How Many Hours a Day Should you Study for the Bar Exam?

You’ve heard it many times: studying for the Bar Exam is a full-time job. Great, now what? Yes this is an incredibly rigorous and monumental task but counting your hours won’t make a difference. Here’s a few time management tips that will allow you to accomplish everything you need to during bar prep.

If you’ve already signed up for a bar prep course and looked at the proposed study schedule, you’re probably wondering how you’ll be able to fit all the material into just a few months’ time. Bar prep may seem daunting because it requires a great deal of time and focus, but it’s completely manageable. Remember, what matters is not whether you work 9-5 or 8 to 12 – rather it is how you use your hours to make the most out of it.

How many hours of Bar Prep do I need?

Let’s begin by saying that everybody is different. Some are more productive in the morning, others are night owls. With that being said, JDAdvising reports that the general consensus in the legal community is that 400 hours should be spent preparing and studying for the exam.

Of course depending of your level you might need more or less hours but this gives you an idea on how long you should be studying for the bar.

Most people taking the Bar Exam dedicate two months on average to preparation. If during those two months you dedicated roughly six hours a day…voila! Target acquired. Even if you took every Saturday off for those two months, that only equates to roughly 7.5 hours per day.

Prepare a schedule to be more efficient

This is really a must-have. With so much to get through and so much to learn before the bar, you will need a schedule to make sure that you cover everything.

Bar Exam time management is so much easier when you have a plan for what you need to get done by a certain point. You should create both weekly and daily schedules.

Make sure to work your schedule around those three points: (1) understand the law; (2) memorize the law; (3) practice the law. If you can stick to your study schedule, you will have a better time at everything you do.

Protect your hours!

See that cat? Get rid of it. Distractions will destroy your productivity. You know what we’re talking about – email, social media, texting, family, etc. You intend to spend 5 minutes on Snapchat but 30 minutes later you are still there. One text or tweet might take a few seconds but they add up to a lot of wasted time.

Disconnect when you are studying and don’t re-connect until you are finished doing what you need to do. The easy way is to turn off your devices but you could also do the pomodoro technique (this is what we did and it worked pretty well!).

Study smarter, not harder

Overstudying and burnout are absolutely a real thing when talking about Bar Exam preparation. Again, you’ve heard it: Bar Prep is a marathon, not a sprint. Choosing to study for every hour of every day could weaken your effectiveness and performance.

You actually need a good time of sleep, time to relieve stress, take fresh air, etc. We encourage you to continue your gym membership for instance. In sums, it is important to take study breaks in order to be successful.

On the other hand, understudying is also an issue to be aware of. You think you know everything? Well then spend more time in practicing! One of the biggest mistakes in preparing for the Bar Exam is to assume law school success will translate over.

We get it, the Bar Exam is a lot. Put all the Chances on your Side and check out now our material ! Look at our Special NY Bar Page to find everything you need for your preparation.