How To Catch Back Up On The Bar Review

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

It is not unusual for students to fall behind only after a few days or the first week of bar review.  Let’s see if this daily schedule sounds familiar:

— Watch 3-4 hours of substantive lecture

— Spend at least 2-3 hours condensing the notes from the lecture (by either outlining, creating flashcards, flow-charting, etc.)

— Practice multiple choice questions

— Review/Issue Spot essays

— Read or at least skim the course outline for the next substantive lecture topic

— Take online review quiz or diagnostic which will evaluate your strengths and weaknesses of the topic. Afterwards your bar review program will suggest additional practice questions and review to neutralize your weaknesses based on your quiz performance.

Hopefully, you complete everything assigned for the day and then you get up and do it all over again the next day!  After trying to complete every assignment on the daily schedule, you’ve either fallen behind or you begin to find ways to cut corners.  It’s not because you want to cut corners – its because there are only so many hours in the day.

“Treat bar review like a full-time job.”

Does that statement sound familiar?  Most full-time jobs are 9 A.M. to 5 P.M.  You feel like you are studying from 9 A.M. to 11 P.M. or later.  Am I right?  While studying for the bar exam, you are supposed to still be able to still go to the gym, cook healthy meals, spend time with friends and family, even watch your favorite TV show – but when?  Here’s how…

Don’t start and stop your video lectures in order to write every word down that your lecturer says.  This can turn what should be a 3-4 hour lecture into a 5-6 hour lecture.  You will never finish if you do this.  If you miss something that is said by the lecture – ask a friend.  If you do not know anyone taking the same bar as you, send an email to your bar course for the information you missed.

If you can, speed up the bar review lecture.  Some lectures are painful.  If it is possible to speed up the video, try it.  Many students find it easier to watch the videos at 1.5 or 2 times the normal speed.

Don’t be a slave to your bar review progress completion bar.  Checking the box on assignments just to check the box does not help you!  Quality of review and work product is significantly more important than quantity.  Doing 15 multiple choice questions and reviewing all 15 questions is better than trying to do 50 questions and not reviewing every answer.  You need to make sure that if you get a question right, you were right for the right reason and if you get a question wrong, you need to understand what error you made.

Do not start memorizing until 2 weeks before the bar exam.  Why?  Because this exam is not like law school.  You have to learn 15 – 20 topics for the bar exam and know them ALL AT THE SAME TIME.  Many students try memorize each topic as it is introduced.  However, it is impossible to keep something memorized if you do not continually review it.  Your bar course is not set up for this type of continuous review.   Let’s look at an example:

In week 1 of bar review you watch the following lectures: an introduction to the bar exam, two days of Torts, and two days of Federal Civil Procedure.  In week 2 of bar review you watch: one day on Wills, another day on Trusts, and then three days of Real Property.  In two weeks, you’ve covered 5 topics.  After watching Torts, you spend hours trying to review Torts with an emphasis on memorization.  You feel really proficient when you do the Torts MBE questions scoring 70-80% correct.  You’ve taken your diagnostic test and completed all the required additional practice questions to make sure you really have learned all of Torts.  Then you move on to Federal Civil Procedure and do the same thing; then on to Wills, Trusts and so on.  The only review you have had of Torts from week 1 is some multiple choice assigned during week 2.  As you do the Torts questions in week 2, you feel confident until you score yourself and realize that you didn’t even meet the suggested percentage correct of 60%.  You are crushed!  Then you look at your schedule and you realize you have 30 more days of this.

Don’t feel defeated.  You did not do anything wrong.  Your Torts knowledge naturally dissipated to make room for Federal Civil Procedure, Wills, Trusts, and Real Property.  The most important thing you can do is to KEEP A BALANCED SCHEDULE PEPPERED WITH REPETITION.  Watch your lectures, condense your notes, practice multiple choice, complete your graded writing exercises (essays and performance test, if applicable) and do your best to LEARN THE LAW.  Focus on learning rules.  The more rules you know and understand, the better you will do on the bar exam!  Whenever your review course has days to “Catch Up,” focus on repetition of topics.  Keep bringing the topics you have already covered back into your schedule.

Once you finish watching your video lectures, your focus shifts to more repetition, practice, and memorization.  That’s when you look to us! BarSiege will help you in your final weeks of preparation by telling you exactly what you need to do to Conquer the Bar Exam!