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March 29, 2024, 06:02:02 am

Author Topic: How I got a 48 raw in VCE Legal studies ... Tips and regrets  (Read 17445 times)  Share 

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thammie

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How I got a 48 raw in VCE Legal studies ... Tips and regrets
« on: March 09, 2017, 10:40:18 am »
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Hey Guys!!!!
Here are some tips and some of the things I did last year which will hopefully help you guys this year!! :)

   1. SAC PRACTICE
- Sac practice is very important as it gives you a wide range of questions that will possibly be tested in sacs. It also helps consolidate your understanding of the topic. (Many of the questions I came across in sacs and on the exam were similar/related to the questions I practiced beforehand. This really helped me to stay calm under sac/exam conditions, which in turn helped me to think clearly and remember what points I needed to write about)
Before each sac I practiced:
   - ( Around 2 to 3) 10 mark questions (super tiring)
   - (Around 10 to 15) 4-8 mark questions
   - (A few/hardly any) 1-3 markers (you don't need that much feedback for these questions because they don't require that much detail anyway)
- Don't make yourself feel better by doing all the easy questions... cross them out and do the hard ones  :-\
   - Give it to your teacher to mark and go through feedback with her/him. The point of feedback is to find out how much detail is needed, what points are most important and what points can be omitted to save writing time on your sacs/exam.
   - Tbh, I didn't use checkpoints as my school had an overwhelming amount of sac practice papers but I really wish I did!!!

   2. STUDY
   - Legal studies is a content-heavy subject, memorizing is KEY
Throughout the year, I:
   - Read A+ notes, TSFX lecture notes, my notes, my sister's notes multiple times.
   - Read the textbook three times in the year (Read the chapters while the class is covering that topic, read all the relevant chapters again before a sac, went through the whole textbook one more time in the two months leading up to the exam)
   - Roughly covered the study design around 10 times. For me, repeatedly covering the course material was the only way I could memorize any of the content.

   3. NOTES:
   - My notes were nothing special tbh. I just summarized the textbook in my own words.
   -  However, it is important to structure examples and evaluations in a neater and more logical way than found in the textbook.
   - Textbook: My school used Justice and Outcomes.

   4. ASK QUESTIONS AND UNDERSTAND
   - Always ask questions related to what you are learning to get a deeper understanding of the subject. I always used to ask my teacher really strange questions related to what we were learning, but not necessarily in the study design. This must have been very frustrating for my teacher, but it definitely helped build my confidence and understanding of the subject and prepared me for the end-of-year exam which had a few weird questions. Understanding is crucial because there are a limited amount of questions that teachers/examiners can actually ask according to the study design (explain, define, evaluate, etc.) so sometimes, they may ask questions that relate to your understanding of the topic (as was in my case last year).
- Another really helpful tip is connecting different sections of the course. (Quite a few exam questions ask students to explain, define, evaluate, etc. one topic or dot point of the study design and then explain using a totally different (and seemingly unrelated!!) dot point. Therefore, it is very important to connect ideas and topics to get a better understanding of the whole legal course.)
   - Don't just memorize, UNDERSTAND!!!!! (This will also help you to remember information too:))

   5. DON'T MAKE CARELESS MISTAKES
   - Read the question CAREFULLY and answer it!! (Misreading a question is a common and unfortunate mistake, especially if you know the answer!! :'()
   - Try not to leave out any relevant details as they may be keywords or points examiners/teachers are looking for and if not mentioned, you may lose precious marks. However, don't write too much information until it becomes irrelevant, which will only waste your time in the sac/exam.

   6. WRITE LIKE THE WIND
   - This will come with practice, but I always tried to finish my sac/exam 10 minutes early so I have time to proofread and add any more detail if necessary.
- try doing practice exams in exam conditions (go easy on yourself for the first few) but there is not much use in doing questions when you won't be under the same conditions in the exam.

   7. PRACTICE A BROAD RANGE OF QUESTIONS BEFORE SACS/EXAMS
   - Other than practising 'normal' questions that will most likely appear on the exam, practice a few exams with a few 'unpredictable' questions.
   - This really helped me in my end-of-year exam as some of the questions were totally unexpected but ones I have seen before. I can't predict the questions that will come out this year, but it's better to revise or at least skim through content that normally doesn't seem ALL that important as it may still be examinable.

   8. DON'T FREAK OUT
   - Legal studies is a content-heavy subject, with so many things to evaluate, examples to memorize, definitions to remember, etc. I was especially terrified with evaluating Australia with another country, VCAT and remembering and evaluating elements of an effective legal system (don't worry if you've never heard of these things before, you'll learn them later). Don't worry if you can't remember much of it, just practise more questions on it and cram (sorry, I can't really give you any tips on how to cram because I wasn't very good at that myself but what helped me memorize stuff was repetition and highlighting and remembering keywords). Throughout the September holidays, I wrote up a list with the few main examples and points I was going to use, read them constantly and memorized them to my parents.

- don't panic if you aren't too happy with your sac score.... you can still get over 40!! Just practice HARD for the exam and try to do better in your other sacs.... For those who are curious, my lowest ever sac score was around 82% and I was absolutely devastated (I usually got a sac score of 90% and over) as I lost many marks due to stupid mistakes and pretty harsh marking... However, that sac gave me an indication of what I needed to work on and helped me to never repeat those same mistakes again, although it might have lowered my ranking in the cohort.... :( On a side note, teachers who are harsh markers are your friends although it may not seem like it.... That way, you will know how you can make your answers perfect for the exam and impress your examiner, as well as save writing time by going straight to the relevant details rather than beating around the bush (remember, examiners only have a limited time to mark your exam).

- don't freak out if you found the exam hard and everyone said it was easy. I got really upset after the exam because I found it pretty difficult but in the end, you can't do anything more after you hand in your exam (People always say this to me and I never listened.... Never did I think that I would say this to someone else as well). Just relax and enjoy the bliss of ignorance. ;)

9. LECTURES/TUITION???
- I didn't attend any tuition, workshops or lectures except one right before the exam. I'm not going to name who held them but I personally didn't find it that helpful when I could have spent the whole day studying... Personally, I think the content covered is basically the same thing you would get if you study by yourself at home. Also, lectures cannot cover the entire course with all the little details although they can help by giving you some exam tips and strategies. Overall, I'm not too sure about whether lectures/workshops are thaatttt helpful but it really depends on what suits you and your learning/studying method.

REGRETS:
- not doing checkpoints because the questions are directly from the vcaa exams and could have helped me do better in my sacs and on the exam. (although our teacher also had a ppt with vcaa questions)
   - Spending too much time on one question in an exam. I remember it was a 4 or 5 marker and I wrote double the amount of lines required. This made me lose around 7 mins where I could have been focusing on other questions in the exam.

   - Not doing more practice exam papers. I did around 12 full exams (not including sac practice) in exam conditions before the end-of-year exam but I wish I could have done more. However, it is more important to STUDY than to do EXAMS. A lot of people I know started doing exams early and I was really shocked and worried about my own productivity when I heard that someone already did 10 exams during the September holidays when I only did 2 and spent most of the holidays studying. Even if you see people around you doing HEAPS of exams….. Don't panic!!!! It is more important to KNOW THE FULL CONTENT than to just practice questions which may not cover all the content. That being said, it also depends on your study method and how you remember things.

I really have my teacher, Ms Wilson, to thank for her tireless effort, feedback on the whole heap of questions I sent her and for putting up with my annoying and sometimes stupid questions. She was an AMAZINGGG teacher and always calmed me down when I felt flustered before a sac. I honestly couldn't have done anything without her. Also, a shout out to Mr Niles for being an awesome 1/2 teacher and for making this subject so interesting!! Last but not least, a shout out to my sister Esther for helping me even when she was busy doing yr 12.

Anyway, I hope these tips are helpful for those of you doing legal this year…. I wish you guys all the best of luck!!!!
« Last Edit: January 28, 2020, 05:54:22 pm by thammie »
2019-2023: BMedSc/MD at Monash Uni
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How I got 48 raw in legal

brenden

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Re: How I got a 48 raw in Legal studies (VCE)... Regrets and Tips
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2017, 11:01:52 am »
+1
Amazing, wow - congratulations on your scores this far..... 99+ on the horizon  8)
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thammie

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Re: How I got a 48 raw in Legal studies (VCE)... Regrets and Tips
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2017, 01:21:41 pm »
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Amazing, wow - congratulations on your scores this far..... 99+ on the horizon  8)

Ahahaha I hope so!!! Quite impossible for me though haha :/
2019-2023: BMedSc/MD at Monash Uni
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How I got 48 raw in legal

brenden

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Re: How I got a 48 raw in Legal studies (VCE)... Regrets and Tips
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2017, 01:59:07 pm »
+2
Ahahaha I hope so!!! Quite impossible for me though haha :/
What!!! You'll kill it :) Don't feel like you can only help people for Legal either, just because you scored hugely in it. I'm sure you've got a lot of help to give for subjects you're taking now, and that will probably be the best form of study for you!
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Glasses

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Re: How I got a 48 raw in Legal studies (VCE)... Regrets and Tips
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2017, 03:33:50 pm »
+1
Awesome resource Thammie!! Thanks a heap!  ;D ;D ;D
2015 - 2016 (VCE): Psychology, Religion & Society, Legal Studies, Business Management, Literature and English
2017 - Present: Bachelor of Laws (Honours)/Arts (Criminology & Psychology) @ Monash University

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NAT0003

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Re: How I got a 48 raw in VCE Legal studies ... Tips and regrets
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2017, 03:04:23 pm »
0
Hey Guys!!!!
Here are some general tips and some of the things I did last year which will hopefully help you guys this year!! :)

   1. SAC PRACTICE
Before each sac I practiced:
   - ( Around 2 to 3) 10 mark questions (super tiring)
   - (Around 10 to 15) 4-8 mark questions
   - (A few/hardly any) 1-3 markers (you don't need that much feedback for these questions because they don't require that much detail anyway)
- Don't make yourself feel better by doing all the easy questions... cross them out and do the hard ones  :-\
   - Give it to your teacher to mark and go through feedback with her/him. The point of feedback is to find out how much detail is needed, what points are most important and what points can be omitted to save writing time on your sacs/exam.
   - Tbh, I didn't use checkpoints that much as my school had an overwhelming amount of sac practice papers.

   2. STUDY
   - Legal studies is a content-heavy subject, memorizing is KEY
Throughout the year, I:
   - Read A+ notes, TSFX lecture notes, my notes, my sister's notes multiple times. (I would recommend A+ notes and TSFX lecture notes are pretty good as well if you can get them)
   - Read the textbook three times in the year (Read the chapters while the class is covering that topic, read all the relevant chapters again before a sac, went through the whole textbook one more time in the two months leading up to the exam)
   - Roughly covered the study design around 10 times.

   3. NOTES:
   - My notes were nothing special tbh. I just summarized the textbook in my own words.
   -  However, it is important to structure examples and evaluations in a neater and more logical way than found in the textbook.
   - My school used Justice and Outcomes. If your school doesn't use it, really TRY AND GET A COPY OF IT!!!! My older sister's school used Making and Breaking the Law and I've heard frightening stories about it from her and other people (like how there are no clear evaluations in the text and you have to find them yourself). Sorry... I'm not trying to put down the writers of the textbook or anything, but my older sister just found Justice and Outcomes a lot more helpful.

   4. ASK QUESTIONS
   - Always ask questions related to what you are learning to get a deeper understanding of the subject. I always used to ask my teacher really strange questions related to what we were learning, but not necessarily in the study design. I'm pretty sure this must have been very annoying for my teacher, but it definitely helped build my confidence and understanding in the subject and prepared me for the end-of-year exam which had a lot of weird questions.
   - Don't just memorize, UNDERSTAND!!!!! (This will also help you to remember information too:))

   5. DON'T MAKE CARELESS MISTAKES
   - Read the question CAREFULLY and answer it
   - Try not to leave out any relevant details as they may be key words or points examiners/teachers are looking for and if not mentioned, points may be deducted.

   6. WRITE LIKE THE WIND
   - This will come with practice, but I always tried to finish my sac/exam 10 minutes early so I have time to proofread and add any more detail if necessary.
- try doing practice exams in exam conditions (go easy on yourself for the first few) but there is not much use in doing questions when you won't be under the same conditions in the exam.

   7. PRACTICE A BROAD RANGE OF QUESTIONS BEFORE SACS/EXAMS
   - Other than practicing the 'normal' questions that will most likely appear on the exam, practice a few exams with weird questions that are 'unusual'.
   - This really helped me in my end-of-year exam as some of the questions were totally unexpected but questions that I have practiced before. I can't predict the questions that will come out this year, but it's better to be prepared for abnormal questions.

   8. DON'T FREAK OUT
   - Legal studies is a content-heavy subject, with so many things to evaluate, examples to memorize, definitions to remember, etc. I was especially terrified with evaluating Australia with another country, VCAT and remembering and evaluating elements of an effective legal system (don't worry if you've never heard of these things before, you'll learn them later). Don't worry if you can't remember much of it, just practice more questions on it and cram (sorry, I can't really give you any tips on how to cram because I wasn't very good at that myself but what helped me memorize stuff was repetition and highlighting and remembering key words). Throughout the September holidays, I wrote up a list with the few main examples and points I was going to use, read them constantly and memorized them to my parents. (don't worry if you don't get all the points, I hardly remembered any when I memorized them to my parents but when you get through them for the next few times, you'll hopefully remember most of them).
- don't freak out if you found the exam hard and everyone said it was easy. I got really upset after the exam because I found it pretty difficult but in the end, you can't do anything more after you hand in your exam (People always say this to me and I never listened.... Never did I think that I would say this to someone else as well). Just relax and enjoy the bliss of ignorance. ;)

9. LECTURES/WORKSHOPS???
- I didn't attend any tuition,workshops or lectures except one right before the exam. I'm not going to name who held them but I personally didn't find it that helpful when I could have spent the whole day studying... Personally, I think the things they cover is basically the same thing you would get if you study by yourself at home. Also, lectures cannot cover the entire course with all the little details although they can help by giving you some exam tips and strategies. Overall, I'm not too sure about whether lectures/workshops are thaatttt helpful but it really depends on what suits you and your learning/studying method.

REGRETS:
   - Spending too much time on one question in an exam. I remember it was a 4 or 5 marker and I wrote double the amount required on the page. This made me lose around 7 mins where I could have been focusing on other questions in the exam.
   - Not doing more practice exam papers. I did around 12 full exams (in exam conditions) before the end-of-year exam but I wish I could have done more. However, it is more important to STUDY than to do EXAMS. A lot of people in my school started doing exams early and I was freaking out because some people already did 10 exams during the September holidays. Even if you see people around you doing HEAPS of exams….. DO NOT PANIC!!!! It is more important to KNOW THE FULL CONTENT than to just practice questions which may not cover all the content. That being said, it also depends on your study method and how you remember things.

I really have my teacher, Ms Wilson (now Mrs McDonald :D), to thank for her tireless effort, feedback on the whole heap of questions I sent her and for putting up with my annoying  and sometimes stupid questions. She was an AMAZINGGG teacher and always calmed me down when I felt flustered before a sac. I honestly couldn't have done anything without her. Shout out to my sister (esthertham58) too for helping me even when she was busy doing yr 12.

Anyway, I hope these tips are helpful for those of you doing legal this year…. I wish you guys all the best of luck!!!!
48 for legal studies is very impressive :)
And you did a 3/4 in year 10 and got 41 raw, even more impressive :)

chantelle.salisbury

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Re: How I got a 48 raw in VCE Legal studies ... Tips and regrets
« Reply #6 on: May 18, 2017, 02:11:30 pm »
+1
awesome thanks heaps..
was wondering whether you had a few examples of these 'unusual' questions that you could put up or reply for us? i use the checkpoints and do them as i go along. however, sooo keen to get more qs to do specially ones that will help in the long run ... exam!

thammie

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Re: How I got a 48 raw in VCE Legal studies ... Tips and regrets
« Reply #7 on: May 22, 2017, 02:47:44 pm »
+4
awesome thanks heaps..
was wondering whether you had a few examples of these 'unusual' questions that you could put up or reply for us? i use the checkpoints and do them as i go along. however, sooo keen to get more qs to do specially ones that will help in the long run ... exam!

Hey chantelle.salisbury!!
'Unusual' questions are normally scattered throughout practice exams and tests and though I unfortunately don't remember many of the ones I did in the past, here are a few examples from last year's exam.... (also note how many marks they're worth... especially qs 10)

Question 1 Nathan commences proceedings in the Magistrates’ Court against his employer and is seeking $90000 in damages
c. ‘There are Victorian courts, other than the Magistrates’ Court, that have original jurisdiction to hear this dispute between Nathan and his employer.’ Why is this statement correct? (2 marks)
- the answer to this qs is quite simple but it tests your understanding of what you've learnt... (unfortunately 26% of students got 0 and only 46% got full marks)

Question 5 (4 marks) Explain the differences between the purposes of civil pre-trial procedures and criminal pre-trial procedures.
- this isn't really a weird question since it's covered in the textbook but I included it because it's hardly tested in sacs/practice exams.

Question 10 (6 marks) Evaluate the extent to which the Commonwealth Constitution protects the rights of Australians through implied rights.
- A pretty badly done question overall (average was 2.2).
- I've only seen this question once in a practice exam... So glad I thought of the points and talked to my teacher about it before the exam though because I would have died in the exam if I didn't!!

Overall, it's super important to be familiar with the content relevant to the question, which is why it's really great that you're doing a range of questions on checkpoints!! Exposing yourself to lots of questions which test different things not only makes you more prepared for the exam as you will be familiar with most of the questions but it also makes you less nervous when you do the exam which helps you think clearly. :)
« Last Edit: May 22, 2017, 02:57:09 pm by thammie »
2019-2023: BMedSc/MD at Monash Uni
Music performance tips
How I got 48 raw in legal