Crunch Time to the Bar – Do You Have Your Study Plan?

Congratulations to all the law school graduates and the families that supported you through your law studies.

Now comes the hard part – the Bar Exam. There are now only 65 days until the July 2009 Bar Exam. A question I am always asked is when should you start studying for the July Bar. I saw one of my students yesterday and he told me that he would begin his studies the day when his commercial bar review begins on Tuesday. I extracted his promise that prior to Tuesday, he would start reviewing the materials so he is at least familiar with the tested subjects once he starts his bar review. What I want to tell him and all of you is, as you await your bar review course to begin, think about how you want to study and, yes, develop that study plan this weekend.
Why a study plan? In order to pass the bar, you need two things: time-management and discipline. Sticking to a study plan will conquer both requirements. Thorough preparation is the key to passing the exam and having a plan in place will allow you to manage your time and using your discipline to stick to the study schedule. For a plan to work, you have to address your learning style as well as the substantive areas you will be tested on.

What do I mean by learning style? Ask yourself, how do you learn? What worked for you in law school? Some people like reading outlines, some like to do practice questions and then read the answer explanations, some like to do their own outlines, or make up flashcards. You should know the answer to this question by now. How do you best learn or memorize the substantive law? Also, ask yourself, when do you best learn? I personally am a better morning learner. As the day goes on, I start to lose focus. I also like to do my work in blocks of time. My colleague is like a sprinter. He focuses on his work in short bursts. I’m like a marathon runner. I like to do my work, and, not be disturbed for a few hours at a time. While practicing law, I tell my secretary to hold all calls for a stretch of time until I’m ready to take a break. What works for you? Do you like the evening hours to study, do you take frequent breaks. Know all of that before you write your study plan. Also, just prior to the bar, switch over to the bar schedule. Get up early, as if you are taking the bar, and work for those 3 hours as if you are sitting for the bar, break for lunch and do another 3 hour stretch to mimic the bar.

For your study plan, you should first start with relearning and reviewing the outlines with some practice questions thrown in and as you pick up the pace, you’ll reverse it and do more practice questions and essays and only use your outlines for clarification on questions you get wrong or confused about.

In the beginning, you are going to struggle with the voluminous materials, but keep at it and keep pushing the pace. It’s like training for a race. You first have to struggle through the repetition until it starts feeling right and you start performing at your optimal level.

Be realistic with your goals and your study habits. For example, you can’t go throughout the entire day with no lunch or no exercise or no breaks because you were unrealistic in the time aspect of your plan. You have to write a study plan that suits you and your personality without slacking off.

Don’t ignore your weak areas or your strong areas. You may not need to schedule as much time in your stronger subjects, but review them as consistently as you do all the other subjects. You may not need to read or reread the outlines of your strong subjects, but during those time periods, practice your questions. You may need those extra points on the bar. For your weaker subjects, don’t spend too much time obsessing on your lack of knowledge or take away from other subjects you also need to study; and do not ignore your weak subjects. All bar examinees have weak subjects. Again, spend time on those subjects as you would other subjects and just keep practicing. You’ll be surprised at how much you really do know in those weak subjects.

Where should you study? Again, that depends on your learning style. Can you get work done at home or does the distraction of the television or the computer or the phone make you turn it on? Does studying at your school make you study more or do your fellow students distract you and make you chatter rather than study? Make sure wherever you go that it is quiet. Turn off the phone, the text messaging, and the internet. This is too important for you and your career to be easily distracted. Let’s face it – none of us what to spend the next 6 weeks in constant study – it’s torture. As the holidays go by, the warm weather beckons you outside, you are stuck inside studying, studying, studying and having absolutely no fun at all. Just remember this is your career you are talking about. You sacrificed to go to law school, you can sacrifice for the next 6 weeks and you’ll be a lawyer for the rest of your career.

Should you have study partners? I am not a fan of them, myself, but I have changed my mind as I’ve seen many a successful pair that have pushed and pulled each other, with both coming out successfully in the end. I would not advise more than 1 other study partner except on rare occasions. For those who like to study alone, maybe once a few days, studying with someone can help keep you focused. I also think that knowing you are not the only one studying away is helpful to keep up your morale.

I have a few more ideas for you but I'll leave that to another day.