Judging from the stats on my blog at the moment, there are a lot of students (and not just law students) who are desperate (I mean really desperate!!) to find some kind of magic answer to:
- how to revise super-effectively and craft great answers in exams;
- knowing what’s going to come up in their exams;
- fluking their exams with or without any revisions if all else fails; and
- ending the months (years?) of studying torment because, you know, it’s all got a bit too much.
Hmm - must be that time of year or something! 
This year, there's been a big focus on question spotting for some reason.
Trying to question spot and limiting your preparation is always a dangerous practice. I didn’t do it for any of my LLB, LLM or LPC exams and I’m still thankful I had the sense not to try. I remember my biology teacher at A level bizarrely boasting that “we’re in the business of question spotting” (I think he fancied himself as a bit of an expert at it).
Sadly he proved to be wildly myopic (and I think was looking the wrong way down his binoculars). When the class’ results came out it wasn’t pretty.
Weren’t A levels just the worst?!?
So, really, don’t shoot yourself in the foot by trying to question spot. It’s just not worth the risk.
Still, if you’re a poor desperate student cramming for all you’re worth and fancy giving it a whirl, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Great advice. Students, remember that the job of question spotting has already been done for you. The question will be on something in the syllabus. That is all you know until you see the paper.
ReplyDeleteThere was a scandal recently about A level questions being leaked to teachers at (expensive) exam board conferences. Maybe your teacher thought he had an inside line?
"The question will be on something in the syllabus." End of sentence - full stop. :-)
ReplyDeleteNah, I think he believed in his psychic powers tbh (which were about as effective as Septic Peg's). :D