Preparing for the Bar Exam - Post-Bar Review Study Schedule

Many students studying for the New York Bar Exam have asked what to do now that their respective bar review classes are over. Generally, when your bar review course ends, there is about seven to twelve days when you will be on your own, and now you have entire days and nights just to study. The question becomes what, when, and how do you study during these critical remaining days.

Your goal during these final days is to review all of the tested topics by using only your notes, outlines, and rule paragraphs you have generated while studying over the past weeks. This requires a strategy so that you maximize what you need based on your individual strengths and weaknesses.

Continue working by subject, and begin with a review of your weaker subjects since these will be the ones you will review again at the end of the study period. This will give you time for two rounds with these topics with the final review closest to the exam itself.

The Schedule:

1. Do 30 – 33 multiple choice questions and review the answers in the morning. If you need additional multiple choice questions, the National Conference of Bar Examiners releases online practice exams. Supplement your outlines with law, if necessary.

2. Go through released bar exam essays, identifying the issues for each. The New York State Board of Law Examiners releases past exams.

3. After working through the released exams, look at your notes, outlines, and rule paragraphs and write out rules for any issues listed that are not covered in your notes.

4. Select two or three essays and write them out completely (this should take approximately two hours).

5. Study essay sample answers for all essays, including those you did not write out. Where appropriate, annotate or supplement your notes, outlines, and rule paragraphs with new, more concise and appropriate legal language.

6. Read through outlines to continue to review the law.

If time remains after going through all of the essays by subject (and it should), then go back to the subject or two that you felt was your weakest, and review the respective subject(s) again.

Good Luck on Bar Exam!



Note: the following are suggestions are from the forthcoming book, The New York Bar Exam by the Issue (Thomson West).

Preparing for the Bar Exam - Burn Out and Boredom

Several students have complained recently about either beginning to feel burned out or being bored by the whole bar exam process. While the two complaints are not the same, my advice is similar in both cases -- it is important to strike a balance between the overly aggressive approach of doing too much and the overly complacent approach. Regardless of whether you are burned out or bored, you should take a step back, look at your schedule and set realistic goals for yourself. For example, if you know that there’s no way you’re going to get through 50 multiple choice questions a day, don’t set such an unreasonable goal. You must be able to sustain the effort over the entire review period, up to and including the bar exam itself. It’s not good if you burn out or are completely bored by the process. Remember, the objective in practicing questions is not the “doing” of numbers but the learning of law and the process of analysis.

It is important to maintain a realistic work schedule, one that allows for lecture
time, review time, practice time, and time that you are not studying. Reexamine your schedule to make sure you have set a realistic work schedule that allows for:

Lecture time

Review time

Practice time

Relaxation time

In considering this, look at whether you have defined realistic study goals based on your strengths and weaknesses:

Are you varying your study activities sufficiently throughout the day to maintain your concentration level?

Have you set up a daily work schedule to include time for: attending your bar review class; reviewing the material covered in each class; consolidating your notes; working through practice questions; learning black letter law; and taking study breaks and exercising?

Have you set up a weekly schedule that includes a little time away from your studies?

Also, you might want to consider revising your schedule to:

Vary the sequence of your study activities, and maybe change your study location;

Or consider revising your approach to: alternate your review materials to take up the topic in another form -- anything that keeps you interested and adds to your understanding of the subject (i.e. read a different outline from your bar review materials; go back to your law school outline; or consult a hornbook).

Finally, you may want to consider the balance of study time vs. practice time to allow more time for practicing questions.

It might be worthwile to reconsider and revise how you are scheduling your time. You can refer to our blog post on time management for more tips.

Time Management for the Bar Exam

Congratulations - finals are over, and now you have some time to relax! However, for some of you, the bar exam is in the near future - the bar exam requires a huge commitment of time and effort. Your bar review course is structured to guide you through the material, but you must make the effort to learn it. It is completely possible to adequately prepare yourself during the bar review period if you devote your time exclusively to bar preparation.

It is important to realize that even if you had all the time in the world to study and prepare, there are still limitations on how much information you can retain and there is only so long that you can maintain the level of intensity required during the relatively short bar preparation period. For those of you that have started your bar review courses, it should be clear that studying for the bar exam is unlike any other experience - you must be prepared to put the time and energy into the process.

During the first weeks of your bar review, make sure to:

• Set a realistic work schedule that allows for going to the lectures, time for reviewing material covered in class, time to practice problems, and relaxation time;
• Refine realistic study goals based on your strengths and weaknesses; and
• Vary your study activities throughout the day to maintain your concentration level.

The following schedule might be a template that works for you; and allows you enough time to attend your lectures, review material, and practice problems:

• 9:00-1:00: Bar review course
• 1:00-2:00: Lunch break
• 2:00-4:00: Review notes from morning session; make flashcards of black letter law; consolidate notes
• 4:00-:4:30: Take a break
• 4:30-6:30: Work through MBE questions in the subject you have just studied
• 6:30-7:00: Dinner break
• 7:00-9:00: Work through additional MBE questions; essays from a released bar exam (or maybe a MPT, depending on your needs)
• 9:00-11:00: Review materials for the next bar review session or review notes from one subject covered earlier in the bar review period

Remember, there is not a one size fits all schedule, and there are a number of reasons why you might need to adapt the schedule to fit within your needs, including the possibility of having an evening bar review course. The key thing to remember is that you must make time to study, and you must plan ahead to give yourself enough study time.

While you prepare for the bar exam, Professor Darrow-Kleinhaus' books, Acing the Bar Exam (Thomson West 2008) and The Bar Exam in a Nutshell (2d ed. 2009), are great resources.