Law at the University of Warsaw: Hardest subjects and student reality

Civil Law (general and material part)

It occurs in the second and third year. Exams in the Maximum Auditorium are multiple-choice tests or cases of extreme complexity. This is where the “professional screening” takes place – people who have slipped through history, but are unable to operate the Civil Code, leave the faculty. The chain of blockades is merciless here: failure to pass Civil I blocks access to the Law of Obligations and the Law of Inheritance.

Criminal law

The exam in the general and specific parts requires knowledge of the code and hundreds of Supreme Court rulings. The materials are illegible notes from whiteboards and constantly updated comments. Failure at the criminal court often results from an error in the legal classification of the act in the case – one mistake and the student loses the whole year, because the criminal exam is a one-year subject.

Student removal procedures: ECTS, Deficit, Deletion

At the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw, a year of study is 60 ECTS credits. The permissible deficit of points after the first year is usually 12-15 ECTS (depending on the current resolutions of the Teaching Council). If a student fails to pass PHPP (8 ECTS) and Rome (8 ECTS), he or she exceeds the limit.

The deletion procedure starts automatically in the USOS system after the minutes from the revision session (September campaign) are closed. The Dean’s Office sends a notification of the initiation of the deletion procedure. The appeal procedure consists in submitting a request for reconsideration of the case to the Dean. Applications for “extension of the deadline” or “condition” are considered on the merits only if the student demonstrates documented random causes. In the absence of such reasons, the application is a formality before being discarded. The cost of repeating a course (one ECTS credit) oscillates between PLN 100 and 150, which generates costs of several thousand zlotys when repeating the entire history block.

USOS Registration Strategy: Technical Barrier to Entry

At the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw, the sifting begins at the token registration stage. A student who does not “click” on the appropriate number of ECTS credits in non-financial subjects or language courses in the buildings at Oboźna Street risks failing the year for purely formal reasons. The USOS system operates in an absolute mode – failure to attach a course to the study programme within the set deadline (usually by the end of October) results in ECTS credits not being counted towards the average and deficit limit. This is where the so-called “silent screening” of people who deal with the Codes substantively takes place, but who have relied on the operation of the university interface in terms of process.

Slayer Items: Second Wave

Constitutional Law – Oral Examination Elimination

Location: offices in Collegium Iuridicum I. Constitutional law is a subject that verifies predispositions for public speaking. The specificity of the elimination lies in the form of the exam – most often it is oral. The student appears before an examiner in CI I and must demonstrate not only knowledge of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, but also of the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Tribunal. The bottleneck here is the precision of legal language. One mistake in the definition of the president’s prerogative ends the exam in the fifth minute. The materials are huge volumes of commentaries, and students rely on lecture notes, which are sometimes poorly audible in the Auditorium Maximum, which forces the use of paid photocopies of studies circulating in the faculty “underground”.

Administrative Law and KPA – Procedural Paralysis

Classes take place at Collegium Iuridicum III at Lipowa Street. This is where the student collides with the administrative procedure (KPA). The laboratory precision required for procedural deadlines and the construction of administrative decisions makes the pass exams pass at the level of 40%. The “truncation” mechanism is based on cases in which a mistake by one day in the calculation of the due date results in zero scores. Failure to pass the KPA blocks the path to Public Economic Law, which automatically extends the studies by one year (no possibility of enrolling in semester 7).

Public International Law (PMP) – Conceptual barrier

Exams in CI II or in the halls at Oboźna Street. PMP is treated by students as a theoretical subject, which is a procedural error. The specificity of elimination is based on the requirement of knowledge of hundreds of conventions and treaties. Students give up PMP in a retake session when it turns out that knowledge of the United Nations Charter alone is not enough for a 3.0 grade. The materials are scattered, and the chair requires the tracking of ongoing disputes before the International Court of Justice.

Faculty Logistics: Race for Passing

The dispersion of the buildings of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw (CI I, CI II, CI III, buildings at Lipowa Street, Oboźna Street and on the central campus) generates physical fatigue of the material. Collisions in the plan are the norm. A student completing exercises in CI III at 2:45 p.m. has exactly 15 minutes to reach the Maximum Auditorium for the exam. Tram delays or lack of places in lecture halls lead to “technical absenteeism”. Resignation from attending lectures at the Academy of Sciences results in a lack of access to the so-called “exam guidelines”, which professors give only orally. This actually reduces the chances of passing blocking items by 20-30%.

Renewal and Transfer Procedure

A student who has been removed from the list due to failing a year may apply for resumption of studies only after the end of the year (unless the regulations provide otherwise for a specific random case). Renewal is not a right, but a privilege dependent on the decision of the Vice-Dean for Student Affairs. The cost of renewal is not only the fees for ECTS credits, but above all the need to fill in the curriculum differences. If in the meantime the Faculty Council has changed the schedule of hours (which happens at the Faculty of Law and Administration during curricular reforms), the student may be reversed by two years, even though he or she has failed only one exam.

Why do students give up their ID cards themselves?

A psychological analysis of the failure indicates “thermal shock”. Law at the University of Warsaw is a mass study. The student feels anonymous in the Auditorium Maximum, which is conducive to procrastination. Collisions in the plan, where the Civilian exercise ends 15 minutes before the Admin exam in another part of the campus, builds a sense of chaos. The lack of didactic support and the hermetic nature of the departments (especially the Department of Civil Law) cause that students voluntarily resign after the first failed revision in September, recognizing that the emotional and financial cost of repeating the year is inadequate to the chances of completing the application.

The most important questions about Law at the University of Warsaw

Does failing health and safety/PE really block enrolment for the next semester?

Failure to pass OHS training or compulsory classes in Physical Education (PE) results in a lack of ECTS credits assigned to these modules (although these are minimum values, usually 0.5-1 ECTS). According to the Regulations of Studies at the University of Warsaw, each subject included in the plan must be completed by the end of the academic year. Although the lack of ECTS for PE rarely causes exceeding the permissible limit of the credit deficit (12-15 ECTS), it generates the so-called “failed stage of studies”. The USOS system will not allow automatic registration for the next year’s courses without obtaining a conditional entry. Obtaining such an entry requires submitting a paid application. In extreme cases, when a student already has a deficit in field subjects, the missing 0.5 ECTS in OHS may become the direct cause of the decision to cancel, as the deficit limit is not exceeded.

What to do if the deadline for the revision of Roman Law coincides with the PHPP exam?

In the event of a collision of the dates of two exams in a retake session, the student must immediately (in accordance with the regulations – at least 5 days before the deadline) notify both examiners and the Dean for Student Affairs. The reality of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw shows that historical departments rarely show flexibility. Usually, one of the examiners sets an additional date (the so-called zero date in the retake session or the exam after the session). If the student fails to complete the notification formalities, the absence from one of the exams will be considered unjustified, which results in entering an unsatisfactory grade (2.0) in USOS and losing the date without the possibility of appeal. It is a technical deletion of a student at his own request due to an administrative oversight.

How to go through the “condition” from Civil Law?

Conditional entry from Civil Law I (general and material part) is a high-risk operation. The student must submit an application in the USOS system and pay for the repetition of the course (ECTS rate). The key problem is the “sequentiality of objects”. The Regulations of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw prohibit registration for the Law of Obligations (Civil II) for persons who have not passed Civil I. This means that the student de facto loses a year in the field of the civil path, being able to pursue only secondary or criminal subjects. The Civilian Condition requires a radical change in the methodology of learning; relying on scripts for cases prepared by the Cathedral at Lipowa Street is a procedural error that usually leads to re-passing the course and final deletion.

Is the board exam at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw a real opportunity?

The commission exam (commission exam) in law at the University of Warsaw is not the third exam date for every student. In accordance with §34 of the Study Regulations, the application for a commission is submitted within 7 days of the announcement of the results of the correction, raising substantive allegations regarding the impartiality of the examiner or the form of the exam. In the practice of the Didactic Council of the Faculty of Law and Administration, commission is awarded extremely rarely. If the application is accepted, the student appears before a committee consisting of three professors. The exam is oral and is recorded. Statistics show that a commission at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw ends with a positive assessment in less than 5% of cases. For most students, this is only an extension of the deletion procedure by two weeks.

How does the “continuous session” work and can exams be postponed?

The Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw does not use the classic session on strict dates; Exams often take place before the official start of the session (the so-called pre-dates). Postponing exams is possible only with the consent of the examiner and usually applies to entire groups, not individual units (unless there is a long-term sick leave – the so-called L4 student sick leave, approved by a university doctor). The USOS system blocks the possibility of entering the grade after the deadline for closing the protocol, so any arrangements “by mouth” with the lecturers in CI I without a formal request to the Dean for the extension of the session are invalid and result in the year not being passed.

Is there a “kindergarten” in every subject at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw?

No, the zero deadline is the good will of the department and is not regulated as an obligation in the study regulations. Most often, “kindergartens” are offered by the Department of Roman Law and PHPP for students with the highest attendance or the best results in partial colloquia. Failure to pass the “kindergarten” usually does not result in entering a grade of 2.0 in the USOS (this is treated as a lack of participation), which gives the student a psychological advantage of two dates in the main session. However, under the Civil Law, there are practically no “zeros”, which forces them to fight on official dates in the Auditorium Maximum.

What does the “dean’s” procedure look like after failing the session?

Dean’s leave (dean’s leave) may be granted for random reasons, health reasons or after a year has been credited. A student who failed a session and knows that he will not get conditional entry often tries to escape into the “health dean”. This requires a certificate from the medical commission of the University of Warsaw. If the application is submitted after the session date, the Dean may reject it, considering it to be an attempt to circumvent the rules of deletion. A properly assigned dean “freezes” the student’s status, but does not cancel the need to pass courses upon return.