Thursday, February 11, 2021 New instructions for answering the pre-exam and new marking scheme - no marks for a Q if not all statements answered

Today, a Notice from the Examination Board of the EQE was published in the EQE website.

The Notice provides that the instructions for answering the pre-examination paper and the marking scheme have been amended with immediate effect.

The instructions and the marking scheme which apply for the EQE 2021 are given in an Annex to the Notice.

The instructions reflect the 4-part form of the e-EQE 2021, as it was presented in Mock 2.:

• The pre-examination takes the form of a multiple-choice test made up of four parts and comprising a total of 20 questions. 
• Ten of the questions are on aspects of legal knowledge (parts 1 and 2) and
  the other ten are on the analysis of claims (parts 3 and 4).
• Questions must be answered by ticking the appropriate circle ("True" or "False") next to each of the statements that follow each question. 
• For the claim analysis parts, the hyperlinks shown at the beginning of each question refer to the documents made available for printing before the beginning of the relevant part of the pre-examination.
• I.e., the same as in Mock 2.
• Each question is followed by four separate statements. 
• Candidates must indicate whether the statements are true or false. 
• For each statement, only one answer may be given (either "true" or "false"). 
• Each statement within a question is to be considered independently of the other statements.
• To indicate that a statement is true, candidates should tick the circle next to "True".
  To indicate that a statement is false, they should tick the circle next to "False".
• All four statements making up a question must be answered either "true" or "false".
  If at least one of the four statements is left unanswered, then the answer to the whole question will be deemed not to be correct.
• There is no provision for submitting notes or remarks to the examiner. Any such submission will be disregarded.

Marking:

• If at least one of the four statements within a question is not answered either "true" or "false", then 0 marks will be awarded for this question.
• This is different from before, where a non-answered statement was considered not correct, but where the other statements of the question were taken into account. 
• So: if out of all 4 statements of a single question, 3 statements are correctly answered and 1 statement is left non-answered:
• previously, the 3 correctly answered and 1 non-answered statement would be awarded with 3 marks; 
• now, the 3 correctly answered and 1 non-answered statement would not get any marks at all.
• So always give an answer to all of the statements - also if you do not now the answer! The  simply give an educated guess or a random guess, or give your predetermined "donot-know-answer", e.g. "false".
• If all four of the statements within a question are answered either "true" or "false", the marks will be awarded as before: 0/1/2/3/4 correct results in 0/0/1/3/5 marks..
• If within one question none or only one of the answers to the four statements is correct, then 0 marks will be awarded for this question.
• If within one question two of the answers to the four statements are correct, then 1 mark will be awarded for this question.
• If within one question three of the answers to the four statements are correct, then 3 marks will be awarded for this question.
• If within one question, all four of the answers to the four statements are correct, then 5 marks will be awarded for this question.
• The total marks awarded for the pre-examination is the sum of the marks achieved for each question in all four parts, calculated as stated above.