When to start studying for the bar exam
When should I start studying for my bar exam
all right everyone Dustin here founder
of I passed my bar exam calm and author
of the number one Amazon bestseller the
seven steps to bar exam success and I
have a question for you which you're
probably wondering when should you start
studying for your Barnes now you know
the bar exam is an important time period
it's the pinnacle of your law school
career and you'll spend several months
studying you know several even more
months waiting for results you know it's
a big deal obviously as you know and
you're probably wondering when should
you start that journey of bar exam prep
you know there's a time period that's
too early to start in my opinion and
there's a time period that's too late to
start and generally speaking I think if
you spent about 6 to 7 weeks studying
for your bar exam that's plenty of time
you know even a jurisdiction like
California where the pass rate tends to
be lower than other jurisdictions six to
seven weeks really is plenty of time and
if you followed a lot of the tips I give
in my book the seven steps to bar exam
success you probably could spend even
less time because that's going to save
you kind of the struggle of figuring out
how to go about and approaching the
materials and approaching the bar exam
so my general consent my general advice
is not to study too early not to study
more than six or seven weeks out from
your bar exam and I'm going to give you
six reasons why you shouldn't start
setting too early and then I'm also
gonna tell you what would be a good way
to spend that early time studying
okay so here's six reasons why I
generally don't recommend you spend more
than six or seven weeks for your bar
exam okay number one is it's not
necessary you know in in California
against six to seven weeks plenty of
time there's plenty of time for me is
plenty of time for a lot of people it's
just generally speaking it's not
necessary now that might be there might
be an exception for for a couple reasons
one is if you'll be working full time
during the bar exam you may want to
start studying a little bit earlier so
you can get more material and you're not
gonna have as much time during bar prep
secondly is if you have some kind of
disability like maybe ADHD or something
like that but a lot of people have that
going into the bar exam and recants just
can't focus as as much during that six
or seven weeks time period
you may want to start earlier as well
and the third reason is if you're a
foreign exam taker if you're going from
foreign jurisdiction outside of the
United States you may want to start
earlier and really funn getting the
fundamentals down you're not taught a
lot of the basic fundamentals of law
school you know in your country so you
want to get the fundamentals down and if
you're taking a bar prep program they're
gonna start assuming you already know
what the fundamentals are there they're
gonna assume you took three years of law
school here so they're gonna launch you
from that point so you want to get the
fundamentals down beforehand so you're
gonna start studying earlier maybe spend
your time doing that okay but generally
speaking for most students it's just not
necessary six to seven weeks typically
is plenty of time even in the tougher
jurisdictions okay the second thing is
you may risk developing poor habits you
know if you're taking a bar exam prep
program they're gonna tell you how to
study they can tell you how to approach
the MBE is how to approach the essays
that approach the pts if you start going
down that on your own you may develop
poor methods poor habits in the way you
approach that and since the bar exam is
is new for you probably or maybe even if
you're a repeater you don't want to have
to learn try something on your own then
unlearn what you did and then relearn
the way they want to teach it you know
the bar exam prep program should be your
coach should be your advisor and just
let them tell you how to go about it
don't try to do things you know outside
the scope of it they've probably been
doing it for a while they probably have
a good system in place generally
speaking try to follow what system that
they're giving you if you start too
early
you're gonna develop poor habits and the
way you approach everything the way you
study and then you have to unlearn that
and that's just going to take more time
and cause more stress okay the third
thing is
but bar prep programs don't start early
most bar prep programs will start about
six or seven weeks out some of the bar
prep programs you can choose to start
earlier if that's what you wish a lot of
them don't but in one of the videos that
I do which bar exam prep programs should
I take video I go into kind of the
details of bar prep programs and which
let you start earlier in which don't but
generally speaking they'll start about
six or seven weeks out so if they're not
Steven telling you to start earlier you
know then why are you starting early
you're just gonna spend more time cause
more stress and cause more headache I'm
speaking generally here but you know
generally follow what the bar prep
program is telling you to do the fourth
thing is you might freak out you know I
remember when I got my material I took
Barberie when I took the bar I got my
materials from Barberie and I remember
opening up some of the essays to kind of
just see how it goes and see what it
looks like
and I flipped out because the essays
were so different than what I learned in
law school and it really psychologically
kind of hit me a little bit to think
like oh man this thing is gonna be
tougher than even what I thought it was
gonna be this it's not necessarily the
case you just got to know kind of how to
look at the materials but that's a very
real possibility that if you start
earlier you might start to freak out in
your mind and then you lose the mental
game the bar exam for people who have
been through it will tell you very much
it's very much a mental game as much as
anything else so you don't want to lose
a mental game so again you it's better
to have a mentor or a coach with you
throughout the process there as well ok
number 5 is you might forget the early
stuff you might forget the early stuff
you know if you're starting to spend 3-4
months ahead of time studying you're
gonna have to go back and relearn that
stuff because you know you're not gonna
remember on Bar Exam day what you
studied three or four months ago so
you're gonna have to go back over it
again and probably again even more so
than you would even if you're just
studying for six or seven weeks out so
that's another big risk again as well so
again if you're spending an extra month
or two and you're gonna have to relearn
whatever it is you're studying there as
well you're you know what's the point
you're kind of wasting time you're
taking up too much time
studying that stuff okay number six you
might run out of gas you know the most
the marathon I get at the marathon the
bar exam is a marathon it's not a sprint
a lot of people even that six and seven
week period they tend to run out of
steam they tend to lose energy if you're
starting even earlier than that you know
you gotta you gotta extend mentally for
that extra few months and that could be
a big drain that could be a big concern
it's it's bargeman requires a lot of
intense mental focus during that time
period it's got to be very focused on
what it is that you're doing and it can
be it can be mentally draining so if
you're starting even earlier than that
then you're just draining yourself even
more so these are generally the reasons
why I don't recommend you start the
actual studying process more than six or
seven weeks out now since I don't
recommend that but let's say you do want
to get started let's say you got some
extra time and you want to get started
and you're not sure what to do what I
really recommend is two things one is go
learn about the bar exam process go do
some research recently online I highly
recommend you get my book the seven
steps of our exam success it's helped a
lot of people and it just gives you a
general overview of the bar exam so you
can kind of see what is it like what
what's it like going into the bar what
should I be aware of which what don't
what are the some of the myths and
things like that that I don't need - one
of the things I don't even focus on that
I thought I did just get a general over
broad view of the bar exam and that's
going to help a lot with your psychology
and your strategy as you go in the
second thing is to get your mindset
right a lot of people deal with the
stress and the anxiety during the bar
there's a lot of pressure there's a lot
of self-doubt that could arise as well
so really try to get your mindset right
I recommend doing different meditation
work visualization affirmations getting
your mindset Square to focus before you
hit the actual strategy I think will
help out as well for your bar exam you
know I have a beautiful program it's
called the bar exam mental edge you know
there's a link to it below it does a
great job in helping you get the
psychology of the bar exam so you don't
get drained you don't get overwhelmed
you know get overly stress throughout
the
exam a lot of people throughout their
bar prep it's not so much the material
that that is their downfall
it's the anxiety it's the mindsets the
mental game that causes their downfall
either during bar prep where they get
overwhelmed and just break down or
during bar exam week where they're where
they just you know blank out or they
freak out or they're not able to contain
and control their emotions so those are
the two things I really recommend if
you're going to spend some time early
get your mindset right and get a general
over broad view of how the bar Exams is
gonna go okay so again I don't really
recommend you start studying earlier
unless you fit one of those three
exceptions either a disability foreign
taker or you're working and just focus
on the mindset and also the tactics for
the bar and get the over broad view of
them alright so thanks so much for
listening right now head on over to I
pass my bar exam comm 4/12 Keys the
number one then number two keys and get
your free report the 12 keys to bar
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head on over to I pass my bar exam calm
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