You Need a Study Plan: Why You Should Make Your Own Bar Prep Study Schedule

The only thing I remember from law school is my negotiations professor saying this in class randomly:

“Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”

It’s so true. Is bar preparation worth doing? Then it’s worth doing right.

After all, you’re the dean of your own studies. And for sustainable momentum we know that we must enjoy the process (not just fixate on the goal of passing the bar).

Just as what’s enjoyable is personal, bar prep is also personal. Your study plan and schedule are personal.

There are many reasons your schedule will look different from everyone else’s: 

  • You might be working while studying for the bar exam.
  • Maybe you have every day free for bar prep and don’t want to blow this opportunity.
  • Or maybe you only have the first 6 hours of your day free while the kids are at school.

Here’s just one example of what that could look like:

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Salma Passes the NY Bar Exam on First Try as a Foreign Attorney

Salma is a foreign-trained attorney who passed the 2023 July NY Bar Exam (UBE) on her first try!

Despite her nervousness and debilitating thoughts of failure, she found a way to prepare for (and pass) this exam while using her time efficiently. She suggests how to study efficiently in LESS time.

Check it out.

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Should You “Trust the Process”? You’re the Dean of Your Own Bar Exam Studies

Here’s something that people who pass the bar exam never say:

“All I had to do was listen to all the bar course lectures and take a lot of notes. Work hard like me and you’ll pass!”

Can you imagine?

Sometimes we think “doing whatever it takes” to pass the bar exam means exhausting yourself and throwing 1000 hours and even more dollars into a black hole. (But it doesn’t have to be expensive.)

Or following some unsustainable cookie-cutter schedule (that doesn’t care if you have other responsibilities like work or family). Good luck if you fall behind by one day.

Or letting a perfectly fine morning slip through by religiously sitting through 4 hours of droning lectures. Worse, pausing lectures to fill in all the notes. Then not even remembering 99% of it.

When you thought the lectures made sense

Trusting the process.

I remember those days. All of these are things I didn’t do my second time. Here’s what I’d do instead:

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How Mercedes Passed the Colorado Bar Exam (UBE) After Realizing a Simple Approach

Mercedes passed the 2023 July Colorado Bar Exam on her first attempt (as a busy mom with a 3-year-old).

She started using a major bar review course but sped through it in favor of a more effective approach to studying.

Here’s why Mercedes ditched her bar review course and how that led to her passing.

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Minimum Competence Does Not Mean Bare Minimum

How would you narrate your hopes, desires, and dreams to pass the bar exam?

I want to improve.

I want to start my career and live my life without this hanging over my head.

I feel that painful yearning inside. I’m not content with this! I’m upset. I’m frustrated! I’m tired of being frustrated!

I want to pass the bar exam. I want to be special.

I’ll find my way forward, whatever that means. I don’t know where to go, but I’ll start, wherever that leads me.

But anyone can say that they want to pass.

How do you do this efficiently and effectively?

Are you confusing busy work with actual learning?

How to get and STAY motivated in your journey?

What do you do when you see fluctuations and plateaus?

Continue reading “Minimum Competence Does Not Mean Bare Minimum”