How many hours a day bar study? Have life? Forum

[rntojd]

Passed one bar (CT), right out of law school (ages ago), waiting for NY results. First one, I studied full time during the week (Bar Bri), worked little half-shifts here and there (I was also an ER nurse, so I could sign up for 4 hour shifts), but my full time gig for the duration was studying (with some "single Mom of a teenager" obligations thrown in- not too bad). I also got a free Kaplan/PMBR course (again, going back a couple of years) for the MBE because I was a rep for Kaplan. Even so, I found time to go out a few times, just to keep my sanity. I found the CT bar to be fairly easy, and walked out of there pretty confident.

Fast forward a few years, in a different state, with a different set of life demands. This time, I worked full time (now at a 9-5 non-lawyer job) for most of it. Bar Bri was not an option for me so I did Themis this time. I started in late November. Spent between 2 and 4 hours a day on it. More (4-5 hours) when I was on vacation for a week in December, and full days on the weekends. Then, about 6 weeks before the exam, I took one full day a week off to study, in addition to the 3 hours a night I was pulling when I got home. I took the last 2 full weeks off before the bar and studied nonstop. I also supplemented with Adaptibar. I was much less confident after this exam. Not sure of my Civ Pro MBE answers. Didn't finish one of the essays (I was about 3 sentences from done when they called time), and misread a portion of the last question. Add to that, my Themis graders were particularly harsh for my graded essays. I had a "life" to the extent that I went on a vacation to Hawaii (but studied on the plane, by the pool, etc), and went to work (stole some study time during lunch, etc). However, I think I probably cooked dinner for my husband maybe 3 or 4 times while I was studying. Thankfully, he's very supportive.

Two different approaches, two different prep courses, and two different experiences. That said, if I failed, I don't think it will be because I didn't put in enough time. More likely, it is because I couldn't write an essay to satisfy NY graders. We will see...

[Arbinshire]

It really depends on you. You know yourself better than we do.

In that regard, I needed 12 hours a day to retake. I failed in July/14 by 5 points. I waited a year because of employment circumstances and retook in last July and earned quite a respectable UBE score.

I did that by studying 7-10 hours. Every. Day. I did not have a life outside of my home. I did spend time with my wife, and watched a movie a day with her to unwind, but after that I started back at it again with light studying until I went to sleep at 12, to awaken at 7:00am to start the whole thing over again. I did this from late April until the day before the exam. Saying I aced it would be an understatement, but I did quite well. To this day I remember most everything I learned, unlike the first time where I had to relearn everything all over again. I did BarBri and focused on the Amps (repeatedly re-answering all answers multiple times a day), MBE questions, reading the CMR, using the MS to understand more. etc.

I did the above because I knew I needed massive amounts of repetition and rote memorization.

[amk110]

Second timer here. Failed first attempt by a meager 9 points. Passed this February on the second go.

Let me start by saying that I pretty much can't do anything for more than 8-9 hours a day, except sleep. Even if I love it, I need diversity. So, bunk to studying any more than that for me.

Attempt 0) This was right after graduation in 2013. I took BARBRI. I woke up every morning to watch lectures from home. Got so bored, I found every single reason to pause them to do anything else. I surfed CNN a lot. I was a pro on that Zimmerman trial. It was routinely taking me an entire day to finish one lecture, because I'd keep getting bored and taking breaks. By July 15th or so, I still hadn't finished the lectures, or done any substantive practice whatsoever, and decided I should withdraw from the exam and get half my fee back.

Attempt 1) This was in July 2014. I was working at the time, and was able to reduce my hours to 20 per week from May 15th - July 15th, with the rest of the time before the exam completely off. Having learned that, for me, the lectures were a complete timesink, I decided I would just outline the subjects from the conviser mini-review. Despite that I reduced my hours to half time on May 15th, I really jerked around and didn't do more than 2-3 hours of outlining each day. So I was working 8a-12p, coming home, eating lunch, playing video games, screwing around, etc. and then outlining for a few hours.

A month later, by June 15th, and I was still finishing up outlining the MBE subjects (again, because while outlining, I was constantly getting distracted by things and surfing the web...) and started to panic. I frantically finished outlining the (at the time) 6 MBE subjects, and began doing BARBRI single set practice questions. At this point, I was still only putting in about 4 hours per day. After a 4 hour work day.

By July 5th I was shitting my pants because I wasn't doing as well on BARBRI's single subject sets as I'd wanted to. I started doing as many as I could each day, but was still only putting in about 6 hours after work, if that.

I really ramped it up in the two weeks I had off prior to the exam, and did about 100 mixed MBEs per day until I was scoring in the 65% range. I did about 100 per day, until I completed 1000. I spent the second to last day outlining a few practice essays for the most commonly tested subjects. The day before the exam I took off.

I went in without having ever studied admin, tax, or most of the other essay subjects. Or ever doing an MPT. The result? I failed by 9 points. I did manage a 140 on the MBE though, despite guessing on the last 25 due to running out of time.


Attempt 2) I had a job that ended at the end of 2015, and I saved enough cash so I could take January, February, and March off. I screwed around and did nothing until about the 14th of January. I started re-outlining the (now 7) MBE subjects, because outlining is how I memorize stuff best. I was only putting in about 4-6 hours a day. (With 1-2 days off per week, for all of this, mind you, attempts 0-2).

By early February I kicked it up to about 6-7 hours a day, 6 days a week. I was again doing about 100 MBE questions per day, and did another 1,000 this go around, until I was scoring at about 70%. (I seemed to have retained a lot from the first attempt...)

About six days before the exam, I devoted a couple of days to doing practice essays (again, only on the most commonly tested subjects) and another couple of days to do some practice MPTs. I spent one entire day just reading through BARBRI's book of practice MPTs and answers.

Through all MBE practice, my method was to only review questions I got wrong. I would put the subject/area on the front of an index card, and the explanation for why I got it wrong on the back for each BARBRI MBE question I got wrong. I ended up with a 7" stack of index cards from attempts 1 and 2. (I incorporated much of the information from the index cards from attempt 1 into my outlines for attempt 2, knowing that these were my trouble areas...)

Again, there were a few subjects I just didn't have time to study at all... (admin, trusts, partnerships, corporations, ethics...)

With terrible luck, there was an admin essay on this February's exam for me. I had to BS the entire thing, without a scintilla of admin law knowledge. There was also a partnerships essay, which is a subject I didn't bother to study at all. I took the class in law school, and, more or less, had to BS this entire one too, with whatever I could remember from three years ago in that class. Third, a freakin' ethics essay. I hadn't studied or looked at the subject in years, but managed to spurt out enough stuff to hit the character limit in ExamSoft.

Also, I had to barf near the end of the MPT from all the caffeine pills I'd taken. (My inability to finish the first attempt's MBE on time was because I had to keep going to the bathroom from all the coffee...) -- so this time I'd been using caffeine pills for the first time in my life. Something made me sick, and I had to rush out of the exam room.

I finished all sections about 10 minutes or so early, despite barfing, and not studying nearly half the essay topics, and only putting two days into MPT prep.

But I passed. I must've hit that MBE out of the park.

I'm sorry this was so long. In summation, yes, you can have a life during bar prep. I certainly didn't put in more than 7 hours in any given day. But I was also too irritated and exhausted from that to do much more than sit on my ass afterward. That was life enough for me during bar prep.

Also, know that you can get an essay subject you've never even studied before or taken in law school, and use your lawyer skills to BS the entire thing. You might even have to get up and hurl once or twice.

Good luck.



EDIT)

Additional tidbits of wisdom, again, that worked for me.

1) Do enough MBE questions until you're consistently getting about 65% or more correct. For me, it the MBE prep was far more about quality over quantity. Some people were avowing 2400 to pass, but that didn't matter much to me if I wasn't seriously understanding why I was getting wrong the ones I was getting wrong.

I ended up only doing about 2,000 total over the course of two attempts. But even my first attempt with a 140 MBE would've been a pass if I'd spent any time studying the essays (I only did a day...) or practicing the MPT (which I didn't do at all on round 1)...

So, for me, it was more about understanding why I was getting things wrong than doing as many questions as possible.

Depending on your state, of course. Mine is a 50% MBE state. Only review the ones you get wrong. But review them thoroughly. If you have to guess on some, and you get them right, the subject will eventually reoccur and you'll get it wrong, and learn why. This is why I don't recommend reviewing anything you got right.

[Arbinshire]

Through all MBE practice, my method was to only review questions I got wrong. I would put the subject/area on the front of an index card, and the explanation for why I got it wrong on the back for each BARBRI MBE question I got wrong. I ended up with a 7" stack of index cards from attempts 1 and 2. (I incorporated much of the information from the index cards from attempt 1 into my outlines for attempt 2, knowing that these were my trouble areas...)

The above is advice I wouldn't recommend. I suggest that you review your wrong answers, as well as your correct answers. Often times I found myself getting the correct answer for the wrong reason. By reviewing your correct answers, it is a way of forcing you to weed out bad habits and thinking patterns. Further, the repetition helps solidify the concept. I further suggest you review questions you've previously done to the point where you can answer it in a split second. You're not trying to memorize the question, rather, the concept. Don't think "A." and be done with it, rather, think "A. Because Assault is a specific intent crime" so that the concepts are always at the forefront of your knowledge.

[amk110]

I can only tell you what worked for me.

In my experience, if you do enough practice MBE questions, the ones that you're getting right for the wrong reason will eventually repeat themselves, and you'll get them wrong. Then you'll learn why.

If you continuously keep getting the same type of question right for the wrong reason, who cares? You'll probably get it right for the wrong reason on the real MBE.

[snapura]

EXTREMELY average law student here. Took and passed two bar exams on the first try. I felt like most people going into bar prep knew MUCH more than me the first time, so I studied like hell for a solid two months. 8-10 hour days on weekdays and probably 6 hours on Sat and Sun. I passed the first bar by a pretty wide margin, so I'm not sure whether I went overboard. I ultimately think it just depends on how confident you are in what you learned/retained in law school. For me, I didn't feel like I could justify not working every day during bar prep. I'd suggest going balls to the wall if you are under the impression (Like I was) that the majority of people entering bar prep know more than you. Most people I know that failed the bar exam were average law students who went through the motions during bar prep. They stayed at the library for probably 7-8 hours M-F, and probably only got about 3-4 hours of actual studying done each day. Not gonna cut it if you sucked in law school and didn't learn much.

Also, I made a fat stack of index cards and did a large amount of MBE questions. The index cards were essential. No way I'd retain much information if I had just skimmed those fat Barbri outlines. Just take a class if do what they tell you to do.

[elendinel]

Would it crazy to sign up for some other low-key language class to do in addition to bar prep (e.g., having a Spanish class break up my study time on certain days)? I want to develop basic language skills in a language that would help my career and want some sort of activity to do to break up study time for a limited amount of time, but don't know if trying to learn a language is a bad choice for this.

[Redfactor]

Would it crazy to sign up for some other low-key language class to do in addition to bar prep (e.g., having a Spanish class break up my study time on certain days)? I want to develop basic language skills in a language that would help my career and want some sort of activity to do to break up study time for a limited amount of time, but don't know if trying to learn a language is a bad choice for this.

It's definitely possible to do both, but I wouldn't advise it. You'll learn a lot during your bar prep and at least my brain was full full full. Honestly, it took like two full weeks to data dump.

It's important to have some non-law aspect to balance out your life, but I would suggest physical activity rather than trying to learn something that will require memorization.

[Br3v]

Since this was bumped, OP update: ended up spending probably 6-8 hours a day the entire prep course length with 2 or 3 weekends completely off (on top of the 2 or 3 weekends the prep course already gave me off). Didn't do anything except the online prep course

[deference]

Took Barbri and treated it like a full time job (7-8 hr on weekdays and very light on weekends), literally. During weekdays, I did the webcast in the am (pure practice test in the final weeks) and exercises and practice test in the afternoon pm, and did not touch it at all at night. During weekends, I went relatively light with 1-2 intense practice spurts here and there, racking up probably 4 hours in total per day. I think the weekday routine helped me simulate the rigors of the actual test day.

Fortunately, I was already married and settled, so I didn't have much of a night life to miss.

[trebekismyhero]

I did barbri, honestly not that thrilled with it, but I passed. I worked from May until late June and studied about 4 hours a day. Even took a few days off studying for a friend's wedding. The last month, treated studying like a full time job and studied for at least 8 hours a day, still went out at least once a week though. Honestly if I hadn't worked during June I think I would have burned out from studying. Personally watching the videos was a waste, I learn much better from doing practice tests and essays so wish I had focused more on those at the beginning. But others may learn better from watching.