To pass the bar exam, you need to study smart! Read on for tips on tailoring your bar study to your learning style, strategies for memorizing the huge amount of information you need to remember on test day, and lots of useful advice on practicing, making study materials, and studying effectively.
Want some help? Check out the Bar Exam Toolbox tutoring and course offerings!
Bar Study Tips for Different Learning Styles
- Effective Learning Styles for the Bar Exam The journey to becoming a lawyer culminates with the challenging bar exam. To succeed, aspiring lawyers must adopt effective learning styles that go beyond mere memorization. Try taking on a study approach aimed to enhance understanding, retention, and overall exam performance.
- Bar Study Tips For Different Learning Styles Everyone has to memorize and comprehend the same material to pass the bar exam, but not everyone has to go about it in the same exact way. You should also tailor your review to include specific learning strategies that work best for you. We tell you how!
- Learning Styles and the Bar Exam Scientists who study how people learn categorize learning styles into two main categories: passive learning and active learning. When studying for the bar exam it's crucial to make sure you have the right ratio of active to passive learning.
- Studying For the Bar as an Auditory Learner While there are no real tricks or shortcuts to preparing for the bar, you can and should study in a manner that will best help you obtain that passing score. One way of doing this is modifying your study habits to best align with your preferred learning style. If you’ve ever sat down to study and thought to yourself, “If only this material was presented in a way geared towards auditory learners, I could memorize these rules and become a better IRAC writer,” then this article is for you!
- Preparing for the Bar as an ESL student We discuss English as a second language students (ESL) law students preparing for the bar exam.
- Studying For the Bar as a Kinesthetic Learner While there are no real tricks or shortcuts to preparing for the bar, you can and should study in a manner that will best help you obtain that passing score. One way of doing this is modifying your study habits to best align with your preferred learning style. If you wished bar materials were presented in a way geared towards kinesthetic learners, then this article is for you!
- Creative Strategies to Help You Study For the Bar When it comes to studying for the bar exam, most tutors and bar prep companies will give you essentially the same advice – review your outlines, answer a ton of MBE questions, and complete practice essays and MPTs. These methods are effective, but they can also get a little tedious. If you’re needing to shake up your routine, try out these creative study strategies that will give you a change of pace while still helping you learn the law or improve your skills.
- Studying For the Bar as a Visual Learner While there are no real tricks or shortcuts to preparing for the bar, you can and should study in a manner that will best help you obtain that passing score. One way of doing this is modifying your study habits to best align with your preferred learning style. If you wished bar materials were presented in a way geared towards visual learners, then this article is for you!
- Three Fun Activities for Kinesthetic Learners Studying for the Bar Exam What is a kinesthetic learner to do studying for the bar exam? The key is to incorporate kinesthetic learning into your study routine in a way that also honors the legal profession. Here are three fun activities that can help you do just that.
- "Am I Actually Learning?" We're looking at how to make sure you are getting the most learning out of your bar prep.
- Reading on Screens - Where Will You Encounter It? Reading online poses difficulties, but we are also encountering it more and more, including on the bar exam. Are you prepared to push through them to be an effective digital reader?
- Mind Maps and Other Fun Visual Learning Methods We discuss unique visual learning techniques that can help any law student and bar student study in a new way. Even if you don’t identify as a visual learner, try these techniques out. Learning using all of your senses, also called multimodal learning, can significantly improve your retention and engagement when studying.
- Bar Study Tips for Students with ADHD If you have been diagnosed with ADHD then you may be searching for ways to make bar studying most efficient for you, and we're offering some ideas.
- 5 Bar Exam Study Tips for Visual Learners Memorization is a key factor in how well you’ll perform on the bar exam. But are you studying in a way that fits your learning style? Find out what you should be doing if you're a visual learner!
- 4 Bar Exam Study Tips for Auditory Learners Are you finding that simply reading material isn't helping you learn it? If you’re an auditory learner, listening, hearing, and speaking are the ways your brain processes material. Find out how you should be studying for the bar if you're an auditory learner.
- 4 Bar Exam Study Tips for Kinesthetic Learners If you’re a kinesthetic learner, your brain processes material best by carrying out a physical activity. You’re often seen as a “hands-on” learner or “do-er.” Here are four techniques to help kinesthetic learners memorize material for the bar exam.
- Want To Set Yourself Up For Bar Exam Success? Take Control of Your Own Learning! No bar prep program can guarantee success, regardless of how many of the assignments you complete, if you are not actively engaged in the learning process. Consistently completing assignments is crucial, but it’s not always sufficient. To set yourself up for bar exam success, you not only have to put in a lot of study hours, you also have to take control of your own learning.
- What Can Your Academic History Tell You About Studying for the Bar Exam? At this point in your career you're experienced at studying the law — and at taking law school exams. But thinking about your past academic history should still be part of getting ready for the bar.
- Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 15: How to Study For the Bar If You're an Auditory Learner We’re talking about studying for the bar as an auditory learner, along with some techniques anyone can use, even if this is not your preferred learning style.
- Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 16: How to Study For the Bar Exam as a Visual Learner We’re talking about how best to study for the bar exam if you’re a visual learner.
- Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 17: How to Study For the Bar If You're a Kinesthetic Learner We’re talking about smart ways to study for the bar exam if you are a kinesthetic learner. While this may be the least likely learning style for law students and lawyers, this episode is chock full of great tips that anyone can use to mix things up!
How to Memorize for the Bar Exam
- Unconventional Memorization Tips for Bar Study You’ve probably not memorized certain material even while actively trying to memorize it because you haven’t gotten it in front of your brain enough. Here’s some methods you may not have considered for memorization.
- Memorize This! Five Memorization Techniques that Will Help you Succeed on the Bar Exam So I want you to think back to law school for a second. Do you remember spending countless hours reviewing a case brief, only to find yourself unable to recall anything the very next day during a cold call? Or perhaps you may remember that networking event you attended your 1L summer, where you met several attorneys who you desperately hoped would provide a lead to your 2L job. The bar exam will require memorization, so follow these 5 techniques to master this!
- Why Waiting to Memorize Until the Last Two Weeks is a Bad Idea It may seem reasonable to do a lot of memorization closer to the actual bar exam. While some of the big, commercial bar prep. companies take this approach, we would also strongly advise against it. Read why in this post.
- The What, How, and When of What to Memorize for the Bar Exam Bar exam memorization does not begin and end with the black-letter law itself. While the law is what you will be writing about, and therefore is rightfully the highest priority when it comes to memorization, you also want to have an understanding of how to write about the law you’re memorizing as well as when to write about it.
- Memorization Techniques to Help You in the Final Weeks The bar exam tests many different skills: the ability to analyze complex factual scenarios, to spot legal issues, to perform under pressure, to draft cohesive arguments, and so on. But it will be difficult to sufficiently and accurately perform these skills without first mastering the skill of memorization.
- Tricks to Memorizing Law for the Bar Exam A common complaint when studying for the bar exam is “I can’t memorize this much information.” While it’s true that memorization is tough for many people, there are several techniques that can be used to bolster your memory and that are extremely useful when studying a large amount of information (like for the bar exam)!
- The Best Memorization Methods For the Bar Exam Passing the bar exam requires an intimidating amount of memorization. Here are a few methods that work for memory champions and that worked for me when I studied for (and passed!) the bar.
- Using Peg System Mnemonics to Remember Rule Elements If you’re studying for the bar exam, you've probably heard of mnemonics. They work great, but what if you have a lot of elements you need to remember, like on the bar exam, and mnemonics aren't helping? In this post we talk about peg systems, variations on mnemonics that can help you memorize bar material!
- Memorization as Simple as 1, 2, 3 Memorization is the easiest and hardest thing about the bar exam. In this post we welcome back Brian Hahn, founder of Make This Your Last Time, to share a few memorization tips when it comes to the bar exam.
- Can Spaced Repetition Help You Learn the Law? SeRiouS (SRS) is on online study tool that applies the technique of spaced repetition to legal study in a simple, engaging format. It promises to help you learn the law efficiently and conveniently by adapting to your level of knowledge and recall, and allowing you to spend as little as five to ten minutes a day reviewing rules on any internet-connected device.
- The Bar Exam is Coming! How to Memorize It All Memorizing all the materials you need to for the bar exam can be overwhelming. We're looking at some tips to make it easier.
- Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 42: Memorization Techniques For the Bar Exam We’re talking about effective memorization methods to help you optimize your time and retain more information while studying for the bar exam.
- Bar Study Tip: Handwriting Study Materials These days most of our work is done on computers. But there are a lot of benefits to turning off the computer and writing study materials by hand, including improved memorization. Find out how you can easily transition to handwriting your bar exam study materials.
Are You Practicing Effectively for the Bar Exam?
- Writing Practice, From Week One Until the Bar Exam don’t wait until you feel “ready” to start writing, because ready will never come if you don’t start writing. Based on an eight-week study schedule, here’s what writing practice can look like throughout your process.
- Changing Course: How to Adjust When Practice Exams Aren't Going Well When struggling through bar prep, there is nothing more painful than getting a low score on one of the several practice tests you’ll take. We're looking at some ideas for how to take this and course correct to see some improvement!
- When You Should Start Doing Partial or Full Practice Exams The key to passing the bar exam is timed practice, but it can be hard to know exactly when to start doing partial or full practice exams. If you’re working on developing a schedule for completing partial or full practice exams, here a few strategies to consider.
- How to Use MPT Points Sheets and Sample Answers to Prepare for the Bar Exam Practice exams are a crucial component of successful bar prep. While a bar review course may provide feedback on a limited number of practice essays and performance tests, you should do more and assess your own work. We’ve previously discussed how to do this using MEE Analyses. Here, we’ll explore how to use MPT Point Sheets and sample answers. The key is to distinguish form from substance. A Point Sheet will not be in the form required for your answer, but it will contain the required substance. A sample answer should be in the required form, but it may not be complete in terms of substance. Let’s take a closer look.
- Your Dog As Your Study Buddy (And 4 Other Tips For Building Bar Prep Into Your Daily Routine) When you are studying for the bar exam full time, building a routine that makes the most of your bar prep period is vital. Keeping to your bar prep schedule and continually reinforcing your study through repetition takes discipline, especially as bar prep drags on. Here are five tips to build in some bar prep around your daily routine so you can keep yourself honest and make the most of your precious few bar prep days.
- Practice a Full Bar Exam Session - Go For the Gold Practice is key to successful bar exam study. There are different ways to practice though, and we're looking at the best options.
- Essay Feedback: Why It's Important, Where To Get It, and How to Use it to Improve When you’re preparing for the bar exam, whether you’re a first-time taker or a repeater, you want to use every tool available to you to improve your chances of success. One of the most valuable tools that you can employ in preparing for the written portions of the exam is feedback from someone who is experienced at evaluating bar exam essays and MPTs.
- How to Become Great at Taking the Bar Exam with Deliberate Practice There is not much debate about practice when it comes to learning a new skill or getting better at something. I’m guessing that some of you have heard of Outliers by Malcom Gladwell and the idea of the 10,000 hour rule to achieve mastery in a field. Since none of us have 10,000 hours to study for the bar exam you may be interested in the concept of Deliberate Practice which was introduced by K. Anders Ericsson.
- Copying Model Answers Isn't "Practice" We're talking about what you can (and cannot) get out of directly copying model answers during bar study.
- Why Practicing For the Bar Exam is so Important One of the things that bar-takers might consider cutting back on are practice exams, including multiple choice tests, taken under timed circumstances. But we discuss why practice should be key to your bar study.
- Let's Get Real: The Importance of Practicing Bar Exam Essays and Questions Before You're Ready We're looking at why it's so important to really start your bar exam practice, even before you feel prepared.
- Study Tips to Help Prepare for the Big Day The bar exam is right around the corner, which means you should be thinking about polishing your test-taking skills. Check out our tips for taking practice exams and handwriting the bar exam.
- Benefits of Practice Questions Below are some of the benefits of practice during bar study.
- Taking the Bar Exam? Start Practicing Now! In order to do well on the bar exam, you must devote significant time to practicing the material and skills tested on the exam. We go into the reasons this is and how you can have practice work for you.
- Please DO NOT Spend All of Your Time Studying the Law! Finding yourself short on practice time because you're spending a lot of time studying the law? While you must study the law, practice is still the most important part of bar prep! Find out why in this post.
- Why Do We Have to Write Out Practice Answers? Many students complain that writing out exam answers just takes too much time. Instead, they only want to outline and issue spot exam answers. This post explains why for most of us, writing out complete answers is still the best strategy.
- The Power of the Re-Write When you're evaluating your practice answers, you shouldn't just look for what you did wrong. Re-writing an essay is also an opportunity to review the law and practice the analysis, not a waste of time! Find out how rewriting can help you improve your answers.
- Help! My Bar Exam Practice Scores Are Going Down! You've spent hours and hours studying, but your practice scores don't show it. Get advice on what to do if your bar exam practice scores are actually going down the more you study.
- Is Reading Sample Answers Stressing You Out? Students often think that a sample answer, especially one written by a student under exam conditions, is the perfect answer or the only answer. That just isn’t the case. Sample answers should help you, not stress you out!
- Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 51: Making the Most of Your Bar Exam Practice Effective practice is not easy, but it’s the best active learning you can do. Today, we’re going through our top tips to get the most out of your bar exam practice and set yourself up for success on exam day.
- Are You Evaluating Your Work? You Should Be! On test day, self-evaluation will be your only quality control while writing the exam! Learn how to thoughtfully evaluate your own work on each section of the exam.
- Practicing for Bar Exam Success The most important part of a bar exam preparation program is practice. The bar exam covers a huge amount of law, and the best way to tackle that material is to practice it under exam-like conditions. So how do you move from watching bar prep videos to actively learning and practicing? Follow the steps in this post!
- Don't Get Fixated on Practice Scores Part of any bar prep program is getting feedback on essays. Feedback is great for assessing your progress, but it's easy to become fixated on your score rather than the feedback. Find out the best way to deal with practice scores and feedback.
Making Your Own Bar Exam Study Materials
- Where are the Magic Outlines to Help Pass the Bar Exam? Outlines are a vital tool for bar exam prep. But where can you get the best outline? Online? From your review provider? How about from yourself! In this post we argue that the best outline is the one made by you, for you.
- Tackling Bar Exam Materials Like a Pro Without organizing all the material you need to know for the bar exam, it is near impossible to keep your sanity while studying. Organization is key! In this post we share our method of tackling subjects to best save time and stay organized!
- Do I Need to Make My Own Study Materials for the Bar Exam? Law school was all about making your own outlines and study guides, but students typically pay for outlines from a bar course when preparing for the bar exam. Read our thoughts on whether or not you should be making your own study materials for the bar exam.
- Self-Studying for the California Bar With "Be a Goat"! (Part I) Yes, you read that right: being a goat actually has something to do with self-studying for the California bar exam. We talk to Jessica Klein, attorney and author of "The Goat’s Guide: The Complete Step-by-Step Guide To Preparing for the California Bar Exam On Your Own," for some expert advice.
- Self-Studying for the California Bar Exam With "Be a Goat" (Part II) As a follow up to our first post on the Goat's guide to self-studying for the California bar exam, we continue our conversation with attorney and author, Jessica Klein. Read more of her expert advice!
Study Smart for the Bar Exam
- 3 Simple Ways to Stay Motivated During Bar Prep So how is it possible to stay motivated during this period of high stress? Here are three strategies that we use to increase motivation, especially in times when a bar studier feels burned out.
- Avoid Making Mistakes While Studying for the Bar Exam The reality is that in the current climate, a huge percentage of people taking the bar exam will fail. Depending on where you take the exam, that percentage may be larger than you ever thought possible. For this reason, you should consider the potential mistakes some bar studiers make and try to avoid them.
- Shifting From Law School Exams to Bar Exams Completing law school leads to the next challenge: passing the bar exam. Of course, some of the information you learned in law school, including black letter law, how to write a brief, and (if you were lucky) how to IRAC, will be useful for taking the bar exam. However, in order to be successful on bar exams, you need to shift from some of the old goals and techniques you used on law school exams to new goals and techniques that will lead to success on bar exams.
- Time Management for the Bar Here are some ideas to get you started so you can make yourself a tailored time management game plan when studying for the bar exam.
- Ego Depletion While Studying For the Bar Exam Ego depletion is a theory that we each have a limited reserve of self-control, and that using that self-control or discipline for one task (say, for example, dieting) will impact our ability to remain disciplined on some other task. Studying for the bar requires a whole lot of patience, dedication, and willpower. Be realistic about the demands you are about to put on yourself and about your own limits.
- Bar Schedules: How Can I Catch Up If I Fall Behind? Even the best bar study schedule is useless if the student doesn’t follow it. Obviously, this happens to everyone, but sometimes when people fall behind on their study schedules, they get too overwhelmed to realize that they can make things work.
- Feeling Overwhelmed by Bar Prep? 5 Tips to Help You Manage the Workload From Civ Pro to Secured Transaction, the bar exam covers a lot of material. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the prospect of bar prep when you first look at the thick stack of outlines you’re supposed to memorize or browse the endless number of practice questions you’re supposed to complete. To help you manage the workload, follow these five tips as you prepare to start studying:
- A Day in the Life of a Bar Studier: Tips for Structuring Your Day Creating a detailed daily schedule during bar exam prep can help you feel more in control of your studying and show you that the workload is manageable if you plan your time carefully.
- Keep It Simple For Bar Success While there are some great new study tools out there that might be worth exploring, particularly if you’re repeating the bar exam, the best study strategy is generally to keep it simple. The bar exam is not the time to try something new. Use the study strategies that have worked well for you in the past, and make sure you incorporate these 3 simple steps into your preparation process.
- Get a Head Start for the Bar During law school any chance to get a head start on coursework and final exam preparation has tremendous benefits like peace of mind, time to focus on other immediate tasks such as internship deadlines, better sleep, and feeling more productive, efficient, and organized. You can experience these benefits when studying early for the bar exam too.
- Coffee Time? Caffeine Pros & Cons During Bar Prep For many, caffeine becomes a not-so-optional part of law school survival. But, come bar prep time, with increased schedule flexibility, should you carry your caffeine habit into your bar prep or try to cut it out of your routine?
- Bar Exam Stamina: The Long Game Here are some tips for a strong start and to help you make it to the finish line of your bar prep!
- Increasing Focus for the Bar Exam If you are struggling to give bar prep your full attention, we're going to talk about how to refocus.
- 5 Reasons Why You're Going to Pass the Bar Exam To help you feel more confident as you get down to the heavy bar study time, remind yourself of these five reasons why you are going to pass the bar exam.
- Top 10 Bar Exam Mistakes and How to Avoid Them The experienced bar exam tutors at Bar Exam Toolbox have seen far too many students make these common and preventable missteps during bar prep season. Here are the top ten bar study mistakes and how you can set yourself up for success by avoiding them altogether!
- Bar Exam Study Habits to Drop You can experience some important benefits by kicking the following bad study habits out of your life.
- How Early is Too Early to Begin Bar Prep We think the important question is, how exactly do you go about early bar preparation?
- Top Five Reasons Why People Really Fail the Bar Exam It’s probably every law student’s worst fear: failing the bar exam. We break down the top five reasons why it really happens.
- Working and Studying for the Bar: 5 Reasons to Be Confident The bar exam can intimidate anyone. The law is challenging, the scope is daunting, the prep time is short, and the stakes are high. If you are working while studying, it can be easy to feel sorry for yourself and to feel like you are trying to do the impossible. You have taken a tougher road to bar success than others to be sure, but you can’t let those feelings take too much of a psychological toll. You have to be confident going into the bar or you will not be at your best. Here are five reasons to be confident as you work and study and study and work and study some more
- How a Dog Can Benefit Your Bar Studies We're talking about why a dog can relieve some bar study stress for bar study students.
- Checklist for Preparing for Bar Prep How can you get ready for bar prep? Below is a checklist to make sure you start your bar prep off on the right foot!
- Top Aggravators For Bar Passage and How to Avoid Them No one wants to take the bar exam twice any more than anyone wants to have a root canal twice. Take a look at this list, engage in a little self-confrontation, and start mitigating now!
- Facing Personal Obstacles During Bar Prep There are effective strategies you can use to handle personal obstacles while tackling the bar which can empower you to achieve success.
- Stepping Your Way to Bar Exam Success: Leveraging Your Fitness Tracker Mmaybe looking at your fitness tracker, such as a Fitbit or Apple watch, could improve the effectiveness of your bar prep. We're talking about how.
- Why Being on Top of Mental Health is So Important When Studying for the Bar We explore why mental health is crucial for bar exam preparation, especially for repeat takers, and discuss practical strategies to care for your mental health during this difficult period.
- Prioritizing for the Bar Exam Whether you have a bar mentor, bar prep program, tutor, or self-study, be sure to consider some of these aspects to focus on when preparing for the bar.
- The 3 Most Important Study Tools For Any Bar Exam Self-Studier If you're considering for or currently doing self-study for the bar exam, we have some important advice.
- Social Media and Bar Prep: Quit or Keep? Sticking to your study schedule requires discipline. Here are some ideas for using social media in a balanced way so that it does not interfere with your studies.
- 5 Ways to Tell if You are in Bar Study Trouble Assuming you don’t fall into any of our previous "red flag" categories, and assuming you are studying hard and practicing, how do you know if you need to be doing things differently? This article will outline five warning signs that you need to change up your study game.
- Taking a Break: Can You Afford To Take a Full Day (Or More) Off During Your Bar Exam Studies? Anyone with even a passing familiarity with bar exam preparation knows that long hours and discipline are essential to success. Successful bar studiers do takes breaks throughout each day, but only for about 15 to 30 minutes at a time. Must bar studiers shun any notion of taking a full day off during their preparation, or – dare they even consider – a short weekend getaway? Would a break of that length necessarily be detrimental, or could it be neutral and even possibly beneficial?
- Your Energy Level: The Key to a Successful Bar Prep Day! We're looking at how to organize your bar prep schedule. Slot high energy tasks into high energy times, and slot lower energy tasks into lower energy times.
- Surviving Bar Exam Prep: Keeping it Together When You Want to Freak Out We all know the feeling—you start to look at your calendar, or at your to-do list, and you realize how difficult it is going to be to fit everything in and get everything done. Maybe the panic builds in your chest a bit. Maybe your breathing becomes more rapid as you try to figure out how you’re going to fit it all in. You start to think about the nights of little sleep ahead, followed by days with a foggy brain and extra caffeine (which isn’t what you need right now!).
- Ways to Stay Accountable and Keep on Track While Studying for the Bar Studying for the bar exam is tough no matter how you spin it, but it’s even worse if you can’t make yourself focus. Here are some tips to stay accountable while you’re studying so you keep on track.
- 6 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Studying For the Bar Exam Given the limitations on time most of us face in studying for the bar exam, it is important to weed out bad habits early and not waste time on studying mistakes. Here are six common mistakes to avoid for a more productive bar exam prep.
- Why Exercise Should Be Mandatory During Bar Prep Studying for the bar exam is one of the most taxing experiences law students will have to endure. But simple movement throughout the day can ease the symptoms of bar prep burnout and boredom, and the ailments associated with long periods of sitting (i.e. increased blood pressure, increased blood sugar, poor blood circulation, and anxiety and depression).
- Tips for Passing the Bar Exam - The First Time One and done. Here are some tips to help you pass the bar exam the first time.
- Top Tips for First-Time and Repeat Bar Takers We discuss certain things that everyone who wants to pass the bar should focus on during their exam prep. Because there are wrong ways to study, here are my top tips for you to incorporate into your bar prep studying so that you can be exam ready.
- 7 Time Management Tips for Bar Studiers There are ways to manage your time so that you can most efficiently and effectively study for the bar. Here are our top tips.
- Tips From the Trenches: A Debrief on Preparation with Recent Bar Exam Takers This article summarizes three areas of advice for bar preparation gleaned from graduates who recently passed the exam. Learning from their shared experiences should help you begin your own preparation armed with some of the critical “intel” you need to successfully navigate and complete the mission.
- How to Keep Yourself on Task While Studying for the Bar Along about the second month of bar prep, most students start feeling pretty exhausted. You know the exam is looming in just a few short weeks, but you can’t seem to drag yourself to do the work you know you need to do. It's important to keep yourself on track and accountable!
- Why Using IRAC Will Help You Pass the Bar Exam Since the first semester of law school, you likely learned that the key method of writing exams was to use IRAC. IRAC is a method of legal analysis and writing that you will carry with you and use throughout your entire legal career, which can only begin by you using it to pass the bar.
- Bar Prep Like an Athlete We're talking about how to prep for the bar exam like a top athlete.
- Maintaining Good Study Habits Throughout Bar Prep Most students, temporarily overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information they have to learn, start bar prep concerned that there won’t be enough time to adequately prepare for the exam. While the compressed time frame can be intimidating, several weeks of preparation is usually adequate if you are sticking to an appropriate study schedule. Use these tips to help you stay motivated and maintain good study habits throughout bar prep.
- Rome Wasn't Built in a Day and Neither is a Passing Bar Exam Score Preparing early for the bar exam gives you the confidence that you will excel. Confidence which is key to maintaining focus and ultimately passing. So take the practical step and begin preparing early.
- What To Do the Week Before the Bar Exam So it’s here. Some may call it the week in which you will experience the most anxiety of your lifetime. Whereas others may call it the last seven days that you have to create an exit strategy. In reality this is the final week before the bar exam and yes, it is completely worth it to follow through after all the sacrifice you’ve put in!
- Can Social Media Help You Study for the Bar Exam? That's right, you read that correctly: social media can actually HELP you study for the bar exam!
- Managing Your Time During the Bar Exam During bar prep, you will all face the harsh reality that there are only twenty-four hours in one day. Twenty-four hours goes by pretty quick when you spend each day trying to process tough material during bar review. But there’s no need to worry because I’ve put together, a few time management methods to help you along the way!
- Evidence Lessons From Famous Cases We're talking about what you can learn about Evidence from watching high-profile cases.
- What You Should Do In Your Last Month Before the Bar Below we’ll outline what we think you should do in your last month before the bar to give the bar your all.
- Why You Should Drive the Horse In the Direction It's Going We're looking at why "going with the flow" can be really helpful during bar prep.
- Advice from a Bar Grader: Tips to Maximize Your Essay Score Raw score, scaled score, what does it all mean? It means get all the points you can. We offer tips to maximize your essay score!
- Don't Kid Yourself: There's a Wrong Way to Study for the Bar For the most part, everyone agrees that bar exam studying involves memorizing law, writing essays and PTs, and practicing MBEs. But, the way you carry out these tasks is also crucial. If you’re just going through the motions in some of the following ways, don’t kid yourself - you’re doing it wrong. Here are some other signs you might be studying wrong.
- Four (Non-Studying) Things You Can Do to Make Sure You Are Ready for Bar Season We're looking at a few things outside of studying that you can do to prepare for bar study.
- Drinking from a Fire Hose? How Simplifying Can Help You Study for the Bar Studying for the bar exam often involves information overload. Feeling overwhelmed can slow your progress and impact your mindset. So what do you do if you feel like you’re drinking from a fire hose? Simplify.
- When and Where I Studied for the Bar Exam Finding a few places where you study your best is one of the most important parts of studying for the bar exam. In this post we share our favorite study spaces and why we chose them.
- How to Pass the Bar by Doing What Makes You the Most Uncomfortable As you get closer to the California bar exam, it's crucial for you to ask yourself if what you're spending your time on is actually going to help you on exam day. If you feel it isn't really going to help, it's time to correct that, NOW!
- Bar Exam Toolbox Episode 38: Planning Your Bar Exam Study Day We’re talking about setting up your daily study schedule while studying for the bar exam, so you can get the most out of your study time, without burning out.
- Are You Studying the Right Way for the Bar Exam? If you’re taking the bar exam, you’re likely knee-deep in study mode at this time. But the question we like to ask our bar students is: Are you studying for the bar exam in the right way?
- The 7 Areas of Bar Exam Preparation In this post we welcome Dustin Saiidi, author and founder of the Bar Exam Mental Edge program, which is designed to increase your confidence while decreasing your stress and anxiety during bar exam prep. Read his thoughts on the 7 main areas of concentration for bar exam success.
- The Ins and Outs of Studying for the Bar Exam If you’re deciding how you will study for the bar, or if you’re already studying but wondering if you’re doing it right, here are some tips for how to tell whether your practices are “In” or “Out.” If your study habits or lifestyle choices are “so last season,” consider making some changes now to put yourself in the best position possible to succeed!
- I am Studying All the Time -- But I Don't Feel Like I Know Any Law! What do you do if you've been studying diligently but still don’t know the law? You may not be studying correctly or spending your time well. In this post we discuss how to effectively manage your study time for the bar exam.
- It's Not Too Late to Get the Help You Need to Pass the Bar Every bar season when the exam is just a few weeks away, bar studiers everywhere start melting down. It mainly happens when they think about how much material is left to study -- and that can be really scary! But don’t fret, there are still a number of things you can do over the next month to avoid a full-blown freak-out and get the help you need to pass this exam.
- Seven Reasons I Think the Bar Exam Is Hard Yes, the bar exam is difficult, but maybe not for the reasons you think.
- Bar Exam Toolbox Experts Share: Tips for the Final Week of Bar Prep We’re down to the final week of bar prep. From regulating your sleep schedule to memorizing attack plans, the Bar Exam Toolbox crew put together some advice for your the final stretch.
- Can You Study for the Bar Exam from a Beach in Mexico? In this post we present the following questions to you: Do you have to be on lock down during your bar exam study? Do you need to study in the library? Or can you do something totally different? Why not study in paradise?
- Predicting the Bar Questions Versus Refined Studying In this post we welcome back Jeff Curl, apprentice grader for the California bar exam and current attorney, to talk about the best way to focus your studying for the California bar exam.
- What To Do if You Aren't Sure that Bar Prep Is Working for You There are many ways to prepare for the bar exam, but probably only a few that work best for you. In this post we talk about how to identify whether or not your preparation is working for you, and what to do if it's not.
- Bar Study Tips: An Entrepreneur's Approach to Studying for the Bar Exam When you take the bar exam, you won't just be learning a lot about the law. In this post Desiree Moore of Greenhorn Legal shares what the bar exam taught her about character, planning, and endurance, and how those lessons influenced her small business.
- Need Help Developing a Study Schedule? Your prep course just ended and you're about to start studying on your own. What do you do? First step: make a study schedule.
Want some help? Check out the Bar Exam Toolbox tutoring and course offerings to help you optimize your study time.
Best of luck on the bar exam!
