Past papers are now available on Blackboard*. In this practical guide we provide advice on how you can make the most out of past papers.
Step one
Find past exam papers that will be similar to the ones you are sitting this year, checking that the format has not changed and that the syllabus is the same. Then, either, writing out by hand, or cutting and pasting, put all the same types of questions from these papers together e.g. in contract, all the questions on offer and acceptance; consideration; frustration etc.
Step two
When you have a collection of questions for each topic, get out your lecture notes, lecture slides, tutorial notes, all the cases and readings for the tutorial topic. Then sit down and sketch out answers for each of the questions in each collection e.g. all the offer and acceptance questions, whether they are problem or essay questions.
Step three
What you will see is that there tends to be a limited number of examinable issues within each topic. Identify those issues and use your lecture, tutorial, case and article notes to develop a richer, critical understanding of them. Then think about (perhaps with your friends) the kinds of angles an examiner might take on this topic making sure your thinking is informed by new cases and recent developments. Don’t just learn topics by rote. Ask yourself what are the issues that make this topic interesting and debatable? Those are the things examiners tend to ask about. Use old exam questions to practice planning answers making sure you frame your answer in terms of the question set.
Step four
In the exam, make sure you write enough and are using relevant sources (cases, articles, theories, quotations etc.). Be prepared to write fast but don’t forget to read the paper first and choose your questions carefully. Keep an eye on time and don’t make the mistake of radically overshooting on one question giving you no time for another. And Be Confident – after all, thanks to practicing with old exam papers, you have done this lots of times before.
Good luck!