable factors responsible for the falling standards of legal education and the quality of performance of young lawyers. This requires us to carefully develop the relevant measurable/verifiable indicators and benchmarks for durable solutions to the problems.

II.     Our collective resolve to addressing the threats, opportunities and challenges that ICT poses to law, the legislature, the Bar, the Bench and the academia; and to our understanding of the impact of ICT on legal education in the 21st Century.

ICT has come to stay and Nigeria is fast becoming a heavy user of the internet for information, communication, research, electronic commerce and banking transactions; it is spending millions of naira on the internet. There are growing indications that along with the expansion of legitimate internet use, Nigeria is acknowledged to be experiencing a rising tide of cybercrimes and cyber-insecurity and this follows a global pattern that has become glaring. Hence the justification for the coming into force of the Cybercrime Act, 2015 and the Cybersecurity Policy and Strategy, 2014.


The existence of cybercrime is bound to raise issues of Cyberjurisdiction which can be seen as territorially border less and multi jurisdictional because of the ease with which a user can access information, electronic communications and transact online; as well as commit cybercrimes using the same internet and other ICT tools.

Evidently, the use of electronic medium that disregards geographical  boundaries throws the law, the Bar, the Bench, the academia and the law enforcement agencies into disarray by creating entirely new phenomena that need to become the subject of clear legal rules that cannot be governed, satisfactorily, by any current territorially-based sovereign law. Any insistence on reducing online transactions to a legal analysis based on geographic terms present, in effect, a new problem on a global scale.

Objectives of ICT in legal education

Another question that readily comes to mind is; what are the main objectives of ICT within the context of legal studies and practice? It is considered that ICT should among other objectives:  (i) Facilitate the storage, retrieval and dissemination of vital legal information for the successful pursuit of legal research and study.

(ii)  Enable large number of students and researchers to have ready access to case law and other legal materials more efficiently than having them queue up for access to a limited number of books in the library.

(iii) Facilitate effective communication between teachers and students, particularly in distance learning and continuing education programmes.

Some of the ICT platforms include:- E-mail communication; diverse electronic discussion forums - forums such as Facebook, Twitter and various chat rooms enable participants pose questions and articulate views on diverse academic issues; legal data bases and video conferencing.

Further, our collective resolve to understanding and addressing the opportunities and challenges that globalization presents to legal education in Nigeria and how to survive in an era of global competitiveness for legal service delivery, e.g., what does it mean to have a legal education in a globalized digital environment of the 21st century? Is there a commonality for all law students as to having basic legal education (with knowledge, skills and values inclusive)? What are the core competencies which every law graduate should have? These are questions which need to be addressed by the Bar and the academia before we set guidelines or standards.

Furthermore, the law faculties and the National Association of Law Teachers need to expedite action in establishing the Nigerian Academy of Law, whose critical role among others, is to mobilize, aggressively, technical, human, material and financial resources for the progressive realization of the ultimate goal and objectives of legal education in an era of globalization and ICT.

Finally, the future of legal education in the 21st Century digital age requires us to respectfully treat all stakeholders as equal and to live above the on-going BLAME THEORY in order to ensure that critical role of lawyers and legal education in promoting national development is sustainable and the gains should remain irreversible in the best interest of justice, the public and the present and future generations. Academy – OlayinkaOyelamiCorporation (OOCORP)