Two Ways to Write Analysis on Essay Exams

On most law school essay exams, your job is to identify the relevant issues, determine which rules resolve the issues, apply facts to the rules, and determine the likely result for the parties.  This is a standard IRAC essay writing format. 

When applying facts to the rules in the “A” of your IRAC, there are two ways to write analysis, based on your professor’s preferences.

If your professor does not want you to cite precedent cases in your analysis, you must provide a standard analysis in which you apply facts to a rule (or elements). Use this formula to write standard analysis sentences.  

If your professor wants you to cite precedent cases in your analysis, you must introduce the precedent case and either apply or distinguish it from the facts of the essay exam. If this is your professor's preference, your analysis of each case must contain seven components over a few sentences.

When you want the same outcome as the precedent case, use this formula to apply precedent cases in your analysis.   

When you want the opposite outcome as the precedent case, use this formula to distinguish precedent cases in your analysis.  

As you finish topics during the semester and start to write practice exams on each topic, understanding your professor’s overall IRAC format and analysis preferences and using these simple formulas will produce a clear analysis anchored to the rule and precedent cases.    

Which, in turn, will increase your score and grade in the class.  

Now that you're familiar with the two ways to write analysis on exams be sure to ask your professor for their preferred approach before your next exam!