Sad to say, test-day distractions derail many a bar exam taker! After all of your hard work studying, don’t let your bar exam experience go sour because you forget a power cord or your computer dies. Read on for tips to ensure your exam-day experience will be a smooth as possible!
What to Bring
- Three Things to Remember for Bar Exam Day Below are the three things we think you need to remember for exam day.
- Strategies and Tips for the Final Weeks of Bar Prep In less than three weeks now, the bar exam will be over. That thought likely brings a mix of relief and panic, but this is the perfect time to think about what you can do to maximize your efforts in these final days!
- What to Bring to the California Bar Exam You’ve spent months memorizing rules, practicing essays, and taking multiple-choice MBE questions. Now that it’s finally time to sit for the California bar exam, you need to pack your “go bag” full of items that are permitted in the exam room.
- Practical Tips for the Day of the Bar Exam You’ve studied, you’ve sweated, you’ve even cried a little – now you’re ready to take the bar exam head on. As it gets closer to the first day of the exam, start planning out the practical details of your two or three day adventure. This is not the time for you to open the fridge on Tuesday morning and realize the milk is sour and you forgot to restock the coffee. Here are your game day tips.
- A Productive Study Break: Prepping For Exam Day Here’s a productive study break you should put on your calendar at least a week before the bar exam: preparing for exam day.
- Getting Ready for Game Day! The bar exam is only a few short days away. We know you’ve been studying for months, but there are a few things you want to be sure you do before the big day. To help you get ready, we compiled a list of things you don’t want to forget.
- You Are Ready to Conquer the Bar Exam!?! Exam week is finally here. You've spent weeks preparing, and now you need to execute the exam just like you've practiced. We have some great tips to help you get through exam week!
- Did You Book a Hotel? Things to Put on Your To-Do List Now that the exam is less than a month away, your to-do list should include the things that need to be done before exam week. Here's a starter list to help you out.
- Bar Exam Toolbox Experts Share: Game Day Tips The bar exam is upon us. In this post, the Bar Exam Toolbox experts have compiled some advice for the bar exam so you can excel on game day.
- Bar Study Tips: A Helpful Packing List If you're staying at a hotel or a friend’s house during the bar exam, you'll need to pack up your stuff so you're well stocked for exam day! Read our suggested packing list so you don't forget anything important.
What to Eat
- Why I Packed My Own Lunch for the Bar Exam (And Maybe You Should Too) In deciding to pack my lunch for the bar exam, and deciding what to pack, I considered the following — and these might be worth your consideration as you prepare for the bar exam too.
- Food Is Fuel "Pens, papers, binders, lamp...am I missing anything?" Yes you are! Food! Your nutrition is easy to forget about while you grapple with legal terms and concepts for hours on end. Get some tips on how to stay energized with food as you approach bar week.
- Optimal Nutrition for Bar Exam Success On the day of the bar exam it's vital to plan your nutrition as carefully as you choose your exam answers. In this post we speak with Certified Holistic Nutrition Consultant Caitlin Weeks about how taking care of yourself can help you find academic success. Find out what you should be eating the day of the exam!
Computer Issues
- Where Are You Going to Upload Your Bar Exam Answers? If you're taking the bar exam on your computer, then you need to think about when and where you're going to upload your bar exam answers. All you need is an internet connection, but after the exam is over, that can be a bit more challenging to find than you think!
- Is Your Computer Ready? As the bar exam approaches, you need to make sure your computer is ready for the test. This isn't just a simple process of checking your battery - there's much more you need to do to get your computer bar ready.
Test-Day Tips
- What Bar Graders See When They Read Your Essays You can’t turn in a bar essay of gibberish with nice headers and expect to pass. The graders do actually read your work, even if they do so quickly. We discuss what bar graders really see when reading your essays.
- How to Get Past the Initial Panic on a Bar Essay This post is about how you can get past your panic on a bar essay by planning ahead exactly how you’re going to start any essay that comes your way.
- Don't Do This on Your Bar Exam Essays In order to pass a bar exam, you need to collect as many points as possible on your bar essay exams. In order to maximize the points you receive, you need to make it as easy as possible for the bar exam grader to give you points. We offer some advice for what not to do.
- 5 Easy Tips to Bolster Your Analysis on the Bar Here are five easy to follow tips to make your analysis section strong on the bar exam.
- Organize Your Essays for Maximum Points It is absolutely essential that you make it as easy as possible for your bar grader to spot where you are earning points. We offer tips on how to get the maximum points on your bar essays.
- Last Minute Tips for the MPT If you’re taking the bar exam in any of the states that require the MPT, hopefully you've already been preparing for this component of the exam. Here are some last minute tips to help get you to the finish line!
- Can Paper Clips Help You Pass the Performance Test? If you're taking the bar exam in a jurisdiction that includes a performance test portion, this post is for you. Many students complain that the PT section has too many papers to keep track of. Could bringing a paper clip to the exam solve this problem and help your score?
Pep Talks
- Bar Exam Tips and Tricks - What to Do When You Blank on Test Day Here are some tips and tricks to get you through your mind blanking on exam day.
- Bar Exam Top 10 - 10 Ways to Pump Yourself Up Before the Bar Exam We offer some things to help get you pumped up before the bar exam!
- It's Almost the Week of the Bar Exam! But You Can Stay Sane! You have finally made it. It’s the week of the bar exam. There may not be a discrete set of things each of you can do to maintain sanity in those final days and hours before the bar, but what I can offer are some common-sense tips to keep you healthy and feeling…okay before the big day.
- Suggestions for Surviving the First Day of the Bar Exam The first day of the bar exam is daunting, to say the least. Students know that 2-3 long testing days are ahead of them and, although many are eager to get the process started after weeks of preparation, most still feel nervous, overwhelmed, or even unprepared. It’s important to start the bar exam marathon on a positive note, so take a deep a breath and use these suggestions to help you have a successful first day.
- I Don't Know the Answer: Encountering Your Worst Subject as an Essay Topic So here’s the scenario, you didn’t take a certain subject in law school or maybe you went to a law school outside of California and it wasn’t an option. You reviewed that subject briefly as part of your bar exam prep, but it’s not your strongest subject. You are banking on that subject not showing up on your exam but then you open your exam to find your weak subject staring you in the face and your mind goes blank; you have no idea how to answer the question. What happens next?
- How to Cope If You Forget a Rule on the Bar If you're afraid of sitting down for the bar exam and blanking, we have advice! We're talking about the top three steps to take if you forget a rule when taking the bar exam.
- Some Perspective on a Disappointing First Day of the Bar Exam Few things in your life will have the same sort of buildup and anticipation as the bar exam. The tension is only increased by the high stakes: you may have a job offer contingent on bar passage, you definitely have years of work and weeks of preparation invested, and you likely have everyone you know waiting to hear if you passed or failed. We have some tips on how to handle a disappointing first day.
- My Best Bar Exam Tip: Just Decide You'll Pass On first glance, this simple tip might seem naive or silly, but it’s actually quite powerful. Lee shares her bar exam story that made her realize the key to bar exam success: deciding to pass!
- Your Pep Talk for Tuesday This is it – the big day. You might be starting to feel the nerves setting in. You might be excited because the end is near. Or you may just be thankful that this experience is almost over. However you're feeling, it's finally game time! Here's your bar exam pep talk.
- Pep Talk for Day 2: Keep Calm and Carry On You finished day one! As you reflect on your performance tonight, it is crucial for you to keep your head up. Read this post for a pep talk to prepare you for the next day of testing!
- It's July! Are You Freaking Out? With the bar exam just a few days away, you're likely having an anxiety attack. If those binders of law you have to learn are intimidating you to the point of a breakdown, it's time to stop, take a breath, and reflect.
- What's the Worst That Could Happen? As the exam date approaches, you're probably starting to realize the difficult fact that bar exam scores aren't totally within your control. In this post we discuss the increasing stress you might find yourself under during these final days of preparation, and how to deal with it.