Creating a Workable Study Schedule

The first week of bar prep is a lot like the first week of law school- everyone tells you it’s hard but you don’t really understand what that means until you experience it first-hand. It’s REALLY hard. . It takes hours to read a few pages and your case briefs are as long as the cases themselves. In class you’re taking notes as fast as you can but you have no idea what any of it means. You don’t know what you’re doing and you wonder if you’ll ever figure out what’s going on.
With bar prep, you know you need to study 40-60 hours a week so you plan to treat it like a job. That’s great- but what, exactly does that mean? When you studied for law school exams, you likely put in marathon sessions of 4+ hours without a break. You were also a bit of a mess by the end of exams and likely had ignored basic needs like laundry, grocery shopping, food prep, etc. That might be ok for two weeks but the “go hard until you crash” method is not sustainable for the ten weeks of bar prep.

Instead, you need to study in smaller time increments and take frequent breaks.

30 minutes passive studying- review lecture notes, skim commercial outline, etc.
5 minute break
90 minutes active studying- work through practice questions, review your responses
15 minute break
45 minutes active studying- go over material you didn’t understand, figure out why you made mistakes
15 minute break
90 minutes active studying- work through another set of practice questions and review your responses
60 minute meal break
30 minutes passive review & preview- skim material covered, jot down notes re: questions, topics to revisit, etc.; look at tomorrow’s schedule, prep material, plan day

If you read this and thought, “That’s a lot of breaks and not enough study time,” check your math because it’s almost 5 hours of study time. Still doesn’t seem like enough? Here it is in context of a typical study day:

8:00/8:30-9:00	Wake up, dress, breakfast, get to study location
9-12:30	Subject matter lectures w/ built in breaks
12:30-1:30	Lunch Break
1:30-2:00	Studying
2:00-2:05	Break
2:05-3:35	Studying
3:35-3:50	Break
3:50-4:35	Studying
4:35-4:50	Break
4:50-6:20	Studying
6:20-7:20	Dinner Break
7:20-8:45	Work out*, shower, dress
8:45-9:15	Studying: review & preview
9:15-12/12:30	Free time**
12:00/12:30	Go to bed.

*Working out: exercise whenever you want but make sure to block out 60-90 minutes to include the actual work out, cooling down, showering (please), etc.

**Free time: Most people like to have at least an hour or two at the end of the day to relax. In addition to things like tv, social media, and social activities, free time also includes non-negotiables like laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning your room/apt/house, paying bills. You might do some of these things on the weekend but make sure to block out time to take care of them.

This is a pretty full study day and if you are able to execute this with a high level of focus and no distractions, you will have accomplished a LOT. Just like you figured out what worked for you in law school, you will figure out a workable study schedule for bar prep.

-KSK