How do I save time during bar prep? Here are our best tips!

How do I save time during bar prep? Here are our best tips!

With so much to do, you may wonder what you can do to save time during bar prep and make your workload more manageable!

Here, we give you our best time-saving tips! You can watch the five-minute video or read the tips below!

How do I save time during bar prep? Here are our best tips!

Tip #1: Watch lectures that cover material you understand at a higher speed.

Most courses allow you to watch lectures at 1.5x the speed or even 2x the speed. So, if you understand Torts really well, you will turn a three-hour torts lecture into a 1.5-hour lecture if you watch it at double-speed! This can save you a lot of time which will really add up over the course of bar prep.

The most common regret first-time takers have at the end of bar prep is that they spent too much time watching lectures so they didn’t have enough time to learn the law and complete practice questions. Be proactive and reduce the amount of time you spend in lecture from the beginning.

Note: Don’t do this if you struggle with a subject. For example, if you did not take Secured Transactions in law school, consider watching that at a regular speed so you can fully digest it! 

Tip #2: Review the law and memorize it before answering questions!

A common mistake that first-time bar exam takers make is that they go right from lecture to attempting to answer practice questions on the lecture they just watched. They don’t give themselves any time to review the law. This makes them frustrated and increases anxiety because they are trying to apply law that they don’t even know.

Memorize the law right after lecture — or at least within 24 hours after lecture. You will retain so much more if you review the law right after lecture.

Focus on the highly tested areas of law.

• You can check out our multistate bar exam (MBE) highly tested issues chart here.
• You can check out the highly tested essay (MEE) topics here.

Then, complete practice questions after you are comfortable with your memorization of the law. You will be better and faster and practice questions if you memorize the law first!

Check out our tips for learning everything you need to know for the bar exam here!

Tip #3: Bullet point essays.

Another common mistake that first-time takers make is that they don’t answer essay questions. So they miss out on easy points on the bar exam!

A great way to get exposed to enough essay questions is to bullet point essays. You should probably start by writing out full answers so you get the structure and format down. Then, switch to bullet-pointing essays once you are comfortable. Jot down the issues, elements of the rules, and the facts that you would analyze. You will be able to get through twice as many essays in the same amount of time! And you will get exposed to enough essay questions before the bar exam!

Read tips on how to write a great bar exam essay here. Read tips on how to structure your bar exam essay here!

Bonus Tip: Study during your best time of day! 

If you are a morning person, get up early! (And do you hardest task at your best time!). If you are a night person, study at night. This will help you set yourself up for success. (Note: if you do have unusual hours, make sure you start switching your schedule around about a month before the bar exam so you are studying during the times the bar exam is administered.). You will truly be setting yourself up for success if you take steps to eliminate distractions ahead of time too — i.e., don’t have your phone out, don’t go on social media, etc.

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