Resources and Tips for Bar Takers

We hope that bar prep is going well! This page has been created by recent Colorado Law graduates who successfully passed the bar. It is intended to provide helpful resources and tips, as well as answers to questions from other bar takers. If you would like to add your own question or if you have any concerns, please feel free to email law.studentaffairs@colorado.edu.

Common Bar Exam Pitfalls:

Here are some common bar exam pitfalls (per feedback from past bar takers):

  • Time management issues (e.g., carving out sufficient time to study, choices about how to spend time studying/which subjects to prioritize)
  • Not understanding the importance of multiple choice vs. essays—this is an area where you can focus on using your time most effectively (i.e., you may want to spend more time on MBE topics vs. secured transactions) and on identifying individualized study techniques that work for you (e.g., mapping vs. flash-cards vs. outlining)
  • Not departing from the calendar provided by your bar prep course to make strategic choices about where to study
  • Not taking the bar exam seriously (e.g., skipping certain bar topics, not putting in the time)

Example Study Methods:

Many graduates who struggled with the bar exam told us that they wish they had known sooner what study method would work best for them. Once these test-takers were able to identity the study method that worked best for them, it completely changed their bar prep experience. Think about what study methods worked well for you during law school. You should continue to use these "tried-and-true" methods during the bar exam (although they may need to be modified slightly).

Below are examples of study techniques that recent test-takers have successfuly implemented.

Flash Cards: Example 1, Example 2, Example 3

Mapping: Example 1

Outlining: Example 1

Tips from a Recent Bar Taker on Taking the Bar:

Below are some tips from a recent bar taker who passed the bar exam. These are only suggestions, so we encourage you to stick with what works for you. 

Stay on Schedule
Do your best to not fall behind. It is essentially impossible to do everything that your bar course recommends. There are some big ticket items that you’ll want to make sure you do, like the lectures, checkpoint quizzes, and full-length practice exams. Sometimes you might miss a lecture or fall a day behind, but work hard to catch yourself up quickly. This will save you a lot of stress as the bar exam comes closer!

"You Want Me to Do How Many Questions Again?"
Day 2 of the bar exam is chock-full of 200 multiple choice questions.  It's no surprise that the best way to prepare for this day is to do lots of questions. One of my friends found that doing 100 multiple choice questions first in the morning under exam conditions worked really well for him. The more questions you do, the more comfortable you'll feel with the subjects being tested.  You'll also start to notice patterns in questions and answers that are designed to trick you.

Don’t Focus on the Numbers 
If you’re anything like me, you might become a bit obsessed with doing well on practice MBE questions. I took a lot of mini quizzes (5 questions here, 10 questions there). If I didn’t get the score that I wanted to on that quiz, I would take another quiz just to see if I could get that number back up. Don’t get me wrong—practicing questions is great (do a lot of them!), but fixating on the numbers wasn’t helpful. If you focus too much on quiz scores, you may end up feeling discouraged or burn yourself out. Instead, try doing something else for a bit, like an essay or some flashcards.  

Essays, Essays, Essays
If you’re having a hard time grasping material or understanding specific topics (for me, it was Secured Transactions), try doing as many practice essays in that topic as you can. Thanks to a friend's recommendation, I found that I learned best by seeing how the rules apply to “real” situations. I would read the essay prompt and make a short outline of how I would answer (just do bullet points—you won’t have time to write out full outlines and responses to every essay). If you don’t have any clue how to answer the question (I had a lot of “hmm, well, I have no idea” moments), that’s totally ok. Read through the model answer, taking notes as you go. (I would often just retype the model answer as another way of ingraining the information.)

In the last few days before the bar exam, I reread the model answers for the essays I had done. This helped me focus on and retain the material. Another plus of practicing essays is that you'll start to see patterns in what topics are frequently tested.

Change It Up
Research shows that a great way to improve your memory is to vary your study routine.  If you're used to studying in one place, try moving to a different spot or location.  I used to listen to lectures while I went took my dog for a walk.  Sometimes I studied at a coffee shop, and other times, I studied at home.  You could also try changing up the time that you study (e.g., morning vs. evening). These changes force your brain to associate with the material in a new way, thus improving your recall.

Stay Calm and Carry On
It seems counterintuitive, but take a day off before the bar exam! (Or, if you really can’t do that, cut yourself off by noon.) You want to be thinking clearly and feeling calm going into the exam. If you start cramming the day before, you may start to panic (“Wait, what is that exception to the exception again? Ahh, I can’t remember!”). Know that you worked hard throughout the summer. The material’s in your brain, I promise. And remember, it’s ok if you don’t know everything. There were some topics that I just straight up didn’t know when I went into the exam. This is fine. You don’t have to know everything.

What can you do the day before instead? I booked a massage, went out for a nice dinner with my significant other, took a hot bath, and tried my best to get some sleep. At this point, feeling composed and confident is the most important thing.

Inspiration:

Studying for the bar exam can be a daunting process. Below are inspirational videos and quotes that prior bar takers have found helpful.

   Videos:

   Quotes:

  • “A matter that becomes clear no longer concerns us.” – Nietzsche
  • "Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can." – Arthur Ashe
  • “I am good enough, I am smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.” – Stuart Smalley (SNL)
  • “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt, This is My Story
  • “Where fear is, happiness is not.” – Seneca
  • “When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breath, then you will be successful.” – Eric Thomas
  • “What if Michael Jordan had quit? He would have never made Space Jam.” – Kid President
  • “Everyman must now row with the oar they have.” – English Proverb
  • “One unable to dance blames the unevenness of the floor.” – Malay Proverb
  • “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
  • “You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” – Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
  • “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” – Winston Churchill
  • “Sucking the marrow out of life doesn’t mean choking on the bone.” – John Keating, Dead Poets Society
  • “If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney
  • “Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford
  • “I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy. I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” – Art Williams
  • “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett
  • “The greatest battle is not physical but psychological. The demons telling us to give up when we push ourselves to the limit can never be silenced for good. They must always be answered by the quiet, the steady dignity that simply refuses to give in. Courage. We all suffer. Keep Going.” – Graeme Fife
  • “The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bulls*it story you keep telling yourself as to why you can’t achieve it.” – Jordan Belfort
  • “The reason why people give up so fast is because they tend to look at how far they still have to go, instead of how far they have gotten.” – Anonymous
  • “If the plan doesn’t work, change the plan but never the goal.” – Anonymous

Other Helpful Links:

Frequently Asked Questions:

I'm worried that I'll get an essay question on something I know nothing about. What do I do? 

While you're still studying for the bar, try to get that low-hanging fruit. Knowing the basic, most-tested rules for each subject can go a long way.  In the week prior to the exam, I focused on learning the very basics of each subject. That way, if one of those subjects was tested on the exam, I could at least get a few points by stating the relevant rules that I knew.

If a question comes up on the bar exam and you simply do not know the answer, don't panic. You can still get points. Even though you may not be able to recall the applicable rules, try to identify the issues raised by the fact pattern. Then, state the relevant facts. Finally, make sure you state a conclusion.

I remember when I took the bar exam, a question came up, and my mind totally blanked on the rules. I did my best to come up with the rules, but I tried to focus more on writing clearly, identifying the issues, and stating the relevant facts. Even if you don't "ace" each essay, you can still pass the bar exam.