- Factual errors: The bird William Forrester videotapes and identifies as a Connecticut Warbler is actually a Yellow Warbler.
- Continuity: Jamal's tie "moves" in two consecutive shots during his first day of class.
- Factual errors: US Flag hung incorrectly in opening scenes. When displayed vertically on a wall, the blue field should be in the upper left corner. The film shows it in the upper right.
- Miscellaneous: At one point, William Forrester chides Jamal about "The single most important criteria" of writing. Given how precise his character is about language, it is unlikely that he would use the plural (criteria) instead of the singular (criterion) - (although after leading with the tautological cliché, "the single most important", perhaps linguistic clumsiness is only to be expected).
- Audio/visual unsynchronized: Jamal practices basketball with his new team on the concrete roof of the school. We hear the players' shoes squeaking across the floor, but shoes don't squeak on concrete.
- Factual errors: In the basketball championship game played at Madison Square Garden, the three point lines are clearly NBA distance, but in high school competition, the distance of the lines should be about four feet closer to the basket.
- Continuity: When Jamal descends the staircase to Forrester's house, we can see from the overhead shot that the staircase spirals counterclockwise up, meaning that as he gets to the top the wall should be on his right-hand side. However, several times we see that as he takes the last few steps, the wall is on his left hand side.
- Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): At one point in the film Jamal mentions to Claire that, "It was Stamford... At the bar in London... He was the one who introduced Watson to Holmes", alluding to the Sherlock Holmes novels and stories. However, it wasn't at a bar in London where Stamford introduced Watson to Holmes but at a hospital's chemical laboratory near the bar.
- Continuity: In the basketball state championship, the opposing team scores, and then Mailer calls a time out. During the time out, the coach says "if we get a stop here, they'll have to put us on the line", yet Mailer should have had possession, thereby not necessitating a "stop".
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- Plot holes: SPOILER: To prove that Jamal does not write his compositions himself, Professor Crawford has Jamal write the next assignment at school, in his office. Jamal, mad about this, does not write anything, yet Crawford never uses this fact to discredit him.
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