How to ACE an Online Law Exam
The Law Simplified YouTube channel is quite rich when it comes to content on how you can not just pass but ACE your examinations in relation to the traditional examination format. However times have changed and many of you this year will be encountering examinations which are online and open book. The format while similar might be slightly different in terms of how you approach it and how you would actually sit for the examinations or assessments.
This post is intended to fundamentally outline and pinpoint three specific categories and related endeavours that you can do to not just pass but ACE that examination the online format of it. Now bear in mind, I have heard from a number of my fast track and masterclass students on how stressful this particular format of examinations has been. Granted, you might have been used to not just in terms of law but any other academics of going through the motions of an assignment or a physical examination which is broken into either a one, two or three hour format but what I would argue is to take this as an opportunity. It gives you the ability to leverage on your knowledge far better and in my personal opinion it is far more reflective of how you would actually tackle problems when you later go into the legal profession or your career.
Having said that, these are the three fundamental areas that we will look at in assessing how we can optimise our technique in preparation for the examination:
1. Pre-Examination Preparation
The examination is not much different from that which I have proliferated throughout my YouTube channel and throughout The Law Simplified programme. Your pre-examination should be targeted towards distilling the information that you have studied over the semester. There are a number of ways to do this but what I would recommend is to try and collate and compile the cases, statutory instruments and the fundamental dicta; in other words the facts of those cases as well as the principle that has been outlined in a method that essentially looks at the entire topic that you want to consider. A great way to do this is to develop your own Spider Graph or mind map that not only gives you a bird’s-eye picture of any given topic but also the cases that are relevant to the specific provisions you’ll be able to access some of my Spider Graphs which have helped thousands of Fast Track, Masterclass and students all around the world in not just identifying the important cases and the fundamental aspects of a topic but also on a visual level, structure their answers and responses to assessments and assignments. But, I recommend you create your own Spider Graphs, so that it’s much more personal to you as a reference you can have a look at mine through the links in the description below.
This process is important because your online assessment or examination might be structured in a way that’s longer than a traditional format but vastly different based on the jurisdiction and the University that you are pursuing your law degree at. For instance, instead of a one, two or three hour paper you might have a windowed or timed assessment which is either five hours, 24 hours or if you’re lucky a week! In whichever case, you won’t have time to go through all of your material at once and that’s not what’s expected of you by your assessors and by your examiners. Essentially, when you are studying law and when you’re applying it to an assessment scenario what’s expected of you is not to write everything that you know but rather, be able to distill the relevant information as it applies to the question or scenario presented to you and optimise your answer with your arguments. So, the best way to do that is to collate and compile the absolute musts in terms of a particular topic as it relates to any given scenario.
2. During your examination
I need to preface this before I begin. This relates to an online, timed and open book examination. By no means should you commit an academic offence if your University or your institution has forbidden this format. Most examinations this year and in the contemporary context have been formulated in a way which provides students with an opportunity to look at relevant material which is provided by the University as well as other subordinate online resources like online libraries. So, bear in mind that this applies to an online, timed open book assessment.
That being said when you are looking at the examination paper that has been presented to you, apart from the pre-examination material that you have prepared that would be applicable mostly in terms of scenario based or problem-based questions, keep an eye out for essay questions that target a particular case or a provision. What I mean by this is, many essay questions or many theory questions relate to a fundamental nuance of a judgment. Essentially, a viewpoint based on a fundamental principle of law. More often than not, this particular nuanced contention being spoken of in an essay, has most likely already been considered and dissected academically. A great way to analyse as well as get multiple viewpoints to nurture your own response is to go through and do a graph search through journals and articles on WestLaw.
Many of these conscientious aspects or many of these issues at hand would have already been dealt with and it pays dividend to be able to quickly go through and understand not just what other academics have said about that question but also what are the resources that academics have used themselves. This particular technique might not be as conducive for an essay-based or a theory question which is formulated in the five-hour timed, online open book assessment format. Because of this, for students who have to go through that particular process I’d highly recommend that you opt out of a theory question and focus instead on a problem question which you would have already prepared for using your Case Summaries, Spider Graphs and any supplemental reading ‘cheat sheets’, that you’ve prepared prior to the examination.
But for those of you who are undertaking a 24 hour assessment or an assessment that’s spread across several days, I highly recommend this, primarily because it eases your burden of research within the time and you’re freed up to analyse and argue on your own perspective while substantiating it with other academics viewpoints.
3. Pre-Submission
After completing your responses but before submission, check and recheck! A luxury that is unavailable to students in the traditional format of assessment is the ability to check their answers before submitting. From an examination standpoint and from the mindset of the examiner, a certain level or threshold of mistakes in terms of typographical errors (but hopefully not factual errors) are accounted for and you’re marked, subject to that. In this format however, not only would you have the luxury of a word processing application that would check the grammar the spelling or aid you in doing so in the inception but you’d also have time to go through prior to your submission.
The reason why I say this is, while the assessment criteria might have slightly changed and the scrutiny would be more since it is open book, the format and the timing would remain the same. It is essentially scenarios or essays that expect from you a certain level in terms of word count, arguments and facts to be presented.
With these three factors in place; (1) what you should do prior to the examination in terms of your preparation, (2) what you should do during your examination and then (3) immediately after the responses are written but before you submit, are critical in this new format of examination. In terms of the online, timed and open book assessment format, we need to take this as an opportunity. That being said, wishing you all the very best for your assessments and your examinations upcoming, have fun stay safe and as always obey the law!
