Life during Bar Prep Forum

[DepressedWorkerBee]

Random question - but I'm an over thinker and trying to plan ahead.

Will be doing self-study at home for the bar for June/July and was thinking about signing up for a meal prep service. My friend suggested Freshly and doing $100 a week for 14 "healthy" meals delivered to me daily and I just have to microwave them and boom. Or doing something myself and just doing the meal prep type thing (that all those healthy people do) every Sunday. Trying to avoid turning into a fast-food junkie all summer. Would appreciate any experiences/insight anyone has on this. And any other advice for lifestyle during bar prep.

Thanks!

[crownjd]

Random question - but I'm an over-thinker and trying to plan ahead.

Will be doing self-study at home for the bar for June/July and was thinking about signing up for a meal prep service. My friend suggested Freshly and doing $100 a week for 14 "healthy" meals delivered to me daily and I just have to microwave them and boom. Or doing something myself and just doing the meal prep type thing (that all those healthy people do) every Sunday. Trying to avoid turning into a fast-food junkie all summer. Would appreciate any experiences/insight anyone has on this. And any other advice for lifestyle during bar prep.

Thanks!

Oof. $800 just for food? Are you opposed to cooking and meal-prepping yourself? (Edit: I see you aren't. Good!) You could easily spend just a quarter of that by buying your own protein and veggies (and whatever else) and preparing it on Sunday! I've done this throughout the years and I expect it to continue during bar prep. While a meal prep service would be nice for the convenience, I can't justify the cost!

[265489164158]

Disclaimer: I am also a 3L, so I have thought about this some, but have not experienced it, yet. Here are my thoughts:

Cooking is something that I enjoy and am looking forward to doing more of during bar prep, tbh. I also think that getting out to meet a friend for lunch or dinner on a regular basis is a good idea. I don't think you have to resort to fast food, because bar prep seems to take maybe 8-10 hours per day, so that should leave time for sleep, exercise, and whatever else you need to do for self-care.

[DepressedWorkerBee]

Any specific plans you follow? Or do you just kind of wing it and make something random?

[b290]

Random question - but I'm an over-thinker and trying to plan ahead.

Will be doing self-study at home for the bar for June/July and was thinking about signing up for a meal prep service. My friend suggested Freshly and doing $100 a week for 14 "healthy" meals delivered to me daily and I just have to microwave them and boom. Or doing something myself and just doing the meal prep type thing (that all those healthy people do) every Sunday. Trying to avoid turning into a fast-food junkie all summer. Would appreciate any experiences/insight anyone has on this. And any other advice for lifestyle during bar prep.

Thanks!

Oof. $800 just for food? Are you opposed to cooking and meal-prepping yourself? (Edit: I see you aren't. Good!) You could easily spend just a quarter of that by buying your own protein and veggies (and whatever else) and preparing it on Sunday! I've done this throughout the years and I expect it to continue during bar prep. While a meal prep service would be nice for the convenience, I can't justify the cost!

Agreed - even with a limitless budget. I'd recommend the self-preparing option (you'll save some of that money) but plan a specific day pf the week to do it (I remember all the time wasted making food when I got home - as opposed to meal planning - it just opened the door to more BS-ing. If you want to do a meal prep service, do it for the last few weeks of bar prep (when you must minimize non-study time). See if you can get a discount for buying early while you're at it, some services discount your first few orders.

But in general, it's a great idea. I'm all for time-savers.

As for other advice, just don't be hard on yourself (or at least minimize it). You'll have plenty of time to feel like an idiot during bar prep - no need to add to it. Also, I don't know of one person who didn't "fall behind" (or felt so) by the "3-weeks to go" mark. While you definitely should keep to a schedule, if what you're doing isn't fitting your needs - don't hesitate to change it up.

Disclaimer: I am also a 3L, so I have thought about this some, but have not experienced it, yet. Here are my thoughts:

Cooking is something that I enjoy and am looking forward to doing more of during bar prep, tbh. I also think that getting out to meet a friend for lunch or dinner on a regular basis is a good idea. I don't think you have to resort to fast food, because bar prep seems to take maybe 8-10 hours per day, so that should leave time for sleep, exercise, and whatever else you need to do for self-care.

I loved cooking during law school, and it was a release (it turned out to be too good for bar prep). I didn't really have to go out as much because most of my friends moved away and I just stayed in. Definitely have regular non-bar time - for your sanity. Otherwise you'll go all-in and by about a month before the exam, you'll burn out - and waste more time trying to recover.

Know now what your life's going to be during bar prep - especially if you're working. You only have 24 hours in one day. A third of that (8 hours) is gone due to sleep (or at least it should for maximal body efficiency). If you have unavoidable (pre-planned) events to go to, account for that time.

A lot of issues (exam, prep, and everything else) boil down to organization. Organize, organize, and organize.

My $.02

[DepressedWorkerBee]

One thing I'm curious is how to know "if something isn't fitting your needs."

A lot of what I've read is that your MBE practice scores will be all over the place until the last few weeks. I have Themis, Adaptibar, Critical Pass, and the Strategies and Tactics book.

I've read so many posts from people saying that the lectures are a huge waste of time and you need to get to doing practice questions as quickly as possible to learn your weaknesses and study on those specific nuances (that's why I got Adaptibar). So I guess my issue is how/when do you know what you're doing isn't working - if you really don't start putting things together towards the second-half of bar prep.

In law school - my most successful study methods were flashcards (which is why I got Critical Pass) - but I mean......there's obviously too much information here to memorize it all like I did in a few classes.

So should I just follow Themis and their schedule, do Adaptibar questions once I finish a subject, use Critical Pass to memorize important aspects of a subject, and then use S&T to learn how to recognize MBE tricks?

[cheaptilts]

FWIW, I did not cook during law school and cooked every day during bar prep. It was a great stress reliever. Bar prep isn’t a 16-hour/day job if you’re willing to start early and put in a solid day’s effort each day. You’ll have time to cook (and possibly much more!)

[nixy]

FWIW, I did not cook during law school and cooked every day during bar prep. It was a great stress reliever. Bar prep isn’t a 16-hour/day job if you’re willing to start early and put in a solid day’s effort each day. You’ll have time to cook (and possibly much more!)

I absolutely agree with this. Unless you’re working on top of bar prep, you have a ton of time and there are diminishing returns from eliminating EVERY non-bar thing from your life.

If you hate cooking and the meal plan will make you happy because you won’t have to worry about food while studying, then by all means go for it. Just don’t feel you have to get one because you will be studying 24/7 and not have time for ANYTHING else.

(Your study plan sounds decent to me. I’m a huge believer in just relying on the prep course, because that’s what worked for me and everyone I know, but if, say, your school has bad pass rates or you’re at the bottom of your class then sure, use additional stuff. I actually used flash cards and knew a lot of people who did, so don’t rule them out.)

[JHP]

Re: cooking during bar prep
I would highly recommend not dropping so much money on weekly meals prepared for you when you could spend that money on something like a slow cooker and do meal prep that way every Sunday. That is what I did during bar prep--I used cooking on a weekly basis (mostly slow cooker stuff or casseroles and salads) as a kind of a break, but would also just replay certain Barbri lectures. Kill two birds with one stone. Unless you are such an awful chef that you don't want to eat anything you make or you truly think you will be too lazy to ever buy any groceries or cook anything, I don't think it's worth getting meal prep services.

One thing I'm curious is how to know "if something isn't fitting your needs."

A lot of what I've read is that your MBE practice scores will be all over the place until the last few weeks. I have Themis, Adaptibar, Critical Pass, and the Strategies and Tactics book.

I've read so many posts from people saying that the lectures are a huge waste of time and you need to get to doing practice questions as quickly as possible to learn your weaknesses and study on those specific nuances (that's why I got Adaptibar). So I guess my issue is how/when do you know what you're doing isn't working - if you really don't start putting things together towards the second-half of bar prep.

In law school - my most successful study methods were flashcards (which is why I got Critical Pass) - but I mean......there's obviously too much information here to memorize it all like I did in a few classes.

So should I just follow Themis and their schedule, do Adaptibar questions once I finish a subject, use Critical Pass to memorize important aspects of a subject, and then use S&T to learn how to recognize MBE tricks?

You can't really plan whether or not you will follow a study schedule since you haven't even started your course yet (I presume). I don't necessarily think the lectures are a huge waste of time--I did eventually stop attending the in-person lectures because I wanted to watch my lectures at 1.5 the speed and/or replay parts at my own choice. The lectures forced me to sit and digest information rather than try to cram information into my head via reading (with the typical zoning out, re-reading the same sentence 10x), but that is more just my own learning style (I learn more when I handwrite, draw diagrams, repeat out loud). I generally stuck to the schedule because I did not trust myself to be able to evenly spread out my anxiety over all the different areas, but I did feel free to stray a bit from the schedule and skip doing certain practice questions when I felt more confident on particular segments but knew I needed to spend more time memorizing xyz.

Flash cards will likely be one of the most useful things you can get/make (I made my own rather than buying, but it was a lot of work to do that), and when it comes to the last 2 weeks before the bar, you probably want to spend most of your time doing practice exams/questions/essays and flash cards.

[kms181]

FWIW, I did not cook during law school and cooked every day during bar prep. It was a great stress reliever. Bar prep isn’t a 16-hour/day job if you’re willing to start early and put in a solid day’s effort each day. You’ll have time to cook (and possibly much more!)

Agree with this as well. I found that I actually really looked forward to cooking dinner for my husband and I at the end of a long day of bar prep- super stress relieving, something you can do with your hands and gets your mind off of the repetitiveness of studying. It was like a great reward, and made me feel like I actually did something constructive with my day other than sit in a chair and read.

Bonus- if you're studying for July, it's nice to actually see some sunlight/go outside and do some grilling for dinner. Particularly with a cold beer or glass of wine in hand.

[anon sequitur]

If you're going to be taking all of June and July to study without having to work or any other major distractions (which I think most people do, including me), you shouldn't be so crunched for time that you have to do this sort of thing unless you want to. Even if you were to spend 10 hours a day studying seven days a week, that's still plenty of time to go to the gym, watch tv, get eight hours of sleep, cook meals and live a fairly normal life. And that amount of studying except for maybe one or two weeks before the exam is ridiculous, I'd say more like 40/hours per week of serious, distraction free study is plenty for most people.

[nonlawyer]

I did a meal prep during bar prep, and it was a life saver. I'm no chef by any means and it was nice to not have to think about cooking or eating, when I was hungry the food was there. I paid $65 a week though for 15 meals a week.

Though if you study 8-10 hours a day and start early, for the first month at least, you have time to live a somewhat normal life.

[265489164158]

Disclaimer: I am also a 3L, so I have thought about this some, but have not experienced it, yet. Here are my thoughts:

Cooking is something that I enjoy and am looking forward to doing more of during bar prep, tbh. I also think that getting out to meet a friend for lunch or dinner on a regular basis is a good idea. I don't think you have to resort to fast food, because bar prep seems to take maybe 8-10 hours per day, so that should leave time for sleep, exercise, and whatever else you need to do for self-care.

Oh how naive I was. Three weeks in, and I am cooking one night per week at most and trying to see a friend once a week. Exercising 2-3 times a week. It is a struggle to maintain balance and self-care, but I am trying. Just wanted to circle back because I underestimated just how tiring trying to absorb all the material would be. At the end of the day, all I want to do is stream Netflix.

[caitlin1016]

Oh how naive I was. Three weeks in, and I am cooking one night per week at most and trying to see a friend once a week. Exercising 2-3 times a week. It is a struggle to maintain balance and self-care, but I am trying. Just wanted to circle back because I underestimated just how tiring trying to absorb all the material would be. At the end of the day, all I want to do is stream Netflix.

I hear you. I just warn you not to burn yourself out and to have some joy in your life/some things to look forward to, or else you will just be depressed and not have as much mental capacity to absorb the material. Staring at materials for ten hours with no breaks does make you depressed. Get fresh air breaks, treat yourself to a fancy coffee sometimes, etc. But if you don't like cooking and that's not a relaxing break for you, nothing wrong with getting frozen meals, having salads/soups, and/or just cooking one to two times a week and saving leftovers

[SoScrewed6]

Yeah this is about as awful as I imagined. One thing I strictly follow (way more than my course schedule) is every time my Apple Watch gives me a little "move" or "stand-up" thing I try and take the pup for a walk outside. Good way to force myself to not stare at question explanations 24/7.

[caitlin1016]

Yeah this is about as awful as I imagined. One thing I strictly follow (way more than my course schedule) is every time my Apple Watch gives me a little "move" or "stand-up" thing I try and take the pup for a walk outside. Good way to force myself to not stare at question explanations 24/7.

yeah I do the same. I've also been doing an hour spin class every morning, that seems to help with endorphins and stuff

[JHP]

Oh how naive I was. Three weeks in, and I am cooking one night per week at most and trying to see a friend once a week. Exercising 2-3 times a week. It is a struggle to maintain balance and self-care, but I am trying. Just wanted to circle back because I underestimated just how tiring trying to absorb all the material would be. At the end of the day, all I want to do is stream Netflix.

I hear you. I just warn you not to burn yourself out and to have some joy in your life/some things to look forward to, or else you will just be depressed and not have as much mental capacity to absorb the material. Staring at materials for ten hours with no breaks does make you depressed. Get fresh air breaks, treat yourself to a fancy coffee sometimes, etc. But if you don't like cooking and that's not a relaxing break for you, nothing wrong with getting frozen meals, having salads/soups, and/or just cooking one to two times a week and saving leftovers

You also have to remember that there are diminishing returns when your brain has been churning for 12 hours straight, poring over the study books. Not only is it a good idea to step away for a few minutes at a time after every 30 mins or an hour or so, but also to change up what studying tactic you're doing, to keep your brain flexible.

Good luck guys.