Answering Questions in Legal

[HawthornM8]

I've got my first SAC tomorrow which is basically only on;

The principles of the Australian parliamentary system: Representative government, responsible government and the principle of seperation of powers AND The structure of state and commonwealth parliaments; the roles played by the  crown; the roles played by the two houses of parliament.

That is all my SAC is on and I pretty much know all that, to a degree. But when it comes to answering questions as I haven't really been taught how, it makes no sense. For example;

Question 7 - Explain the principle of responsible government and describe one way in which the Commonwealth Parliament provides for responsible government (3 marks). [p.s. not exactly great at creating answers atm]

Responsible government refers to the chain of accountability that the government has to parliament, and therefore are accountable to the people; if the government loses the support of the people it must resign. One way the Commonwealth Parliament provides for responsible government is through ministerial responsibility. Ministers are senior members of parliament who are a head of a government department (e.g. VicRoads) and must be open for questioning on their activities within the department from parliament members in which they may be scrutinised which can be available on multiple media platforms.

My answer is quite a lot longer than the sample answer which is just dot pointed, and I've combined two dot point answers for the 3 marks. Basically I have no idea where to get marks or how to answer questions. This is a horrible thread, I'm sorry. 

[Anchy]

For example;

Question 7 - Explain the principle of responsible government and describe one way in which the Commonwealth Parliament provides for responsible government (3 marks). [p.s. not exactly great at creating answers atm]

Basically, the way this is structured is:

- Explanation of responsible government
- One way the Commonwealth Parliament provides for responsible government
- Explanation; Go into depth, you won't get the full marks if you just state the way cwealth parliament provides for responsible government
-  Example; It's always good to have to show your understanding of the question however i don't think it's necessary for this particular question

When answering questions, make sure you read the question properly and just do what it asks. Look out for key task words and know what they mean; eg. Apply, analyse, comment, compare/contrast, discuss, distinguish, evaluate, explain, identify, outline, suggest

[M_BONG]

I've got my first SAC tomorrow which is basically only on;



Question 7 - Explain the principle of responsible government and describe one way in which the Commonwealth Parliament provides for responsible government (3 marks). [p.s. not exactly great at creating answers atm]

Responsible government refers to the chain of accountability that the government has to parliament, and therefore are accountable to the people; if the government loses the support of the people it must resign. One way the Commonwealth Parliament provides for responsible government is through ministerial responsibility. Ministers are senior members of parliament who are a head of a government department (e.g. VicRoads) and must be open for questioning on their activities within the department from parliament members in which they may be scrutinised which can be available on multiple media platforms.

My answer is quite a lot longer than the sample answer which is just dot pointed, and I've combined two dot point answers for the 3 marks. Basically I have no idea where to get marks or how to answer questions. This is a horrible thread, I'm sorry.

This is a great response and I think would get you 3/3 by VCAA standards. Although, take my advice with a grain of salt since I am no expert.

If you want to cutdown on this response, remove the definition of  a minister (ie. Ministers are senior members...), since it doesn't add any value to your response

Basically, my breakdown of the mark allocation would be:
1. Define resp. government
2. Identify one example of resp. govt in action
3. Explain how this example illustrates principle of resp. govt

Although, I had this question in my Legal SAC and according to my teacher you HAVE to mention and explain explicitly the words "chain of accountability" to get full marks. I highly doubt VCAA or your school would be that strict.

[HawthornM8]

This weekend I'm definitely going to need some help with the marking scheme and what to write for particular questions. I haven't got the gist of 'how' to get marks yet. I don't think I did too flash despite knowing everything on my first SAC due to coming up quite short on all my answers in the SAC.