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Ocr A2 Law (criminal): Offical Thread!

okkkkkkkkkkkkkkk guys heres the space where we can rant about the OCR A2 LAW exams.

Anybody got a good feeling about what is going to come up in Criminal Law 1/2?

Im Resitting Criminal Law 1 cos i fooked up in Jan, The only thing i can predict is that Strict Liability is less likely to appear this time!

How are you all revising as well...?

Cheers Dudes

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Reply 1
Strict Liability will NOT turn up in Criminal Law 1. Duress will turn up in Criminal Law 2. I think Q3 on the synoptic paper is going to be about "building"
Reply 2
Hey Danny!

What makes you think that Duress will turn up? Im not questioning your intelligence, just wondering what methods you used to conclude this fact?

Cheers, good look on the 19th & 21th of June lol!!!
Reply 3
Wooo an OCR law thread! I was beginning to feel really alone on this site with taking these 2 papers! I am really not looking forward to the synoptic special study paper, we only started it after easter and really rushed through it.
I'm loving these predictions! Duress also came into my mind after sifting through the past questions, as it has only come up once in Jan and I think once in June a long time ago. Theft also always comes up, either in a problem question or a section A so I think that is definite. I think it is more likely to appear in a problem question.
I am really going to have to go over my special study source booklet so that I understand it all! Have you guys got the OCR law revision books by Phillip Allan? They are really good, one is totally dedicated to the special study booklet stuff.

EDIT: For crim law 1, you probably already know this but murder or manslaughter always comes up. I think they are more keen on murder too.

Anyone got any ideas about Q1 and Q2 for the special study paper? Re learning statutory interpretation is doing my head in cos our teacher didn't give us any fresh notes, we had to just sift back to what we did a year ago which is really annoying. Is Q1 only really ever going to be on the advantages & disadvantages of the literal and purposive approaches / rules? They couldn't really ask just about the rules of language or the intrinsic/extrinsic aids could they?
For Q4 do you think they will stick with burglary for the scenario Qs as there is more to talk about than Robbery?
Reply 4
Hey Guys!

I think that one PQ will be heavy on defences such as insanity with only one crime, and the other PQ will be eavy on offence such as theft with lots of crimes and not that many defences.

Special Study is doing my head in. Come on, who actually talks/writes like those authors or judges have done in the material, cant they write/talk like "normal" people.

Where not all posh judges yet lol, doesnt the examiner understand that???:confused:

Anybody else got any predictions for criminal law 2 n special study study, coz im totally lost on what to revise :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
Reply 5
I'm with you with the special study rant soice! The rambling judge jargon does my head in as well. I think you have to go through it and just translate what they're saying in english and understand the main issue and just don't worry too much about the ramblings in between, just make sure you know what the main issue is. I thought I was going to be ok in law till my teacher sprung the special study on us, that is seriously the one thing that could bring my grade down aghh!! I don't know what is more annoying, the special study or chaucer, both are like foreign languages and completely do your head in, it's a close call!
Reply 6
Hey

LOL dam right!!! Is their any need to talk in such as daft manner?

Has anybody out there got predictions for Criminal law 2 and special Study questions, coz i need to know which topics to concentrate on, because i literally have no time to revise coz of my other exams :afraid: :afraid: :afraid: :afraid: :afraid:

Thxs a million:smile:
Reply 7
Oh god, I really don't get this special study at all. I am trying to understand the issues in Source 3 (Dawson) and I just don't get what they're going on about. Who is actually speaking? The judge in the case? It's going all over my head, this is so rubbish, I can't believe my teacher just lumped this on us to do on our own. The case questioned the meaning of force, I get that, but they're going on about how the Act was to put the old technicalities into more simple language but I don't get why that matters if the larceny Act was replaced by the Theft Act, why should the larceny act even be mentioned. Aghhhh I am totally screwed with this stupid paper.
If anyone has any notes on Dawson or any of the other cases I would be soooo grateful if you could give me a few pointers, I am so lost! :frown:
Reply 8
I kno what your saying about the source paper its ruuuuubish! But i guess we shouldnt have a problem cos the examiner thinks we know everything by unit 6 - obviously wrong!

On the source paper there is a question that focusus on the development of a case (i think) so if your able to get hold of the past papers (i think there is only 2 since this source is relativley new) we can eliminate at least 2 cases to talk about the development of the others.

The easist way i would say is to get brief notes for A02 and remember wat source thier linked to and when you get i nthe exam just jot key words down next to the source/

I really resent the fact i chose to resit crime 1 - BUT i think I will be ok cos i understand the principles of law better since Unit 2.

So the Guesses are:

Criminal Law 1 -
Always a murder question or a Mans Question for Section A
Section B - I feel will just be either a simple Murder question that discusses liability linked to causation issues (where White and Fagan would be used) or an INV MS question as i dont think this came up in Jan (cant remember)

All this is just a guess so dont take my word for it - its just me hoping for the perfect exam lol.

Really glad about this thread tho (go me!) I think im lucky cos ive guarenteed my B in Media and Defo got my A in ICT (AVCE) so i only really need to concentrate on law :biggrin: But it really sucks as both Unit 1&2 are on the 19th - the 20th is My Birthday and then Unit 6 is on the 21st!
Reply 9
Hi! For the special study paper, I already know for definite that the case of Hale (robbery) came up in June last year for Q2, my teacher also said Stevens and Gourley won't come up for Q2 cos it's too old and Walkington (burglary) came up for Q2 in Jan this year. So they're all ruled out.
For Q2, It has gone:
Robbery (June 05)
Burglary (Jan 06)

Will they go back to robbery as they did burglary in Jan? Or do you think they'll do burglary again because there are more potential qs and most people won't have done the exam in Jan let alone know what the Qs were...

P.S. I've begged my neighbour to help me with this cos he is a lawyer, how lucky is that lol, if I get anything out of him I'll post anything I can on here, may the force be with us !!!
Reply 10
Well on the special study paper Q1 will be on judicial precedent (it has yet to come up).
I figure out the questions by looking at past papers and figuring out patterns, it worked very well in January when S/L turned up, it has also worked for Politics.
In other words it allows me to save time by revising a number of topics but not all of them.
Reply 11
Danny5876
Well on the special study paper Q1 will be on judicial precedent (it has yet to come up).
I figure out the questions by looking at past papers and figuring out patterns, it worked very well in January when S/L turned up, it has also worked for Politics.
In other words it allows me to save time by revising a number of topics but not all of them.


Are you talking about AS? I did judicial predecent in AS... the special study I am talking about is unit 2573 for A2 law and it doesn't have Judicial predecent on it. I look for patterns as well but I am finding that it is much harder to do that at A2 as opposed to AS cos there are so many topics :frown:
Reply 12
zoea85
Are you talking about AS? I did judicial predecent in AS... the special study I am talking about is unit 2573 for A2 law and it doesn't have Judicial predecent on it. I look for patterns as well but I am finding that it is much harder to do that at A2 as opposed to AS cos there are so many topics :frown:


You'll find that it does have judicial precedent in it. Look at Source 1 again, it does talk about the hierachy of the courts and the relationship between them.

For example in Source 1 lines 7-9 state: "All courts stand in definite relationship to one another. A court is bound by decisions of a court above itself in the hierarchy and, usually, by a court of equivalent standing."

It is fairly obvious that Source 1 (of which Q1 is always based upon) talks about judicial precedent aswell as statutory interpretation. Furthermore. line 10 does state "doctrine of precedent" and the first few lines are about the "declaratory theory"

The key to success with this unit is to know the sources very well :tsr2:
Reply 13
I know it is 'fairly obvious' that Source 1 mentions Judicial Precedent but the theme of the paper is Statutory interpretation so JP really isn't relevant. In class when we were doing paired work and trying to answer various questions, two people in my class started talking about judicial precedent because, as you say it is mentioned in passing in the source and my teacher shot them down and said that it was completely irrelevant to this paper. If the theme is on statutory interpretation I am certain that there will not be a Q on Jp. There hasn't been a Q on JP because it isn't the theme of the paper, just like you won't get a question on making off without payment, because it's not relevant. Question 1 will be to do with statutuory interpretation, like comparing the literal and purposive rules or discussing the advantages and disadvantages. JP really doesn't come into it.
Reply 14
The theme of the paper is not statutory interpretation. The theme of the paper is:

'role of judges,precedent,the application of statutory materials and the development of the law, and robbery, and burglary'.

If you wish to ignore part of the course of which a compulsory question is likely to be based upon is entirely of your choosing.
Reply 15
Well we must be studying different papers. I am not choosing to ignore a potential part of the syllabus. I am telling you that JP is not part of the paper I am studying, in none of my lessons has my teacher mentioned anything about JP being relevant, in fact, she stated the opposite. I have a study guide by Philip Allen and all of Q1 is focused on statutory interpretation, the 3 rules, rules of language, extrinsic/intrinsic aids etc. There is nothing at all on JP.
Reply 16
Hey!

Question 1 on the paper MAY contain stat interp. or it MAY contain jud pre.

However, our teacher told us to revise both topics, as the exaimer could quite easily TOUCH upon jud pre. HOWEVER the bulk of the question will be on stat interp, and IF jud pres appears then it will only be a small section of the question!

Thus i am going to revise both topics, but only learning the main cases from jud pres like Shivipuri, but i am going to learn every word of stat interp

HAS anybody got predictions of what they'l think will come up in Criminal Law 2, would realy appreciate it.

Thxs a million
:tsr2:
Reply 17
soice


HAS anybody got predictions of what they'l think will come up in Criminal Law 2, would realy appreciate it.

Thxs a million
:tsr2:


Section A: Duress, intoxication... just about everything apart from mistake and self defence

Section B: Theft and other related offences/Offences against the person/Defences
Reply 18
Hey Danny

Urm Duress, what could they possiblby ask as an essay i.e. evaluation points, because our teacher said that their are no real ad/dis to Duress. She said that Duress will only come up as a problem question as a defence, and even then it rarely turn up, or if it did turn up, then it would only be a short section.

Just curious as to what made you think that Duress would turn up as an essay :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: ??

Intoxication is more like it i think, because there is a lot to talk about like the evils of drink etc which is so easy just to bullsyte your way through the evaluation parts. :beerglass :beerglass :beerglass :beerglass :beerglass

Does anybody else have any predictions as to what l come up on criminal law 2????????????

Thnxs a million
Reply 19
soice
Hey Danny

Urm Duress, what could they possiblby ask as an essay i.e. evaluation points, because our teacher said that their are no real ad/dis to Duress. She said that Duress will only come up as a problem question as a defence, and even then it rarely turn up, or if it did turn up, then it would only be a short section.

Just curious as to what made you think that Duress would turn up as an essay :confused: :confused: :confused: :confused: ??
Thnxs a million


I agree intoxication would be a much easier question dues to the public policy arguments. Duress has been an essay question before, in 2003. There are plenty of things to say about dures such as the arguments surrounding the issue of duress is not a defence to murder etc.