My second tutoring season (EQE 2023)

EQE 2023 and my EQE tutoring season 2 has ended.  It is an accident that I am posting this summary almost exactly one year after sharing my blog post about My first tutoring season. It seems that I need about 1 month to recover after the EQEs 😅 (For those less familiar with these exams, the 5 exams took place between 7-17 March 2023.)

Too long to read? I made this visual summary for you then.

General thoughts

As you can see below from the statistics, tutoring has basically grown to a full-time job. After realising how much time is needed for organisation, administration and preparing for each meeting  last year, this time I limited my focus to Paper D. Paper D is the most important but also the most difficult exam, and due to the huge amount of material, candidates have to study for Paper D the most. Well prepared candidates start studying in September (some even start refreshing during summer). For these reasons, it is really helpful to have a colleague, tutor, study group, or any kind of support group that you can rely on during these months. Weirdly enough, I feel the most comfortable with Paper D and that is also the exam I got the highest marks for (86 marks, 80 marks without compensation). So, it made sense to offer weekly Paper D1 and bi-weekly Paper D2 study groups.

This time I didn't offer 1:1 meetings so that I can focus on my study groups. This way, I hopefully managed to help even more people. A part of this help is making candidates feel less lonely during these difficult times. This might sound weird, but if you know how much preparation and sacrifice the EQE requires, you might guess how important it is to have someone around who is going through the same and that you can share your feelings and struggles with. Spouses will never fully understand what you are doing and, most importantly, why 🤣 

By the way, this "why" now reminds me of another story. This year I had two candidates withdrawing their applications from my study groups because they decided to leave the patent attorney profession. They also asked themselves if these exams (and spending many years on passing them) make sense, whether they really want to become patent attorneys and came to the conclusion: NO. This would lead to a different and long discussion that I would be happy to continue some other time.

In this general part I also want to note that I have the impression that the EQE has become more difficult in the recent years. If you add the stress of the technical issues (which feels like a 5th main exam), and the fact that the topics of the exams are sometimes heavily technical/electrical, the frustration of the candidates is completely understandable.

Full list of events and study groups I organised

With the help of a reasonable amount of coffee and chocolate I managed to organise a lot of different meetings.

1. Pre-exam study group - legal part
   We discussed more than 150 legal questions and 5 previous pre-exams together (only the legal parts) and had 22 meetings on Friday afternoons, weekly (from October 2022).

2. Two 25-week D1 study groups
   We discussed more than 170 legal questions and 9 previous D1 exams together and had 25 meetings on Saturdays, starting from the end of August. The first group had a meeting at 10:00, the second group at 12:00, the meetings were about 100 minutes long. The study plan included a long Christmas break as well, which was a great idea.

3. 15-week D1 study group
   We discussed more than 100 legal questions and 2 previous D1 exams together and had 15 meetings on Saturdays, starting from mid-November.

4. Three D2 study groups (Sep-Oct, Nov-Dec, Jan-Feb)
   Each D2 study group had 4 meetings, between 10-16:00 on Sundays. During each meeting we did a previous D2 exam together, step by step. I mixed up the exams so that with every group we discussed a few old and a few new exams. I initially advertised the meetings as 4-hour meetings, but I quickly realised that we need about 5-6 hours to sufficiently discuss all aspects of the D2 papers.

5. Monthly Q&A sessions for all weekly study group members
   The topics varied depending on the candidates' requests. For example, we had discussions about the different study materials, appeal, computer implemented inventions, etc. On some occasions, I invited guests such as candidates who passed last year.

6. Mini D2 study group in December
   We discussed two D2 exams in December in the evenings (18-22:00) with a small group of candidates.

7. Four e-EQE methodology sessions
   Although candidates could also purchase the recordings of my e-EQE methodology sessions from last year, I also provided one session for each exam (A, B, C and D2) this year to show my practical, WISEflow compatible EQE methodologies.

8. Two PCT courses (tutor: Pete Pollard)
   I organised two PCT courses which took place on Wednesday evenings. Both courses included more than 12 hours of PCT related training for EPAC, Pre-exam and EQE candidates. I knew I didn't have time to prepare the materials and teach the courses myself, so I collaborated with Pete Pollard who has about 15 years of experience in tutoring.

9. Two free PCT refresher sessions (tutor: Cees Mulder)
   Last year I organised a free PCT refresher, and it was so popular that I wanted to repeat it this year. Prof. Cees Mulder was really kind to accept my request. We increased the number of meetings and the participants as well. 190 candidates had the possibility to attend Cees Mulder's free and extremely helpful PCT summaries in February, 1 month before Paper D. Both meetings were more than 3 hours long.

10. Three Paper C study groups (3 different tutors for each study group)
    Each study group did 2 previous Paper C exams together. The first group was in autumn, the last in January, the meetings took place on Sundays. I am grateful for the 3 tutors for assisting me and candidates with these new study groups as I wouldn't have had time for Paper C this year. 

+1. Moreover, I organised a free WISEflow related Q&A for 50 people.

Furthermore, I also provided a free, online last-minute PCT refresher session for CIPA Informals.

As you can see, I spent a lot of time on meetings in Zoom, more than 250 hours. The preparation for the meetings is about the double of that.

Some further statistics

• The 250 hours spent in Zoom (see above) were distributed to 115 meetings which meant 4.6 meetings/week.

• I personally tutored about 100 candidates via my different study groups (excluding Paper C groups and PCT courses where someone else was the tutor).

• Paper D study group members came from 13 different countries (UK, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Norway, Czech Republic, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Austria and Poland).

• Only 15% of the participants of my study groups were men.

• I sent more than 2000 emails during 6 months (I don't know how much time I spent with emails though...).

• I managed to write about 12 new posts on my EQE blog.

• Daily visits on my EQE blog were between 400-2500 (if I understand correctly, this does not mean individual visitors though, but I have never cared about these numbers, so I have very little idea what they mean).

• 6 donations received via my EQE blog

• And the most important statistics: I travelled to 6 different countries while tutoring. 😃

Daily website visits between 1 Jan and 17 March

Pre-exam, D1 and D2 study groups

I feel that the weekly study groups truly offer a lot of value. However, it also requires a lot of study time from the candidates. Meeting every single week with the same group of candidates and following our study plan provides consistency and motivation to keep studying for many months continuously.

I am especially proud of the study plan of the 25-week D1 group I created, it worked out really well. We went through all legal topics, starting with PCT, between September-December. During this first period, there was no need to practice under time pressure. Then, in January, we started discussing previous D1 exams. Altogether, we discussed 9 previous D1 exams. From January, I recommended that candidates answer these D1 questions under time pressure.

Candidates in my study groups came from prestigious offices and companies such as the EPO, Grünecker, Hoffmann Eitle, Barker Brettell, Bergenstråhle & Partners, Nestle, Kuhnen & Wacker, Onsagers, Adidas and Maiwald.

I am not sure how I got this lucky, but the candidates I got to work with were all extremely smart and kind! Our meetings were really enjoyable and positive. One study group was especially active, they had their own chat group and Zoom meetings to study together.

Not all companies support their candidates unfortunately. That is the reason why the meetings I organise are outside of work hours. I also provide -20% of all fees if the employer is not supporting the candidate financially. I will try to keep doing this in the future as well.

Undeniably, there are great courses out there from well known EQE tutoring companies, some of them I also attended. I especially like the quality, support and useful materials DeltaPatents offers to candidates. We also used the DeltaPatents books with my Pre-exam and D1 study groups and many of my candidates also attended DeltaPatents courses. My study groups complement these few-day-long courses pretty well.

On the other hand, none of the EQE courses provide continuous support for 3-4 or even 6 months. Seeing the feedbacks from candidates, I can say that this continuous support is really beneficial.

I mean, what is better feedback than Pre-exam study group members already signing up for the Paper D groups?! 🥹

I’ve just received two feedbacks from D1 study group members:

"Zsofia's paper D1 study group was an excellent way for me to study regularly, with a precise study plan, create a network of people to study with and cope better with the stress of the EQE preparation." Elena

“These sessions are the best way to keep the pace of studying on time and up to date. Zsofia carefully selects the questions to study and provides the relevant support material about them, selecting the most important highlights we must be aware of. Zsofia is also very supportive, answering all our doubts with a lot of patience.” Mariana

e-EQE methodology recordings

As mentioned above, candidates could also purchase the recordings of my e-EQE methodology sessions from last year. So far, there were about 220 purchases on my website. However, what is even better is that the feedbacks I get from candidates using my methodologies is amazing. Lots of candidates say that watching my 3-4 hour long videos is more helpful than a 3-day long EQE course, because my videos are really practical. The most popular was the Paper C recording that shows that you can easily pass Paper C even without fully reading all the documents in part 1. I know many people who successfully switched to my Paper C methodology shortly before the EQE and passed (in 2022 obviously, as EQE 2023 results are not out yet).

EQE Advent calendar

Ohh, I almost forgot my Advent calendar. This was the second year that I posted daily Paper D tips and random legal facts on LinkedIn in December. Not as fun as chocolate, but the daily posts seemed to be appreciated.

I also posted the 24 summaries as a separate EQE blog post. (2021 Advent calendar is here, 2022 Advent calendar is here.)

Summary

Thank you everyone who trusted me and joined my study groups!

A huge thanks to tutors for helping me out with more difficult legal questions. A few people I would like to mention by name: Cees Mulder, Pete Pollard and especially Roel van Woudenberg.

I will spend the upcoming few months to update my website, templates and to decide about the study groups for EQE 2024. I also booked a few trips and I hope to see some of you in Oslo, Stockholm, Prague, Munich, Singapore… 😀

If you used my EQE blog during these last 6 months, please let me know if you have any feedback or comments.