Monday, June 18, 2007

Fast Facts About My Bar Exam Study Habits

A good friend sent me a brief note the other day indicating his frustration with bar review: "Bar studying is tedious. I missed a couple of lectures and I made one of them up today... 4 hours of evidence, what a drag."

I sent him a reassuring note, which I think will be helpful to others in his situation:
  • I skipped the last hour of almost every Bar/Bri lecture.
  • During the first 5 weeks, I skipped perhaps 1/6 lectures in their entirety and did not make any up.
  • I skipped the entire last week of class.
  • I overslept on the day of the practice MBE.
  • I never did any of the "practice" essays to send to BarBri for scoring.
  • I did MAYBE 20 practice MBE questions per day, and that was on a good day.
  • I often did the MBE questions while recumbent biking at the gym. I think that conditioned my brain to be able to concentrate under physical pressure. Made testing day seem like a peaceful beach in comparison.
  • I split the rest of my time between class, skimming the short outlines (didn't read the long outlines), and watching TV.
  • Didn't even attempt the essays until about 3 weeks before the test, once I had a basic grounding of knowledge.
  • Oh, and I always TOTALLY BOMBED them in practice. Missed half the things they talked about in the Perfect Essay samples.
  • On the MBE, I passed by 11 points, almost "multistating out."
  • On the essays, I ended up getting two perfect 10s, a 9 and four 8s.
  • I passed with flying colors.

In other words: You'll be fine.

2 comments:

Beau said...

very reassuring post Good Twin.

the b-lab is updated, though not by that much... but fear not, more will be forthcoming as my procastination skills increase.

Matt said...

Now, don't get me wrong; I'm not recommending that you start slacking off. On the contrary: with a month to go, I started studying 8 hours a day, and with 2 weeks left, I was studying 12 hours a day. Just don't think that all is lost if you miss a BarBri lecture or 2 (or 10) :-)

If you keep in mind that people FAR smarter than you have failed the bar, then you will have the requisite fear needed to study hard enough.

I know that kind of contradicts what I hinted at in my post, but every day people find me through Google with searches like "5 weeks before the bar studying" (4:30 p.m. today from a guy in Washington state)... I don't want to paint a picture that is TOO rosy! :-)