The quality of the arguments about EMI problems used by university students following traditional teaching in a first-year engineering course revealed insights into these students’ depth of understanding and applications of EMI phenomenon. The appropriateness of their conclu- sion, the relevance of the laws and principles considered when coming to a conclusion (conceptual relevance), the quality of evidence used in their conclusion, and the consistency of their reasoning (sufficiency of the reasoning) revealed shallow understanding of the underlying physics and facility with evidence-based argumentation. The research methods were selected and implemented to overcome some weaknesses in the use of checklists of argument elements and to promote insights into the internal consistency of arguments, the underlying concepts and evidence to support the conclusion, and reasoning about the problem situation.