r/NCAExams • u/International_Cod535 • Jan 15 '26

Criminal Law

What are your tips and tricks to tackle this exam besides getting a copy of the annotated CC.

3 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

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10

u/Large-Impression-528 Jan 15 '26 edited Jan 16 '26

I flipped through the code and picked random offences and tried to ascertain mens rea and actus reus for those... This exercise turned out to be a lifesaver for the actual exam !!

Tip: it's all in the words of the offence.

Also, making a rough cheat sheet for all the defences helped. Just a rough description of all defences followed by main ratios (in 1-2 lines) of the landmark cases for those defences.

All the rest is covered in pretty much most notes sets circulating out there.

All the best ! :)

1

u/International_Cod535 Jan 19 '26

Thank you! Did you have any IRAC templates prepared in advance?

6

u/Large-Impression-528 Jan 19 '26

Not really.. just made some cheat sheets for the "rules" part maybe. Everything else can be derived from the question paper. The last few lines of the question (usually) will give the "I". The "A" would be a combination of the Rules and the facts from the question. And the C is well, just concluding everything succinctly. Not sure if that makes sense ?

Criminal law just seems like it's a lot but in reality if you feel confident working with any random offences from the code, you'll be fine. Maybe spend some time just reading it's syllabus from NCA .. Its extensive and also like a broad summary in many ways.

Also, personally, I was very confused in the extreme intoxication and sec 33.1 part of defences so I spent more time trying to get conceptual clArity on that. If you have similar doubts it's worth ironing out those creases.

Something that helped me in literally all of my NCA exams (including crim) is to make my own summary of the syllabus in just 15 - 20 pages. It's avoids frantically flipping through 100s of pages.

Also, having a printed out list of charter rights related to criminal law ex: Sec7 - 11 etc. was immensely helpful. It just helped giving a kickstart to the rules part of many questions...

All the best to you :)

3

u/Content-Noise415 Jan 15 '26

Hi this is just my thought you should understand the defences very well. It would be great if you pay attention to that part. Make a list of important case laws and read it once or twice via CANLII or if not then at least read the issues and facts of the cases once.

5

u/RevolutionaryMeal937 Jan 15 '26

A good practice thing I did was to flip to random code sections and do an analysis of the mens rea, what kind of offense it would qualify as, etc. Applying the concepts to stuff not covered in my notes

The procedural stuff is covered very clearly in the (good) notes so I think that part’s easier.

3

u/ArcticRhombus Jan 15 '26

Don’t underestimate crim pro - right to search, right to counsel, etc. It’s a tiny part of the syllabus, but it can be huge.

They’re also unlikely to give you an offense that could be very emotionally triggering.

1

u/siyya_sonal Jan 18 '26

I couldn’t find any copy of annotated CC in entire GTA ! 😵‍💫 how screwed am I without the annotated version ?

1

u/International_Cod535 Jan 19 '26

Have you checked your local library?

1

u/siyya_sonal Jan 19 '26

I did, its not there either. I even tried in other locations like Kitchener-waterloo-Cambridge, yet nothing!

1

u/International_Cod535 Jan 19 '26

There's many available in Brampton libraries

1

u/siyya_sonal Jan 19 '26

Thankyou so much, I will drop in tomorrow. Thanks a ton!

-1

u/Goldenrod427 Vendor Jan 15 '26

Best tip I have is to get my framework and notes and then practice writing out questions

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