Part-time Study Advice Forum

[amk110]

Hello all:

I've recently secured time off from work to begin preparing for the July 2014 (Oregon) bar exam. As I'm not enrolled in a bar review course, I'm looking for all the help I can get with my proposed study schedule and plan. As a preface, I'll mention that I did take BARBRI last year, but was too intimidated by their study schedule to stick with it, and ultimately, decided to postpone the exam. So I do I have a general idea of what I'm supposed to be doing. (And I have watched all of their lectures, completed the outlines, and condensed a few of the MBE subjects into shorter, more manageable outlines...)

First, I need to figure out how much time I need to be spending on preparing. I will be working (4) hours per day, M-F, from 8:00am-12:00pm. With an hour to eat lunch, I can reasonably begin studying on weekdays by 1:00pm, and currently plan to do so until 6:00pm. I have no obligations on the weekends other than the normal errands and chores we all have (cleaning, getting groceries, running errands, etc.) so I reasonably anticipate I can put in about (15) hours between Saturday and Sunday, giving me a total of (40) hours of study-time per week. I will be off from work entirely from July 15 onward, which leaves a little over two weeks before the exam itself where I will be able to devote full-time to study.

Does this seem reasonable? Am I not studying nearly enough? Will I burn out if I try to do much more? (I really think I will...) Any comments, (constructive) critiques, and/or suggestions on the time issue would be helpful.

Second, I need to determine how to use the time I do have. My current plan is to finish condensing the completed BARBRI outlines I have for the remaining MBE subjects. After that, I plan on turning those shorter outlines into flash cards (as the handwriting will really help me memorize the material). Then I'm going to try to hammer out as many MBE questions as I possibly can, and then review those.

After that, I'm sort of up in the air. Ideally, I would want to finish condensing the outlines for all the remaining subjects, and perhaps make flash cards for the one or two of them that almost *always* show up on my state's essay section (Civ. Pro. and Ethics). Next, I would start doing practice essays for all the subjects.

As for the MPT, I haven't a clue how to prepare for that. There's an entire couple of BARBRI books on it I haven't even cracked yet. I imagine they'll show me what to do.

Any help with any of this would be most appreciated. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read and respond.

[Duchovnysfan]

It will really depend on what you plan to do each day you study. Definitely make sure that a lot of your study time is dedicated to practice MBE Qs and essays. So people can have set 10 hours for studying and they BS for like 7 of those hours. So whatever hours you keep make sure that these are hours you can keep up with til bar exam time.

I think what you set out is decent as long as you effectively study. Sometimes it is quality of the studying not so much the quantity. Sticking to the schedule is the biggest challenge to bar prep; it was the death of me at times

PS: For the MPT, I thought Themis did such a great job on preparing for the MPT. If you like, I can send you the filled out lecture handout for it. Here is a link for past MPTs (https://www.gabaradmissions.org/essay-a ... ed-answers) Granted it is for GA, but the MPTs are given out in a bunch of states so they are buried in the PDFs from the link

[amk110]

Thanks for the input!

Agreed about sticking to a schedule. I'm already having trouble with that.

As for how I'm studying, I'm trying to use the time productively. I have four of the six MBE subjects summarized into short outlines. Basically I'm just reading through the long BARBRI outlines (checking the Conviser as necessary when I don't quite understand something) and typing that into a shorter outline. It's pretty time consuming, (about 6-8 hours to turn each subject into a short outline).

I haven't moved on to making these outlines into flash cards yet. I don't want to skip that part, as the physical handwriting will really help me with memorization. I figure they'll take awhile to make. I'm guessing perhaps the rest of this month to finish flash cards for the six MBE subjects. Then it's on to practicing MBE questions. I feel like I should spend at least twice the amount of time on MBE prep than on essays/MPT, as it's worth half the exam grade. (and it's a safe bet that 1 or 2 of those subjects show up on the essays anyway, so even if I haven't practiced the essays as much, I should be in decent shape)

[Duchovnysfan]

Definitely give the MBE a good study but don't forget about the subject essays and especially the MPT as that is also worth half of your exam grade. the MPT is easy points and it just takes maybe a few practice questions to perfect since all the answers are right there in theory! So don't let the MPT by the wayside, it could be the difference for you if you are on the edge of passing or failing!

[amk110]

I've heard that. And personally know a few people who didn't pass on account of neglecting the MPT. I don't intend to do so. As I said, I'm still in the early stages and haven't done much practice, but I hope to be able to start the MBE practice bu June 1st and give that about 4 weeks. Then spend about 2 weeks on essays, 1 week on the MPT, and the last week reviewing as necessary.