Lessons from Telana Halley, Legal Advisor at Parliament
Telana Halley’s first experience writing the conveyancing exam was akin to the wheels coming off in the MasterChef kitchen. Her sorbet hadn’t frozen, and she knew she was serving melting dessert to the judges. She knew after the first paper that she hadn’t passed and was reluctant to stay for the second one.
She was working for Western Cape Provincial Government as a Legal Advisor when she wrote the conveyancing exam for the first time in 2018. In meetings with colleagues from the Department of Human Settlements, her legal advice would always be met with an arched eyebrow and the following question: “But are you a conveyancer?” Finally, Telana decided that she would write the conveyancing exam even though she wasn’t a practicing attorney.
“I used to wake up at 4am and study for two hours before work. Close my office door during lunchtime to study, come home, make dinner, start studying.”
Alas, she realised that she hadn’t started studying early enough in the year and any plans to rewrite the exam after that were complicated by Covid-19. Telana decided to attempt the exam again in 2021, now a mom to 18-month-old twins and a Legal Advisor in Parliament.
“I really applied myself this time. Work was really busy. It was the pandemic, and the kids were at home with me because they couldn’t go back to school.”
She took three weeks’ leave and didn’t tell her boss that she was studying to retake the exam.
“I didn’t tell her because I was scared that I would fail and be really embarrassed.”
Colleagues might also have questioned why she was writing an exam she technically didn’t need to. But it was something she needed to do for herself.
Telana wrote the exam for the second and final time in September 2021. Once again, she was committed to waking up early every morning to study and could only study again after 8pm when her twins were fast asleep. Lunchtimes and Saturdays were used to go over past papers with a friend.
“This exam will show you flames and preparing for it is the hardest part, but what Gawie said kept me going. ‘You will ride that feeling of passing for a while.’ ”
“It honestly is such a high.”
Telana’s tips for passing the conveyancing exam:
- Give yourself enough time to study. Start studying as early as January.
- Practice makes perfect. During the 2-day conveyancing exam workshop, Erinda Frantzen will take you through every possible question you might encounter.
- Complete as many question papers as possible.
- Don’t skip over certain sections just because they haven’t come up in past papers.
- Recruit a study buddy to go over questions together.
“The hardest part is finding time to study, but anything is possible with these [Gawie le Roux] notes and those beautiful exam answer books!”