Training for Qualification as European Patent
Attorney
Frequently Asked Questions
At what point of my training should I attend the courses?
The ABC/D Comprehensive course (October) is designed
for first-time candidates who intend to sit one or more papers at the
forthcoming exam or even one year later, and is also suitable for
re-sitters who need to re-think their approach. The winter courses AB,
C and D (November-March) are designed
principally
for candidates sitting the forthcoming exam, for the first time or
resitting.
You can attend earlier (especially ABC/D, A/B and D) as part of
your long term
training, but to derive benefit you should have at least 1-2 years work
experience.
What should I bring?
Bring your essential reference materials:
EPC/Guidelines/Case
Law/Visser ... But bear in mind that the space on the tables is
limited, as in the exam!
If you have already answered the last Exam paper, bring along your answer to
the AB,
C or D course. The course should help you identify
where
you did well, or went wrong or could do better.
For the AB,
C or D course, if you would like to work on the
Exam paper in
French
or German, please bring along your own copy (or let us know you need
it).
Will you review my answers at the course?
Participants re-sitting the Exam may submit their
answers
and marking before the course. This helps identify points of difficulty
that can be generally addressed in the open discussion for the benefit
of all.
If you would like specific comments on your answers
in
private, please ask. We can do this when convenient during the course,
or during the breaks.
Do I need to make any special preparation before
the course?
For the ABC/D course we will
not
completely
work through any particular exam papers but will take
examples from recent papers. No special preparation for the course is
needed, but don't
wait for the course to begin your exam preparation.
During the AB, C and D courses we use the most
recent
EQE exam as
working paper.
If you have not already done the last Exam paper A/B, C
or
D, it's useful to familiarise yourself with the subject. It's not
necessary
to attempt a complete answer. But if you have done this, the courses
will
help you to identify the difficulties you encountered. You may need to
re-do an entire paper - or the specific parts where you are in need of
improvement - after the course.
If you haven't looked at the last Exam papers
beforehand,
you can proceed from scratch, as in the exam, and catch up as we go
along.
If you are sitting the forthcoming Exam, your
training
should already be at an advanced stage and the courses should help you
to
consolidate what you are already doing right and to correct what you
are doing
wrong.
The aim is that you will get increased benefit from your continuing
work
after the courses.
Should I sit all four papers or only some papers
the first time?
This can be a tough decision. Partial sitting offers
advantages
for those who concentrate some papers, obtain a good
result
and use this as a firm basis for the remaining paper(s). Partial
sitting can
greatly reduce stress, but is no panacea for insufficient preparation.
Partial sitting also has the advantage that it encourages you to
continue
working during the summer period on the remaining paper(s).
Despite the enormous challenge of preparing all four papers at once,
many
candidates will no doubt still choose this option.
Most important, whether you sit all four or partial,
is
to be well prepared at your first attempt. Going for "all four" has the
danger of leading to a cyclic failure mode: excessive work trying to
prepare
for all four papers in a limited time -> exhaustion before and
during the exam
->
collapse during the summer -> disillusion when the results are
published
-> period of shock before work resumes -> excessive work in a
limited time
-> repeat cycle.
Think it over carefully. If you have completed the
training
period, but do not yet have a good basic knowledge and experience, it
may
be better to defer sitting the exam for another year and catch up with
serious preparation in the meantime, or go in for only one or two
papers.
Am I free to copy the course materials?
The copyrighted course materials are provided for
personal
use of the participants, who are asked not to make reproductions
without
permission.
Participants are however permitted to copy the
materials
for colleagues/friends preparing for the EQE, for their personal use.
Firms/companies
who send participants are permitted to make copies for their internal
use.
Do you keep statistics about the participants pass rate in the exam?
No. Passing the exam is the candidate's individual
responsibility.
The purpose of the courses is to help trainees improve, whatever their
level. Some participants are already at an advanced level of training
making
them capable of passing the exam even before they attend the courses.
Usually
the courses help these candidates to consolidate their good level and
avoid
making fatal mistakes. Other participants attend at an earlier stage of
their training or when they are in a transition state where progress is
difficult, so the benefit they obtain from the courses is insufficient
to pass the exam straight away but usually has a good long term effect.
Will you review my papers if I fail?
Yes. If you attend the courses and are unsuccesful in
one
or more parts of the Exam, you can submit your papers (with the marking
schedule) for review at no charge. For organisational reasons, we can
only
give you feedback at about the time when the corresponding A/B, C or D
courses are being held. In any event, you should make your own analysis
using the Compendium and other resources. We aim to provide only a
general
overview to help you detect what went wrong and identify ways of doing
better. This can be done by e-mail or we can set up a time for a phone
conversation. A few participants have derived benefit by repeating the
same course to complement their personal work.