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Nicolena.

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Study Tips/Advice/Schedule for Full-time workers taking the bar

Post by Nicolena. » Sat Feb 17, 2018 3:29 am

I’m debating working fulltime while studying for July’s bar. I’ll be taking the UBE. I’ve heard I should start in April, but I’m not sure how accurate that is.

I was wondering if anyone who has been successful with this can give advice/tips or share their study schedule. Also, if you can include when you took off before the actual exam.

Thanks everyone!

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SilvermanBarPrep

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Re: Study Tips/Advice/Schedule for Full-time workers taking the bar

Post by SilvermanBarPrep » Mon Feb 19, 2018 4:26 pm

It's certainly possible to both work and study, but the key is to start studying earlier than you would if you weren't working. In other words, you need to make up the time that you won't be able to dedicate to studying and the best way to do that is simply to give yourself more time than you would have if you were studying full-time.

Sean (Silverman Bar Exam Tutoring)

hockeyman969

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Re: Study Tips/Advice/Schedule for Full-time workers taking the bar

Post by hockeyman969 » Sat Feb 24, 2018 10:37 am

Nicolena. wrote:I’m debating working fulltime while studying for July’s bar. I’ll be taking the UBE. I’ve heard I should start in April, but I’m not sure how accurate that is.

I was wondering if anyone who has been successful with this can give advice/tips or share their study schedule. Also, if you can include when you took off before the actual exam.

Thanks everyone!
I worked full time and studied for Florida (passed). I did Kaplan and actually did the foundation course in March, the only reason I didn't start earlier than April is because the videos were not open until then. Did it working full time and got at a minimum of 6 hours a day even when child was around half the time. Weekends I was alone were complete binge sessions.

Key is to get the ball rolling so you can outline and I would complete subject, hammer out 100MBE questions, then after 3, I would go back and condense the heck out of the outline and commit to memory, then practice essays. I completed my course around June 10 and hammered MBE questions whenever I could, on lunch hour, jammed essays when I could and the last month was all practice and some review, like learning and committing article 3 to memory and wills/trusts (Thank goodness none were on either bar I took).

unlvcrjchick

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Re: Study Tips/Advice/Schedule for Full-time workers taking the bar

Post by unlvcrjchick » Tue Feb 27, 2018 3:42 am

I worked 60+ hours as a NV practicing attorney while studying for the UBE (Utah) last summer and passed.

I agree that you should start early. In fact, I started doing MBE questions daily upon purchasing the Kaplan course on 2/15/2017, and pretty much did MBE questions every day until the bar exam with maybe a day or two off here and there. I started off doing maybe 10-20 per day and eventually worked my way up to 30-50 per day.

I did the foundation course in around April, and completed most of the regular course once full access was granted in I believe early May. I listened to all the lectures at 1.5x speed but looking back, I found that to be a giant waste of time because while I filled out the bar notes for each course, I never went back to study them. I also never touched the Kaplan books because you’re simply not going to have the time to study them in detail.

I didn’t outline (because that never helped me in law school), I did 9 essays and 1 MPT (submitted them for grading), and used Critical Pass flash cards via their iPhone app.

Bottom line: since time is limited as a full time working professional who is competing against the “young kids” coming out of law school with nothing else to focus on but studying, you need to find what works for you and find a way to streamline it to maximize your time.

So yes, it’s enitrely doable to pass the bar while working full time but it’s challenging as hell, so have a game plan and start as early as you can: that will make all the difference.

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