Let’s face it, bar prep is daunting. There is a lot of sitting down at your desk, staring at a screen, and trying to maintain focus. To ultimately pass, you must consistently chop away at the material provided by your bar prep company. Most students put in about 6-8 hours daily, including weekends. Of course, this schedule can be adjusted to fit your tolerance. I preferred to take baby bites daily to maximize my decompression time each evening. Others prefer to frontload the week so that they have a day or two on the weekend free. The important thing is that you keep pace and purposefully engage with the material. Here are some tips to help weather the storm:
Take Breaks: As with law school, you should prioritize quality over quantity. Take notes on the lectures, carefully annotate your outlines, repeat unknown flashcards and keep a list of what needs to be brushed up on. Keep your phone flipped over for at least half hour chunks, or dare I say it? Off. You will glean much more from actively reviewing your bar prep materials for seven hours than by half paying attention for twelve because you are distracted by your phone. Of course, this requires maturity and we all know that growing up is hard. Actively investing in your studies for a shorter amount of time will enable you to take more breaks and thus reduce chances of burnout. While bar prep is a time suck, it should not completely decimate your hobbies and social life. You will still be able to fit in the things you love, it will just take some planning ahead.
Prioritize your healthy stress coping mechanisms: We all have our vices. That being said, for the overwhelming majority of those two months, adequately preparing for the bar exam should be your top priority. Any release valves that would potentially interfere with your sleep and increase anxiety should be kept to a minimum. Take walks during the day instead of scrolling through your phone, fresh air will provide much needed perspective.
Take days off if you need them. It can feel suffocating to sit at your desk each day with the same routine. To help remediate this, shake up your daily routine, move rooms or work from a coffee shop a couple of times during the week.
Even with these built-in changes of scenery and downtime in the evenings, you may start to feel overwhelmed and burned out. In that case, take a day off. Get plenty of rest and far away from your bar prep station. A day off may help you remember that perfection is not an attainable standard. With all of the information tested on the bar exam, it is near impossible. Keeping up with bar prep materials and adding in supplemental aids when needed is enough. That being said, you are responsible for a vast amount of information and there is no substitute for putting in the work. Try to keep your unplanned days off to a maximum of five. If possible, stay slightly ahead of your work so that you will not fall behind if you need to pause.
Do not study the day before the bar exam: I followed this advice the day before my LSAT as well. The bar exam will be exhausting, you will be tested during two, six-hour days. As you approach the final day before the test, trust in your preparation and give your mind and body much needed rest.
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