Five Critical (and often ignored!) Bar Exam Study Schedule Tips!

Five Critical (and often ignored!) Bar Exam Study Schedule Tips

In this post, we talk about some very important tasks that you want to make sure you are incorporating into your bar exam study schedule. Many first time bar exam takers make the mistake of not incorporating one or more of these critical tasks in their bar exam study schedules! 

Five Critical (and often ignored!) Bar Exam Study Schedule Tips

1. Take time to understand the law.

Sometimes you gain an understanding of the law by going to lecture. Or perhaps you have a study group, or a tutor. Or perhaps you know the law well from law school. Every week you should make sure you are taking time to understand the law. You will not be able to effectively accomplish any of the other tasks if you do not know how the law operates!

Some students think “I already understand everything.” But it may be time for a reality check if you are struggling with bar exam questions. Do you understand hearsay? The best evidence rule? The privileges and Immunities clause? Defamation? Joint and several liability? Mortgage priority? Noncumulative versus cumulative zoning? The battle of the forms? Damages in contract problems? The privilege against self-incrimination? These are just a few examples of concepts that students struggle with. If you struggle with them, you are not alone! You just want to make sure you take the time to truly understand these important concepts!

2. Memorize the law.

A lot of bar exam takers wait until the last few weeks of bar prep (e.g., post-fourth of July) to memorize their outlines. That is a mistake! Take time each week (and ideally each day) to memorize what you have learned. It is much easier to memorize the law as you go along rather than trying to cram this into a couple weeks!

When you memorize the law, don’t just passively read your outlines. Instead, actively review them! This means you should be making charts or diagrams, quizzing yourself, covering up the law and seeing if you can re-write it, etc.

This is very important to incorporate into your bar exam study schedule from the beginning. Unfortunately, a lot of students don’t do it! If you are looking for tips on how to memorize your bar exam outlines check out this post.

3. Practice essays, MPTs (if your state has them) and multiple-choice problems.

Practice is so important. A lot of first-time takers make the mistake of focusing on multiple-choice problems and barely practicing essays and MPTs. Make it part of your weekly bar exam study schedule to practice both essays, MPTs, and multiple-choice problems. This will give you a big advantage on test day and make you less anxious as the exam approaches.

Don’t wait until you know everything “perfectly.” Make sure you incorporate regular practice into your schedule.

4. Take timed exams.

Even if you just started studying for the bar exam, start incorporating some timed exams into your schedule. I used to start by just taking one-hour MBE exams (33 questions) and one-hour essay exams (which would be two essay questions if you are in a MEE state) on Fridays. Then I gradually increased these to two-hour exams, and later three-hour exams.

On exam day, I felt confident and knew I would not have timing issues. It is important to start timing yourself early and often so that if you have timing issues, you can catch them early. Further, you will feel more confident walking into the exam if you know you have taken several timed exams.

5. Take time for yourself.

Take time to do something fun every day and every week. Whether you enjoy watching television, going to a movie, going on a walk, going out to eat, lounging around, etc., it is important to have something to look forward to. Breaks are also great for you and will make you feel calmer, more focused, and ultimately will help you be productive.

You may have heard that studying for the bar exam is a marathon, not a sprint. So you should not plan on studying all day, every day, without breaks. You will burn out and you will not maximize your efforts! Instead, incorporate breaks into your schedule to avoid burn-out and help you to stay focused and productive.

These are some important tasks to incorporate into your bar exam study schedule. Good luck studying!

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