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#barpocalypse fam: How to schedule your last two weeks of bar prep (a thread)
The first thing to do is reclaim your power over your time. Your bar prep company suggested schedule is deliberately too jam packed with activities and no one, and I mean no one, is able to do all these tasks. Throw it out!
You also need to eliminate any passive studying from your schedule as these things are not helpful in boosting your scores or helping you perform better under timed pressure. That means no more watching lectures or reading outlines for hours.
You also need to do a very honest self-evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses. Your best law school subject might be your worst bar subject, and that's ok! Use your bar prep tools to determine your top subject and the ones you need more work.
Make sure you are clear on what subjects are most frequently tested. Use your bar prep frequency charts to make this determination. Don't waste these final days trying to cram a subject that is not likely to be tested.
MBE subjects are more likely to be tested than other exam subjects (usually 3-4 MEE essays are MBE subjects). For abbreviated exam, you can still expect 1-2 of these subjects, so prioritize these in your essay prep.
At this point, you will not be able to learn a new subject, so get comfortable with working on ways to fake it in case you do see that dreaded subject. Read/outline as many essays in those subjects as you can so you know how they typically test them.
Bar examiners are lazy and use similar fact patterns to test the same subjects over and over. When reading/outlining, look for the patterns. Make your shell answers based on the types of fact patterns that are likely to arise.
A shell answer is the IRAC of a particular fact pattern, so have your issue statements, rule statement, and conclusion ready to go with bullet points of the types of key facts to look for. These will also be useful if there is a last-minute shift to open book exam.
Just try to memorize your shell answers for the subjects you won't master by exam day. You can't know everything, and at this point, you are just honing and refining what you have already learned. Be ready to vomit out these shell answers.
With respect to your best subjects, now is the time to maximize points in those areas. Drill down into the granular detail your bar prep course provided on each completed question set. See which subtopics you struggle with and work on honing those.
When you know which subjects you have under control and which you need more work on, you are ready to craft your final schedule. Make sure to schedule at least 3-4 review sessions for each weaker subjects (ex. 1 hour reading/outlining essays) and 2-3 of stronger areas.
You should not plan to sit at your desk from dawn to dusk! You need frequent breaks to refresh yourself and reboot your brain. Do frequent mixed sets of MBE q's, interspersed with brief bursts of flashcard review (10-15 min) and read/outline as many essays as you can.
You can schedule subjects that go together to make your review easier. For ex. torts/contracts/remedies feed into each other and are good to study on same day. Same thing for family law/wills.
Make sure to do at least two more full MPTs under timed pressure. Schedule time to read/outline as many MPTs as you can so you are familiar with any potential format they throw at you.
DO NOT plan to study the night before the exam. The day before should be set aside for logistical concerns: setting up your test space, figuring out what you will do for lunch, making sure you have read and understood all the test rules, etc.
The priority for these last weeks should be practice, practice, practice. Practice at different times of day that coincide with the times you will actually be tested. That means starting later in day for West coast and earlier for East coast.
Do not make a schedule that has you working from early morning to well after dark. You will not be able to sustain this pace and you won't retain anything if you burn yourself on both ends. Pace yourself! Schedule pods of no more than 1 hour increments.
Make sure your schedule mixes things up so you don't get stuck in a rut that increases anxiety and dread. Start your day with something invigorating or enjoyable, even if it is just a walk around the block or a trip to get a fancy coffee.
Shorter pods of activities interspersed with brief bursts of review of the black letter rules of law will work better for helping you retain and hone what you know.
You will NEVER feel ready or prepared for the bar exam no matter how well you have mastered the material or how long you studied, so understand that and trust in your skills and abilities to see you through.
Remember, you don't need to know EVERY rule of law and you don't need to master every subject. You just need to have enough law at your fingertips to crush it on your best subjects and fake it on the ones you struggle with.
Also remember that EVERYONE is in the same boat as you. Everyone is working under less than optimal conditions. Most everyone will have trouble logging into ExamSoft. No one will feel ready or prepared. You are not alone!
