How Much Study Time Do You Devote to Your Bar Exam Preparation?

Students ask me how much study time is really needed to pass the bar. I don’t think there is a ready-made answer for how much time you should spend on your studies for the bar exam. I’ve known successful applicants who have studied 8 hours a day and I’ve known applicants who were unsuccessful despite studying 15 hours a day.

You definitely don’t want to burn yourself out prior to the bar but you don’t want to be unprepared for the exam, either.

You have had the opportunity now to study for the last few weeks. You need to ask yourself how well you are learning or reviewing the subject materials. Are you mired down in the outlines, are you having trouble memorizing the elements of a tort? Are you getting enough practice questions in during the day? Do you traditionally have trouble testing? The obvious answer then becomes what you think you need now. My advice is to work hard and long now and once you know the materials, and once you start to feel more comfortable with the exam preparation, then you can become less strict as the bar gets nearer.

Those who are using the commercial bar review classes have a full 4 hour block of time where they are listening passively to a lecture. It’s a good time for review of your outlines, but you’ll need the rest of the day to actively work on preparation, for example, by doing practice questions and essays or performance memos.

Those who are not in commercial bar review classes or when bar review classes are not in session, have the whole day to enact your study plan. Start working the bar time. You know that you’ll be in the bar from 9-12:00 and then from 12:30 – 4:30. You’ll need to practice sitting still, focusing on your materials and concentrating for those 3 hour stretches without a break. It’s actually going to be hard for you in the beginning. Start trying to do so. You can do a 3 hour stretch, take an hour or an hour and a half as a break, then go back to 3 hours then break again and then do another 2 or 3 hour stretch. As the weeks go by, work the actual bar schedule, only taking a half hour break so you’ll be ready for bar exam day.