Possible to make this study schedule work? Forum

[lawst_]

Hey guys,
I'm gearing up for the IL Feb 2016 bar and I wanted some opinions about making my schedule work. When I studied for the July 2015 bar, I had all the time in the world since I wasn't working. However, I think having all that time made me study really inefficiently because I kept telling myself "oh, I'll just do some more later" and then I never ended up doing it.

So my situation has changed quite a bit since taking the July 2015 bar. I'm now working full time (8:30am-5:30pm or later) with approx 45 min to 1 hour commute on both ends of my day. My work is being suuuuper understanding about re-taking the bar and is giving me the final two weeks before the bar off so I can really study a lot.

Other than that, I'm trying to figure out how much time I'm going to need to put in during the week. Here's my proposed schedule up until the final two weeks before the bar:

-Now through when bar prep starts (Jan 4): casually review CMR (Barbri), take Amp quizzes to refresh my memory, possibly buy and start using Critical Pass flash cards

-Weekdays once bar prep officially starts: Use 1 hour lunch break to review and take quizzes. Get home, eat dinner, study approx. 2-3 hours, go to bed.

-Weekends once bar prep officially starts: at least 4 hours dedicated to bar study on both Saturday and Sunday. Will likely break it up since studying straight through doesn't help me.

I'm looking for opinions on whether or not this is enough. FWIW, I'm planning on skipping a majority of the Barbri video lectures since I already have my book filled out and I didn't find the lectures to be helpful before (more like a gigantic waste of time). I struggled a lot on the MBE, so this is where my efforts will need to be focused. I have the Barbri course, Kaplan materials, considering Critical Pass and possibly Adaptibar.

Thank you all in advance!

[rcharter1978]

Do you think there is something you can listen to on the way home?

I have no idea if something like that exists, but that might be cool unless you're looking to de-stress during a traffic free drive home. I live in So. Cal and my drive home was always beyond ridiculous, so no matter what it wasn't going to be relaxing so I always felt it might be better if I listened to something bar exam related instead of listening to talk radio, or old school jamz. My car also doesn't have bluetooth so I wouldn't have been able to hook up my phone and listen to something on the internet or something I had downloaded.

AMPs never really helped me, but if they help you, thats awesome. I've gotten the critical pass flashcards and I think they are pretty neat. Others have said they are pretty much CMR is flashcard form so they may be easier to review than the CMR.

[lawst_]

Do you think there is something you can listen to on the way home?

I have no idea if something like that exists, but that might be cool unless you're looking to de-stress during a traffic free drive home. I live in So. Cal and my drive home was always beyond ridiculous, so no matter what it wasn't going to be relaxing so I always felt it might be better if I listened to something bar exam related instead of listening to talk radio, or old school jamz. My car also doesn't have bluetooth so I wouldn't have been able to hook up my phone and listen to something on the internet or something I had downloaded.

AMPs never really helped me, but if they help you, thats awesome. I've gotten the critical pass flashcards and I think they are pretty neat. Others have said they are pretty much CMR is flashcard form so they may be easier to review than the CMR.

Thanks for the response! I live in a major city so my drive is traffic filled and anything but relaxing. But I think it's worth a shot to download lectures and at least listen to that for an hour. It may end up helping a ton! Definitely never would've thought of this.

[rcharter1978]

Do you think there is something you can listen to on the way home?

I have no idea if something like that exists, but that might be cool unless you're looking to de-stress during a traffic free drive home. I live in So. Cal and my drive home was always beyond ridiculous, so no matter what it wasn't going to be relaxing so I always felt it might be better if I listened to something bar exam related instead of listening to talk radio, or old school jamz. My car also doesn't have bluetooth so I wouldn't have been able to hook up my phone and listen to something on the internet or something I had downloaded.

AMPs never really helped me, but if they help you, thats awesome. I've gotten the critical pass flashcards and I think they are pretty neat. Others have said they are pretty much CMR is flashcard form so they may be easier to review than the CMR.

Thanks for the response! I live in a major city so my drive is traffic filled and anything but relaxing. But I think it's worth a shot to download lectures and at least listen to that for an hour. It may end up helping a ton! Definitely never would've thought of this.

You're welcome, maybe someone knows of a resource or a way to do that. People on this site are super serious and are hard workers. I can't imagine no one has thought of a site or a resource to find a way to listen to lectures or some other helpful resource during the drive home.

I do think a relaxing drive might clear your mind and prep you to get home and hit the work hard. But a super stressful drive only makes me want to take a nap when I get home so as long as you're stressing out while you drive at least listen to something that might be helpful! Hope it works for you!

[texasbar]

Hey guys,
I'm gearing up for the Feb 2016 bar and I wanted some opinions about making my schedule work. When I studied for the July 2015 bar, I had all the time in the world since I wasn't working. However, I think having all that time made me study really inefficiently because I kept telling myself "oh, I'll just do some more later" and then I never ended up doing it.

So my situation has changed quite a bit since taking the July 2015 bar. I'm now working full time (8:30am-5:30pm or later) with approx 45 min to 1 hour commute on both ends of my day. My work is being suuuuper understanding about re-taking the bar and is giving me the final two weeks before the bar off so I can really study a lot.

Other than that, I'm trying to figure out how much time I'm going to need to put in during the week. Here's my proposed schedule up until the final two weeks before the bar:
Now through when bar prep starts (Jan 4): casually review CMR (Barbri), take Amp quizzes to refresh my memory, possibly buy and start using Critical Pass flash cards

Weekdays once bar prep officially starts: Use 1 hour lunch break to review and take quizzes. Get home, eat dinner, study approx. 2-3 hours, go to bed.

Weekends once bar prep officially starts: at least 4 hours dedicated to bar study on both Saturday and Sunday. Will likely break it up since studying straight through doesn't help me.

I'm looking for opinions on whether or not this is enough. FWIW, I'm planning on skipping a majority of the Barbri video lectures since I already have my book filled out and I didn't find the lectures to be helpful before (more like a gigantic waste of time). I struggled a lot on the MBE, so this is where my efforts will need to be focused. I have the Barbri course, Kaplan materials, considering Critical Pass and possibly Adaptibar.

Thank you all in advance!

I feel the same way about having too much time - it made me procrastinate more than anything else. You know how much studying is enough for you, but personally, I would put more time in on the weekends. 4 hours doesn't seem like a ton of time to do your substantive review + practice. This of course depends on how comfortable you are with the material now. If you're more in review mode v.s. study mode, it might be enough.

I think the suggestion about listening to lectures on your drive home is a great one too. The barbri app has them so it's easy to do on your phone. I actually like the 1L lectures better than the bar class lectures because they flow a lot better (less repeating and pausing). They're much longer though...

I also use the critical pass app (didn't want to pay so much for the actual cards), which may be handy for your lunch break review.

[lawst_]

Hey guys,
I'm gearing up for the Feb 2016 bar and I wanted some opinions about making my schedule work. When I studied for the July 2015 bar, I had all the time in the world since I wasn't working. However, I think having all that time made me study really inefficiently because I kept telling myself "oh, I'll just do some more later" and then I never ended up doing it.

So my situation has changed quite a bit since taking the July 2015 bar. I'm now working full time (8:30am-5:30pm or later) with approx 45 min to 1 hour commute on both ends of my day. My work is being suuuuper understanding about re-taking the bar and is giving me the final two weeks before the bar off so I can really study a lot.

Other than that, I'm trying to figure out how much time I'm going to need to put in during the week. Here's my proposed schedule up until the final two weeks before the bar:
Now through when bar prep starts (Jan 4): casually review CMR (Barbri), take Amp quizzes to refresh my memory, possibly buy and start using Critical Pass flash cards

Weekdays once bar prep officially starts: Use 1 hour lunch break to review and take quizzes. Get home, eat dinner, study approx. 2-3 hours, go to bed.

Weekends once bar prep officially starts: at least 4 hours dedicated to bar study on both Saturday and Sunday. Will likely break it up since studying straight through doesn't help me.

I'm looking for opinions on whether or not this is enough. FWIW, I'm planning on skipping a majority of the Barbri video lectures since I already have my book filled out and I didn't find the lectures to be helpful before (more like a gigantic waste of time). I struggled a lot on the MBE, so this is where my efforts will need to be focused. I have the Barbri course, Kaplan materials, considering Critical Pass and possibly Adaptibar.

Thank you all in advance!

I feel the same way about having too much time - it made me procrastinate more than anything else. You know how much studying is enough for you, but personally, I would put more time in on the weekends. 4 hours doesn't seem like a ton of time to do your substantive review + practice. This of course depends on how comfortable you are with the material now. If you're more in review mode v.s. study mode, it might be enough.

I think the suggestion about listening to lectures on your drive home is a great one too. The barbri app has them so it's easy to do on your phone. I actually like the 1L lectures better than the bar class lectures because they flow a lot better (less repeating and pausing). They're much longer though...

I also use the critical pass app (didn't want to pay so much for the actual cards), which may be handy for your lunch break review.

Haha as soon as I wrote 4 hours, I thought yeah that doesn't seem like enough. So I'm thinking I can ramp that up to at least 5-6 on both Saturday and Sunday.

I didn't know Critical Pass had an app, so that's definitely worth looking into for me! Thanks!

[BrokenMouse]

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[nyny]

Study smarter not harder... Having all of those materials is just a recipe for disaster. Simplify you're approach, meaning choose one of the course materials and go with that. It seems that you used Kaplan in the summer, I would stick with the kaplan materials and lecture notes, skip barbri lectures altogether, and definitely skip their amps (complete waste of time), because you are already familiar with Kaplan. Then I would used adaptibar exclusively for the MBE and issue spot every released essay in the Kaplan essay book or on the Illinois BOLE. Having to spend 3 or move hours on new lectures amps per day, giving your situation will be difficult. Good luck.

[InTheWideLand I Walk]

welcome to my world. this is my second time doing this. - study DURING breakfast, on the way to work, DURING lunch, on the way back from work, DURING dinner, then till 1am, then while falling asleep. that is your life Monday-Friday, and on sat-sun u have to sleep in to the max but as soon as you wake up study all the way until you fall asleep, including when ur falling asleep with no break. I failed by only a small margin last time doing this- so I suppose its possible.

also, don't take any days off. if your family invites u to celebrate Christmas, tell them no.

if you don't do all of the above, you will likely fail.

[InTheWideLand I Walk]

Study smarter not harder... Having all of those materials is just a recipe for disaster. Simplify you're approach, meaning choose one of the course materials and go with that. It seems that you used Kaplan in the summer, I would stick with the kaplan materials and lecture notes, skip barbri lectures altogether, and definitely skip their amps (complete waste of time), because you are already familiar with Kaplan. Then I would used adaptibar exclusively for the MBE and issue spot every released essay in the Kaplan essay book or on the Illinois BOLE. Having to spend 3 or move hours on new lectures amps per day, giving your situation will be difficult. Good luck.

can you explain how I can go through 3000-4000 MBEs by "studying smart, not hard" ?

[lawst_]

Study smarter not harder... Having all of those materials is just a recipe for disaster. Simplify you're approach, meaning choose one of the course materials and go with that. It seems that you used Kaplan in the summer, I would stick with the kaplan materials and lecture notes, skip barbri lectures altogether, and definitely skip their amps (complete waste of time), because you are already familiar with Kaplan. Then I would used adaptibar exclusively for the MBE and issue spot every released essay in the Kaplan essay book or on the Illinois BOLE. Having to spend 3 or move hours on new lectures amps per day, giving your situation will be difficult. Good luck.

I actually did Barbri over the summer, found the lectures to be incredibly long, boring, and not really helpful. I had a friend give my Kaplan materials because I've read on here that Kaplan's MBE is probably the best of all the programs. I struggled most on the MBE, so I thought it would be good to have additional materials for that.

[nyny]

Study smarter not harder... Having all of those materials is just a recipe for disaster. Simplify you're approach, meaning choose one of the course materials and go with that. It seems that you used Kaplan in the summer, I would stick with the kaplan materials and lecture notes, skip barbri lectures altogether, and definitely skip their amps (complete waste of time), because you are already familiar with Kaplan. Then I would used adaptibar exclusively for the MBE and issue spot every released essay in the Kaplan essay book or on the Illinois BOLE. Having to spend 3 or move hours on new lectures amps per day, giving your situation will be difficult. Good luck.

can you explain how I can go through 3000-4000 MBEs by "studying smart, not hard" ?

I don't know what you're saying, but Adaptibar has about 1400 questions which are split into MBE subjects, that repeat after you're done with a particular MBE subject. I think 1400-2500 questions is more than enough questions. 33-40 MBE questions per day, about 2 hours consumed between answering the questions and reviewing the answers per day as well. There are about 60 days left between now and the bar exam, 33 per day is 1980 questions total.

Everyone is different. For me seeing so many MBE questions seemed beneficial for me. And Adaptibar's civ pro questions were so hard and tested obscure doctrines, but it prepared me for the ish show that was the MBE civ pro questions.

[nyny]

Study smarter not harder... Having all of those materials is just a recipe for disaster. Simplify you're approach, meaning choose one of the course materials and go with that. It seems that you used Kaplan in the summer, I would stick with the kaplan materials and lecture notes, skip barbri lectures altogether, and definitely skip their amps (complete waste of time), because you are already familiar with Kaplan. Then I would used adaptibar exclusively for the MBE and issue spot every released essay in the Kaplan essay book or on the Illinois BOLE. Having to spend 3 or move hours on new lectures amps per day, giving your situation will be difficult. Good luck.

I actually did Barbri over the summer, found the lectures to be incredibly long, boring, and not really helpful. I had a friend give my Kaplan materials because I've read on here that Kaplan's MBE is probably the best of all the programs. I struggled most on the MBE, so I thought it would be good to have additional materials for that.

Oh okay. I have heard Kaplan does a good job with the MBE as well with their "Purple book" and online quiz bank.

[InTheWideLand I Walk]

Study smarter not harder... Having all of those materials is just a recipe for disaster. Simplify you're approach, meaning choose one of the course materials and go with that. It seems that you used Kaplan in the summer, I would stick with the kaplan materials and lecture notes, skip barbri lectures altogether, and definitely skip their amps (complete waste of time), because you are already familiar with Kaplan. Then I would used adaptibar exclusively for the MBE and issue spot every released essay in the Kaplan essay book or on the Illinois BOLE. Having to spend 3 or move hours on new lectures amps per day, giving your situation will be difficult. Good luck.

can you explain how I can go through 3000-4000 MBEs by "studying smart, not hard" ?

I don't know what you're saying, but Adaptibar has about 1400 questions which are split into MBE subjects, that repeat after you're done with a particular MBE subject. I think 1400-2500 questions is more than enough questions. 33-40 MBE questions per day, about 2 hours consumed between answering the questions and reviewing the answers per day as well. There are about 60 days left between now and the bar exam, 33 per day is 1980 questions total.

Everyone is different. For me seeing so many MBE questions seemed beneficial for me. And Adaptibar's civ pro questions were so hard and tested obscure doctrines, but it prepared me for the ish show that was the MBE civ pro questions.

2 hours is an insanely fast pace to go through 33-40 mbes and answer explanations, especially after a soul-stripping 8 hour work day at a fast-paced law firm. but i will give it a shot i can probably do that in 4 hours if i dont take a break or go on facebook.

[KTnKT]

I dunno. I guess it depends on how comfortable you are with the material? If you are confident that you'll pass with just a little effort to keep the material fresh, then go for it.

As a first time bar taker, I'm working so it's a little different. I started early and aim for 4-5 hours a day on work days 2 hours of commute time listening to lectures, one for lunch and 2-3 in the evening as I'm able. Then weekends are as much as possible. But if I'd already been through all of this and it was more review then I'd probably go lighter too.

[rcharter1978]

I dunno. I guess it depends on how comfortable you are with the material? If you are confident that you'll pass with just a little effort to keep the material fresh, then go for it.

As a first time bar taker, I'm working so it's a little different. I started early and aim for 4-5 hours a day on work days 2 hours of commute time listening to lectures, one for lunch and 2-3 in the evening as I'm able. Then weekends are as much as possible. But if I'd already been through all of this and it was more review then I'd probably go lighter too.

Well, I certainly think the lectures are going to do more for you than for a re-taker. And the stuff in the conviser/lecture notes is probably a little newer for you (although I was told in my last class to focus on the lecture notes vs. the CMR which is a giant load of horseshit, so the CMR looks new to me too)