Marking exercise

The following are extracts taken from exam answers written by real law students (with their permission). The answers are of varying quality. Have a look at the answers and pick out things that have been done well as examples of good practice that you would hope to copy and identify things that have been done less well and consider how you would improve upon what the student has done. There are extracts from three answers to the same question so you might like to consider which you consider to be the best answer and what characteristics the answer has that makes it good.

Question:

Andrew and Bart want to burgle a house owned by Lady Maybury. Andrew’s cousin, Chantelle, is Lady Maybury’s cleaner and knows the code that will disarm the burglar alarm and give access to the safe where money and jewellery is kept. Andrew promises to give Chantelle one third of the value of the goods that they steal if she will give them the code to the alarm and lend them her key to the house. Chantelle initially refuses but agrees when Andrew adds that he will let her keep two pieces of Lady Maybury’s jewellery. Andrew and Bart set out at midnight. Andrew has the alarm code written on pen on the back of his hand. Chantelle phones Andrew on his mobile just as he and Bart are climbing over the fence that surrounds Maybury Manor. She tells Andrew that she is afraid that she will be an obvious suspect as she had access to the house so she begs Andrew not to go ahead with the burglary. Andrew tells her not to be foolish and turns his telephone off so that she cannot call again. Using Chantelle’s key, Andrew enters the house and disarms the alarm. Bart stays in the doorway to keep a lookout. As Andrew is rifling through the safe, he hears a commotion outside. He looks out of the window and sees Bart struggling with an elderly man who is employed to take care of the gardens at Maybury Manor. As Andrew looks on in horror, Bart pulls out a knife and stabs the gardener who falls to the ground. Bart runs away and Andrew shouts after him 'I always knew you were violent but fancy carrying a knife to burgle an empty house.' Andrew races to help the old man but finds that he is dead. Anxious to disassociate himself from Bart’s actions, Andrew telephones the emergency services and asks for an ambulance. He makes a full confession to the operator and waits for the police to arrive and arrest him. Bart and Chantelle are arrested in the early hours of the morning. Advise the parties as to the extent of their criminal liability.

Answers:

Answer 1
Answer 2
Answer 3

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Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Marking exercise.

Marking exercise