Law Schools

Does Bar Prep Have You Freaked Out? Read This.

Bar prep may have started out a little rocky, but you can turn this around, even though it will probably still moderately suck.

By  
on

Has your past month gone something like this? Days 1-24: Frantically tried to pass all your final exams because you had terrible 3L-itis (it is a thing, trust me). Day 25ish: Congrats, you graduated! Day 26: Here are 100 tons of books for you to read and memorize STAT. Oh also, don’t forget about these 75,633 hours worth of videos you need to watch. And, in your free time, be sure to do 1.4 million MBE questions. Day 27 through today: FML.

Sounds like you’ve made it to bar prep. A terrible, yet required rite of passage for all lawyers. Allow me to help you crawl out of that deep dark hole you are currently trying to bury yourself in with some unsolicited, but highly useful, advice.

Do a quick reality check

While you may be feeling complete panic and terror at the moment, ask yourself the following questions: Are you being chased by a wild animal? No. Are you actually, physically on fire? No. Are you still able to read and write? Yes.

Okay. Good. We can still fix this. My point here is to put things in perspective. Yes, you are understandably overwhelmed. But blowing everything out of proportion will only make it worse. You still have plenty of time to rectify the situation. But only if you get it together soon, so don’t stop reading here.

Don’t suffer in silence

Did you know that there is someone at your law school whose entire job is to care about whether you pass the bar exam? That superhero likely works in the Academic Support Department. You should run, not walk, to their office immediately. And if you are too far away to show up in person, get them on speed dial.

Sponsored

If you are feeling overwhelmed, it is a terrible plan to try to fix it all yourself, or worse, to try to get advice from another freaked out person studying for the bar exam. Instead, get in contact with someone who knows a thing or two about the test, can help calm you down, and can give you excellent advice to get you back on track.

Take back your power

This is not a knock to bar review companies. Most of them are excellent and provide quality materials and services. However, bar review companies also have a way of turning their students into robot zombies who are no longer able to think and feel for themselves. They can often make students feel that if they don’t do things in the exact way and order that the bar program lays out that they are doomed to fail.

This simply isn’t true, so let’s do a quick reprogramming and take back some of your power. Bar review companies are experts in the bar exam, you are an expert in you. Of course it is wise to take advice from experts. However, don’t throw away all the knowledge you have about yourself as a student and learner that you’ve likely spent 25+ years developing. Take a moment to think about what test-taking approaches and strategies have worked for you before and find ways to implement them now.

Identify and fix the problem.

Sponsored

Now that you have your head screwed on straight, you’ve got to figure out exactly what has you so freaked out in the first place. Is it the volume of material? The crunched time frame? General anxiety about failing? Does your study space need fixing? Are you wasting a ton of time? Do you need to switch up your schedule? Get up earlier? Do practice questions before videos? Do you need to find a new way to approach learning and memorizing the law? If you can’t figure out what is causing the meltdown, it will be incredibly hard to move past it.

Once you uncover what is broken, it is time to fix it. Find a way to condense the material. Reorganize your schedule. Get a therapist. Clean your study space or find a new one. Go to bed earlier. Take a learning styles quiz. You get the point. The key to all of this is self-reflection and creative problem solving. If you suck at one or both of these things, it is even more critical that you get external feedback. See above.

Fewer videos, more practice questions

I have no idea what your problem is, but I can almost 100% guarantee that it can be fixed by spending less time watching bar videos and more time doing practice questions. In my experience, the number one reason students fail the bar exam is too much passive studying (i.e., too much time watching videos and not enough time working through practice questions). I couldn’t possibly pass up this opportunity to reiterate the importance of not falling into this trap. If all else fails, and you aren’t sure what to do, the answer is always practice questions.

I’m sorry that bar prep started out a little rocky for you. I trust that you can turn this around, even though it will probably still moderately suck. But, as the Academic Dean told my 1L class on our first day of orientation, “sometimes you have to embrace the suck.” Good luck.

Kerriann Stout is a millennial law school professor and founder of Vinco (a bar exam coaching company) who is generationally trapped between her students and colleagues. Kerriann has helped hundreds of students survive law school and the bar exam with less stress and more confidence. She lives, works, and writes in the northeast. You can reach her by email at info@vincoprep.com.

Topics

, , , ,