Law essays vs problem questions: where the marks differ

Law students often write a problem question as if it were an essay, or an essay as if it were a problem question — and lose marks doing it. The two formats look similar on the page, but they're marked against different criteria, rewarding different skills.Knowing which game you're playing before you write a word is one of the quiet advantages strong candidates have.

The essay: critical argument and evaluation

A law essay asks you to take a position on a proposition — "critically evaluate", "discuss the extent to which", "to what extent is the law satisfactory". The marks live in argument and evaluation: a clear thesis, a critical engagement with competing views, awareness of policy and reform, and the ability to weigh authorities rather than merely recite them. Description of the law is the floor, not the ceiling. An essay that accurately states the law but never evaluates it sits in the middle bands however correct it is.

The verbs in the criteria give it away. Top bands reward responses that critically analyse and evaluate; middle bands describe and explain. If your essay is a well-organised tour of the doctrine with no argument driving it, you've written to the wrong verb.

The problem question: IRAC applied to facts

A problem question hands you a fact scenario and asks you to advise. Here the marks reward application — taking the law to these specific facts and reasoning to a conclusion. Most students structure this with IRAC: Issue, Rule, Application, Conclusion. The make-or-break row is nearly always Application. Identifying the issue and stating the rule are necessary, but they're the setup; the marks concentrate on how well you apply that rule to the messy, deliberately ambiguous facts in front of you.

Our walk-through of the IRAC method for problem questions goes deeper on structuring the application step, which is where most lost marks hide.

The essay asks "is the law good?" The problem question asks "what happens to this client?" Answer the wrong one well and you still score badly.

Two mark schemes, one habit

Because the two formats reward different things, the most useful feedback tells you whether you're hitting the right criteria for the format in front of you — not just whether the writing is competent. An essay that needs more evaluation and a problem question that needs more application are different diagnoses, and treating them the same is how students plateau.

That's the gap Mark was built to close: upload the marking criteria for the task and your answer, and he returns a mark per criterion with the quoted line as evidence — so you can see whether your problem answer is genuinely applying the law or just restating it, and whether your essay is evaluating or merely describing. The same discipline scales up to professional assessments like the bar exam, where essays and performance tasks are each marked to their own scheme.

Three checks before you submit either

• Name the format first.Essay or problem question? The command words tell you — and they tell you which criteria you're being marked against.
• For essays, find your argument.If you can't state your thesis in one sentence, the evaluation marks aren't there yet.
• For problem questions, weight the Application. If your answer spends more words stating rules than applying them to the facts, rebalance before you polish.