23 days to go. Law school is intense. Most of the time in college classes you can go to class, not do the reading or pay attention and be okay because the professor will only call on you if you volunteer. If only law school were the same way.
In law school, there is a thing called the "cold call." This is where a professor will call on students without any prior notice to answer questions or talk about a case we were assigned to read. The interesting part is trying to figure out the professor and how they cold call because they all have different methods.
Some simply use a seating chart or list and pick at random. Some people study the student list before class and pick the people they will call on. Some teachers assign days where certain groups of students are "on call." Some professors go alphabetically. Some call three people to work together on a single problem. My favorite way has probably been the professor that had the "deck." The deck was basically a bunch of 3x5 cards with our names/pictures on them. She would pull them from the top of the deck and at random points in the semester she would shuffle the deck.
In some classes the teacher actually takes volunteers, and will only cold call someone if no one volunteers. The key in these situations is to preempt the cold call. You have to volunteer for a case you are prepared for so you will not get called on for a case you know nothing about.
Most professors are satisfied if you at least give a good faith effort in your response. It's okay if you don't know everything. Just don't be completely unprepared, or you may find yourself kicked out of class.Yes, I've seen that happen.
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