AQA Law

Can someone explain the Law specification for AQA? Like how are the exams structured? Also, did the specification change after 2016?

Yeah it changed in 2017. Explain the specification??
Um, are you having issues with interpreting the meaning of it or is it just too long and you don't want to read it? Because if you are, them PM me.

The exam structure is basically:

Paper 1: Nature of law which is worth 25% of the marks on the paper + Criminal law which is worth 75% of the marks on the paper.
The total marks on the paper is 100.

It has multiple choice questions, short answers questions (like 3 or 4 markers) and extended writing questions (e.g. 30 markers)

Because there are so many topics to cover in The Nature of law, not all of them will come up in the 3 papers. So it's a bit random basically and there's so little marks that it's worth.

The paper is worth 33% of your A-level.
The exam is 2 hours

Paper 2: Nature if law is worth 25 marks + Tort law is worth 75 marks.
The paper is out of 100.

It has multiple choice questions, short answers questions (like 3 or 4 markers) and extended writing questions (e.g. 30 markers)

The paper is worth 33% of your A-level.
The exam is 2 hours

Paper 3: It's either the Law of contract which is worth 75 marks or Human Rights law which is worth 75 marks + The Nature of law and the English Legal system. (Your school/teachers decide which topic you learn)

It has multiple choice questions, short answers questions (like 3 or 4 markers) and extended writing questions (e.g. 30 markers)

The paper is worth 33% of your A-level.
The exam is 2 hours.

Hi. Thanks for helping!
I basically just don't know how my answers should be structured. I haven't been given any model answers to look at or any sort of criteria to follow when answering exam questions.

Btw, I'm in Year 12 so take this with a grain of salt!

In law, we sometimes use the IRAC structure. E.g. With topics like Statutory interpretation or Criminal law where there are so many cases!

You can use these in non-scenario questions if you want to score the top marks! (This is, of courses mostly suitable for topics where there are cases which bring about important points of law or it can just help emphasise your original point).

Honestly, explain stuff and assume the examiner doesn't know anything about law. This will help you make clear and concise chains of analysis throughout your essays! I'm not too sure about scenario questions though but it's pretty much just acting as if you were a legal professional (use as much legal terminology- explain them too- as you can lol make it sound legit)

Thank you!
Do you happen to know how a conclusion would be structured?

Hi. Thanks for helping!
I basically just don't know how my answers should be structured. I haven't been given any model answers to look at or any sort of criteria to follow when answering exam questions.

I would recommend reading the examiner's reports for past papers as they tell you exactly what the examiner wanted to see in answers and they are very useful! I used them a lot when studying for my A Levels.

All of the examiner reports are from the old specification. I haven't found any resources for the new one. Did you use any specific resources?

I'm in year 13 and about to do my exam next week, I've been taught to go through a scenario like this:
1. define the law/Act/Offence e.g. murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought
2. identify if the D had the actus reus (explain the actions of the D and why he has the AR)
3. identify the mens rea - oblique, direct, recklessness
4. identify any causation issues e.g. intervening act, factual causation
5. Identify any defences that could be used
6. discuss whether or not you think the defendant would be liable
Obviously, support with cases throughout and try to make sure that the cases match the scenario so for example, don't use a case that was found guilty of murder if the defendant in your scenario is innocent. This structure could change depending on the point of law, for example, in unlawful act manslaughter there are rules to determine whether the defendant is guilty - in that case, use the rules of the offence but also consider MR/AR/Causation.
Hopefully, this makes sense!

Hi guys how do you tell an essay question from a problem question, and are problem questions included in year 2 papers? Very new to law essay writing so I have no clue what I'm doing or how to structure them.

Hi. Thanks for the structure!
Do you know how many questions each exam has and how many marks each question is worth?

I can't remember exactly the structure of the exams (because my exams have been modified in line with the exam cancellations) but it will be something like this:
5 x multiple-choice questions
2 x 5 mark questions
10 mark question
15 mark question
30 mark question
That's for criminal law at least, but I think tort follows the same structure. If you're unsure, go to the AQA website and look at the resources. Annoyingly, they have taken the 2018 exam off due to the exams going on right now so there are only specimen papers because it is a relatively new spec (2017).