Problem questions are the most predictable marks on the paper and the ones most students throw away. Not because they do not know the law, but because they write it in the wrong order. Here is the structure examiners are marking against, and where each assessment objective actually earns.
Run it once per legal issue in the scenario. A problem question with three issues gets three of these, not one long essay.
One sentence identifying the legal question this part of the scenario raises. Not a retelling of the facts. The examiner wrote the facts; they do not need them read back. "The issue is whether X is liable for Y" is enough, and it tells the marker immediately that you have spotted the right offence or claim.
Where marks go: writing a paragraph of story before naming the issue. It earns nothing and eats the clock.
This is your AO1. State the legal test in the words the law uses, then attach the authority: the statute section, or the case and roughly what it established. Precision is the whole game here. "There was a case about intention" earns nothing; naming the case and the principle earns the mark.
Where marks go: vague authority. Examiners consistently report that candidates know the rule but cannot attribute it.
This is your AO2, and it is where problem questions are won and lost. Take the rule you just stated and run the specific facts of this scenario through it, element by element. Use the names in the question. If the rule has four elements, you address four elements — including the ones that are clearly satisfied, briefly.
Where marks go: restating the rule in different words and calling it application. If you could delete the scenario and the paragraph still made sense, it is not AO2.
Answer the question that was asked, on the balance of what you have just argued. "X is likely liable for Y" is a conclusion. "It depends" is not. Where the law genuinely is uncertain, say so and say which way you think it falls and why — that is a judgement, and judgement is credited.
Where marks go: refusing to commit. A wrong-but-reasoned conclusion scores better than no conclusion.
State the law correctly. In IRAC this is your Rule. Statute sections, case names, the test itself.
Apply that law to the scenario in front of you. In IRAC this is your Application, and in problem questions it is the bulk of the marks.
Critique the law — strengths, weaknesses, reform. Roughly 20% of marks overall, rare in problem questions but present in longer ones. It is the grade-changer in essays.
The practical version: AO1 and AO2 together are about 80% of the marks, and in a problem question almost all of that is AO2. So if you are budgeting a 15-minute answer, the Rule is a sentence or two per issue and the Application is everything else. Students routinely invert that — three paragraphs of law, one line of application — and cannot understand why a technically correct answer scored in the middle band.
Write the skeleton before the prose. Read the scenario, list the issues in the margin, and put I-R-A-C beside each one. Two minutes of planning turns a rambling answer into a structured one, and examiners can see structure from across the room.
Time it from the start. A structure you can only produce with unlimited time is not a structure you have. Set the real clock early, even when it feels too soon.
Mark your own work against the scheme, not your memory. Go through with the mark scheme and label each sentence AO1, AO2 or nothing. The "nothing" sentences are your answer to why the grade is not moving.
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