'Practice Makes Perfect': : Using authentic assessment techniques in Extra and Co-Curricular course (ECCAs) delivery to reflect the Solicitor's Regulation Authority's (SRA) change towards legal vocational stage delivery

Authentic assessments are closely aligned with activities that take place in real work settings, as distinct from the often artificial constructs of university courses. As the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority (SRA) has recognised that delivery of the vocational stage of training should utilise authentic assessment techniques to improve students’ ‘Day One’ outcomes, the authors assert that authentic assessments, in accredited and university-run extra and cocurricular activities (ECCAs), should be used to improve student performance. As the authors have found, delivering authentic assessment methods in ECCAs, using a combination of formative and summative techniques used throughout the assessment processes, improves student performance.