Written by Julia Day

Claudia and Annarose

As often happens, UNE Law students, Claudia Barbosa, Reine Mills, Tracey Dunn, Annarose Robinson and Eilish Warwick joined a social media study group when completing a first-year law unit together.  When the unit ended, they decided to stay connected and maintain a mutually supportive study group. The group of students quickly became friends and even gave each other nicknames. Tracey was the ‘Mother Duck’ who helped keep her friends in line. Annarose was the ‘Drowning Duck’, as she had her third baby whilst completing her honour’s year, leaving her a little snowed under. Reine was known as ‘The Procrastinator’ because she was always finding ways to avoid study. Claudia was ‘The Leader’ as she was central to organising the group.

The members of the group all have a diverse background, which was mutually beneficial. For example, Tracey has an accounting and tax background, and Eilish has a pharmaceutical background. Claudia is the queen of grammar, spelling and AGLC compliance, Reine is excellent at legal analysis, and Annarose is brilliant at making study notes.

As part of the study group, the motivated women prepared for their weekly tutorials and studied together in preparation for their examination periods. Overall, they helped keep each other accountable and motivated. They also had ‘massive arguments’ and took great joy in proving each other wrong! They encouraged each other to enter competitions and aim higher – for example, Eilish entered the AAT Moot Competition. Mostly, however, they supported each other to do their best.

Claudia and Reine during a study group session

When Annarose had a baby prematurely whilst completing her honour’s dissertation, the group sent her a ‘care box’. Similarly, to thank Tracey for her assistance, Claudia and Reine organised an ‘Uber Eats delivery’ to Tracey’s Perth address.

The motivated group of UNE Law alumni note ‘creating a study group like this, really helped us achieve our individual academic goals. Drawing on our collective expertise and experiences helped us excel. And excel they did!! Annarose was awarded the University Medal and all members of the group graduated with very high GPA’s. In fact, thre

Eilish Warwick

e members achieved a GPA of 6.60.

Here are the top tips from the group relating to how to excel when completing a law degree:

‘Eilish: Preparation. Learning this early on is essential for practice because without preparation, deadlines are difficult to meet.

Annarose: Organisation with a wall planner and weekly planner, chipping away at it, not letting it pile up.

Annarose Robinson

Reine: Participate in tutorials and review your work multiple times. Surround yourself with people who have the same work ethic.

Reine Mills

Claudia: UNE offers many resources – make the most of them! Attend tutorials, watch the lectures, go to PASS sessions, post and comment on Moodle, and join or form your own study groups. 

Claudia Barbosa

Tracey: Be curious, share knowledge, be open to challenging your own beliefs, read case law, plan early and, most importantly, be open to and take on board feedback from lecturers.’

Tracey Dunn

Thank you, Claudia, Tracey, Reine, Annarose and Eilish for sharing your story and insights!