Student Perspective
Reflections on Study & The Course
9 MAY 2014
PLEASE NOTE: THIS MATERIAL HAS NOT BEEN PREPARED BY THE
LECTURER, LPAB, OR THE LEC. THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN
PREPARED BY AN LPAB STUDENT, BASED ON THEIR EXPERIENCE IN
THE COURSE. THE MATERIAL IS PROVIDED AS A GUIDE ONLY. IT IS
UP TO YOU TO CHOOSE A STUDY METHOD YOU ARE COMFORTABLE
WITH.
Welcome to the law
 Intro
 The law is a fascinating and practically useful in every
day life.
 Doctrine of necessity - Dudley v Stephens (1884) 14 QBD
273



On 5 July 1884, Four people, Dudley, Stephens, Brooks and a 17 year
old boy had to abandon their yacht and board an open boat in the the
high seas 1600 miles off Cape of Good Hope
They went 18 days without food and water, bar a turtle they caught,
and rain water they trapped on their oil skins
Dudley and Stephens suggested they draw straws to see who should
be sacrificed and eaten, so the others could survive. Brooks dissented
Introduction








Dudley and Stephens (Brooks dissenting), suggested they killed the boy because
he was the weakest.
Dudley with Stephens consent stabbed the boy in the throat and killed him.
The three men then fed on the boy’s body for 4 days.
They were rescued. On their return to England, Dudley and Stephens were
charged with murder. Both argued defence of necessity (ie they had to kill the boy
to survive).
Court held that necessity is not a defence to murder.
Lord Coleridge:
“Though law and morality are not the same, and many things are immoral that
are not necessarily illegal, yet the absolute divorce of law from morality would
be a fatal consequence; and such divorce would follow if the temptation to
murder in this case were held by law to be an absolute defence of it. It is not so.”
“By what measure are the comparative value of lives to be measured? Is it to be
strength, intellect or what…in this case the weakest, the youngest, the most
unresisting was chosen. Was it more necessary to kill him than one of the grown
men? The answer must be no.”
Agenda
 Please do not video or take pictures of this
presentation.
 Introduction
 Past exam statistics
 Why people fail or drop out
 Attending lectures
 Study groups
 Study expectations
Agenda
 Assignment preparation structure
 Example assignment
 Example summaries
 Preparing for exams
 Exam technique
 Student and lecturer questionnaires
 What you get out of the course
 Question and answers
Introduction
 I have completed 18 of the 20 subjects
 I have three children (youngest is 2 years old)
 My partner having completed law in Germany (a civil
law system), completed this course in 2008. She now
works as a Criminal Lawyer.
Past Exam Statistics
 Average over the last 4 years (8 semesters):
 Legal Institutions - 28%, achieved a merit (65-74) and 4% a
distinction (75 – 100)
 Criminal Law – of those that sat, 32% achieved a merit and 5%
a distinction
 The purpose of this presentation is to give you some
suggestions on:
- How to avoid dropping out of the course,
recording a did not sit (DNS) or failing
- How to do well in the course
Why People Drop Out or Fail
 Don’t attend lectures
 Don’t keep up with prescribed readings and summaries
throughout the semester leaving to much to do before the
exam

Stats show weeks 5-6 are often the critical weeks, when the first
assignments start falling due.
 Don’t spot the issues in assignment and exam questions
 Don’t structure their assignments and exam answers
properly (ie don’t use IRAC method)
 Don’t answer the question in assignments or exams
 Poor time management in exams. Running out of time
and therefore failing to answer questions. This is the key
reason people fail exams.
Time Management - Expectations
Throughout the course allow approximately 9 hours of
study for each lecture broken up as follows:
 Allow 3-4 hours for the readings (some take more) for
each lecture
 Allow 1 Hour to review and tidy up your lecture notes
after the lecture
 Allow 2 hours to summarize the readings, legislation and
case extracts
 Allow 2 hours to prepare the final cut of your exam
summary to 1 - 1.5 pages for each topic
 Assignment and exam prep are separate to the above
Time Management - Expectations
 Diarize when your assignments are due and the date you
need to commence.
 Diarize exam dates and date you need to commence your
exam preparation
 Set out and work to a project plan
 Set your families expectations, their support and
understanding is critical to succeeding this course. Sit
down with them and let them know:




What you need to do throughout the semester
The weeks/ weekends you will be tied up working on assignments
The weeks/weekends you will be preparing for exams
The dates of your exams (fact you will be stressed beforehand)
Attend Lectures
 There is a direct relationship between failing to attend
lectures and failing
Benefit of attending lectures
 The lecturer essentially:




Tells you what they what they want you to know
Summaries the course
Tells you the key cases to know for the exam
Often tells you the topics in the exam
 You get to ask the lecturer questions
 You get to form relationships with your peers, feel
accountable to them, and stay connected
Exam Preparation Recipe For Success
Throughout the Semester
 Keep referring to your subject guide. It is your course bible.


Print it out bind it, take it to lectures, refer to it all the time.
More on the subject guide later.
 Step 1 - Pre read prescribed readings before the lectures (allow 3-4
hours for readings (how many pages can you read an hour)



Read prescribed text
Read prescribed legislation
Read case extracts.





Judgments are a Judges “EXAM ANSWER” for other judges.
The judge sets out the issue/s, relevant legislation, relevant precedent case law,
apply the law to the facts, and come to a conclusion
The factual matrixes of exam questions are based on real cases
Reading case extracts helps you spot the issues in exam questions
Judgments often review the relevant key principles from other cases. So this is a
great source of revision.
Exam Preparation Recipe For Success
Throughout the Semester
 Step 2 - Attend the lectures take notes (see the recording
feature in your word program)
 Step 3 – Review, and tidy up your lecture notes within 48
hours of the lecture – This helps you to really get and
remember the content.
 Step 4 – Summarize the readings (prescribed text, legislation,
case extract) in accordance with the subject guide headings.
Settle the first cut of your notes for that lecture.
 Step 5 – Summarize the notes for that lecture to 1-2 pages
maximum.
 Step 6 – Re read your notes before the next lecture and in the
weeks before the exam.
Study Groups
 Join a study group of 3 or more people
 Assignment
 Meet your study group 3-4 weeks before the assignment to
discuss the assignment
 Share a basic bullet point outline of the key issues in the
assignment with your study group (do not share final version
with anyone)
 Exam
 Meet your study group 4 -6 weeks before the exam (and then
weekly) to commence going over past papers
 Don’t meet your study group 3 days before an exam it can
confuse you (lock yourself in a cave)
Assignment Preparation
 For each subject you are assessed out of 100 marks. 20%





based on your assignment and 80% your final exam.
So the assignment is a great opportunity to put some
marks in the bank. Aim for a 15 out of 20 (or better). This
gives you a buffer in the exam
Commence working on your assignment three weekends
before it is due
Allow 2 weekends for the reading
Allow one full weekend to draft the assignment
Allow one night, to sleep on the draft, and amend before
submitting
Assignment Preparation
 Step 1 – Read the question several times
 Step 2 – Highlight the issues
 Step 3 – Read the relevant lecture notes (the lecturer is
telling you what they want to see in their notes)
 Step 4 – Read the question again and highlight any more
issues you see
 Step 4 – Read the text and relevant cases, and for extra
marks try do some research (does not apply to first LI
Assignment)
 Step 5 – Prepare a bullet point draft outline of the issues
and law. Share with your study group and discuss
Assignment Structure
 Step 6 - Provide a structured answer to the question (for
each issue)
 Overall introduction
 Issue – Identify the issue
 Law


Make reference to the statute law – identify which section you are
considering (and why you are starting with that section). If parts or
phrases of the section are particularly relevant to your answer identify
those parts or phrases in your answer without writing out the whole
section;
Make reference to the relevant case law – state the principle in your own
words, and cite the case. The relevant law/case law will often contain a
test that must be satisfied – state the test clearly using your own words
Assignment Structure
 Step 7 - Apply the law – Apply the law /test to the facts and






come to a conclusion.
Step 8 - Conclusion – Briefly state your conclusion on the
issue
Step 9 - Overall conclusion – If a number of issues, provide
an overall conclusion – ANSWERING THE QUESTION
Step 10 - Complete citations, and bibliography
Step 11 - Review, polish and submit
Tip – In your assignment and exam, cite the cases referred
to in lectures and in the subject guide (lecturers are looking
for this)
Please note the above process may not apply to the first Legal Institutions assignment.
 Example 1 - Contracts assignment structure
Reasons People Fail In Exams
 Don’t spot the issues
 Poor time management - running out of time
 Use the reading time to allocate the time for each
question, and stop that question when the time is up!
 Remember the easiest marks are the first 80% (16 marks)
of the allocated marks for that question, don’t go over
time chasing the last 20% (4 marks)
 Don’t structure their answers and use IRAC
 Tip - Following exam, apply for an interview to meet with
the lecturer to see what they are looking for and what you
can do to improve
Pre Exam Preparation
Start your final preparations for the exam at least 6 weeks before the exam assuming you have completed the first summary of the prescribed text and your
lecture notes.
Prepare for the exam like it is a closed book exam! Open book exams give a false
sense of security. Note under exam conditions you don’t really have the time to
look things up.


Step 1 - Summarize each lecture/topic (ie lecture notes, readings and summary)
of the course to a maximum of 1 – 2 pages (ie 12 lectures in the semester = a final
summary of 12-24 pages for the subject).
Step 2 – Review and start memorizing your final summary (key sections of
legislation, principles and cases)
Step 3 – Time yourself – how long does it take you to hand write 1 page of typed
notes. Plan your time and answers accordingly.
Step 4 – Review past exam papers and do two questions on each topic (allow 2
hours for each question)






Prepare complete answers by hand
Practice applying the law to the facts
Pre Exam Preparation

Step 5 – Do at least three complete past exam papers under exam
conditions (that’s 9 hours)







Do this under exam conditions, by hand, with a stopwatch
This gives you an idea of time limitations.
Practice applying the law to the questions. Critical!
Step 6 – Prepare an overview “MAP” of the subject linking relevant
principles etc. This locks in the course
Step 7 – Print out and bind the subject guide, your final exam summary,
and first draft of your summary. Create an index on the first page of your
final summary so you can find things quickly
Step 8 – Tab the relevant sections of your notes, legislation and
prescribed text for quick reference in the exam.
Step 9 - Calculate the time you can spend on each question and part
thereof



3 hour exam with 4 questions = 45 mins a question
Less 5 mins reading = 40 mins a question
At 20 marks for 40 mins - a 5 mark part to a a question is worth 10 mins of time
Pre Exam Summaries
 Example 2 – Conveyancing Subject Guide
 Example 3 – Conveyancing Lecture summary
In The Exam





Step 1 - Carefully read each question
Step 2 - Choose the questions you want to answer
Step 3 - Read the question again – highlight the
issues
Step 4 – Prepare an answer plan
Step 5 – Answer the question for each issue using
IRAC method
In The Exam
Step 6 – When the allocated time is up for that question, stop and move to next
question. This is critical. The 80% (16 marks) of the marks are the easiest to get.

Running over time, equals less time for the next question, equals less marks, and can lead to
panicking in the exam.
Eg in a 3 hour exam with 4 questions worth 20 marks each (ie 45mins a question), just
running 5 mins over for each of the first three questions, means you have 30% (15 mins) less
time to spend on the last question, which is also worth 20 marks.
Don’t run over time on a question chasing the final couple of marks for that question. Pen
down move on to the next question.




Step 7 – Write legibly – allows examiner to give more marks. Write on every
second line if you have bad hand writing.

Tips – the examiner wants you to succeed, they want to give you marks.
If you can’t remember a case name, state the principle – the examiner will give you marks for
this
Provide structured answers (quality not quantity)
Underling key cases citations and legislative sections – helps examiner
If you are running out of time at a bare minimum:






State the issues – they will give you marks for this
State relevant principle and case citation – more marks
Student Questionnaires
 4. Please see student questionnaires.
Lecturers Questionnaires
 5 Lecturer’s questionnaires on why students fail
 6 Lecturer questionnaires closed book exams
What you get out of the course
 An ability to get straight to the issue of work related




problems
An appreciation of your time, and time management
A new career in law/or appreciation of the law in
your current role
Greater opportunities in your career, based on the
respect the workforce has a law on your CV
Personal satisfaction. Studying law is immensely
rewarding.
What you get from the course
 An opportunity to meet a range of people you would
not normally meet (my library friend)
 A different way of thinking
 Admission to an incredibly well respected profession
 Two success stories


Graduation ceremony
Admission ceremony
Questions
 You can find a copy of this presentation, student and
lecturer questionnaires, and other material on the
LEC Website – under the “notes” section of Legal
Institutions.
 Questions
Good Luck
 Thank you for your time
 Enjoy your studies and good luck!