What To Do Every Day To Pass the UBE

What To Do Every Day To Pass the UBE

Are you wondering what should be on your “to do” list each day of bar prep?  Or are you wondering exactly how much work you should be accomplishing each day?  In this post, we break down what you should do each day to pass the UBE!

What To Do Every Day To Pass the UBE

You should begin each day of bar prep with a plan for what you are going to accomplish that day.  This is going to include some combination of watching/attending lectures, reviewing and memorizing your outlines, and doing practice questions.  Without a plan, it is very easy to sit around wasting time thinking about what you could be doing, or jumping from task to task without really accomplishing anything.  A plan will help you stay on task and focused throughout the day.

Because not every person is able to devote the same amount of time to preparing for the bar exam, the amount of time spent on each of these activities is going to vary from person to person.  For instance, someone who is working full time might only have 2-3 hours per day to prepare for the exam while someone who is solely focusing on bar prep might be spending 8-10 hours per day studying.  You can tailor the amount of time spent on each activity to your personal schedule.

As you are planning your day, think about the times during which you are most productive.  Do you get the most work done during the morning, then start to slow down during lunch?  Or do you take a while to wake up, and get the most accomplished in the afternoon?  Or maybe you are a night owl and do your best thinking while everyone else is sleeping.  This is something important to think about because some tasks require more brain power than others.  For instance, writing practice essays is much more demanding of your attention and energy than watching lectures on subjects that you took in law school and feel comfortable with.  Try to schedule the more demanding tasks during the times of the day that you know you will be most productive.

A sample schedule to pass the UBE for each day could look like this:

8:00am – 11am          Watch lectures

11am-12pm                Review outlines; actively work on memorization

12:00pm-12:30pm      Break for lunch

12:30pm-2:30pm        Continue to review and memorize

2:30pm-3:30pm          Exercise

3:30pm-5pm               Write and self-grade practice MEEs

5:00pm-6:00pm          Break for dinner

6:00pm-7:30pm          Practice multiple choice questions

A few notes on these components:

Watching Lectures

If you are completing a bar prep course, part of your course is very likely going to include either watching lectures online or attending lectures in person.  If you have the ability to watch lectures on demand, try to put your lectures into your daily schedule in a place that matches your ability to devote the appropriate amount of attention to the lectures.

As explained above, you should aim to split your day into thirds and spend about one-third of your time watching lectures.  You should not try to get as many lectures as possible “out of the way” early during bar prep.  Each lecture contains a lot of information and they can be dense!  Be sure to take the time to understand what you are learning during the lectures (this comes during the second part of the day – review and memorization).  If you try to cram all of the information into your head at once and then synthesize it later, it is less likely that you will remember everything!

Memorize Outlines

This portion of each day is probably the most important.  It is also probably the most overlooked.  Many students jump straight into practice questions after watching or attending lectures.  However, there is no point in practicing things that you don’t know yet!  Memorization is the number one way that we find people increase their scores on the bar exam.  That is why it is crucial to incorporate memorization into each and every day of bar prep.

For ideas on what you can do to try to memorize your outlines, check out our blog post on How to Memorize Bar Exam Outlines.

Practice MBE Questions

It is also important to try a few multiple-choice questions every day (after you have worked on memorization!).  This does not mean that you have to do 100 multiple-choice questions every day.  There is no “right” number of multiple-choice questions to complete, but the important thing is that you do them slowly and methodically (check out this post for more information on How to Answer MBE Questions).  Doing multiple-choice questions each day will help you become more familiar with the structure of the questions, the types of questions that are asked, and the material that is tested!

Practice MEEs and MPTs

In addition to practicing multiple-choice questions, you should also incorporate practice essays and MPTs.  Bar exam essays can be very different from law school essay exams, so it is important that you practice actually writing full answers to essays so that you are comfortable with the process and the timing.  Certainly, you should review and bullet-point additional essays, but don’t skip writing full essays altogether!

You should aim to complete 1-3 practice MEEs each day.  It is CRUCIAL that you self-grade your essays as you practice them!  Check out this post for more information on How – and Why – to Self-Grade Bar Exam Essays.

Also, don’t forget about the MPT as you are preparing for the bar exam.  While you don’t necessarily have to complete a practice MPT each day, the MPT is worth 20% of the total score on the UBE.  That means that you could spend 20% of your time preparing for the MPT during bar prep!  We recommend doing about one day of MPT prep each week.

Exercise and Eat Healthy

In addition to preparing to pass the UBE, it is also important that you prepare physically to sit for two (or more) very long days during the bar exam!  Therefore, it is important that you incorporate exercise into your daily routine – this could be something as simple as going for a short walk each day.  Being cognizant of what you are eating will also help you physically prepare.  If you eat junk food every day for two months, you could certainly feel sluggish and tired going into the bar exam!

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