MIA - Study Plans for the Bar (Bar Exam Tips #1)

Since i’ve taken such elaborate notes on all of this week’s reading for class, i’ve allowed myself to completely zone out IN class today and instead i’ve scoured the web for bar study plans. Do you know i’ve only came across maybe THREE??? I mean, everyone talks about how important they are, yet very few have actually posted what they’ve done for a study plan. People reference Bar/Bri’s study plan, but almost all the comments are about how impossible it is to follow. I know that all the bar review groups give their registrants study plans as part of the course, but i can’t believe that people actually follow them to a T. Obviously, it’s all about finding out what works for you, but, there is SO much material to cover and it would be really helpful if people would reveal how they were able to cover all that material in the two months before the Bar. I’m already conceding to myself that i cannot possibly study more than 8 or 9 hours a day, 6 days a week, for the Bar. It’s just NOT going to happen. Therefore, I need to be incredibly efficient during those hours… and I don’t know that i am incredibly efficient at anything! However, while I was searching the internet, I did come across some useful advice:

1) Practice the Performance portion of the Bar while in school. It is something that you could easily do once a month each month of the last semester. Devote maybe 4 hours to doing a practice performance test (past CA PT Questions here), then eventually lower your time to the 3hrs allowed in the Exam. **I think this is a good idea because most say this is a fairly easy area to “master” because it’s about skill and time-management, not necessarily knowledge of the law, so if you work on it now then you don’t have to spend time on it during the summer. But, we’ll see if I actually set aside time to do it.

2) Start listening to PMBR Cd’s while still in school. YAY!! I’m doing this!! Although i’m not REALLY “studying” the MBE materials, they are refreshing my memory and making me feel a little bit more comfortable with the concepts.

3) When making your study plan, build in breaks (naps, work-outs, etc) and do it on a big poster that way you can a) cross off the stuff you’ve accomplished and give yourself a gold star; b) have a way of keeping track of your scores on MBE’s, as a way of gauging how you’re doing; and 3) have something else to burn/rip up/kick/spit on/trash/stomp-on-in-victory at the end of the summer when you’re done with the Bar.

As soon as i come up with something that might resemble a bar study plan/schedule, you can guarantee I will post it. Probably not follow it, but at least there will be evidence that i made some effort.