Two weeks before the Bar Exam
You’ve been preparing for the last two months and the end is near. You can’t stand the word “Bar Prep” anymore and at this point, you probably dream about your post-bar life. Now, there’s about two weeks left before the exam day. The final countdown.
So what is it to do during that period? Have you finished your assignments? Have you made plan for the day of the exam? Do you need to change your study strategy? In sums, do you know how to survive these last two weeks?
Don’t panic and keep going on! Pull yourself together and get back in the game! Here’s some tips for the last two weeks of your Bar Prep.
On the Multiple Choice Portion (MBE)
1. Review an MBE topic EACH day
You heard me: a full MBE topic each day. If the topic is too big, you can divide it in subsections. Reviewing my outlines made me realized that they were some points I didn’t either memorize or understand. I would take note of these points and later focus on them.
2. Focus on the topics that are difficult for you
We are not equal when it comes to the MBE. A friend of mine was totally in love with Trust and Estates, something I still don’t understand to this day.
There is no reason to treat the topics equality: if you are stellar at Torts and bad at Contracts, then you should spend more time on the later! When I felt confident with a subject, I would still review it as mentioned earlier, but in a timely manner.
3. Practice everyday
This was my routine: everyday I would start with some multiple choice questions, possibly with actual released questions from the NCBE, Emanuel’s Strategies and Tactics books, or Adaptibar.
Ultimately, I would take notes of all my mistakes and used these notes on the final days before the Bar Exam.
On the Essay Portion of the Bar Exam (MEE)
4. Read as many essays as you can
Undoubtably there are many way to improve your MEE score, but again, there’s no secret: you must practice as much as you can.
I would have wrote a few essays during the day under real time, but in addition I would also simply read essays and their corrections. This helped me at spotting the issues and rules of law for many topics.
Ultimately, not only I used to know the answers to the essays ahead of time, but I would also figured out the questions before the end of the fact patterns.
For more, find out about our Essay Attack Sheets, which gather pre-established issues and rules to be applied on the exam.
5. Get as many feedback as you can
It is difficult to keep track of your improvement on the MEE if you don’t get feedback. Commercial Bar Course don’t correct as many essays as they should. So how are you supposed to know what you are worth?
You can self-grade your essays: be your own examiner! Fix your essays if you made mistakes and give you a grade in total objectivity.
Ask your professors or seek someone else opinion. You can always ask your teacher to have a look at your essays. If you want a full correction and feedback on your work however, we offer tutoring services that include essays grading. Do not hesitate to contact us to see how we can help.
6. Write out full essays and MPT
Don’t tell yourself: “I know that one” –> write it down. As superficial as it seems, MPT matters and you don’t want to take any risk.
Other advice for the last two weeks of Bar Prep
7. Don’t be worry about what you don’t know
You really know a lot by now. You might not believe me, but you probably know the answer to the most surprising questions. Using your knowledge and logic you can figure out the answer.
Most importantly however, now is not the time to start reading new books or re-watching lectures. Just perfect what your strengths and keep practicing. In the worst case: you just want to pass the Bar, not be the best at it!
8. Put yourself on a Bar Exam Schedule
That means getting to sleep early. Waking up at the same time you will have to wake up on test day.
And if it is not the case, you should start having the classic 9-5 schedule. I found that when I was studying for more than 8 hours I would retain less information. Which leads me to my other point:
9. Relax
By now, you must feel confident so you will be more inclined to relax a bit.
Dedicating an entire day to Bar Prep is a mental exhaustion, your brain needs to breath in order to assimilate the information, so it does not hurt to watch TV shows in the evening or reading a good book in the afternoon.
Ultimately, you should let your brain rest the day before the Bar Exam: the worst you can do is cramming.
10. Don’t compare yourself to others
The ultimate rule: avoid talking about the Bar Exam with other candidates. This leads to nothing but regrets and stress about the little issue you didn’t write about, or the multiple-choice question you are now “certain” you got wrong.
Make yourself a favor and don’t create more stress than you need!
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