Legal studies preliminary half yearly - exam preparation help?! (1 Viewer)

[katharinetat]

Okay so I am really freaking out here as my legal studies preliminary half yearly exam is in 4 days. I've written all my notes, which I'm happy about, only I think I may suddenly need to add more as I haven't written anything about latin terms and cases. I just have a few general questions to ask to anyone who's already done their legal studies examination/or know anything about legal studies thoroughly;-

By the way, my school uses the Pearson textbook, and we've covered chapters 1 to 7:

• Chapter 1: Basic legal concepts
• Chapter 2: Sources of contemporary Australian law: Common law
• Chapter 3: Sources of contemporary Australian law: Statute law
• Chapter 4: Sources of contemporary Australian law: Constitutional
• Chapter 5: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' customary law
• Chapter 6: International law
• Chapter 7: Classification of law

So my questions are:

1. What latin terms do we need to remember? My teacher goes beyond the textbook and gives us extra sheets on latin terms, yet I don't know which ones I definitely must understand and know and which ones aren't too relevant.
2. What cases/legislation should be used for what certain examples? My teacher has said that we need cases/legislation to back up our points, probably in our extended response. Again, any that we should definitely remember? Also which form of evidence do you believe is the best/should be used? (ie. legislation, precedents, media eg. newspaper articles?)
3. How thoroughly should we study the content? Legal studies does have quite a bit of content, and I believe my exam would go for around 1.5 hours. I am quite OCD so I tend to memorise everything to the smallest detail, only I have 40 pages handwritten of notes so I'm not sure as to whether I can do that now or not...
4. As a question for fun - predict what you think my extended response question would be!
5. Should we go beyond the syllabus of what we need to know, or should I strictly adhere to it? (I usually never follow the syllabus and just learn everything straight from the textbook haha)

Thank you so much, any help would be very much appreciated!

 

[enoilgam]

*Moved to the Legal Studies forum*

What is the structure of the exam?

 

[katharinetat]

*Moved to the Legal Studies forum*

What is the structure of the exam?

Whoops, my bad~ there should really be a proper distinction between preliminary/HSC for each subject. Oh well.

Section I - 20 multiple choice questions (Allow 30 min for Section I)
Section II - Part A - short answer questions 20 marks
Part B - extended response 10 marks
(Allow 60 min for Section II)

 

[enoilgam]

Considering that there isnt really much of an essay, you will need to know your content fairly well. For multiple choice, does your textbook come with practice questions or an online site which offers some multiple choice questions. If so it would be a good idea to practice them, as teachers like to poach them from sources close to students.

1) With latin terms, just know the basics (i.e. orbiter dicta, ratio deciendi, stare decisis) and roughly know the extras he has given you. Your teacher should try and keep the exam roughly within the confines of the syllabus.

2) Legislation/Cases/media reports will vary from point to point. Just try and learn a few main ones and integrate them into your response. Remember, LCMR in legal studies should not form the basis for your response. They are meant to SUPPORT your answer. With regards to which source is the best, it depends on the situation. If you are discussing a point of law, then obviously cases and legislation are the best. If you are discussing stats or an opinion of the law, then media reports will probably be more helpful.

3) As I said earlier, you will need to know the content well. However, dont focus to much on memorising it - try and understand it more. Legal isnt like a science or maths subject where outright memorisation can help you quite a bit. You need to understand the content in order to form your answers - especially in regards to the extended response sections.

4) At a complete and wild guess "Discuss the contemporary sources of statute law within Australia"

5) Try to adhere closely to the syllabus - going beyond the syllabus wont really get you extra marks. It can in fact be counterproductive if you neglect points from the syllabus.

I dont know what help this advice will be though, as prelim legal has changed quite a bit since I did it. Overall, dont stress too much, this is a year 11 exam so just do your best and see what happens.

Btw, I am thinking of adding a new subforum for prelim in legal studies, so this should help split HSC and prelim more in the future.

 

[Timske]

Make sure you know doli incapax alot of questiins usually relate to this term

 

[enoilgam]

Make sure you know doli incapax alot of questiins usually relate to this term

Wouldnt you say that this is more for HSC crime though?

 

[katharinetat]

Wouldnt you say that this is more for HSC crime though?

Oh thanks so much for answering my questions! They've been very helpful! Yeah we've actually discussed doli incapax in class, it was brought up in one of my topic tests this one time, and most people didn't know what it was

 

[enoilgam]

Oh thanks so much for answering my questions! They've been very helpful! Yeah we've actually discussed doli incapax in class, it was brought up in one of my topic tests this one time, and most people didn't know what it was

Fair enough, looks like timske got it right on this one. Good luck with it.