3 Things to Do When Preparing for Your Bar Exam
Are you seeking to enter the legal profession? If that’s the case, the bar exam is a prerequisite test to make that dream come true. However, this critical test can be nerve-wracking as you prepare for it. Out of every one hundred people who sit for the bar exam every six months in Victoria, Australia, only 40% achieve the pass mark. Nonetheless, the joy of passing it can be one of the most fulfilling sensations you’ll ever experience. This article highlights three ways to study and get ready for the bar exam.
- Take advantage of bar review preps
No matter how daunting the bar exam may be, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. As expected, several law school grads tend to specialise in specific law areas after an advanced degree. It explains why just a standard law school programme is inadequate to get you ready for the bar exam. As a way to resolve this, most law students enrol in an all-inclusive bar review course to prepare for the test.
This step allows the law student to understand how the bar exam is conducted and what to expect. Moreover, bar review prep courses contribute to structuring your exam preparation plans. Several accredited establishments such as Uworld run these bar prep courses that you can enrol in. Usually designed to follow a scheduled curriculum, prep courses involve the use of practice questions and also include essays that form part of the syllabus ultimately graded.
- Consistent and active review of the previous year’s work
Bar exams generally dwell more on what you’ve learnt in the first year of law school, but the second year of course work is also relevant. One key way to keep both fresh in your mind is to revise your previous years’ work continually. You want to avoid cramming two years of law study into a few weeks’ preparations before the bar exam; your aim should be to achieve mastery.
By revisiting your previous material consistently, you’ll avoid mounting up pressure that inhibits you from studying efficiently. Known as the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve (EFC), adopting effective learning stops the likelihood of forgetting what you learned over a period. A more modern description of EFC is ‘spaced repetition’, which improves memory retention.
- Strategise your studies
Some people refer to this as studying smarter instead of harder. Experts recommend being able to identify personal strengths and weaknesses to do this the right way. The law student should know how much time to devote to each topic. Furthermore, because specific bar topics appear more often in bar exams, it may help to concentrate on those areas. Remember that you’re not being advised to ignore other bar topics; the objective of strategizing your studies is to learn everything but focus more on frequently examined topics.
The bar exam is your next step to becoming a fully-fledged lawyer. Study smart, manage your time and take advantage of authentic bar prep courses to facilitate your ambition.
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