The Yellow Sheet

Happy Holidays from the editors of the Informals blog! ❄️ Here’s everything you can look forward to this December…

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⚖️CIPA Informals Survey (and prize draw!)
Thank you to everyone who has already completed our survey! Time is running out to share your views on trainee life.

The survey will remain open until Friday 12th December, so please don’t forget to submit your response and be in with a chance of winning one of 1 x £100 and 20 x £10 prizes.

Please fill in the survey here!

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🎄Cambridge Social – Kibou
📍Kibou
⌚️18:30
🗓 Wednesday 10th December

Please let Sophie Peng know by Wednesday 3rd December if you’ll be joining and if you have any dietary requirements and/or preferred small plates from the attached menu.

🧩Cambridge Social – Escape room
📍Escape Hunt – Excalibur and Aladdin escape rooms
⌚️18:45
🗓 Thursday 18th December

Please let Sophie Peng know by Friday 15th December if you’ll be joining

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🥂IP Ball Committee Volunteers Needed

The IP Ball Committee are recruiting new members to plan CIPA’s fantastic IP Ball for 2026! If you’re interested, please contact John Gaskin or Rachel Bocking.

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A quick reminder of events passed…

We hope exams went well for everyone who sat them!

To celebrate, we have planned a social at “Spots and Stripes” on Thursday 4th December between 18:00-21:00. Please see full details and the event link below:

🎱 Pool and darts
📍 Spots and Stripes Pool Club, 64 Ewer St., London SE1 0NR
🗓 Thursday 4th December 2025
⌚️ 18:00 – 21:00
🍕 Food and drink provided

Register for the event here!

Thanks
James, Nickeal and Eleanor

We hope all went well for everyone who sat exams this month! Here’s to some well deserved rest and fun in November …

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⚖️CIPA Informals UKIPO Visits

There are still spaces available on the in-person visit to the UK IPO! This year’s visit will take place on Wednesday 5 November and Thursday 13 November 2025.  It’s a great opportunity to gain first-hand insight into the UKIPO and engage with examiners.

Find out more here!

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📑CIPA Informals Survey (and prize draw!)

Thank you to everyone who has already completed our survey! The survey will remain open until Friday 12th December, so please don’t forget to submit your response and be in with a chance of winning one of 1 x £100 and 20 x £10 prizes.

The survey takes only 10 minutes to complete and aims to capture a snapshot of trainee life. The winners will be randomly selected from respondents who opt-in, but all results will remain anonymous.

Please fill in the survey here!

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Voices From the Top: Insights from Women in IP and their Journey to Leadership

This month IP Inclusive are hosting a collaboration between IP Futures and Women in IP, bringing together a panel of senior women to inspire new and varied routes to influential roles in IP. This event is open to people of all genders. IP Inclusive are keen to ensure that male allies feel comfortable at Women in IP events – the issues we discuss can impact all of us.

Interested in attending? Find out more here.

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🍸South West & Wales CIPA Social November

Are you a trainee based in the South West & Wales? If so, we’d love for you to join us for bottomless dinner after work on Thursday 20th November.

For more information, please contact Anya Mottram or Anya Fairhurst.

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We hope all went well for everyone who sat the recent PEB Qualifying Examinations! The PEB would like to hear your views so that they can try to improve how future examinations are delivered.

Please take a few minuted to complete the 2025 PEB candidate survey.

The survey will close at 10am on Friday 21 November 2025.

Please see the email below that has been sent to all FD2 candidates concerning the error in yesterday’s FD2 question paper.

PEB have requested that any queries or comments about this incident be addressed to peb@cipa.org.uk.

“During today’s FD2 examination, it was brought to the PEB’s attention that there was an error in a date in Fig 4 in Document B which has two reference numerals 47 and 48 pointing to two different features.

Please accept the PEB’s apologies for any distress and anxiety that this error may have caused you.

Once it was aware of the error, the PEB immediately put procedures in place to ensure that no candidate would be disadvantaged:
• All FD candidates are invigilated by Zoom invigilators, who were notified of the error and the correction and were instructed to inform candidates. Candidates were notified by an announcement and via the “chat” facility.
• An additional 5 minutes was added to the total examination time to cover the time taken for invigilators to make the announcement.

In addition, mitigation will be put in place to ensure that candidates are not disadvantaged:
• The mark scheme for will be reviewed and adjusted as necessary.
• Detailed review of borderline scripts will take place.
• The Awarding Committee will, in due course, consider the issue and whether any further measures should be put in place.

With a view to identifying the root cause of the error and avoiding similar incidents in future, a full report will be made to the Governance Board of the PEB.

Please note: since mitigation measures will be applied to all candidates’ scripts, you should not request Special Consideration in relation to this incident.

Once again, the PEB apologises for any distress and anxiety that this error might have caused you.“