Legal Studies: Discussion, Questions & Potential Solutions

[Joseph41]

This thread is for all exam related discussion. Was it easy? Was it hard? What did you get for 'that' tough question?? Feel free to pop any and all of your thoughts below.

If you don't have an ATAR Notes account yet, no stress! Register for free here!

[moq418]

Everyone was wrong about predictions it was discreation dam luckily I prepared essay plans for my response police and judicial have some what effective in achieving justice in the criminal system
WHO DID WHAT I DID ON SOMEWHAT EFFECTIVE OR POSITVE
ALSO I wrote that police abuse their power for example illegal arrest in Western Australia

[Razeen25]

I'm so happy it's over ahh.
Although there were a couple of tricky multiple choices, and I feel like I could've fleshed out another page in my family essay if I had more time, I actually think that was quite a fair exam.

There's just one thing that's slightly bothering me but I'm sure it's just my overanalysing. In trials for short answers I always just wrote below the lines to finish my answer, but today when I asked a supervisor during the exam if I could do that she said I needed an extra writing booklet (which I then used). Do extra writing booklets count/get marked for short-answer questions? Also is it true if we write below the lines in the blank space directly beneath it it won't get marked?

[Lumenoria]

It was definitely better than I expected, although my time management could've been better. Legit wrote my past crime para in 5 minutes, but it was legit illegible lmao. There were quite a few curly multiple choice answers. And omg I think I bombed my world order essay, because I did the first question (Evaluate the influence of changing values and ethical standards on the promotion of peace and resolving conflict between nation states) but I FREAKING DIDNT SEE THE BETWEEN THE NATION STATES PART UNTIL THE VERY END, when I'd obviously already written all of it. And my whole essay is based on intrastate conflict (Rwanda, Syria and Libya), rather than interstate conflict, which is freaking me out omg!! Otherwise, I think my analysis was solid - probably close to full marks worthy barring that mistake. How many marks will I lose do you reckon?

[FutureLawStudent]

The Human Rights multis were hard. Like WTF.

[Seanclair]

Ah cant complain about that exam tbh. some of the multi choices were hard (but thats expected) and the short answers were a bit weird. But both the crime and options essays were great questions! and so broad!!
But also I wrote below the lines for human rights and didnt ask for extra writing booklets so I'm scared mine won't get marked either! does that happen!!

[FutureLawStudent]

Ah cant complain about that exam tbh. some of the multi choices were hard (but thats expected) and the short answers were a bit weird. But both the crime and options essays were great questions! and so broad!!
But also I wrote below the lines for human rights and didnt ask for extra writing booklets so I'm scared mine won't get marked either! does that happen!!

There are four right angles on the page, in each corner. If you write outside them, it won't be captured by the scanner, however, as long as you were below the lines but not outside those markings, it will all be marked.

[Seanclair]

There are four right angles on the page, in each corner. If you write outside them, it won't be captured by the scanner, however, as long as you were below the lines but not outside those markings, it will all be marked.

ahh yes okay thats good to know. I should be all sweet then, thanks

[NowYouTseMe]

MC: hard but not as hard as like LSA papers
HR: what the hell was that media/NGOs question? Also "why is self-determination a right" what
Crime question: literally every prediction out the window when I saw this. Thank goodness I prepped bail and preventative detention paragraphs along with everything else I had or I would have been legit fucked
Options: ok so my teacher predicted both family law questions like option a was my trial and option b was my assessment task so bless up. world order was weird but also it's world order so i just moulded my paragraphs for a global/regional situations into a compliance essay

Overall easier than I expected but that also means that the raw mark required for a 95 external(my goal) will be higher and that might impact the scaling too so that's a bit of a bummer

[hebaakhann]

That was a better exam than I could have asked for tbh... the crime question was AMAZING! but the options confused me. is changing values like law reform?

[Caleb Campion]

That was a better exam than I could have asked for tbh... the crime question was AMAZING! but the options confused me. is changing values like law reform?

Basically. I used changing values and ethical stnadards for my workplace essay, and I basically described how ''this case'' established a moral principle, which changed over time in ''these cases'', and became solidified in ''this legislation'', but has/has not been effective in substantiating a protection of these expectations as seen in ''this case'' or ''this media''

[Caleb Campion]

I feel as though I did incredibly well. I was worrying about the specificity of the option or crime essays but the crime essay was exactly what I had practiced a preparation for, so I smashed that one! The option essays questions weren't too bad either, felt as though I did really well in the world order essay and the workplace essay, though would've liked to of gotten an extra page out and maybe a better conclusion for workplace. Though I got heaps of cases, legislation, statistics and media in every single paragraph which felt awesome!

The short answer questions were a bit weird I thought, especially the separation of powers one. I talked about the removal of a lot of possibility for corruption, and gave examples of how the high court can deem laws that abuse human rights invalid with the constitution, but if there were no separation of powers than they could not assure that they would do that, and reference the external affairs power of the High Court in Section 51 of the constitution to protect human rights even if new laws dont contradict the constitution but still abuse human rights.

The MCQ were largely extremely easy, except for some of the HR ones, such as the relationship between the UDHR and the criminal trial process one, as I chose the one saying it reflects the principles of the UDHR, because the other ones were a bit dodgily worded. There was another odd one about VIS but I think I got it right.

I think I may just loose a mark or so in MCQ, maybe a mark in the separation of powers one as I forgot to define SOP, and maybe 2-3 marks on the Workpalce essay. But all up, feeling good I think!!!

[joannelovescake]

overall really good paper, Q15 and 18 MC were tricky. probably lost 2-3 marks there
HR short answers...very weird but managed, idk why self determination is a human right but made something up, NGOs/media wrote about discrimination since I had knowledge on it from workplace, separation of powers talked about preventing anarchy / legislation / common law - Dietrich v Queen, Mabo v Queensland...not sure if i got full marks for it
Crime - not to be cocky but EASY... talked about police / DPP / judicial discretion
options - family and workplace questions about changing values were amazing, same sex fitted it so well, managed to need extra booklets there too hehe time management was key!

with some luck expecting a high band 5 / low band 6 raw?!

[joannelovescake]

I feel as though I did incredibly well. I was worrying about the specificity of the option or crime essays but the crime essay was exactly what I had practiced a preparation for, so I smashed that one! The option essays questions weren't too bad either, felt as though I did really well in the world order essay and the workplace essay, though would've liked to of gotten an extra page out and maybe a better conclusion for workplace. Though I got heaps of cases, legislation, statistics and media in every single paragraph which felt awesome!

which option did you choose for workplace? I did (a) and discussed discrimination & safety

[Seanclair]

which option did you choose for workplace? I did (a) and discussed discrimination & safety

I do workplace also and picked the changing values one. I also talked about discrimination and safety and kind of compared/contasted the two issues.