Bar Exam Tips

Actively study. Reading your schematics is generally a huge waste of time. So is getting distracted in a bar refresher class. The only effective way to study for your bachelor’s degree is to actively engage your mind by asking it questions. Doing these puzzles, reviewing flashcards, or just asking yourself questions for an hour is more effective than ten hours of schematic reading.

Measure your level of concentration. The best way to study for law school is to ask sample questions that resemble real questions and read the explanatory answers.

However, this requires a high level of concentration that simply cannot be maintained for hours, every day. This book is for those times when your level of concentration is the lowest. To put it bluntly, when your brain is fried from asking hard sample questions, do something lighter (like these riddles) but not useless (like reading about schematics).

Interest! If you were reading an article about something you were interested in, say improving your tennis backhand, you would actively read and question the content of the article. (“Why is a two-handed backhand better?” “I don’t get how this works?”) Chances are you’ll be able to tell someone the gist of the article months later. Bring this same curiosity to solve these puzzles. Ask yourself questions while solving the puzzles because you are a bright and curious person, not because you want the extra points. Bring this gentle curiosity into your studies and you’ll access that part of your mind that remembers song lyrics, baseball stats, and recipes without even trying. Despite the sometimes oppressive atmosphere of law school, the law is really interesting – ask the thousands who watch Court TV.

Put the past behind you. If you’re just graduating from law school, check out the bar exam and life after law school as a whole new game. Law school can be a daunting experience for some. If this is your second or third attempt at the exam, that can also be demoralizing. See today as the beginning of a new game. Law school is an artificial environment that has nothing to do with the real world of law. Study smart and leave the bar exam behind. Your career is waiting.