A problem question is not an invitation to dump the reading list. It is a simulated file. The first-class script looks like a junior in chambers: it finds the disputes, names the rules, applies the facts, and advises. Theory belongs where it changes the advice — not as a decoration in paragraph one.
Jurisprudence · Exam technique
How to Write a First-Class Problem Question
A method you can run in thirty minutes: classify, issue-spot, IRAC each issue, and spend your last five minutes on structure.
Hornbook Faculty4 min read0 reads
- Read the question twice. Circle parties, dates, amounts, and verbs (‘advised’, ‘arrested’, ‘sold’). Dates are limitation and coincidence of mens rea.
- List issues in the order they arise, not in the order of the textbook.
- For each issue, write IRAC: issue, rule (authority), application (facts), conclusion.
- Use authorities as tools. One well-applied case beats five named in a row.
- Advise. ‘X is likely liable for…; Y should plead…; the weaker point is…’
What markers actually reward
- Accurate classification of the dispute (contract or estoppel? tort or constitutional?).
- A rule that is current and pinpointed.
- Facts used, not restated. ‘Because the letter was posted on 3 March…’
- Seeing the counter-argument in a sentence, then choosing.
- Clean English. Short sentences. Headings if the question has several parties.
Jurisprudence, used lightly
If the course is jurisprudence, Hart’s internal point of view, Dworkin’s principles, and Fuller’s inner morality of law are argument moves. They are at their best when a statute is silent or a court is choosing. In a doctrinal paper, one sentence of theory is usually enough: ‘A positivist would stop at the text of Article 2; a Dworkinian would argue that supremacy includes the moral reading of Chapter Four.’ Then return to the facts.
The point of a problem question is not to show that you have read. It is to show that you can decide.
— Hornbook faculty