A Public Prosecutor’s Guide to Preparing for Law Exams

Law exams don’t reward students for simply knowing a lot of law.

They reward students who can identify the issue quickly, choose the relevant legal principles, apply them clearly to the facts, and write under pressure without losing structure.

That is why exam preparation should not only be about memorising cases, rules and legislation. It should also be about learning how to think like a lawyer.

Timara Callagan understands this deeply. As an experienced legal professional and supervising prosecutor, she has appeared in criminal matters, worked closely with evidence, prepared legal arguments, and developed the kind of practical judgment that only comes from real courtroom experience.

Her work with the Northern Territory and ACT Directors of Public Prosecutions has given her a deep understanding of advocacy, criminal law, legal analysis and the difference between knowing the law in theory and using it effectively in practice.

In this article, Timara answers the questions law students most often ask her about exam preparation, and shares practical strategies drawn from her experience as a prosecutor, lawyer and legal educator. Her advice focuses on helping students prepare more strategically, identify issues more quickly, and write clearer, more confident exam answers.

I've read all the cases and made hundreds of pages of notes. Why do I still feel unprepared for exams?

Keeping on top of notes is a hard ongoing task during the semester, and it’s easy to accumulate far too much material than is useful. Quality over quantity is key. It’s important to make sure you know what you’re likely to be tested on, and to ensure that your notes are in a user friendly system that works for you. 

A good way to narrow the focus for notes is to look at past exams. Pull out some past exams and look at what's actually being tested. Are your notes covering those key themes? Are the topics that keep coming up front and centre in what you've prepared?

Reading and note-taking can feel productive, but if your notes aren't built around what exams actually ask, that won't help you feel prepared to know what the questions might be and where to find the answers in your notes.

One option is to start with the past papers, then work backwards into your preparation for your exam.

Ideally, you want to have attempted at least three past exams. By the time you attempt the third past exam question your notes should have developed into templates for answering legal advice questions on a handful of commonly assessed issues.

That’s when I felt prepared – when I could answer a past exam question using only my notes, and nothing stumped me.

I’ve also found that students who I tutor feel much more prepared once I’ve checked their answer to a past exam question. This gives me a chance to improve their understanding of more challenging legal concepts, and help them write more efficiently and directly. This process often leaves students feeling much more prepared and confident.

If I only have two weeks until exams, what should I focus on?

Two weeks out you should be trying to make your notes more efficient and structured and using them to answer some past exams or tutorial problem questions. This way you can really get to know the common topics of the exams, and work out if you have any gaps in your understanding of key concepts. Two weeks out is the time to be working this out, not the night before. This is not a time to be reading or watching lectures – your time is much better spent answering the types of questions you will face in your exam and developing exam-ready notes. 

What's the difference between a pass answer and a distinction answer?

A pass answer has a basic understanding of the law. Often the common law test is not explained, or key relevant cases to the question are not mentioned or utilised. The relevant legal test may be stated too generally, without being properly explained. A pass answer might forget to provide the correct section number, or write a legal test without stating the case authority. A pass answer only outlines the most obvious legal arguments, and rarely considers counter-arguments. Sometimes issues are overlooked such as relevant defences or the variety of remedies that are available.

A distinction answer does something different. It explains the law in the necessary detail and supports each legal proposition with authority. Where legislation governs the issue, the correct section is identified and broken into elements. Key terms are defined by reference to the legislation, common law or relevant authorities. The student does not merely state the law. They show how the law works.

A distinction answer also uses cases more effectively. It identifies the authority that most closely resembles the facts of the exam question and uses that case to develop the argument, compare the facts, and support a reasoned conclusion.

Not only are the most obvious arguments advanced, but counter-arguments too.

Most importantly, a distinction answer is disciplined. It spots the relevant issues, deals with them in a logical order, and avoids wasting time on material that is irrelevant or superfluous.

This shows the examiner you are thinking like a lawyer, not reciting your lecture notes.

What should I do in the final 48 hours before an exam?

In the final 48 hours before an exam, your job is not to learn the entire subject again. It is to make sure the knowledge you already have is organised, accessible and ready to use under pressure.

Go over your condensed notes. Re-read a strong practice answer you have already written. Check the key tests, sections, cases and common fact patterns you are most likely to need. Then stop trying to cram every loose detail into your head.

The final stretch is also when rest becomes part of your preparation. A tired brain will forget obvious issues, misread facts, confuse legal tests and make messy decisions under pressure. One more exhausted hour of study rarely fixes that.

Use the last 48 hours to sharpen, not panic. Review what matters, remind yourself that you have done the work, and give your brain enough sleep to actually use it.

How do I stop running out of time in law exams?

This one comes up constantly and it is almost always a planning problem, not a time problem.

Before you write a single word, allocate your time per question and plan out your structure on the back of a piece of paper. Having pre-prepared introductory paragraphs that state the law will also save you time by not having to flick through notes, instead you have an adaptable paragraph you can tailor and automatically start to pick up easy marks. 

If you have never written an answer against the clock, the pressure on exam day will feel completely foreign. So try to time yourself in an exam setting at least twice before your exams. 

How do I identify the legal issues quickly in a problem question?

To identify legal issues quickly, you need to train yourself to recognise fact patterns, not just memorise rules.

In an exam scenario, every detail and piece of information is there for a reason. This is where past exams become extremely useful. If you review three past exams, you will often start to see how the course coordinator assesses the same issues. They may change the names, facts and setting, but the underlying legal patterns often repeat.

Once you notice those patterns, add them to your notes. Do not just write the legal test. Write the factual trigger that tells you when the issue is likely to arise.

Here is an example for criminal offences and defences in Victoria.

• Two or more people involved in offence – complicity

• Person not involved in principal offence does something to help the principal offender avoid arrest or prosecution – accessory after the fact

• Person makes unlawful physical contact with another that doesn’t amount to serious injury e.g. pushes them – assault (battery)

• Person threatens to harm another, but doesn’t actually touch them – assault

• Person makes unlawful physical contact with another that causes serious injury – intentionally cause serious injury

• Two or more people make a plan to cause a serious injury to another, planned to use a weapon, and caused injury once the victim was incapacitated: assault in circumstances of gross violence

• Person stalks another – stalking

• Person sexually penetrates another without consent – rape

• Person sexually touches another without consent – sexual assault

• Person steals property with no interaction with the owner, no use of force or threat of force, and does not enter a building illegally to steal the property – theft

• Person steals property using force or the threat of force without a weapon – robbery

• Person steals property using force or the threat of force with a weapon – armed robbery

• Person enters a building illegally to steal property that is not a residential home without a weapon or when no one is in the building – burglary

• Person enters a building illegally to steal property with a weapon or when someone else is in the building (not a residential home) – aggravated burglary

• Person enters a residential home with one or more people illegally to steal property with a weapon or when someone else is in the home – home invasion

• Person is under threat of harm, and acts in self-defence – self-defence

• Person commits crime due to being threatened – duress

• Person commits crime in response to sudden or extraordinary emergency – sudden or extraordinary emergency defence

• A wife commits a crime due to being coerced by her husband – marital coercion defence.

• A person commits an offence and they have a mental impairment that prevents them understanding the physical consequences or moral consequences of their behaviour – mental impairment defence

With a list of fact patterns like this, you can read an exam question and quickly compare the facts against your checklist to identify the most relevant offences, defences. This is not limited to criminal law exams and is a system that can be applied to most law subjects.

The best lawyers are not the ones who know the most. They are the ones who can quickly identify what matters and apply it clearly. That is what examiners are looking for too.

If you are struggling to prepare for a law exam and would like some additional support, Timara and our other law tutors would be delighted to help.

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