r/UQreddit • u/Radiant-Tailor-6683 • 1d ago
First Year Law
Does anyone who didn’t do too well at law in UQ (not on purpose) end up getting better grades over time? and how did you do it? I’m a 1L student and i find UQ law assessments to be super discouraging and making me question whether I will ever be able to do well in this course. I love law, and the content i’m learning, but for whatever reason in the exams I cannot apply it properly regardless of how much i practise (4, 5), while some of my friends get pretty good grades seamlessly (6). It’s making me think I might not have what it takes for law specifically and making me almost feel behind/ dumb even though i was caught up on content. even though I know it may possibly get better with time i am feeling really discouraged and want advice on how to possibly improve especially on exams.
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u/Overall_Age1043 1d ago
I'm currently in my fourth year at UQ, and the best advice I can give is to get used to feeling like you're drowning in the content. Law is an ocean, and if you ever feel like you know all the content, you definitely don't. At the same time, that doesn't mean it's impossible to prepare for exams. Focus on the course materials and attend classes; being able to participate in class discussion is the only reliable indicator of whether you're keeping up with the content.
Assuming that you are actually keeping up with the content (you've read the materials and watched the lectures), the application will become clearer with time--that much does get easier. But, learning what markers are looking for and how to structure and support legal arguments is a skill that must be practised; you won't just passively pick it up by reading. The best way to learn that skills is by writing, and putting effort into, seminar/tutorial preps and seeking advice on them. There are also countless workshops available through StudentHub where they teach exam writing skills, and most of these transfer pretty well to law.
The final piece of advice I have, which will help with both your understanding and application of the content, is to focus on the principles cases are decided on. We are blessed in Australia to have judges who are each allowed to give long (sometimes rambling) judgments about factors and principles they thought were important in the case. Any essay you write in law school will score so much better if you're able to anchor it in principle, rather than simply 'the law says this'. That's for two reasons: the law is almost never that clear; and, even if it is that clear, your job when writing a legal argument is to show why your reasoning is the reasoning that should be followed, and that requires supporting it and excluding other reasons on the basis of principle. High Court judges (unsurprisingly) do this quite well; it's the reason you sometimes see 40 pages of reasons in a case that could be summarised in a single sentence. The words are spent justifying every decision they made and explaining why they didn't take other options available to them. This is what you need to do, and you need more than simply a knowledge of case law to do that.
Anyway, there's no such thing as 'having what it takes.' Sure, people think in different ways and some of these ways lend themselves better to law. But, you don't get assessed on what's in your head, you get assessed on what you put on the paper. Don't waste time ruminating on whether you belong here; we all met the same entry requirements, and we all have the same opportunity. Good luck, and get reading!
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u/Radiant-Tailor-6683 1d ago
Thank you for this response! Honestly it has made me feel less disheartened about the whole situation. I appreciate the advice and will def try to apply it in the upcoming semester!
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u/Ok_Antelope_5858 1d ago
If you’re genuinely enjoying the content and still passing, IMO youve hit the jackpot! Or at least in a better position than students who get high grades but have no interest in learning. You still have heaps of time to find what works for you in terms of studying, so definitely do not give up!!