Five Excellent Tips for Studying Efficiently for the Bar Exam

If you are looking to maximize your study time and study for the bar exam in the most efficient way possible (and who isn’t?) then check out these tips for studying efficiently for the bar exam. They will save you time and help you maximize your bar exam score!

Five Excellent Tips for Studying Efficiently for the Bar Exam

1. Stop trying to learn EVERYTHING. Focus on the highly tested areas of law instead.

If you want to know what is highly tested on the MBE, check out the most highly tested MBE topics here. You can see that, say, negligence, is tested much more than say, present and future interests. (There are 13 questions on negligence and maybe 3 on present and future interests). It makes sense to spend your time where you can get the most points!

We also have a list of highly tested MEE topics here and this comes with a PDF and a youtube video and it is FREE (or you can get our MEE one-sheets here if you really want to maximize your efficiency!)

You only have so much time so it does not make sense to spend it trying to learn every nuance. You do NOT need to know every nuance to pass the bar exam. You just need to know the nuances that are tested!

2. Start bullet pointing essays.

Some people write out full essays every day. And this is good if you struggle with timing or if you just started writing essays. But if you are looking to maximize your time, briefly bullet point essay answers. Do not write full answers. Just create a very brief outline of the rule, a few important facts you would analyze, and your conclusion. Then check your answer against the model answer. And move on to the next essay.

So many people either ignore the essay portion (which is a huge mistake since it is a great way to pick up points!) or they simply spend too long writing out eloquent answers (which is not the best way to maximize your time!). Write more essays in less time by bullet pointing!

3. Use real MBE questions.

We have written extensively on why you should use real MBE questions. The main reasons are the following:

You will get used to the format of the bar exam
You will see how the NCBE tests certain areas of law (many issues reappear repeatedly)
You are more likely to pass the bar exam
You will feel more confident walking into the bar exam

The great news is, we have an excellent source for real MBE questions here (including a 200-question exam you can take!). We also HIGHLY recommend our MBE Favorites series where you will actually get MBE questions for free as part of the series. In that series, we cover questions from the most recently released real MBE questions. It is an excellent resource!

4. If your state has an MPT, do not ignore it!

Here are a few super efficient MPT resources:

First, we have a free MPT one-sheet which tells you the different formats of the MPT. We don’t even require an email address to download it – it is free and excellent! Another free resource is our extensive list of MPT blog posts. We give a ton of information for free (and if you want it all in one place, purchase our MPT guide, described below.)
We have MPT books if you want an efficient place to find questions, answers, and model student answers. So many bar examinees waste so much time trying to find questions, answers, and student answers online. It is much more convenient to have them in one place.
We have an MPT guide for a do-it-yourself approach to the MPT. Many students do not realize how to answer MPT questions and bar exam courses, frankly, are not the greatest at teaching this!
We have bar exam essay feedback, including MPT feedback, which you will likely find super beneficial!

5. Eliminate distractions.

This may seem like an obvious tip, but it is so important to do this from the get-go if you want to study efficiently for the bar exam. Turn off your phone. Or keep it in a different room. Get rid of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. We recommend you make a list of your top three distractors and eliminate them right off the bat. This way you can focus on what you need to do.

Don’t forget to take breaks while you study to reward yourself for your distraction-free studying. We find many students do not take enough breaks. It is beneficial to take a break every hour or every hour and a half or so. This maximizes your concentration and productivity!

Looking to Pass the Uniform Bar Exam?

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Other resources

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Five Excellent Tips for Studying Efficiently for the Bar Exam