Lectures tend to contain between fifty and two hundred people depending on the subject, but seminar group differ enormously. For example, at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, tutorials often consist of just one student and one professor. The skills which most graduates from these universities possess are often attributed to the tutorial system. Each student studies four or five subjects per year and for each subject there are assessed essays throughout the year and a written examination at the end of the year. Many examinations do not include compulsory case-solving questions, but instead require students to argue about a particular statement or idea.
Most courses nowadays contain critical or contextual elements.
This means that the law is studied in relation to other disciplines such as politics, economics, philosophy and sociology. Whilst at university, law students are encouraged to take part in debates and mooting in order to improve their ability to argue lucidly and cogently. Such skills play an important role in the English court system. Mooting is the name given to the activity in which a mock court, presided over by a law professor or local legal practitioner, is set up. Students form teams and compete against each other by arguing over a point of law as laid out in an imaginary case.