Constructive Criticism

°o° On this day in 1989, Hollywood Pictures launched.

Well, I went in to speak to my Income Tax professor from last semester and he basically told me a few concurrently encouraging and discouraging things...

1- In terms of issue-spotting (determining what issues need to be dealt with given a laundry list of events, circumstances and happenings) and selecting the applicable law. I was in the top 95% of the class.

2. I assumed too much intelligence on the part of the reader. Apparently, I would spot the issue and apply the law without stating the law first. I thought because it was printed in the statute it was obvious, but apparently not. He said he obviously knew I knew the law, but I had to state it to receive points for it. Considering each statement of the law was 4 points, we’re talking a good sixty points lost here.

3. I applied all the laws correctly except for one small mistake that cost me about three points.

4. I totally left out one issue, the section 1031 exchange of the piano for the violin as a nonrecognition transaction. I distinctly remember leaving it off because I ran out of room, but I figured my stellar analysis in the remainder of the exam would suffice. Whoops. This was worth about sixty points.

He said either fulfilling #2 or #4 above would have given me a straight-up “A,” because only 20 points separated my score from the A’s.

Sigh.