With two weeks to go before the bar exam, it’s common to feel a sense of urgency. It’s natural to want to be as ready and prepared as you possibly can but that doesn’t mean you should step up your intensity. In fact, studying more hours is more likely to have a negative impact on bar exam performance because you’re expending energy and effort before you really need it. The best use of your time is to do controlled practice. Controlled practice means consistent, steady, and focused. First identify gaps and then take steps to fill them.
Knowledge Gaps: Look over your MBE and MEE practice questions and identify any major gaps. I’m not talking about the exception to the exception of some minor legal principle that was tested one time in 1988. Identify the most commonly tested concepts and make sure you have a solid foundation- you know the rules and you understand how they work. Go through flash cards or notes on those topics and work through practice questions in those same areas.
Skills Gaps: Knowing every rule isn’t going to help if you read too fast, brain dump, or don’t finish an essay or MPT. What skills need shoring up: are your MEE responses organized and logical, are you spotting the specific issues or just hitting the basic ones, are you managing your time on the MPT, following directions, what about your precision reading on the MBE, are you missing questions because you don’t know the issue or because you didn’t pay attention to the fact pattern?
Continue to practice and review but don’t obsess over the number of questions you do or study non-stop. 8 solid study hours is the max your brain can handle. Yes, you should work hard but you should also rest so you can be at your best when it matters. Don’t give in to the fear or the “what ifs….” Keep trusting yourself and your abilities. Stay in control now and it will pay off in two weeks.
-KSK
Bar Exam Wizard 
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