My Advice to Pass the California Bar Exam

Before you heed anything I say, keep in mind that advice is often worth what you pay for it. Ok, so let's finally write this post...

First, do NOT start studying the bar exam during your final year of law school. It won't help you. It will only lower your grades for your final year. Stay focused on your classes and doing well in them. If your school offers any kind of bar prep class, consider taking it, but do NOT freak out if one is not offered.

Secondly, sign up for a bar review course. I don't think there is a perfect one, so it's probably more a matter of deciding what you are most comfortable with. I took Bar-Bri, and while it had its faults, it kept me organized in my approach to studying, and covered all the needed topics and exam parts. If you do sign up for Bar-Bri, a few warnings. First, their web site sucks. So does their customer service. They do not clearly tell you everything you are entitled to, nor make all the forms for requesting things obvious to find. Secondly, not all their lecturers are as thorough as they need to be. The Criminal Law and Business Organizations lecturers condensed their material so much that they left out a lot of necessary information. Some of the lecturers are very amusing, most are not.

Next, give yourself a week off after finals. Don't read or do anything law-related. Take a trip, sleep, see movies, have fun. The next 8 weeks will be the worst of your life, so do something you enjoy that will help you make it through.

If the schedule of your bar review course doesn't start for another week after your week off, begin doing MBEs. Don't try to study first. Just start doing them. You can use a computer program like MicroMash (though that has its own set of problems, but it does help you to get through and grade a lot of questions faster than using a book) or a book. After scoring them, read all the explanations for all the ones you missed. Write or type out the statement of law for those questions and keep them organized, by subject in a binder so you can refer to them later if needed. Aim to do about 100 a day.

Once your bar review class starts, stick to the schedule they give you and do ALL the assignments. My Bar-Bri class was from 9am-1pm every day. After class, I came home, ate lunch and started working about 2pm until around 8-10pm each night. In those 6-8 hours every day, do each assignment for that day, whether MBEs, essays or Performance Test. In addition, type up an outline for whatever material you covered in class that day. If you finished a subject, edit your outline as needed and print out to put in a binder for your final bar review study outlines.

Don't plan on taking days off until after the bar is over with. Try to do something fun every weekend, like going out to dinner or a movie, but don't get lazy and don't talk yourself into thinking you deserve time off. You don't. You will later, after you take the exam. You're not there yet.

When you get graded assignments back that rip your work to shreds, don't get discouraged. I think they do that on purpose to try to motivate you. Sure, take whatever you can from their comments, but don't let it destroy your confidence. My assignments, except for one, had failing grades and bad comments. I didn't focus on that. Not worth the distraction.

After your bar review course is done, you will have a week or two to finish your studying on your own before the actual exam. Continue with the schedule of assignments they give you, unless you can tell you have certain weaknesses. If you do, focus on those. Force yourself to not study the things you know perfectly. While studying those areas may make you feel smart, you know you really need to focus on your weak subjects. Just do it.

Arange your time so your last couple of days are only studying your outlines you made from the lectures. Make sure you go over every subject, again focusing on the ones you are weakest on, AND Professional Responsibility, since that is the only subject that is guaranteed to be on the bar exam.

When you sign up for the exam, consider the different possibilities for weather, distance, proximity of exam site to available hotels, your comfortable level with each city. Don't go to one city only because you know it is the "popular" choice for your schoolmates if you aren't personally comfortable in that city. Do not plan on staying with relatives during the exam if you are traveling from out of town.

If you are traveling out of town for the bar exam, get there about 24 hours before the exam begins. Check out the venue for the exam. Find out where you check in, see if you can locate the restrooms, drinking fountain, nearby lunch spots. Remember, by the time the proctors collect the exams and get you out of there, you only have an hour for lunch. You don't want to get stuck in line behind 900 other bar takers. Consider getting something the night before, leaving it in a cooler in your car, and eating there. If that doesn't work, find something close and quick.

Decide before you arrive what time you will cut off your studying. You NEED to do this! And you NEED to stick to it. My boyfriend and I had decided that once we got checked in at the hotel, looked at the exam site and stuff, we would study for a couple of hours, but once it was dinner time, that was it! No after dinner cramming, no getting out the outlines at midnight. Cut yourself off and then relax the rest of the evening so you can go to bed without panicking. Tell yourself that if you don't know something by that time, you aren't going to learn it. You will make it up and fake it. Just repeat that to yourself if you start getting nervous and want to grab your outline binder.

Make sure your hotel is within walking distance of the exam site. Even if you plan to drive from the hotel, walk it and time it, just in case, so you know how long you need. Ask for a refrigerator and microwave in your room, if possible. This will allow you to keep breakfast food in your room and save you precious minutes in the morning. If you bring food from home, that will also help you feel a little more comfortable going in every day.

After each day's test, don't talk about it too much, and don't beat yourself up over stuff you missed or forgot. Don't get freaked out and go back to the room and study. Just find a decent restaurant, eat a nice dinner, and relax. If you have trouble sleeping, take a sleeping pill by 8pm (not any later!) .

When the final day is through, if you are able, don't try to drive home. Find something to drink and celebrate there, and stay one more night. By the time you get out of the last exam, it will be about 5:30pm, and you don't want to have to try to drive for hours at that point.

You will then have 4 months to wait. Try not to think about it. It seems forever. It nearly is. Try to find projects to keep yourself busy.

If you are like me, and hate to be disappointed more than just about anything else, convince yourself you did not pass. Resign yourself to having to study and go through it all again. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. Realize it isn't the end of the world if you don't pass. But when you finally get the results, if you do pass, celebrate and tell everyone your secrets!