Examinations
Examinations
Assessment is by examination and assignment, which together comprise the Board's examinations. There will be at least one compulsory assignment in each subject. The pass mark in all examinations is 50%. A pass is determined by achievement in the examination, and is not influenced by pass rates.
The Board appoints an Examiner and a Revising Examiner in each subject. The Examiner sets the examination according to the Board's syllabus, which is reflected in the Subject Guide prepared by the Examiner in consultation with the Law Extension Committee. The Examiner is usually the Committee's teacher in the subject.
The script of any student achieving an overall mark of 40% - 49% is marked again by the Revising Examiner. After marks have been published the Board does not re-mark exam scripts under any circumstances.
Examinations are held in March and September each year, at the end of each respective Session. Students who are in doubt as to their progress through the course should contact the Board.
Exam paper cover pages, containing information about the format of the exam and the permitted examination materials will normally be posted on this site at least six weeks prior to the commencement of the exam period. REMEMBER: Do not assume that the format or materials which were permitted in the previous semester's exams will be the same as for the current semester.
Relevant information and directions regarding permitted exam materials can be found in the Current Course Information handbook and on this site and cannot be contradicted by others including lecturers.
You MUST be in possession of an acceptable means of identification when attending the examination centre. This should preferably be your Student ID/Library card. If the card has been lost or mislaid, you should obtain a replacement from the University of Sydney Card Centre prior to the exam. If this is impossible, you must bring either a current driver's licence, passport or NSW Photo Card to the exam centre. Any student without appropriate ID will not be permitted to sit the exam. Please note this policy will be strictly enforced.
Please make sure that you arrive at your nominated exam centre at least 20 minutes prior to the commencement of the exam and, to avoid disruption to your fellow examination candidates, leave your mobile phone at home/work - alternatively, please ensure that it is turned off.
Students must NOT, under any circumstances, seek to contact an Examiner following an examination. If you have any concerns regarding the examination and/or marking process, please contact the Board's Examination Officer (02) 9338 3506 in the first instance.
Eligibility to sit
Rule 63A of the Legal Profession Admission Rules provides that a student who has enrolled for and undertaken a course of instruction in a subject of examination conducted by the Law Extension Committee and who has completed the requirements of the course, may sit for the examination in that subject unless the Law Extension Committee notifies the candidate and the Examinations Committee, prior to the examination, that the candidate has not completed the requirements of the course to the satisfaction of the Law Extension Committee.
The course requirements for each subject are set out in the relevant Law Extension Committee Subject Guide.
Examination Times
Unless otherwise advised by the Board, at all examination centres, the morning examinations will commence at 9.00am and the afternoon examinations will commence at 1.45pm. The duration of each exam is 3 hours preceded by 15 minutes reading time. Candidates are permitted to makes notes during reading time. Candidates should report to their nominated examination centre at least 20 minutes prior to the commencement of an examination to ensure they are present for important announcements.
Identification
Each candidate must be in possession of acceptable means of photo identification when attending the examination centre, and must produce the identification upon request to a supervisor or a member of the Legal Profession Admission Board staff.
Candidates should bring his/her Student ID/Library Card to the examination. If the card has been mislaid, the candidate should obtain a replacement card from the Campus Card Centre prior to the examination. If this is impossible due to time constraints, the candidate must bring alternativeacceptable photo ID, ie a current driver's licence, passport or NSW Photo Card.
Any student failing to present acceptable ID will not be permitted to sit the examination.
Examination Attendance
Candidates must attend their nominated exam venue. A candidate that presents themself for examination at a venue other than that nominated on his/her enrolment application form may not be permitted to sit. Each candidate must remain in the examination room for at least one hour after the commencement of the examination, and must not leave the examination room until his or her answer booklets have been collected and other permitted materials checked. A candidate who enters the examination room, stays for one hour and hands in an answer booklet annotated with his/her student number but does not attempt any questions will be deemed to have sat for the examination. Candidates scheduled to sit, but for any reason unable to attend an examination at either the Armidale, Broken Hill, Dubbo or Lismore venue, are requested to contact the venue, on the day of the exam, and preferably prior to the start of the exam, to advise of their non attendance.
Late Arrival
Candidates should arrive at the examination centre on time so that they are present for all announcements regarding examination protocols. A candidate who arrives at the examination centre after the commencement of an exam may not be permitted to enter the examination room, but if so permitted, will not be allowed additional writing time at the end of the examination.
Where an examination venue is inaccessible to one or more students as a result of an unforesseable public catastrophe affecting the community as a whole, such as a flood, or a bushfire, the affected students may submit a statutory declaration to the Board seeking consideration under the Exams Contingency Policy (ECP).
The ECP provides that where specific circumstances are met, enrolment fees (being tuition and examination fees) shall be waived when a student re-enrols for the same subject in the subsequent semester.
Students receiving the fee concession are expected to attend lectures and must satisfy the LEC's requirements for examination eligibility. With regard to the compulsory assignment, the LEC will offer eligible students the opportunity to retain the original assignment mark if it is the higher of the two assignment marks achieved in the subject.
A student who does not achieve at least a 'deemed eligible' mark for his/her assignment in the subsequent semester will not be permitted to retain the original assignment mark and will not be eligible to sit the examination.
Please note that the ECP does not cover situations where individual students are prevented from attendng an exam due to serious misadventure relating to, for example, illness or accident.
Students wishing to apply must lodge their statutory declaration no later than 14 days after the examination.
Personal Items in Examinations
Students may take in pens, a small packet of sweets and a bottle of water in a clear container, but not fruit, biscuits, soft drinks or food generally. A small fruit juice may also be taken in by people with diabetes. Mobile phones or any other device that offers internet access or data storage must be switched off and either surrendered to the Examination Supervisor or left in your bag in the designated storage area. The Board can accept no responsibility for the loss of students' personal property. Anything taken into the examination room must be made available for inspection by the examination supervisors or other Board staff. Students are reminded that they must comply with the Board's examination protocols.
Alternative Examination Arrangements
The LPAB recognises that disability, illness or other circumstances may affect your performance in an examination. In order to ensure that all students have the same opportunity when sitting examinations, in some situations, special examination arrangements may be granted.
Allowable circumstances include but are not limited to:
- a medical, physical, sensory or psychiatric condition or impairment
- a documented learning disability
- pregnancy
Examples of arrangements include but are not limited to:
- time extensions
- access to aids/equipment
- access to food, drink or medication
- amanuensis
- separate room
How to Apply
Applications must be in writing and must confirm the exams the student will be sitting, the venue he/she will be attending and must be supported by recent documentation, such as a medical certificate, describing the condition or circumstances, the impact of the condition or circumstances on the students ability to sit a 3hour written examination and provide recommendations for arrangements that would minimise or eliminate the impact of the condition or circumstances. (Application for Special Arrangements in Examinations).
Please note that the LPAB has limited resources at its disposal and requires plenty of notice in which to process applications and implement approved arrangements, therefore, applications are required to be lodged no later than 4 weeks prior to the start of the examination period. An application received after this deadline is unlikely to be approved.
Alternative examination arrangements are approved for a specified examination session only. Students should not assume ongoing approval and must reapply each session.
Illness or personal problems at examination time
Examiners are required to mark scripts strictly according to their merits, without regard to candidates' medical or personal problems. Under no circumstances should a candidate attach a medical certificate to an examination booklet, or otherwise communicate with an Examiner seeking special consideration in relation to his/her performance. A candidate whose examination performance is likely to be adversely affected by personal circumstances may be better advised not to present him or herself for examination. Unfortunately, it is not possible for supplementary exams to be taken at a later date.
If you elect not to sit due to serious illness or misadventure suffered within one week of the exam, the Law Extension Committee may be able to offer some financial relief to a student who, but for the unforeseen event, would have most likely passed the examination. Please contact the LEC for further information.
Clash of Examinations
It is not the responsibility of the Board to notify students of any clash of exams. Students must familiarise themselves with the examination timetable prior to lodging their enrolment application.
A student enrolled for two exams that, according to the examination timetable are scheduled at the same time on the same day, may apply to the Board for special arrangements allowing him/her to sit both exams, one in the AM session and the other in the PM session. Applications in writing must be lodged by the date specified in the current course handbook.
A maximum of two exams may be sat in one day. There is no provision for supplementary exams to be taken at a later date.
Permitted Materials in Examinations
Prior to the examinations, the cover page of every examination paper, which includes the list of permitted materials for each subject, will be published on the Board's website.
Current examination formats include open book, closed book and closed book with attachments.
Students-at-Law are requested to pay particular attention to the list of permitted materials so that they do not inadvertently take unpermitted material into an examination. You should rely only on information from the Board in relation to permitted materials. You should not rely on remarks by teachers or students.
The Examinations Committee has resolved that supervisors in the Board's examinations should confiscate unpermitted material and forward it securely to the Board's Examinations Officer for report to the Examinations Committee.
If a supervisor believes that you are in possession of unpermitted material the supervisor is instructed to:
tell you that it is unpermitted; report the matter to the senior supervisor; confiscate the material and forward
it to the Examinations Officer with an incident report form. In the unlikely event that there has been a mistake the material is to be returned to you as quickly as practicable.
The supervisors will check written materials as soon as practicable after reading time commences. If a Student-at-Law has inadvertently taken unpermitted material into an examination it would be in their interests to surrender the material at the earliest practicable moment.
Other than the materials supplied by the Board, candidates are themselves responsible for providing all permitted materials.
Candidates are strongly advised to obtain relevant permitted materials well in advance of the examination, as stockists frequently sell out before examinations.
Some instances of cheating and of bringing unauthorised material into the examination room in previous examinations have come to the notice of the Board. Candidates are warned that such conduct may result in instant expulsion from the examination, and exclusion from all further examinations.
Candidates should note particularly that the answers they submit in examinations must be their own work. As with assignments, plagiarism or any other form of academic misconduct in examinations will be dealt with under Part 9 of the Legal Profesion Admission Rules 2005 and can attract serious penalties.
Candidates are also requested to bring swiftly to the notice of examination supervisors any cheating of which they become aware.
Handwriting Legibility
Candidates are cautioned that handwritten exam answers must be clear and distinct.
If an examiner finds it impossible to interpret a candidate's handwriting the Board will inform the candidate who may then be required to lodge an application for arrangements to transcribe his/her answers into a typed version. The candidate will be required to meet the costs of these arrangements.
Withdrawal from an Examination
Candidates are not required to give notice that they are withdrawing from subjects in which they are enrolled. A candidate who does not present himself or herself for examination will not be recorded as having failed the examination.
In ceasing to prepare for an examination, however, a candidate should be mindful of the progression and exclusion rules to which reference is made in the current course handbook, and to any special conditions which may have been imposed on him or her by the Examinations Committee.
Enrolment fees are not refunded, or carried forward to a later session, in cases where a student withdraws.
Examination Interviews
A student may apply for an interview with an Examiner in relation to his or her examination performance. Applications in writing must be lodged by the enrolment closing date for the semester immediately following the exams and must be accompanied by the scheduled fee. Please do not combine the fee with any other application fee such as your enrolment fee. Late applications will not be accepted.
The interview will be held at a time and place convenient to the Examiner. The student will be notified of arrangements for the interview as soon as possible.
It should be noted that an interview is not part of the marking process and that a student's result will not be changed at, or as a result of, an interview. The purpose of the interview is to allow the Examiner to explain how a student's examination script does, or does not, satisfy the requirements of the examination. It is not an opportunity for students to dispute the marks awarded with the Examiner. A student who behaves in an unreasonable or aggressive manner during the course of the interview may be subject to a charge of academic misconduct.
A copy of the exam script will be forwarded to the student in advance of the interview. If a student should subsequently decide to withdraw from an interview he or she must inform the Board immediately. Please note in such circumstances the application fee is non-refundable.
Examination Scripts
A student may apply for the return of his or her examination script. You may choose to collect scripts from the LPAB office or have them mailed out. The Exam Script Request form must be lodged with the Board within one month after the publication of examination results. Examination scripts requested in this way will normally be returned within two months of the publication of examination results. Remaining scripts will then be destroyed.
Changing Examination Centres
A candidate wishing to sit at a scheduled examination centre other than the centre nominated at the time of enrolment must submit an application in writing to the Board at least two weeks before the commencement of the examination period.
In exceptional circumstances, and providing a suitable venue can be found, a student may be permitted to take an examination at an unscheduled Australian location nominated by the student. If such permission is granted and a venue can be arranged, additional fees, which are substantial, are payable.
Students are cautioned that arranging suitable unscheduled exam venues is time consuming and costly, it is strongly advised therefore that you make appropriate enquiries with the Board's Examinations Officer at the earliest opportunity.
Applications to sit at an unscheduled venue received within one month of the examinations are unlikely to be approved.
Plagiarism & Academic Misconduct