Reading the Whole Docket First
Most competitors panic-read bills the morning of the tournament. This lesson shows you how to do a fast first pass across the entire docket so you know the terrain before you commit deep prep time to any single bill.
The 10-minute pass
For every bill, spend no more than 10 minutes on a first read: identify the core mechanism (the 4 parts from Unit 1), the obvious aff case, and the obvious neg case. Do not write a speech yet. The goal is triage, not mastery.
Sorting into three piles
After the first pass, sort bills into 'strong' (you have a clear angle and evidence path), 'weak' (you understand it but have no unique angle yet), and 'skip for now' (too technical or too far down the docket to realistically reach). This sorting is what makes the rest of your prep week efficient.
Docket order matters
Bills near the top of the docket are far more likely to actually be debated in early sessions; bills at the bottom may never come up. Weight your first-pass time toward the top third of the docket, but don't ignore the rest entirely — dockets get reordered by amendment and motion.
Pro move: tracking docket drift
Experienced competitors track how a docket's order shifts session to session as bills get tabled, previous-questioned, or bumped by unanimous consent. Keep a running note of what's actually been debated versus what remains, and re-triage your 'skip' pile once you see which bills the chamber gravitates toward.
A docket has 22 bills. You have 3 hours before your first prep session ends.
You spend 10 minutes each on the first 12 bills (2 hours), sorting 4 as 'strong,' 5 as 'weak,' and 3 as 'skip.' You spend your remaining hour skimming bills 13-22 at 5 minutes each just to know what they are, without full triage. Now you know exactly where to point your deep-prep time tomorrow.
1. What is the primary goal of the first 10-minute pass on a bill?
2. True or False?
"Bills at the very bottom of a docket are guaranteed to never be debated."
Answer all 2 to check.
Triage the whole docket fast before you deep-prep any single bill.