Let’s be honest — studying for the bar exam can throw even the most dedicated health nut off their game. It’s not uncommon to find yourself eating crap, staying up until all hours, and being so stressed out that you can hardly focus.
If you’re barely keeping it together, it may be time for a self-care intervention! Read on for tips on stress management, exercise, food, and more.
Get Some Exercise
- Passing the Bar Exam One Asana At a Time Part III: Poses to Counteract Sitting and Poor Posture While Studying In this third post of our yoga series we share effective poses that relieve tension from one thing you will be doing a lot of: sitting at a desk studying!
- Passing the Bar Exam One Asana at a Time Part II: Poses to Increase your Ability to Concentrate In this part of our yoga series we will show you the poses that will increase your ability to concentrate. Check them out here!
- Passing the Bar Exam One Asana At a Time: Part One In this first post of our three part yoga series, read why yoga and bar exam studying are a perfect match! These skills will help you stay healthy and focused through out your study time.
- Exercise for Your Brain - Advice From The Bar Exam Trainer When preparing for the bar exam, everyone knows that you need to spend many hours learning the law. But what many bar preppers don’t know is that how you take care of your body during bar prep has a direct effect on how your brain performs. In this post, Larry Opalewski, lawyer and author of “The Bar Exam Trainer," explains how your lifestyle is critically important during bar 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).
- Can Yoga or Walking Help You Pass the Bar Exam? How closely are mental health and physical health linked? Can regular physical activity help you prepare for the bar exam? To answer these questions and more, we welcome back Elena DuCharme, a lawyer turned performance coach who works with bar studiers to help them conquer fear and anxiety and find bar exam success.
- Take a Walk During Bar Prep Preparing for the bar exam sometimes feels overwhelming and all too often takes over every waking minute of the day. But, if you’re able, consider taking a walk every day for a half an hour or an hour. It’ll make you smarter
Eat Right
- 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?
- 3 Ways to Take Care of Yourself During Bar Season Since studying becomes your full-time job during the final weeks of bar prep, it can be easy to neglect important things like eating and sleeping. But that is NOT OK! Here are some suggestions for taking care of yourself during the home stretch of bar exam prep.
- You Are What You Eat (When Studying for the Bar Exam) As we have discussed before, what you eat has great influence on how you study. As bar students ramp up their studying, we wanted to extend our discussion on healthy eating while studying for the exam. Sure, all you're craving is pizza and brownies…but is this really the best idea?
- 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!
Get Some Sleep
- Warning: Working and Studying Can Cause Sleep Deprivation! It's no secret that working while studying for the bar exam can be a challenge. Depriving yourself of sleep and studying while exhausted can lead to disastrous results. In this post, learn about the consequences of sleep deprivation and the importance of rest!
- Sleep, Sleep, and More Sleep It's a fact that you need to be in your best state mentally on bar exam day. Now matter how much you've studied, you can't perform if you fall asleep during the exam. Read our tips for catching more hours of sleep as the bar exam approaches.
- It's Time to Relax and Get Some Sleep You've been diligent about your studying and followed your schedule. Now it is the week before the bar exam. It's time to trust that you have done the work and take a rest.
Stress Management
- How to Prepare for the Bar on a Budget There are a lot of great bar prep programs out there now that don’t cost as much money but still help you pass the exam, and we're looking at how to do this.
- Three Simple Ways to Manage Stress While Studying For the Bar Exam If you are currently studying for the bar exam, there are ways to do more than just outlive the stress you are experiencing. In fact, a few simple practices can help you successfully minimize its impact on your studies, your exam performance, and your physical and mental health. Here are three you can try right now:
- Managing Covid, the Holidays, and Bar Study We're looking at how to manage the holidays and bar study, particularly this year, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Still Thinking About the Bar Exam? 5 Tips to Help You Decompress For better or worse, the bar exam is finally over! It’s normal to have a little anxiety about how it all went, but after spending so much time and focus preparing for the test, you may find it difficult to get your mind off of the bar exam. Now that the test is over and there’s nothing you can do to change your answers, it’s important to live in the present so that you aren’t constantly worrying about what you could have done differently or whether your name will be on the pass list. Use the following strategies to help you decompress and control your anxiety about the results.
- Can Playing with a Pet Help Relieve Bar Exam Stress? Yes, pet therapy is actually a thing. And yes, you can legitimately use it to help relieve the stress of bar exam studying. Read why here!
- Mental Health and the Bar: Tips To Maintain Good Mental Health Post Bar Exam and Beyond If you've just finished the bar exam, unfortunately, these factors can certainly bring up some mental health issues, regardless of a predisposition or an overall stable state of mind. Therefore, developing and maintaining good mental health practices is crucial, especially during this starting point of your career.
- Make Stress Your Friend During Bar Study Studying hard and building an attack plan is a great strategy, but be ready to let go of concrete plans. Your perfect bar plan may no longer be a perfect fit. But you just need to trust yourself.
- How to Handle Burnout for the Bar Exam Studying for the bar exam may only last a few weeks, but it can sure send you on a roller coaster of emotions. Bar prep will likely subject you to a slew of emotions that will feel particularly intense given the pressure, workload, and shortened time frame. To avoid getting derailed during your study sessions, use these strategies to help you handle the various feelings, moods, and mindsets you might encounter as you prepare to take the bar exam.
- 8 Ways to De-Stress During Bar Prep We lay out eight things you can do to eliminate your bar prep stress.
- Self-Care is the Best Care: 10 Ways to Take Care of Yourself During Bar Prep What do you do when you’ve perfected your favorite self-care routine, but you’re unable to squeeze it into your bar prep study schedule? We've pinpointed 10 self-care activities that are efficient, uplifting and necessary for the soul, but most importantly, cheap!
- Test Anxiety and the Bar Exam: How to Cope In this post, we want to discuss everyone’s favorite topic: test anxiety! Ok, we know, it’s probably everyone’s least favorite topic. But, it needs to be talked about since everyone deals with it in law school and in bar prep.
- 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!).
- How to Manage Your Anxiety in the Days Before the Bar Exam In the days leading up to the bar exam, you may feel increased anxiety. Being proactive about this can help you minimize stress and reduce your fears about the test and achieve a passing score.
- Can Pilates Help You Study for the Bar Exam? Joseph Pilates once said “Patience and persistence are vital qualities in the ultimate successful accomplishment of any worthwhile endeavor.” This statement applies easily to the intense couple of months you will spend preparing for the bar exam. You will need to find ways to stay centered and focused, and pilates may be the answer.
- Taking a Netflix Break During Bar Prep We're going over some great options on Netflix to watch when you want a break from your bar study.
- 5 Ways to Combat Stress During the Last Week Before the Bar The stress of studying for the bar impacts you in ways you don’t even realize. But, as we know, too much stress is BAD. Here are 5 suggestions for alleviating stress during that last crazy week before the exam.
- How to Beat Fear During Bar Exam Study The amount of material you have to study for the bar exam can be overwhelming, to say the least. In this post, we welcome Lauren Fire, the creator of Mind Over Bar, to share some tips to overcome fear when studying for the bar exam.
- Two Simple, Non-Woo-Woo Ways to Calm Your Nerves and Boost Your Score on the Bar Exam As the bar exam nears, we know you’re not only looking at the best techniques for improving your score, but also ways to keep calm during crunch time. Elena DuCharme, an attorney and performance coach who specializes in helping bar-takers achieve the right mindset for bar exam success, shares two strategies to reduce stress and increase your bar exam score.
- Help! I Am Too Anxious to Study Bar exam anxiety is no joke.Whether you're a first-time bar taker or a repeat taker, anxiety can lead to feeling both physically and mentally drained. If this sounds like you, review these posts for some suggestions on how to cope with your anxiety and stress.
- Feeling Panicked About the Bar Exam? Advice to Get You Through the Final Week Congratulations, you’ve made it to the final week of bar exam prep. While this week brings some relief for students knowing the end is finally in sight, it can also evoke a sense of panic. In this post we discuss the common scenarios we’re hearing from students during this time and how to avoid having a bar exam freakout!
- Eliminating Stress When Studying for the Bar (and Waiting for Bar Results) Have you ever talked to yourself? It turns out that self-talk is a key step in managing stress. So if you’re taking the bar or waiting for results, you're probably talking to yourself a lot! In this post we share tips to make that self-talk more productive.
- Warning, Burnout Ahead! Take a Pre-Bar Exam Study Break Law students around the country are taking the last final exams of their law school career and starting to look ahead to the bar. If you're set to start studying for the bar as soon as finals finish, SLOW DOWN! You may want to consider taking a study break before you start bar prep.
- 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 52: Avoiding Burnout While Studying For the Bar Exam We’re talking about how to avoid burnout while studying for the bar exam, and what to do if you feel that you’re already burned out.
- 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.
- One and Done - The Best Bar Exam Motto This is a simple motto that we think works for all stages of the bar exam: prep, taking the test, and getting back your results. Find out why this should be your motto too!
- Strategic Self-Care for Bar Studiers If you're like so many others studying for the bar exam, you may be feeling stressed and anxious as the exam nears. Today we speak with Kim Nicol, a licensed attorney in California, who teaches people how to use stress relief, self-care, and meditation to get through challenging times. Read Kim's tips on how to manage stress during bar exam crunch time!
- How to Deal With Bar Exam Study Panic Whether this is your first time taking the bar or you're a repeater, you're equally likely to come down with a case of bar exam study panic. The key is not to ignore the panic, but instead to be honest with yourself about it, deal with it, and then get back to work. If you feel a moment of panic coming on, keep these tips in mind.
- Procrastinating for the Bar Exam with Frodo Baggins At times, procrastination walks a fine line between truly avoiding what needs to be done and preserving your sanity. To help you walk this line, we welcome Jeff Curl, former apprentice grader for the California bar exam and current attorney. In this post he shares his experience with procrastination while studying for the bar exam and offers tips to ensure procrastination is more like relaxation.
- Studying for the Bar Exam? Loosen Up! Preparing for the bar exam can be some of the most stressful weeks or months of your life. Ryan Rivera struggled with anxiety for years and negative thinking was the consequence. Now he provides information about living with anxiety at thecalmclinic.com, and shares his his advice on dealing with anxiety while studying for the bar exam.
- Want to Pass? Stop Saying "I Can't" The bar exam is definitely a mental and emotional challenge. In this post we breakdown why you need to stop saying a phrase that you may be using a lot these days: "I can't."
- What's Causing Your Bar Exam Stress? Taking the bar exam is stressful! And while just thinking about what you have to memorize is enough to get you stressed, there are other factors that can contribute to the anxiety. Find out what they are and how you can deal with them.
Mindfulness
- Can Meditation Help You Prepare for the Bar Exam? You may not realize that meditation can contribute to bar exam success. No matter what stage of bar prep you're in, mediating is a skill you should definitely start learning!
- The One Thing Missing from Your Bar Exam Preparation Toolbox You’ve been memorizing your outlines, your MBE accuracy is going up, and your practice essays are steadily improving. You’ve taken all of the advice of caring for your physical health by exercising and eating well, and you’re feeling pretty good about your preparation strategies. But there’s one powerful tool you may not have incorporated into your routine that you should consider adding: meditation.
- Can't Afford a Therapist? 4 Things to Try Seeking professional help to cope with bar exam related stress can be a game-changer. But if you can't afford a therapist, there are a few lower cost options that may help you cope with anxiety and fear and get you mentally ready for the exam.
- Getting Mentally Ready: Let Go, Relax, and Get out of Your Own Way Have you ever wondered if hypnotherapy could help you find bar exam success? In this post we welcome Kay Heatherly, a hypnotherapist in San Francisco, who has helped her clients move past fear and anxiety and find bar exam success. Read Kay's thoughts on her work, how it can help with your bar prep, and what to expect from a session.
- 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!
- The Power of a Positive Mindset Have you ever had one of those days where you can’t find your keys in the morning, and then you finally locate your keys just to realize that you do not know where your cell phone is (and you really need your phone because it is synced with your schedule on your computer or holds all your contacts)? As a result, you are late to class or an appointment because you have to look up where you are going. To top off your morning, there is extra traffic on the road or you get stuck behind the slowest driver or a large truck which makes you even later.
- Managing Bar Exam Results Season Results Season is an impactful time. We have some tips on how to manage this time where you wait for your bar results to come in.
- 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.
- Can This $12.60 Book Help You Pass the Bar Exam? A former bar student of ours recently mentioned to us that he had rediscovered a book that really helped him be mentally ready for the bar exam. Find out what book it was and why you should consider buying it.
- A Love Letter to my Bar Prep Self - Encouraging Words from My Post-Bar Self Let us talk about some specific things to help ease your anxiety and make you feel more comfortable as you go through your bar exam journey.
- 5 Reasons to Embrace Bar Prep There are plenty of reasons to not enjoy (or even dread) bar prep. You likely already have a list of these reasons, and your list is probably longer than five. But there are more than a few good reasons to stay motivated. We offer the top five reasons to embrace bar prep in mind and stay in the fight!
- Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 13: Handling Bar Exam Stress (w/Megan Canty) Today, our guest is Megan Canty, the Director of Academic Success and Bar Exam Preparation at Wayne State University Law School and a Bar Exam Toolbox tutor. We’re talking about something that is incredibly important for the bar exam: handling stress, so you can perform your best! Remember – don’t forget to BREATHE!
- Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 57: Using Mindfulness Techniques in Your Bar Exam Preparation Mindfulness is a common buzz word these days, but the reason it’s so popular is that, for a lot of people, it really works. Today, we’re discussing various mindfulness techniques to help you stay calm and collected while preparing for the bar exam, and beyond.
- Tools for Bar Exam Success: Bar Exam Mind - A Book Review One piece of the bar exam puzzle that isn't adequately discussed is the mental aspect of studying for the bar exam. Find out why Matt Racine’s book, "Bar Exam Mind: A Strategy Guide For An Anxiety-Free Bar Exam," is a must read to get yourself ready to take the bar exam!
- Strategic Self-Care for Bar Studiers If you're like so many others studying for the bar exam, you may be feeling stressed and anxious as the exam nears. Today we speak with Kim Nicol, a licensed attorney in California, who teaches people how to use stress relief, self-care, and meditation to get through challenging times. Read Kim's tips on how to manage stress during bar exam crunch time!
Totally flipping out? Find out about tutoring options to help you focus and get things done.
Best of luck!
