Need expert opinion on how to study for my upcoming assessment (1 Viewer)

[har]

My assessment is on Tuesday and I really want to go well in it. Basically my notification is as follows:

TIME ALLOWED: 3 hours plus 5 minutes reading time

FORMAT:Total marks 100
Section I – 20 marks – Crime & Human Rights Multiple Choice
Attempt Questions 1-20

Section II – 30 marks
This section has two parts
Part A – Human Rights-15 marks
Attempt question 21
Part B- Crime-15 marks
Attempt question 22


Section III – 50 marks
Attempt TWO questions each from a different Option (Family and Workplace)



Now, my question is, because there are no short answer questions would I be safe to assume that there won't be a 15 mark question asking something like: "Name the categories of crime and explain their components"?

So instead of studying things like this as I am short timed, Should I focus on studying the "Themes and challenges to be incorporated throughout this topic"

For example: these are the ones for crime on the syllabus:

Themes and challenges to be incorporated throughout this topic:

• the role of discretion in the criminal justice system
• issues of compliance and non-compliance in regard to criminal law
• the extent to which law reflects moral and ethical standards
• the role of law reform in the criminal justice system
• the extent to which the law balances the rights of victims, offenders and society
• the effectiveness of legal and non-legal measures in achieving justice.

The 15 mark questions and the 25 mark questions(for my options) will be based on things like that rather than broad questions, for example: about "naming the parties to a crime", am I right to assume?

Also, how do I asses these "Themes and challenges to be incorporated throughout this topic" and do them? are there any older forum posts with notes for these? Thank you!

I really need anyone's expert opinion on this as I'm going to study all these tomorrow etc

Also, thank you "4025808" for bringing this point to light for me

 

[enoilgam]

4025808 has pretty much given you a list of possible questions which can be asked in the exam. For the crime question, I could definitely see something like "To what extent does the law balance the rights of victims, offenders and society" or the family essay being "Evaluate the effectiveness of legal and non-legal measures in protecting families."

With any humanities subject, the challenge is not the content itself, but applying the content. There isnt really a place you can go which will give you the "answer" to these questions. They might give you some solid ideas, but you really need to way up the evidence yourself and come to your own conclusion. So look over those themes and challeneges and try to apply the content in formulating a response towards them.

 

[har]

Thanks, I have printed those out I hope I will be able to do them tomorrow, Although I have no legal notes but Ill try my best

 

[har]

Do you think I should make notes first then use the notes to answer them (I have to make notes on half of crime, family, workplace and human rights) you reckon I can do it in 7 hours? because I need to do math for like 4 hours after that.

 

[enoilgam]

Do you think I should make notes first then use the notes to answer them (I have to make notes on half of crime, family, workplace and human rights) you reckon I can do it in 7 hours? because I need to do math for like 4 hours after that.

Possibly, although you will need to ensure that you are getting the key details on each of the topics.

 

[har]

Key details?

 

[4025808]

Now, my question is, because there are no short answer questions would I be safe to assume that there won't be a 15 mark question asking something like: "Name the categories of crime and explain their components"?

So instead of studying things like this as I am short timed, Should I focus on studying the "Themes and challenges to be incorporated throughout this topic"

I believe that there will be no such question like that, but I could be wrong.

However, you should focus on studying the themes and challenges, as they will draw questions out of those. Have a check of last year's HSC paper, for the trials, they may slightly alter the themes and challenges and reworded, so train yourself to get used to those sorts of questions.

For the short answers, I would recommend practicing a bit of stuff on the human rights section. Your example of the question "Name the categories of crime and explain their components" will be on human rights instead of crime, and may even possibly be a question.

The 15 mark questions and the 25 mark questions(for my options) will be based on things like that rather than broad questions, for example: about "naming the parties to a crime", am I right to assume?

Also, how do I asses these "Themes and challenges to be incorporated throughout this topic" and do them? are there any older forum posts with notes for these? Thank you!

I really need anyone's expert opinion on this as I'm going to study all these tomorrow etc

Also, thank you "4025808" for bringing this point to light for me

I believe that broad questions will be given for 15 and 25 mark essay questions, there is no way would they ask such a specific question. I would only expect that if you're doing a uni criminal law course or something.

Of course, I could be wrong though. Only one year has passed since the new syllabus, and there is simply not enough information to tell trends of questions.

Oh and thank you too (Y). I have finally responded to your post.

 

[findx]

Good advice from 4025808 and enoilgam already.

- It's formatted the exact same way as a real HSC exam. Look at the 2011 HSC and 2011 HSC Specimen Papers
- Write info on each under each theme and challenge, and which dot point can link to it
- For Multiple Choice, you can use the past MC questions from past hsc exams. Despite the syllabus change, its mostly similar
- Short Answers: Human Rights - Do practice questions,
- Crime - Approx 800 word essay. Look at previous exams, 'students learn to' and 'themes and challenges'
- Option topics: Look at the legislation, contemporary issues and 'students learn to' and 'themes and challenges'

Remember Legal Studies isn't about memorising 100% all content under each content. You need to know how the info can be used in an essay. Simply regurgitating the dotpoints in an essay will not get you top marks.

 

[har]

Okay thanks, am I writing my notes correctly:

• The elements of crime:
-Mens Rea
>The persons intention to commit the crime
>It must be proven that the accused was aware that their actions would at least probably result in a crime being committed
-Actus Reus (voluntary physical act)
>It must be proven that the person charged actually carried out the crime
>Ryan v. The Queen (1967) – Ryan claimed his reflex involuntary action was what made him shoot the attendant at a service station and appealed his conviction of murder. However, the High Court dismissed the appeal claiming that the robbery, loading the gun, aiming the gun and placing the finger on the trigger were all voluntary actions and hence actus reus was proven.
-Causation
>The act or omission must be the main cause of the crime/criminal behaviour
-Reckless indifference

 

[har]

and on my notif up there, it says Crime and Human rights section II, is two questions? Or does this mean they are short answers?!!!?

This is our first legal exam ever

 

[findx]

Yes. Have a look at this sample:
http://www.hscstudybuddy.com.au/Notes FREE SAMPLES/Legal Studies/Madison L Crime sample.pdf

 

[har]

Thank, also look at my above post I'm really confused, is my exam short answ or long resp for crime and HR judging by my notif? Lol cheers

edit: also my teacher was urging us to study our contemporary human rights issue so I think I will do that a lot too

 

[har]

ffs microsoft word auto-formatting is constantly auto-bolding,underlining all my stuff even though I keep clicking it off