Frequently asked questions

Recruitment

  • No! You don’t need any prior Mock Trial experience to join our team. In fact, most of our team never had mock trial or even public speaking experience prior to joining our team. When accepted, we’ll teach you everything you need to know to be successful.

  • No! There are absolutely no major requirements for joining Mock Trial at UCI. While many of our teammates do choose to attend prestigious law schools, many of our members pursue other careers, including computer science, biology, and acting. The public speaking & critical thinking skills that you gain from Mock Trial are highly transferable and can benefit you regardless of your career goals.

  • During the first three days of week 1 in Fall Quarter, we will be hosting a number of information sessions where we give you more details about our program and auditions. At the end of these sessions, you can sign up for tryouts, which will likely take place during Week 1 of Fall Quarter. More information will be posted on our Recruitment Page, social media, and mailing list.

  • Every week, you will attend 2-3 practices. There are two required in-person practices: one on Thursday from 7-9 PM, and one small team practice scheduled according to your availability. Additionally, there will be one optional practice with your team. All practices will be help in person and on campus unless otherwise stated. Throughout the school year, we also attend a number of tournaments that take place on the weekends. Excluding tournament dates, the weekly time commitment typically averages out to about 4-8 hours per week.

  • Yes! We get to travel all across the state and country for our tournaments. Some of our favorite places that we’ve visited include Santa Barbara, San Diego, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and New York City. For more information about our tournaments, check out our Tournaments Page!

Information sessionS

  • Nope! You only need to go to one of the three information sessions. However, it is mandatory to attend one so that you can sign up for an audition and learn how the recruitment process works.

  • Please email us at anteatermocktrial@gmail.com or DM us at @anteatermocktrial to let us know your availability and we will set up something from there. Please reach out to us prior to the date of the first info session as it can be hard to accommodate special circumstances when we're in the middle of out info sessions or our auditions.

  • Information sessions are designed to explain how our club works, walk you through our audition process, and give you a chance to meet some members of our team.

  • Nope! Wear whatever you feel. For the audition dress code, see the auditions section of the FAQ.

AuditionS

  • Unfortunately, we only offer auditions in the beginning of the fall quarter so that our newbies can learn trial advocacy and build up their mock trial skills throughout the year.

  • Of course! We’ve had several competitors make the team after auditioning a second time.

  • You can sign up for an audition at our information sessions! You’ll be able to pick a time slot that works for you.

  • You will be sent an email after you attend an information session with the materials necessary for your audition. In it, you will be given a short speech to memorize and some witnessing materials to prepare.

  • We highly recommend being memorized before doing your speech and your witness performance so that we can see the fullness of your abilities!

  • The auditions are solo!

  • Our wonderful head coach, Emily Shaw, will be conducting the auditions. Many of our executive and admin board members will be there as well! We’ve been in your shoes before and we’re there to make the experience as fun and as enjoyable as possible!

  • We recommend dressing business casual. If you don’t have access to business clothes or if you are coming right after a class, that’s okay too! We’re not going to judge you for wearing regular clothes and it certainly won’t take away from your audition.

  • An audition typically lasts around ten minutes, and it should last no more than fifteen minutes. Our goal is to talk to you, get to know you, listen to your speech and witness performance, and send you on your way!


  • There’s no set personality traits that we look for in a student that will be auditioning. We do, however, recommend that you follow the Golden Rules of mock trial —remaining loud, slow, and confident!

  • We don’t have a set number of students that are selected! We’re just looking for people that are the right fit for our team.

  • We recommend DMing @anteatermocktrial ASAP if you run into an issue with your audition slot. If you don’t have instagram, you can email anteatermocktrial@gmail.com. Please provide your name, your original audition slot, the issue, and any availability you might have later that day so we can get back to you with a new slot as quickly as possible. There are no guarantees that we will be able to reschedule, but we will do our absolute best to fit you in in the event of an issue.

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