Teachers & Lawyers - Exam help

[Wingles10]

I'm posting here for traffic, apologies.

My lovely Dniece has asked for my advice on a criminal law exam she has coming up and I just don't know what to say. Although I have PG degrees, they're not in law so not at all relevant.

Basically, she has past papers that show recurring topics in the form of problem questions. One topic is theft and another is murder including manslaughter and non-fatal offences.

The theft questions are always very straight forward and it is contained in one Act which will be provided.

The other question seems far more complicated and has its origins in a number of Acts, only one of which is provided, but they're expected to answer all parts. E.g. one part is on gross negligent manslaughter which is not contained in the OAP Act they'll have.

Her question is, will she be penalised for going with the easier option of theft? Is that how it works?

It's worth 100% of her marks for the module so she wants to give it her best shot.

Any advice?

I would think if it's the sort of paper where it says "please answer either question one or question two" then she won't be penalised for choosing the theft question. They will be worth the same amount of marks. But it may be that she needs to provide more detail to get a good mark as more info is provided to her. Having said that, if she is more confident on the theft question she should definitely answer that as she will always do better on the question she is more comfortable with.

I am neither but without knowing at what level and what syllabus she is studying nobody can answer your question? Is it for A levels?
What about her teachers? Is she getting no help for revisions from them?

So she gets the choice of two questions and one of them is easier to her? If so she wouldn't be penalised for choosing the easier one as it isn't a test designed to trick her I would assume.

Always go with the easiest one for you I would say.

Thank you.

It's first year LLB. She contacted her tutor and he said 'marking schemes and criteria cannot be discussed'.

She sent me photos of the questions and even I think the theft question looks much much easier than the offences against a person one.

There'll be a choice of three problem questions and then one set essay question.

She has to answer the essay question and choose one problem question.

The problem questions are always on:

1. Theft
2. Sexual offences
3. Murder, manslaughter, non-fatal offences

The third option is very long with various parties to advise and, she said, would require memorising lots of cases, principles and statutes.

Theft is contained in the one Act they'll be given so she'll have less to memorise.

I gave similar advice to go with whatever she feels most comfortable with but the more she explained it to me the more I agreed that one did seem much more achievable than another.

Which then made us both suspicious as to how the same level of marks can be achieved if one question seems clearly more difficult than another.

I could post the questions but that may get her into trouble I imagine

I am a solicitor - when I did my exams (admittedly a while ago now!), mark allocation was printed at the end of the question (e.g 32 marks) or you had to answer say 3 questions out of a possible 8 (each question attracting the same level of marks) I always went for the "easiest". I would assume that if you had to answer one of the questions from 1-3, each would be worth the same amount of marks. However, just because a question looks "easy", there may be more complicated points in there she would have to include to get the top marks (or she just knows the subject of theft really well so finds it easier?)

Good luck!

A lot of people will actively prefer to go for the manslaughter/murder question because the case law is so much more interesting and memorable, and they'll like getting stuck into the debates behind it and find the detail just sticks automatically. Theft Act otoh is much dryer so some undergraduates will hate it and find the memorising a real chore.

I see, thank you so much for providing some clarification.

I'll let her know, I think she seems at that point where she's so deep into exam mode she can't see the wood for the trees. A feeling I remember all too well! She's also dead set on the idea of tutors trying to catch students out again, something that would have definitely crossed my mind in the past.

I'm very glad to share with her some positivity and urge her to keep going with theft. Thank you all.

Another solicitor here - although it looks as though the theft questions are merely covered by the Act they will also be looking for the student to quote relevant case law too, not merely the statute.

But as mentioned before if it is an either or question they will carry the same marks.

it would be highly unusual for the questions to have different marks if it's a choice of three and they are not expressly told the marks available. I would also be wary of thinking a question looks 'easy' as that sometimes means you have missed the point. For a mixed offence problem question, there's probably a less in depth approach required for each offence (E.g. Reasonably clear whether the offence is made out or not without too much exploration of case law) whereas for one offence there probably more twists to it (e.g. May or may not be appropriation, dishonesty, etc.). It's also really important that she doesn't just quote the act - the case law is very important too.

This is brilliant advice, thank you so much. We've all been pretty useless to her so it'll make a nice change to offer targeted advice.

Hi there,

I'd echo allthebestnamesareused and guess that the theft question won't just require info from the Act. There's lots of case law to determine what terms in the act mean, I.e the word 'appropriation' is used in the Act but, I believe, there are a number of cases discussing what qualifies as appropriation.

There will definitely be some sort of catch, I.e Xxx enters a shop through an open door, when inside he sees a laptop and decides to steal it. He then changes his mind and puts it back before leaving. They'd expect you DN to pick up on the fact that it's not a dwelling, the door was open, Xxx didn't enter with the intention of stealing anything, he put the laptop back, has an offence already been committed etc, with the relevant cases etc.

Some do allow you to take a statute book or case list in thought so she may want to find out if that's an option.

The marks should be on the exam paper and if it's a clear choice then I don't think she'd be penalised for choosing one over the other.

Also, the lecturers obv have to mark fairly but, in general, they want you to do well as it reflects better on the Uni. I nearly gave the whole thing up in my first year because of a horrendous contract law exam but it definitely gets better once you become more familiar with what they expect etc.

Hope she does well and doesn't get too stressed about it

Ah sorry, I didn't see your post Amummyatlast

Another lawyer here. I'd be wary of thinking that the theft question is necessarily easier. As a pp has said there are some tricky issues in theft such as appropriation. They'll expect a discussion of both the statute and the relevant case law but she needs to make sure she applies both to the facts that she is given. In other words read the question very carefully!

Plus - referring to my sometime academic DH - although notionally all questions can be awarded the same total marks, "easier" questions often given candidates less chance to earn the really top marks because there is less chance to stand out with an answer. He once removed a long-standing topic because it is pretty bland and no-one had ever got a "first" on it.

Also, academics are NOT looking to catch candidates out. Honest

Thank you so much.

I'm officially the best aunt