mozzie
Great question! In a nutshell, it means having a confident understanding of exactly what the question is asking. So essentially when you read the question, 'alarm bells' should be ringing when you see the key words. What information can you recall about those words and their relationship/relevance to the question? Then move to the command term, and start planning a response. Might be a good idea to plan this during reading time.
Understanding how many points to make for the given amount of marks is also really good to ensure you are not wasting time. E.g. for a 4 mark 'Explain' question, I have seen responses that make 4 arguments. Unless you explain them really well in about a sentence and move on, that is unnecessary. I would strongly advocate that 2 arguments explained well is better and more time efficient than 4 that aren't unpacked much.
Hope that helps

      chemistry1111

      I agree with S200 . Also might be helpful to know the benefits and limitation of courts making precedent, e.g. benefit: common law principles that align with social values can be applied to similar cases where the material facts are similar
      limitation: Parliament, as the supreme law making body can abolish those precedents...elaborate on how that is ineffective/a weakness to effective law making, a principle of justice, etc (depending on what the question is asking).

      Yes, judges use precedent as a reference if it is binding precedent. For persuasive precedent, they do not have to, though I have heard they are usually (not always) influenced by those precedents.

          Arjuna

          No, not until next week when I finish exams, sorry! But I have sold copies of my notes and practice questions which I am happy to sell you as well 🙂 let me know!

            2 months later

            successismygoal hii congrats!! Thanks a lot for your super-detailed advice. If you dodn't mind, could you please share your structure for the command terms? It is something I struggle a lot with; so even if I know the content I tend to mess up on answering exam questions

                that would rly help me too if u could thanks

                23 days later

                girlmeetsvce
                Hello! You're welcome 😃

                Its going to be difficult if I write out the structures for each of the many command terms. This is something I find works best when I teach my students gradually rather than all at once in a document, and will be a lot easier if I teach it to you rather than put it in a document. Though a document which can help that has already been released is the VCAA command terms document: https://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/assessment/vce-assessment/Pages/GlossaryofCommandTerms.aspx

                Note that this document is not made just for legal, but for other subjects too, so again its difficult for me to verbally say which ones are good and which ones need modification for legal. E.g. A discuss prompt in bio or chem is HUGELY different to a discuss prompt in legal.

                That being said, I have written a 10 marker guide on how I approached the 10 marker in my 3/4 VCAA exam and scored highly, and am selling it if you like. It goes into a lot of detail on the 'Discuss the extent to which' structure, which is what my 10 marker was (And very likely what your 10 marker will be).

                Hope this helps!

                  a year later

                  thank you 🙂 If you don't mind sharing, what textbook did you use, and what all questions did u do? e.g. someone i know only did edrolo questions but based notes on oxford. Since you scored soooo well I figured I'd ask for expert advice asw!

                    girlmeetsvce

                    Hey!
                    I did both notes and questions from the Oxford book from what I can remember. I also did Cambridge checkpoints (sometimes) in addition to past SACs and practice/trial exams.

                    Hope this helps! Might be worth checking out other textbooks if you cant understand certain concepts from a particular one and need more resources tho 🙂

                      girlmeetsvce

                      Hmm there was no definite limit, it was essentially as many as I had/needed to do in order to feel prepared.

                      My school would give 3ish past SACs, and I would do them in timed conditions. I would also do checkpoints occasionally if I felt like it. I left full timed vcaa exams until the end of the year, but from memory may occasionally do vcaa questions through checkpoints or in class at school

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