Preparing for the bar exam is one of the most intense and all-encompassing experiences for any aspiring attorney. It tests your knowledge, your endurance, and your mindset—mentally, emotionally, and physically. At King Law, our attorneys have walked that path. Whether they studied full-time, balanced jobs and parenting, or took the bar in different states, each of them developed personal strategies that helped them not only survive but succeed.
If there’s one lesson they all share, it’s this: self-care and time management aren’t luxuries during bar prep—they’re essential.
Build Your Structure—and Stick to It
The foundation of effective bar prep is discipline. Creating a structured study schedule helps keep anxiety in check and progress on track. Justin Ray, who balanced bar prep with business ownership and family life, swears by having a set daily plan. “Make up missed days, minimize distractions, and stay consistent,” he says.
Jennifer Martinez approached bar prep like a workday—getting dressed each morning and studying at a desk, never the couch. “Showing up for myself like it was my job made all the difference,” she said. John Crotts and Benjamin Waldman echoed this sentiment, treating bar prep as a full-time job with healthy routines, breaks, and exercise built in.
Martha Wallace, who took the bar in Alaska, relied on Barbri and stuck to it for 10 weeks—six hours a day, four days off total. She even retook modules when needed and took the day before the exam completely off to rest. Her advice? “Suffer now, keep going, and never have to take this thing again.”
Make Self-Care Part of the Plan
Being productive doesn’t mean pushing yourself to exhaustion. Melanie Larkins encourages students to rest, move their bodies, and prioritize sleep. “It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” she reminds us. When panic crept in, she slowed down and reset instead of pushing through burnout.
Bethany Collins found clarity through movement—walking outside was her reset button. Morgan Wright kept up her favorite routines: working out at Orange Theory, watching reality TV, and taking time for herself. She credits this balance for helping her stay motivated throughout bar prep.
Amber Sullivan also emphasized mental separation. Once she finished her study block, she disconnected from anything bar-related and shifted focus to hobbies, friends, and rest. That mental break allowed her to return each day with renewed focus.
Stay Focused—But Stay Flexible
No two bar journeys look the same. Some people study best early in the morning; others at night. Some follow every line of their bar prep program; others adjust it to fit their lifestyle.
Andrew Cone shared the importance of tailoring your schedule to your needs—but also giving yourself grace. “Everyone progresses at different speeds,” he says. “Don’t stress because your friend knows a rule you haven’t memorized yet—you probably know something they don’t.” He also recommends small resets like taking a phone-free walk or chatting with someone outside the legal world to ground yourself in normalcy.
And above all, don’t study seven days a week. Giving your brain time to rest improves retention and prevents burnout.
Keep It in Perspective
Bar prep can feel overwhelming—not just because of the workload, but because it feels like everything you’ve worked for is riding on one exam. That pressure can be heavy. Joseph Matherly reminds us to keep perspective: “It’s just a test. An important one—but if you don’t pass, you can take it again. Most people do pass, and you will too.”
Kaylee Bravo puts it another way: “The bar doesn’t test brilliance—it tests endurance. Burnout is real. Pacing is protection.”
A Study Strategy That Works
Want a smart, proven strategy to guide your bar prep? Justin Ray’s own bar prep included focused blocks from 9 a.m. to noon, then 3–7 p.m., with extra time at night after his kids were in bed. “My schedule was never perfect,” he said. “But I stayed consistent, and that’s what mattered.”
Key Principles
- Discipline and Structure: Create a daily study schedule (5–9 hours) and adhere to it. Make up missed days to stay on track. I would study from 9-12 in the morning and then again from 3-7 were my designated time. Since I also had children, I would sometime add time to that after 9pm when the children went to bed. My schedule was very erratic because I did not know what my business working schedule would include from day to day. Stay as structured as possible.
- Focused Study Time: Eliminate interruptions to maintain productivity and retention. Make sure friends and family know you are having study time and do not interrupt for even minor interruptions and wait until you take a break to speak about other stuff with friends and family. If you work better in a study group, make sure you all stay on track and the best activity for groups would likely be quizzing on MBE questions and discussion about the reasoning for the answer.
Core Study Focus (80% of Time)
- Multistate Bar Examination (MBE):
- Complete 50–200 multiple-choice questions daily, 5 days a week.
- Use study guides that explain answer rationales to improve analytical skills and accuracy. This was a critical skill in my bar review. Reading each and every answer to the multiple-choice questions during a review session after taking the test is very beneficial in understand the reasoning.
- Essay Portions:
- Practice identifying multiple legal issues in fact patterns, including subtle ones.
- Use IRAC format (Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion) for clear, organized responses.
- You may have multiple issues to discuss in ONE essay. Separate them out in your discussion and IRAC each one.
- Always discuss your elements, each and every one. If you forget one, then make up what you think it might be about and put it down.
- Briefly address minor or “stretch” issues to show thoroughness. If you think something might be an issue in a fact pattern, write about it and keep it brief but show you picked up on the issue.
Targeted Review
- Identify weak areas or topics not covered in-depth during law school. If you are not familiar with an area of law, then make sure you review a good study aid that summarizes the law in that area.
- Review concise study aids or outlines to master key rules and elements for quick recall or to get a general understanding of the area of law.
Time Management
- Study 5 hours daily minimum; increase to 8–9 hours on lighter workdays. I treated it like another job and did it 5 days a week.
- It is also VERY IMPORTANT to take some time off and let your brain rest from the work. Do something not legal related and preferably something that will stimulate your body and exercise. If not exercise of the body, then exercise the brain without going through law, do something you enjoy, make music, go hike, play video games, whatever makes you happy. Lose the law focus for AT LEAST one full day during the week and if you must work the sixth day, keep it fairly light and review what you did the week before starting with Mondays work and move forward as a refresher.
- Ensure uninterrupted focus to maximize efficiency.
Bar prep isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress. At King Law, we’ve seen that the attorneys who pass the bar aren’t necessarily the ones who studied the most—they’re the ones who studied smart, prioritized self-care, and kept going even on the hard days.
So, build your routine. Take your walks. Know when to rest. And most importantly—give yourself grace.
You’ve come this far. Now it’s time to finish strong.
From all of us at King Law: You’ve got this.