Category: Strategies

Studying for the bar exam while working full time is a tough ask.

You already have a full plate at work, and now you’re supposed to come home and grind through lectures and questions on top of that. It sounds brutal because, well, it is.

But the thing is, working candidates pass the bar exam every single day. You don’t have to be gifted or lucky, just focus on the right things that help you learn efficiently. It’s very doable if you study smart, stay consistent, and refuse to compare your journey to someone sitting at home studying eight hours a day while doomscrolling for half that time.

The guiding principle here is that constraints force you to be creative with your time and focus on what moves the needle. We’ll trim the fluff and time wasters (like repeating lectures on 0.75x speed).

Whether you’re working full time at a firm, doing contract work, or coming home to a baby who won’t sleep while you’re wishing you could, the strategies here are practical and built around the reality of limited time.

You’re putting in the hours. You’re showing up every day. Your study log looks impressive.

But you still can’t answer questions correctly, let alone remember what you thought you studied. Sound familiar?

That’s because you’re spending precious hours on activities that barely move the needle toward passing. If you’ve been studying for weeks or months and still feel woefully underprepared, you’re probably caught in the trap of activities that don’t actually help you learn. Shit that Barbri and Themis encourage because they want you to look at their professors with fancy beards.

Understanding what actually works versus what just feels productive can be the difference between passing and retaking. Here are some steps that move the needle:

• Cut passive habits that create the illusion of progress
• Audit your study time to find your personal low-yield habits
• Spend most of your time on active practice under timed conditions
• Use your prep course as a supplement, not a syllabus you’re obligated to complete
• Track your learning and skills, not hours, to break the habit of staying stuck in a low-yield pattern