#FlavianaCrâznic: During the interviews you can be asked about the current events and their knowledge is appreciated

The British News Agency News247WorldPress presents you one of the best students who is admitted to the law school of the prestigious University of Cambridge. You will be surprised to find determination and a rare human quality. Today we present Miss Flaviana Crâznic from Romania.

Alina Matei: Thank you, Flaviana, for your time with JURIDICE.ro readers. Congratulations on your success at Cambridge University, where you will study Law. Since when do you want to study Law?

Flaviana Crâznic: Thank you too! I’m glad to be able to share this experience!

I have always wanted to study Law, to become a lawyer, having a huge admiration for my parents’ work. However, as a child I can’t say that I had a clear reason. Along the way, I wanted to see if Law is just a childish aspiration for me or, really, it suits me. I started doing extracurricular activities, and then, reading more about the different courses available, I was glad to see that this field really suits me.

Alina Matei: Cambridge how did it appear on the map of your studies?

Flaviana Crâznic: Honestly, I don’t know either. It was something gradual, for sure, that eventually became a goal for me. The period of self-isolation in the pandemic I think was decisive for me. I had a lot of time for introspection, I realized many projects for my own development, and I was able to discover in myself a desire to do something more than everyone expected of me, including myself.

Alina Matei: What steps did you take to sign up for Cambridge? What should you do?

Flaviana Crâznic: The admission process was quite long and unknown for a student who went through the education system in Romania. It is, first of all, a process of personal development and self-knowledge. With the hope that I will help interested high school students, I briefly list the stages:

First of all, you need to sign up for the UCAS platform. There you can choose up to five faculties to send your app to. In addition to personal data and a letter of recommendation from a teacher at the school, a “personal statement” must be written, a motivational essay let’s say. In about one page (4000 characters) you have to express your motivation to study Law, in the UK.

This “personal statement” is being written in months and we had many versions until we reached the final version.

Then, an exam (LNAT) must be passed which is necessary to prove that you can be a good law student. Skills such as logic, understanding texts, extrapolation, general knowledge and writing clear, concise opinion essays and structured on various topics (ethics, philosophy, politics, generally controversial topics that require pros and cons) are checked. For me, this exam mattered at the other four faculties, not at Cambridge, for which I had a separate exam, consisting of an essay on a topic similar to those of the LNAT, but with concrete legal aspects (ownership, the role of the unwritten constitution in the UK, the validity of the jury trial, etc.). From this year, for Cambridge, too, all the LNAT will be given.

Most cambridge candidates are then called for interviews. There are usually two, one general, about your motivation to study in a more competitive academic environment than that of other universities, and one with law professors who will teach you if you are accepted. The latter lasts around 30 minutes and is a simulation of the “supervisors” at Cambridge, seminars as they are with us. Basically, you have to answer questions based on cases proposed on the spot by teachers. Here it was very important to show them that I can cope with some challenges and that I have the right mindset for such a way of teaching.

After the interviews, all I had to do was wait for the decision, and then take the required grades at the Baccalaureate.

Alina Matei: What was the preparation like for Cambridge?

Flaviana Crâznic: For all these stages mentioned, it was very important to read introductory books on Anglo-Saxon law, in order to familiarize myself with how the laws of every main area of law apply. I was also reading the news from The Guardian and the BBC daily, because in interviews you can be asked about current events, and mentioning them is always appreciated.

In the admission process, I was helped a lot by the guidance provided by a Romanian student at Cambridge in Law who was with me in this admission process, but also the opinions expressed by all those I asked to read my “personal statement” and to offer me an honest opinion. In the approximately five months that I worked on this essay I was like a shadow, all I was thinking and hearing were the phrases in the “personal statement”, I knew them by heart and in the evening I read it aloud to figure out where to change the formulations, how to introduce a new idea without exceeding the space limit and what to take out because it is not interesting enough. It was the hardest time in this process, but also the most important one for me.

I understood my own motivation and passion better, I learned to express them in writing succinctly but convincingly, and I read so much that for the interview I was already prepared thanks to this intense writing process. In the two months since I submitted the essay and until the interview, I have recap what I had already read, I have practiced free speaking in English about topics that I am passionate about, and I have solved questions of the kind that are given to interviews.

The period after the interviews and finding out the results was probably one of the most beautiful so far, but that of preparation is definitely in second place.

Alina Matei: What did you find to be the easiest, but also the hardest, to do with this whole process?

Flaviana Crâznic: The easiest thing was to come to terms with the English legal system. After I always thought I was going to study in Romania, it was surprisingly easy to understand how the main legal mechanisms in the UK work. I know that I have not yet begun to really study this system, but I have no emotions at all about it.

Hard, but also beautiful, was to get out of my comfort zone, or rather, out of my comfort zones, because there are many unknowns waiting for me. When you have a somewhat assured future in Romania, it’s hard to explain why you want to throw yourself into a country where you have no one, your mother tongue is not spoken, it is another culture and you do not know where you will work after completing your studies. It took a little while to understand my own desire to leave, but once I knew it was what I wanted, it also became easier to explain to others. Now I am confident in what awaits me and I am proud of myself for not letting the concerns and (well-founded) worries of those around me stop me.

The original interview is in Romanian and can be read in full on  www.juridice.ro

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By

Robert Williams

Editor in Chief