struck sure quest eons

This little writing epiphany came to me not too long ago, and I thought it was cool enough to share. It deals with structure:

ACT I - You are unlearned and ignorant. In order to become a better being, you must become learned and wise.

ACT II - So, you go to school. At school, you learn many things. It is a new environment. You make new friends. The ignorance begins to fade. You are becoming learned. But, you're not quite there yet, for school is not a place of application. You must enter into...

ACT III - The Final Exam. Here you are tested to the max on EVERYTHING you learned at school. You must apply it, so that you can become not just learned, but wise, for wisdom stems from experience, not from books. 

The End.

Yeah, I know. I said I was a Four Act Man, and I still am. It's just easier to illustrate in three. 

I dunno. This may not be news to you, but I found it rather enlightening. To think of the third act as being an exam of sorts for all the things learned in the second act makes the second act's often ambiguous purpose all the more clear. We often say the second act is where we try the protagonist, and that's true, but I think most importantly, it's where he/she is taught. It's almost as if you can come up with three or four "questions" that need to be asked in Act III, and then come up with ways for them to all be taught, or addressed, in the second act. 

Okay, an example (From a real script I'm concocting):

Protagonist - A new mother, estranged from her husband, desperately seeking approval from an adopted mother she never got along with, as well as from her mysterious birth mother. She believes that in knowing who her real mother is, she'll be able to raise her children right. In the end (SPOILER ALERT, sorta), she learns the most important relationship to foster is the one she chose to be in, the one with her husband.

So, what could the questions be for her Act II?

1. What kind of man is her husband?

2. What kind of mother is her birth mother?

3. What kind of mother is her adopted mother?

4. What does it take to be a good mother?

etc. etc. 

All of these questions could be a sequence, a scene, a conversation or even just a moment. When you look at it that way, it practically writes itself, no? 

And the best part is, you can write as many questions as you want. I mean, don't get carried away or nothin', cause then it'll get long, and possibly not as interesting, but always be asking questions. And maybe you don't address them all in the script. Maybe all they do help you with better understanding the characters; doesn't that still make them valuable? What's important is to just know the questions that need to be asked, and then shuffle in the answers during your second act. Teach your protagonist well*. 

So, basically, what I'm saying is this: Be your protagonist's meanest high school English teacher. Teach 'em everything you think they need to know to do awesome in their final act. Don't surprise them with new questions about information they never learned (I'd say that's a bit "deus ex machina", which by the way is such a cool sounding phrase, that it's a bummer that it's practically a swear word in Screenwriting Land), because that's not fair. Give them just enough (or more than enough) to pass the test. 

And don't make it easy. While they may do wonders for your GPA, there's nothing entertaining about an easy A. 

So, what are y'all's thoughts? Expound! Contend! Detest! Whatever works. I wanna hear what you think...

*Their father's hell did slowly go by