In light of a lot of misguided complaints going around, the ANU LSS has some fun education facts.

(1) There are no 100% exams

Unless you didn't bother doing an optional assessment task, there are NO 100% EXAMS at the ANU College of Law. In fact, the ANU LSS sits on the Means of Assessment Subcommittee to ensure this. The two exceptions are (quite understandably) the Law Internship and Honours Thesis.

(2) There is no Bell Curve

The ANU CoL does not use a bell curve, it uses bands for the distribution of grades. The final assessment results for students in each course (barring Law Internship and Honours Thesis) conforms to the following:

HD (80% +): 2-5%of candidates
Distinction (70-79%): 10-20% of candidates
Credit (60-69&): 30-50% of candidates.

There are three main reasons for using this method:

1. It creates long-term stability in marking (most years are similarly competent, so breakdowns should stay similar);
2. It creates consistency in marks when staff change (avoids crazy staff failing/HDing everyone or newbies going wild with their marking); and
3. Students are always compared with each other, simple benchmarking enables actual meaningful comparisons of students to be made.

That being said, if a year is particularly good/bad, markers are not forced to use the formula. In particular, the course convenor might want to have a different breakdown because of:

a) A small cohort (if you have 10 people in a course you can hardly apply the formula)
b) What part of the degree the course is in (contrast Torts with, say, Litigation)
c) The nature of the assessment task.

Under this system, NO ONE HAS TO FAIL. It's not really a question of "filling in the bands" but rather applying the criteria for the award of final grades (see llb/jd handbook at law.anu.edu.au p 53-54) to the work that a student has produced in a course. As such, examiners will work out whether there is a good case for moving outside the bands.

The system in place is about transparency and consistency. Check out the LLB handbook for more info.

Any questions? Call/email/get in contact with Alice Crawford (President) on 0421 495 655 / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it