Knowledge is not enough
'Who loves not Knowledge? Who shall rail
Against her beauty? May she mix
With men and prosper! Who shall fix
Her pillars? Let her work prevail.
But on her forehead sits a fire:
She sets her forward countenance
And leaps into the future chance,
Submitting all things to desire.’
[In Memoriam Section CXIV, by Alfred Lord Tennyson]
You will have heard the following complaint from fellow students, your tutees or even from your past self: “I studied so hard, why didn’t I do well in the exam?".
Another iteration of this would be “I always read everything on the reading list, why are my essay marks not improving?”.
The assumption underlying such questions is simple: knowledge of the law, whether that be case law or statutes or academic textbooks, is enough in order to grant a student access to excellent marks.
This assumption is, simply put, false.
Knowledge of the law is surely the most self-evident ingredient to success. If you have not studied, if you do not have a solid grasp of the key primary and secondary sources, you will not excel.
However, the key thing to remember here is that it is only ONE of the ingredients to success.
On its own, knowledge of the law is necessary in order to succeed, but not sufficient.
In summative assessments, the student that does well is not the student who studied the most, but the student who managed to correctly apply her legal knowledge to the exam question, while properly managing time and stress.
In other words: please do study, but do not rely on your knowledge of the law alone to carry you though. This makes no more sense than relying on your endurance and strength to carry you through a boxing match. You must actually master the art of boxing, and similarly you must master the art of essay writing and the art of answering exam questions. This blog is one of the many resources available to help you. If you have not done so already, feel free to subscribe to it, and you will automatically receive an extended essay writing guide in pdf format. Best of luck!
