Bar + Work Forum

[SuperL]

Hi all, I'm hoping for feedback from people who have prepped for/taken the bar while working full time, but also from those who didn't work at all.

I have a job offer from a really good organization to be a law clerk. The pay is law clerk pay and it'd be nice to get money flowing in the right direction. I'm concerned about preparing for the bar exam though.I've taken a lot of the foundational bar courses in law school.

Is this doable? What kind of person can pull this off? What pros and cons should I be weighing? If I devote 25 hours over the weekend and 6 hours during the work week would that be sufficient with 11 weeks of prepping?

Thanks for the tips.

[smileyface]

Hi there! I'm not knowledgable enough to be of help with your query but FYI, you posted this in the "Forum for Law School Students" but it may get better response chances over at the "Bar Exam Prep and Discussion Forum."

[zot1]

A few things:

1. This is gonna heavily depend on the bar you're taking. Many people will say taking ca bar is harder than a UBE bar.
2. It's also gonna depend on the kind of person you are. I liked studying during the day then taking nights off to literally have fun. This helped me avoid burning out too much. Others like to keep going all the time so they'd like better having something else to keep them busy like a job.
3. You should also take into account how important is this opportunity for you. The more important, the more you'll make it work.

[dat209]

Hi all, I'm hoping for feedback from people who have prepped for/taken the bar while working full time, but also from those who didn't work at all.

I have a job offer from a really good organization to be a law clerk. The pay is law clerk pay and it'd be nice to get money flowing in the right direction. I'm concerned about preparing for the bar exam though.I've taken a lot of the foundational bar courses in law school.

Is this doable? What kind of person can pull this off? What pros and cons should I be weighing? If I devote 25 hours over the weekend and 6 hours during the work week would that be sufficient with 11 weeks of prepping?

Thanks for the tips.

I did the whole full-time Work While Going to Law School thing followed by full-time work during bar prep. I started studying very early on and created all my outlines by Memorial Day. From Memorial Day until 4th of July, I woke up an hour early, read an outline for an hour or so then went to work. During lunch, I would finish reading the same outline. After work I would go to the gym, eat dinner, and then study for another 3 hours or so. On weekends I studied 8 hours a day. After the 4th of July, I tried to take off 2 days per week up until the week of the exam to study. The week before the test I took off completely and studied the whole week. It was stressful, but it got done. One of the other things that impacted me was the fact that I travel a lot for my job. This may sound like it would be a bad thing, but it actually allowed for a lot of study time while in transit that was also "work" time. Helped me work in a few more days worth of studying.