In second-year Law, students are put through the wringer with four full-year papers: Criminal Law, Law of Contract, Property Law, and Public Law. Usually, the exams are closed-book, but for 2025 LAWS203 (Property Law) is now set to be an open-book exam.
The Faculty of Law cites the change as “[clarifying] to students that the exam’s focus is on applying legal principles to new problems, rather than memorising content.” While this change might seem trivial, Property Law has been regarded as the hardest of the four papers. It boasts the lowest average grade across the 200-level papers (excluding fails). In 2024, the average grade was 67.53%. For Criminal, this was 71.36%; Contract was 71.93%; and Public was 71.16%. Similarly, in 2023, Property also had the lowest average at 66.93%.
For now, it remains uncertain whether the other three exams will also change. One Law student Critic spoke to suggested that the change should be standardised across them all. Comparatively, at both the 300 and 400 levels Law exams are typically open book, but still written and structured in a way that enables them to be challenging. In 2021, for example, when Property Law was last open-book – an exception made due to Covid-19 – the average grade was still a B- at 68.96%.
Ultimately, the open-book change seems a welcome one. Fifth- year Law student Oriah said, “[Just] because past students have struggled with second-year or faced bad grades, doesn’t mean future students should have to face the same […] Just like our legal system, legal education should remain ambulatory.” But for this year, it looks like second-year Law tauira can delete their Quizlets, while realistically knowing it won’t magically make the exam a piece of piss.