p30
Hey there,
that's fine let me know if you would like legal studies tutoring anytime ^^
for content heavy subjects like legal studies here's some tips I would recommend:
always do 'pre-class readings'; this basically means that even if you don't get to study for the content properly during the holidays for any reason, still make sure to read over the content your teacher is going over on that day. This helps you better understand what your teacher is talking about and if you have questions from your 'pre-class readings' then you can ask the teacher. This way your confusions about certain topics are cleared and you don't get stuck halfway through the class trying to understand what the teacher meant. It's also quite helpful if you have already done studying for that topic in the holidays because it refreshes your memory.
This stems from the point on top, but consistency is key (applicable to all subjects) because you have a bunch of stuff you are trying to learn your brain starts to weaken synaptic connections of neurons that are not used that often [pruning] and so you start to forget old information to make space for new information (thanks to psych i learnt that!!!). but basically try to always do weekly revisions of old content, even if the sac is finished, it doesn't matter, this just helps keep old information fresh in your head and when exam time comes you'll not panic because you would have not forgotten any information. This also reduces the time you need to spend later on in the year on content revision, I just kept speeding through practice exams one after the other while lots of people in my legal class were re-learning the content because they forgot it, the point is *always revise old content you will thank me and yourself for doing that.
for subjects like legal I would always get my teacher to mark my responses to textbook questions and stuff like that, simply because your teacher will look at your response from an objective perspective and give it the score that it deserves. and so once you get the score and feedback always go back to the response and try to re-write it until you get full marks for it. It may sound time consuming but it helps a lot in the long-term because you slowly start to learn what your teacher looks for which is very helpful for sacs, and also just how a different person may evaluate your response so you can better word / structure it in the future. so mainly: your teachers are good resources use them to your advantage, even if it means missing out on a lunch or break to go over question responses with your teacher so be it!
please make your notes at the start of the year.as you go, NOT before the sacs / exams, a common mistake I saw was that a lot of my classmates were making their notes before sacs and exams, and it was just very time consuming for them because it is a content heavy subject and imagine having to do tons of notes before a test, it's really not the smartest idea ever, because you could use that time to do practice questions and stuff like that instead of stressing at the school printer for being jammed.
I found legal to be a more of 'common sense' type of subject so when you are 'studying' for it and you're not understanding something try to look for an objective point of view and see if you can use that to realize why certain things are set in the justice legal system.
use scenarios and hypothetical scenarios to help you understand better and apply your knowledge.
sometimes there are multiple answers to a certain question but there are responses that would be considered "more appropriate than others and would score more in exams and sacs even though both answers would be right, so try to use 'context-specific responses'.
make sure to learn cases and what they are about as you go, think of them like stories and basically memorize those stories. these help a ton in 'holistically marked' questions (that is any question that is worth 6+ marks), it shows you have a deep understanding of the topic and honestly does knock the markers' socks off because it shows that you have put in effort in the subject and that you care.
learn to structure your responses, make answers clear, you don't need to beat around the bush if you've got a point get to it. sometimes even if you have got the most wonderful idea out there but structure it poorly you'll get less marks than someone who structured their answer better.
use what I call 'subsequents' in your answers ONLY for holistically marked questions. So basically if you have any idea and it stems from a bunch of other ideas, what you could do is start from the main idea and then go into the sub-ideas and so on until you reach that idea, this shows the marker that you can use your logic to deduce ideas and conclusions they eat it up all the time.
timing, timing timing. I see lots and lots of people struggling to finish sacs and exams because they wasted time the entire year trying to make their notes and handwriting look good. trust me these things don't matter, instead of wasting time on them, try to always time yourself when doing questions, your marker doesn't care that your handwriting is not "aesthetic" as long as it's readable it's fine. I bought a timer and the rule of thumb that I used was 1 mark = 1 minute (<+30 seconds if really needed). so don't waste time and always try to look at the marks (they're a very good indicator of how much you should write to not waste time) and work with time accordingly. so throughout the year keep practicing your timing and it will all work out for sacs and exams.
command words are a big thing in legal, so use them. if a question is asking you to only identify, you don't even need to write like more than a word or max a sentence most likely. try to familiarize yourself with these command words so you don't waste your time writing stuff that you don't need and also helps make sure you are actually answering the question because sometimes when you beat around the bush you end up forgetting what you're going on about.
hope this helps,
and good luck for 2024.
