Is cold-calling a thing in Canadian law schools?

[Mr. Blue]

I've seen lots of people talk about cold-calling in law school and I'm wondering if it's a big thing in Canadian law schools or if it's mostly an American thing.

[Pantalaimon]

Pretty rare at my school. I think I had one prof who was super dedicated to it, one who did it occasionally. It's far more common to have a "discussant" system where you know ahead of time if you're up for answering questions for the day.

[goosie]

It's definitely more professor-dependent in Canada. I had one prof who had a similar system to the one Pantalaimon mentioned, where he had a schedule and you would know in advance what day you could expect to be cold called. (He also wouldn't cold call you on that day if you actively participated yourself, which is what most people did.) I only had two other profs who cold called, one of whom told us on the first day of class that he'd cold call and then did it maybe a handful of times. Most of my classes did not have any cold calling.

[elle.woods]

Hey! I am a 1L at UBC Law. A couple of my professors cold-call, but only really did it at the beginning of the year before people would willingly participate. Now they don't really need to cold-call at all because most of the class is comfortable raising their hand and answering questions. It was mostly a tool to get a discussion going. Occasionally they will call on someone to explain the facts of a case etc. but nothing crazy. Also, as someone said above, a few professors do an 'on-call' system throughout the year where you know in advance which day you can expect to be cold-called so you can adequately prepare. It's really not as stressful as I thought it would be! 

[SNAILS]

The closest thing I've seen to cold calling at Osgoode Hall is where someone volunteers an answer, and the professor asks a follow up question. I have never seen someone been put on the spot where they are just sitting their minding their own business.

It is typical for less than 50% of the class to even show up. I assume the other half just listens to the lecture recordings.