Bar Review FAQ: What Are the Phases of Bar Prep?

Before Bar Prep

• Share your plans with family and friends. Make sure the people in your life understand that the bar exam is a crucial stepping stone on your path to becoming a licensed attorney. Explain that you’ll be less available while you’re preparing for the exam.
• Knock out appointments and errands. You won’t want a dentist appointment on your docket during bar prep. As much as you can, handle life needs before the preparation period begins.
• Consider a few hours of early preparation. Some students like to get a jump on bar prep before their course calendars begin. Early bar prep is a good choice if you need to learn numerous subjects you haven’t studied before or if you struggle with writing skills, multiple-choice questions, or exam anxiety. 

The Beginning: Learn the Law, and Practice

• Dive into practice questions. The most powerful way to prepare for the bar exam is to practice the exam itself. Limiting yourself to passive forms of study such as reviewing material or watching lectures will stunt your growth. Dig into practice questions, and learn from your mistakes. Carefully review the answer explanations to cement your understanding.
• Consider open-book, untimed practice. On exam day, you’ll have no choice but to complete the test closed book and timed. But there’s no need to use exam conditions for early practice sessions. The bigger goal is to get multiple-choice and essay practice under your belt, so feel free to try questions untimed and open book.
• Track the rules you don’t know. The amount of material tested on the bar exam is daunting. Develop a tracking system that permits you to return to concepts you haven’t yet mastered. Your system might be a list, tabbed pages in the outline, a deck of flashcards, or a spreadsheet. Choose a method that fits your needs.
• Stay aware and engaged. Reflect on whether you are making progress and what you can do to level up your learning. 

The Middle: Reenergize, Memorize, and Practice

• Don’t skip full-length practice exams. Full-length practice exams are worth the time. You’ll scale up your ability to focus and gain valuable insights on which areas you need to master during the remainder of bar review.
• Focus on memorization. Take time to memorize key rule statements. If memorization seems overwhelming, start small. Begin by mastering just one small topic of law, such as the hearsay exceptions. 
• Take energizing breaks. Bar review is no longer new and shiny, and you might notice your energy is flagging. Now more than ever, take scheduled breaks. Many students emerge with a lifted mood after taking a break for exercise, a hobby, or a meal with friends or family.
• Start with tasks that require the most energy. Reorder your study days to begin with high-energy tasks (for example, taking sets of multiple-choice practice questions and writing out essays and performance tests). When you’re feeling tired, you can complete lower-energy tasks such as reviewing an outline or watching a video.

The End: Final Push

• Take timed practice tests. If you haven’t already, make the transition to timed practice testing. Simulating exam conditions in the final weeks of review helps you prepare for the rigors of the real exam.
• Submit essays for feedback. Many bar review courses offer personalized feedback on essays. If you’ve put off submitting essays for feedback, don’t wait any longer. Prioritize submitting essays and review the feedback carefully. Grader feedback is key to maximizing essay scores.
• Prioritize sleep. Avoid late-night cramming sessions. To perform your best on exam day, you need to be well rested.  
• Visualize success. It’s very common to feel overwhelmed and anxious at this point in the game. Remember that thousands of people pass the bar exam every year, and the odds are in your favor. Continue to put in the time and hard work, and you can be one of them. To keep negative emotions at bay, visualize yourself in the exam room answering questions correctly and on pace.