How to improve your LLB marks using assessment feedback

To improve your LLB work, start with the gap between your answer and the assessment criteria. Feedback such as “too descriptive” or “more application needed” becomes useful when you turn it into a specific editing task and practise that task on a new question.

More revision may help if your knowledge is weak. If you know the material but are not using it effectively, you need to change how you build an answer. Your course’s marking criteria and the feedback on your own work are the best starting points.

1. Diagnose the problem before rewriting everything

Read your answer alongside the question, the rubric and the marker’s comments. Find the passage that prompted each comment. If you cannot tell what a comment refers to, ask your tutor for an example of the improvement they mean.

Feedback	Possible problem	A useful next task
Too descriptive	You explain the topic without answering the question	Rewrite one paragraph around a claim or disputed issue
More application	You state a rule but do little with the facts	Add the decisive fact and explain its legal effect
Weak structure	Several issues appear in the same paragraph	Make a short issue plan and give each paragraph a job
Unsupported assertion	The reader cannot see why a proposition is correct	Add appropriate authority and explain what it establishes
Limited evaluation	You state a conclusion without considering objections	Develop the strongest counterargument and respond to it

These are possible diagnoses, not a substitute for your marker’s explanation. A comment can mean different things in an essay and a problem question.

2. Make the facts do some work

Suppose a problem says that a buyer replies to a £400 bicycle offer: “I accept, but only if delivery is included.” The seller rejects the condition, and the buyer then tries to accept the original offer.

Before: “A counter-offer rejects the original offer. This is shown in Hyde v Wrench. There is no contract.”

After: “The words ‘only if delivery is included’ make the buyer’s agreement conditional on an additional term. That points to a counter-offer rather than a simple inquiry. Applying Hyde v Wrench, the original offer would no longer be available for the buyer’s later acceptance, unless the seller renewed it.”

The second version identifies the relevant words and explains their effect. It also states the limit of the conclusion. The authority is Hyde v Wrench (1840) 3 Beav 334.

This does not mean repeating every fact. Select those that support or weaken the legal argument. Our problem-question guide develops that approach.

3. Give an essay paragraph a position

In an essay, a paragraph should contribute to your answer to the proposition. A paragraph that describes a doctrine accurately can still fail to explain why that doctrine supports your argument.

Try this editing sequence:

1. Write the point you want the reader to accept.
2. Give the authority or evidence supporting it.
3. Explain how it bears on the essay question.
4. Consider a serious objection where relevant.
5. State what the discussion establishes, without claiming more than it supports.

For example, in an essay about certainty and fairness in contract law, do not simply list rules about variations. Explain which rule promotes predictability, who may be disadvantaged by it and whether an exception solves that problem or creates another one.

Evaluation does not require saying that every judgment is wrong. It requires reasons for the weight you give to competing arguments.

4. Check whether structure is hiding your knowledge

Before your next answer, make a brief plan using the issues or propositions you must address. Put the difficult points where you can give them adequate space.

After drafting, write a one-line description beside each paragraph. If three paragraphs do the same job, combine or distinguish them. If a major issue has no paragraph, add it. If a paragraph does not help answer the question, reconsider it.

Then inspect your conclusions. Do they follow from the analysis, or introduce a result you have not explained? In a problem with uncertain facts, a qualified conclusion can be appropriate if you identify what the uncertainty depends on.

5. Practise one improvement and check it

Choose one recurring weakness for the next week. For example:

Target: apply authority more precisely.

Practice: answer one short problem, underline each statement of law and highlight each sentence applying it.

Check: for each important rule, can you point to a sentence connecting it to the facts?

Feedback: ask your tutor whether the revised passage addresses the earlier comment, using available feedback opportunities.

Keep the original and revised versions. The comparison shows whether you have changed the feature that needed work. It cannot guarantee a particular mark, but it makes your practice purposeful.

Use revision resources to support the change

Law Answered+ gives you access to all our revision guides and casebooks covering the full syllabus, plus MCQ Master. You have the complete library available as you work on feedback across different modules, bringing explanations, key authorities and question practice together in one revision membership.

Use a guide to resolve the legal point, then close it and write your own application. For MCQs, explain why the strongest alternative is wrong. That step helps you move from recognising a rule to reasoning with it—the skill your written feedback may be asking you to develop.