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How many hours a day did you/do you plan to spend studying for the bar? Do you still have a life shrug it?

Wrong section bruh

I studied about 3-4 hours a day for a month and a half, and then picked it up to about 5-7 in the two weeks leading up to it.

jimmythecatdied6 wrote:I studied about 3-4 hours a day for a month and a half, and then picked it up to about 5-7 in the two weeks leading up to it.

Did you get the vibe that this was normal?

having taken the bar, i was able to provide my gf with a study plan that was much more efficient than what most people do. she studied for about 10 days (10ish hours a day) and passed. was pretty risky on her part, but she wasn't too worried about it.

sayan wrote:having taken the bar, i was able to provide my gf with a study plan that was much more efficient than what most people do. she studied for about 10 days (10ish hours a day) and passed. was pretty risky on her part, but she wasn't too worried about it.

Has to be flame?

Some people can study for a couple weeks and pass. Some people need to study for a couple of months to pass.

If you follow the schedule for most of the typical bar prep courses, you probably will be putting in 8+ hours every day for nearly 2 months.

Taken and passed 2 bar exams.

Studied about 4 hours a day for a little more than a month, and then cranked it up in the last 2 weeks to probably 8 hours a day. I did not have a life (but no nerves and plenty of sleep) during bar 2, because I was working for bar 2 and only took a week off without email (and one week before that with emails). I had a ton of fun (but nerves) before bar 1.

However, like most things in life, it's not how many hours you spend studying, but how you spend each hour while studying and the type of person you are. Personally, I wanted to feel confident and comfortable with every subject and writing more or less form essays. The time that I allotted was far more than was required to pass for me, but was an amount of time such that I wouldn't get burned out or feel overly stressed.

Bro, you can totally still have a life. I partied probably every weekend and went out of town once or twice.

I studied maybe 6 solid hours a day (M-F) and probably 5 or so (Sat-Sun) with a few days off here and there. Really, those times were devoted exclusively to bar prep and I worked my ass off but I found that if I went over those limits and tried like one of those 10-12 hour days you hear people talk about that I just wasn't retaining information anymore. You'll find your limit pretty quickly and I would just work with that. It's more important that you have quality study time than any quantity of it.

Awesome this is good to hear. I plan on just treating it as a normal job where I can call quits at the end of the night and hang out a little. I had just heard it was like 1L and 1L was not as chill as that haha.

Br3v wrote:Awesome this is good to hear. I plan on just treating it as a normal job where I can call quits at the end of the night and hang out a little. I had just heard it was like 1L and 1L was not as chill as that haha.

Haha that might indicate it might be worse for you--law school was way worse than undergrad (which was basically a retirement community lifestyle), but it is a joke compared to actually working a normal job (or at least the normal jobs I've had).

Br3v wrote:Awesome this is good to hear. I plan on just treating it as a normal job where I can call quits at the end of the night and hang out a little. I had just heard it was like 1L and 1L was not as chill as that haha.

To me the big difference between bar prep and 1L is that during bar prep you actually know what the hell you're supposed to be doing.

Good Guy Gaud wrote:

Br3v wrote:Awesome this is good to hear. I plan on just treating it as a normal job where I can call quits at the end of the night and hang out a little. I had just heard it was like 1L and 1L was not as chill as that haha.

To me the big difference between bar prep and 1L is that during bar prep you actually know what the hell you're supposed to be doing.

Yeah, I forget how much we (at least I) floundered about 1L, being unproductive looking back.

How is non-student life?

Br3v wrote:

Good Guy Gaud wrote:

Br3v wrote:Awesome this is good to hear. I plan on just treating it as a normal job where I can call quits at the end of the night and hang out a little. I had just heard it was like 1L and 1L was not as chill as that haha.

To me the big difference between bar prep and 1L is that during bar prep you actually know what the hell you're supposed to be doing.

Yeah, I forget how much we (at least I) floundered about 1L, being unproductive looking back.

How is non-student life?

It's great, man. There is really something incredible about a paycheck.

Br3v wrote:

sayan wrote:having taken the bar, i was able to provide my gf with a study plan that was much more efficient than what most people do. she studied for about 10 days (10ish hours a day) and passed. was pretty risky on her part, but she wasn't too worried about it.

Has to be flame?

I think 100-150 hours is easily enough study time to pass most bars

jkpolk wrote:

Br3v wrote:

sayan wrote:having taken the bar, i was able to provide my gf with a study plan that was much more efficient than what most people do. she studied for about 10 days (10ish hours a day) and passed. was pretty risky on her part, but she wasn't too worried about it.

Has to be flame?

I think 100-150 hours is easily enough study time to pass most bars

Yep. I passed CA with something in that range. Probably closer to the high side though.

I limited myself to six hours of real studying a day, because I don't think people can learn that efficiently beyond that. Generally did 7 days a week for six weeks, but that was because I got anxious when I tried to go the whole day without studying.

Also, the best tip I got for time management was to focus mostly on the MBE, even if you're in a 40% MBE jurisdiction. Strong MBE + close to mediocre essays = pass. I spent like 90% of my effort on the MBE. I just hated learning state law so much, there was too fucking much of it, ended up just bs'ing rules off my understanding of common law.

As stated by others, MBE is key. Graders have leeway on essays, but not for the MBE; you're either correct or incorrect.

Obviously, study as much as you need to. No one wants to over study and get burned out. But I can imagine that there's no worse feeling than failing while knowing you could have done more to prepare.

From the first day of BarBri, I did 9-6 Monday through Friday with an hour lunch break. Saturday mornings my school offered practice tests, so I did those, and then took all afternoon Saturday and all day Sunday off. That was enough to do everything on the BarBri syllabus, and really, if you do everything on the syllabus, you should have no problem passing. I ended up passing by quite a bit, so I probably could have done less, but at least I walked out of the exam 100% confident that I passed.

What else are you doing this summer, watching The Price is Right? It's two months out of your life to never have to do this again. You want to lie by a pool drinking rum cocktails, schedule it for the first week in August.

1styearlateral wrote:As stated by others, MBE is key. Graders have leeway on essays, but not for the MBE; you're either correct or incorrect.

Obviously, study as much as you need to. No one wants to over study and get burned out. But I can imagine that there's no worse feeling than failing while knowing you could have done more to prepare.

Can confirm, failed my first time by a couple of points because I didn't even put in the minimum effort into prep and felt like a jack ass until a couple of days ago when I found out I passed the second time. Don't be like me. Your life will be filled with nothing but months and months of feelings of regret.

As for the OP's question, my second time around I did Themis and treated it like a 9-5 job up until 3 weeks before the exam then hunkered down and cut off all contract with the world pretty much. If you "no-life" it from the beginning then you are going to burn out very quickly. However, 3-4 weeks before the exam you need to pretty much do nothing but bar prep.

Failed my first time after following Barbri to the letter, so roughly 6-8 hours a day for ten weeks. Passed on my second time doing my own thing, roughly 2 hours a day for four weeks.

I don't think it's a matter of how long you study but how efficiently you study and what you study. I found the Barbri videos to be a complete waste of time. Read through the Convisor mini review once, buy critical pass flashcards to really get down the black letter law and focus on spending the vast majority of your time doing practice MBEs. The essays are primarily putting the law into the format the graders want. If you state the wrong law but apply and analyze it how they want you're infinitely better off then stating the correct black letter law for some obscure property law issue but presenting it in a disorganized mess.

Your mileage may vary.

Good luck. Remember, the bar exam has very little bearing on practicing law. It's just another hurdle. Do what you have to to pass and then move on with life. You know yourself better than anyone else, be honest with how you study and what you need to study and you'll be fine.

Good Guy Gaud wrote:

Br3v wrote:Awesome this is good to hear. I plan on just treating it as a normal job where I can call quits at the end of the night and hang out a little. I had just heard it was like 1L and 1L was not as chill as that haha.

To me the big difference between bar prep and 1L is that during bar prep you actually know what the hell you're supposed to be doing.

Yes it was way easier than 1L. The days can be as short or as long as you want depending on what your study method is. I would take a pretty extended break mid day to run and lift, and was usually still done by 3-4 for the first month, and then 5-7 the second month. I was never studying late night like 1L.

I studied for an average of 6 hours Monday through Friday and 4-5 hours Saturday and Sunday. I took some days off here and there. Only when I felt I needed it.

I know of people who only studied for a month and passed the bar. I didn't want to take a chance--not when my employment depended on it. And screw the idea of taking the bar more than once.

Put in the work the first time and move on.

Br3v wrote:

jimmythecatdied6 wrote:I studied about 3-4 hours a day for a month and a half, and then picked it up to about 5-7 in the two weeks leading up to it.

Did you get the vibe that this was normal?

No, but that's because lawyers / law students are neurotic and feel the need to prepare more than is necessary.

If you are a confident test taker / did well in law school, then there's no reason you need to study crazy amounts. This is a minimum competency test. You are not trying to be the best in the room. Just do enough so that you feel confident and things will work out.

DonDrapersAttorney wrote:Failed my first time after following Barbri to the letter, so roughly 6-8 hours a day for ten weeks. Passed on my second time doing my own thing, roughly 2 hours a day for four weeks.

This is essentially my story, but with Themis.

I put in months of all-day studying and watching lectures with Themis and wound up failing, but was very close to passing on the first try.

I didn't have much of a strategy the second time around, just wanted to shore up areas I knew I was weaker and MAKE SURE I was relaxed and reasonably confident the day of the exam. This was an issue with the first exam for me.

I put in around 3 hours of studying each day for the 2 weeks leading up to the exam. My studying was mostly reading critical flash cards once or twice and doing a few MBE questions with my free re-take Themis subscription.

Wound up passing by 10 points.

I don't recommend this method, and I'm sure a large part of my passing with such a light workload is my memory from my first attempt; but I find it weird this has been my experience with law school too. In 1L I was a study drone and wound up with straight Bs, and in 2L and 3L I would mostly cut class, read an outline once and get straight As. (I know it's partly attributed to people not caring as much in 2L/3L, just a strange personal observance from my experience.)