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    Student Essentials

    How to Identify Legal Issues by Asking the Right Questions

    Dwight Madison Kealy

    Apr 02, 2025

    3 min read

    Exam and Study Tips Mentoring & Advice Professional Development Student Essentials

    Summary

    • You can find the answers to exam questions online, but they’re worthless if you aren’t asking the right questions.
    • The most elegant closing argument in the legal profession will never be heard if the case is dismissed before trial because an attorney did not know the correct answer to an important procedural question.
    • Economies, politics, technology, and the job market change. You must learn to ask more and better questions and communicate in the world beyond the limited factual regurgitation memorized for your academic discipline. 
    How to Identify Legal Issues by Asking the Right Questions
    iStock.com/Jacob Wackerhausen

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    A student earned a zero percent on a multiple-choice law exam. There were four choices per question, and the student answered every question. The student just managed to avoid the correct answer every single time. How is this possible? They were answering the wrong question.

    As background, I’ll share that the person who received a zero was in my online course. In the past, online students sometimes did much better than my in-person students. For example, the median exam score for my in-person course was 93 percent on an exam in 2022 versus 71 percent and 76 percent for my two in-person sections. Some of you may be accusing the online students of cheating, but no one likes to be accused, so hold that thought. Plus, the blame then gets put on the professor for reusing questions, not having a lockdown browser, or allowing too much time, etc.

    I write my own exam questions. I use a lock-down browser with video monitoring. I register my exam questions with the US Copyright Office. I have my students read articles that I’ve written on the subject, including one published by the American Bar Association entitled, “Students Could be Liable for $150,000 in Statutory Damages for Uploading Exam Questions Online.” I presented a paper at the annual conference for the Academy of Legal Studies in Business with the subtitle, “Can Professors Sue Quizlet or Chegg for Copying Exam Questions?” I let students know that willful intellectual property theft is also a crime punishable by up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine (17 U.S.C. § 506(a) and 18 U.S.C. § 2319). I still find my exam questions uploaded online in real-time, even with my copyright warning still attached.

    How Do You Get a Zero on a Multiple-Choice Exam?

    So, what changed this semester such that a student received a zero on a multiple-choice exam? I adjusted prior questions so that the previous correct answer was now an incorrect answer.

    For example:

    Mia's new Mercedes won't start one morning, and she screams to her passenger, "For a thousand bucks, I'd get rid of this car." The passenger normally CANNOT buy the car for $1,000:

    A.  because a reasonable person would know that a serious offer was not being made.

    B.  no answer text provided.

    C.  because the car was worth more than $500.

    D.  because Mia did not write anything down.

    Mia's new Mercedes won't start one morning, and she screams to her passenger, "For a thousand bucks, I'd get rid of this car." She screams because the passenger pointed a weapon at her. For what tort may the passenger be found liable?

    A.  because a reasonable person would know that a serious offer was not being made.

    B.  because the car was worth more than $500.

    C.  because Mia did not write anything down.

    D.  assault.

    As you can see, the first question changed from the objective theory of contracts to a question about the tort of assault. The result was that in response to the question, “For what tort may the passenger be found liable?” 23 percent (9/39) of my online students responded, “because a reasonable person would know that a serious offer was not being made.” None of the students who took the exam in person in class with me missed this question. Not only did the student who earned a zero percent on the exam defy statistics by avoiding the correct answer, but this student also picked the former correct answer . . . every single time. Other online students challenged the margin of error with grades of 6 percent and 16 percent and, again, picked the former correct answer every time they did not find the new correct answer.

    What does this mean for law and the study of law? It means what it has always meant, and now more than ever: the answer is easy—if you ask the right question.

    Beyond Memorization: Understanding Ideas and Identifying Issues

    But this is not just about how to avoid cheating. This is about the essence of education. If the purpose of education is only to provide answers, what does it offer that the internet and AI don’t already do better? AI passed the Uniform Bar Exam and the United States Medical Licensing Examination. Instead of memorizing answers, law students should focus on identifying legal issues by asking more and better questions. For example, I don’t care if bridge builders memorize all the formulas they need to use. I just want them to understand what questions to ask to build a bridge that will not fail.

    On my desk sits a calculator that always gives me the correct technical answer to the questions I want answered. But, calculators cannot identify issues or tell us what to input. They cannot find connections between various disciplines, synthesize information, and present it in a way that will change lives or serve justice.

    I do not mean to dismiss the need to understand the correct answer. We cannot find connections between ideas if we do not first research and understand the ideas. The most elegant closing argument in the legal profession will never be heard if the case is dismissed before trial because an attorney did not know the correct answer to an important procedural question.

    All the answers are online, but they’re worthless if we aren’t asking the right questions. Economies, politics, technology, and the job market change. Students should learn to ask more and better questions and communicate in the world beyond the limited factual regurgitation memorized for their academic discipline. Calculators can’t do this.

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