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Guides·1L essentials·6 min read·Updated July 2026

Cold-Call Preparation: What to Actually Do the Night Before

Cold calls feel high-stakes because they're public, not because they're hard. The preparation that actually works isn't reading the case a fourth time — it's rehearsing the four sentences you'd say if called on, and the two follow-ups that always come next.

The four sentences

Every cold call, in every 1L course, boils down to four sentences you should be able to deliver from memory:

  1. The facts in one breath. Who did what to whom, in the past tense, in under 15 seconds.
  2. The issue as a 'whether' question. 'Whether the defendant owed a duty of care to a plaintiff outside the zone of foreseeable danger.'
  3. The rule the court applied. One sentence. This is the sentence you'd write on the exam.
  4. The holding and disposition. Who won, and what the court did procedurally (affirmed, reversed, remanded).
The 90-second test

If you can deliver all four sentences in 90 seconds without notes, you're ready. If you can't, re-read your brief once — not the case.

The two follow-ups

Professors follow up with variations. Prepare for these two, and you're prepared for 80% of the follow-ups you'll actually get:

  1. 'How would the outcome change if [one fact] were different?' Pick the fact the case turns on and rehearse the alternative. In Palsgraf: 'If the guards had known the package contained fireworks, they would have been on notice, and Palsgraf would likely have been within the foreseeable zone.'
  2. 'What's the rationale?' Not the rule — the reason for the rule. In Hadley: 'The rule limits damages to those the breaching party could have contracted around, keeping contract prices from having to include exotic risk premiums.'

The 20-minute night-before routine

  1. Re-read your brief (5 min). Not the case — your brief. If your brief isn't good enough to prepare from, that's the real fix, not more re-reading.
  2. Speak the four sentences out loud (5 min). Yes, out loud. Silent rehearsal is a lie you tell yourself.
  3. Answer both follow-up templates (5 min). Just say them out loud from your brief.
  4. Star the two hardest sentences (5 min). Note the specific rule statement or fact chronology you fumbled. Glance at those two lines right before class starts.

If you get called on and blank

The right move is a calm, structured admission plus a fallback to what you do know. 'I don't have the facts fresh — could I speak to the rule the court announced?' is not failure; it's professional. Silence, guessing, or apologizing is what turns a fumble into a story.

Where Scriba fits in

Every Scriba brief has a dedicated one-line 'issue' field and a one-line 'rule' field — the two sentences you'll deliver first. The cold-call flashcard mode surfaces those two lines for the cases you have class on tomorrow, so the 20-minute routine takes closer to 10.

Frequently asked

How many cases should I be able to cold-call on per class?

Every assigned case, at the four-sentence level. Full-brief only the ones your professor emphasized last class.

What if I've been called on already this week?

You're still on the hook. Some professors deliberately re-call students they think are relaxing. Prepare every class.

Are cold-call transcripts a good study tool?

Occasionally, for one class you missed. Regularly, no — you'll learn the transcriber's misunderstandings instead of the doctrine.

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