If you have embarked on this journey to become a lawyer, you probably know that after law school you have to pass the bar exam in order to practice as a licensed attorney. I didn’t think much about the bar exam until 3L year, and I would say that you shouldn’t worry about it before then – you have enough going on with law school and job recruiting. But leading into bar prep, I would have found it helpful to know generally what the bar exam entails and what (if anything) I could do to best position myself for success during law school. So here, I walk through what the bar exam is, how I prepared for it, my personal experience taking the exam in Albany, NY, and tips on maintaining a balanced life and setting yourself up for bar exam success!

Since I was going to be working in NYC after graduation, I took the Universal Bar Exam (UBE) in New York State, so this blog will focus on the UBE. Most states use the UBE, which tests solely on general principles of federal law. Some exceptions are California, Hawaii, Florida, and Louisiana, which are structured similarly as the UBE but have their own version of the bar exam and test on state law in addition to federal law.

Overview of the Bar Exam 

The UBE lasts two days, 9:30-12:30 and 2-5 each day. On the first day, you take the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) in the morning (worth 20% of your score) and the Multistate Essay Exam (MEE) in the afternoon (worth 30% of your score). On the second day, you take the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) all day, with 100 multiple choice questions in the morning and 100 in the afternoon (worth 50% of your score).

The MPT, unlike the MEE and MBE, doesn’t require you to memorize any law – they present a hypothetical scenario, similar to what you might be asked to do as an intern or new attorney. They give you the facts and all the law you need to know to analyze a specific situation, and your job is to write a memo (or whatever work product they ask you to write) completing the task. What can make the MPT difficult is the time crunch – you have 90 minutes to read, outline, and write the memo (they recommend spending 45 minutes to read and outline, and 45 minutes to write the memo). But after a few practice tests (aim to do 5-6, about one every other week), you’ll get the hang of it, and can focus the rest of your time on preparing for the MEE and MBE.

The MBE (multiple choice section) tests the 6 core subjects that you take your first year of law school: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts. The MEE (essays) tests on all these subjects in addition to Conflict of Laws, Agency & Partnerships, Corporations, Family Law, Secured Transactions, Wills, and Trusts. (Note: They won’t all be tested, so it can be frustrating to spend hours learning and studying Secured Transactions only for it to not show up in the essays! But they’re all fair game, so you still gotta learn them all). 

I took the New York bar in Albany, the capital of New York State. If you take the New York bar I would highly recommend taking it in Albany. If you’re not a New York law student or resident, it might be your only option (other than Buffalo). Albany is a relatively peaceful and quiet town, so will not be nearly as hectic as NYC. Also, it’s probably the only time you’ll ever find yourself in the state’s capital, and it’s a pretty nice town. I stayed in the Hampton Inn in downtown and really liked the downtown area – there’s some nice coffee shops (I studied in Alias Coffee) and a variety of places to eat like Emmanuel Thai, Yono’s, Boozy Moo (an alcohol-infused ice cream shop with axe throwing and wooden swings – celebrated here after the bar exam!). I got there a few days early so did a little exploring – the State Capitol is quite impressive (it looks like a mansion), as well as the NY Court of Appeals. There’s Washington Park with a lake, where I went for a jog one morning. It’s quite lush and beautiful in the summer. 

I would recommend booking your hotel months in advance, once you confirm which state you’ll be taking it in, and book one that’s fully refundable, in case you find yourself in another location. Prices for the hotel I stayed in went up considerably as we approached exam day. 

Exam Day

I took the exam at Albany Capital Center, in downtown Albany. Since Albany is a smaller location, a lot of us were staying in the same hotels, so we basically walked over as a large group – I made a couple new friends in the hotel breakfast lobby and while walking to the testing center. They make you wear the same bright green wristband both days, so it became really easy to tell who was also there for the bar exam haha. 

I got there about an hour before you’re supposed to be in your seats, and there was a long line to get in due to the strict security (it would get faster by the end of the second day). Make sure to follow your specific directions for what you’re allowed to bring in. For Albany Capital Center, there’s a room to store any belongings you can’t take into the testing room, like your phone.  

I sat in a huge conference room where all the desks were lined in rows, facing the same direction, towards a wall that was primarily windows, which let in a good amount of sunlight. The proctor read out the instructions in a booming microphone voice, and then we began the exam. We received all the exam materials in paper form. The first day you type your essay answers into the Examplify software, and upload it after the exam (our building didn’t have WiFi). I would recommend bringing earplugs for the first day – when everyone in a huge conference room is frantically typing on their laptops, I can imagine the noise might be quite distracting. The second day the multiple choice exam is all scantron, so you can only bring in a No.2 pencil, not pens (I didn’t know this, and they confiscated all my pens, sadly).

During the exam they monitor you very closely – several proctors are constantly walking down the aisles, and you need to get a proctor’s permission to use the bathroom. I felt that if I looked around at other people for a tad too long they would start to get suspicious!

We had an hour break for lunch. You can preorder a boxed lunch ahead of time, but the boxed lunch didn’t look appealing to me, it was pricey ($20 per lunch), and you have to wait in a long line to pick it up. So instead, I preordered from another deli (Logan’s Deli) in the “Egg” building, a 10-minute walk away from Albany Capital Center and right next door if you’re in the other Albany location (the egg). I would highly recommend doing this if you’re here! Their sandwiches are pretty good (and half the price). I ate it outside by the large pool/fountain area, where you can give your mind a break and enjoy the view and the breeze before going back inside and staring at a computer screen for another 3 hours.

There were also fewer people out there because most students stayed around the exam testing center, which was crowded and looked more stressful, in my opinion – so now you know! But I would walk around the area the day before and make sure you know where the deli is, because it took me awhile to find it (Google Maps didn’t show that it was underground) and it would be very stressful trying to find it on exam day.

In the afternoon the testing process repeats. And the next day. And before you know it, the exam is over and the proctor will dismiss everyone! 

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(Btw – I want to insert a note of encouragement here in case you are reading this while awaiting your bar exam results and worried that you failed because you’re sure you bombed a couple of essays. First, realize that we are generally not great predictors of how well we did on an exam. Second, recognize that it’s totally possible to bomb an essay and still pass! Case in point: my mind blanked on what to write for two of the essays, and I could only come up with a small paragraph. Lesson to take away: if your mind blanks, write whatever you can think of – even if it may not be at all relevant to what the testmakers are looking for, it’s better than writing nothing! As far as I know, they don’t deduct points for wrong answers.)

Preparing for the Exam

Pretty much all students go through a bar prep course, and doing a course is essential to passing the bar because they condense everything you need to know and basically feed it to you in bite-sized video lectures. The best ones out there I hear are Barbri and Themis. I used Barbri, and basically completed the entire prep course. If you complete most of it (I think the statistic is 85%), you have a very good chance of passing!

What did my study schedule look like?

I started my bar prep course the week after graduation, so I studied for about 11 weeks. It might take you a few days to get into a routine. I studied 6 days a week and did essentially the same routine each day: I worked out in the morning, began studying at 9 or 9:30am, took a half-hour to hour lunch break, and aimed to stop for the day around 5pm, after 8 hours of studying. In the beginning I was diligent about closing the books at 5pm each day, once I had completed my 8 hours, but as the summer went on that deadline became more lax, and I will admit it also became harder to focus during the entire 8 hours. So the key is to find a routine that works for you and one that you’ll stick to! 

I would recommend taking at least one day off a week – you may burn out if you study all 7 days, and scheduling a day off in Barbri also gives you a buffer in your bar prep schedule in case life happens, and you can make up time during that off day if needed. 

I also think it’s really important to stay active and go outside during your bar prep summer! It’s hard to be stuck inside studying, especially when the summer weather is so nice and everyone around you seems to be out enjoying the summer sun. But while I didn’t do much socializing that summer, I made sure to stay active, which helps your brain rest and recharge. Since I was at home in Southern California, I went to the beach almost every week and did a long run at the beach or a running trail, which helped keep my mind fresh and rejuvenated. And it goes without saying, eat healthy foods and get your 8 hours of sleep every night – your brain needs time to absorb all the information you are taking in! 

Can you still have a life outside of bar prep??

Several people warned me going into bar prep that you have to put everything else in your life on hold during this time, and I would say that’s partially true. It’s definitely a good idea to take care of things like dentist appointments and bar trip planning beforehand, and establish boundaries with your family, friends, and roommates. On the other hand, you’re not supposed to be studying 12 hours a day, 7 days a week anyway, so I didn’t have an issue with scheduling time with friends and family after work hours or on the weekends. In fact, bar prep allows you to have a flexible schedule, so if a friend was visiting and I took a weekday off, I was able to make up the time on another day. So yes, you can have a life outside of bar prep!

But sometimes, life may happen and it’s just out of your control. Family emergencies can still happen, wars may be going on around the world, you can’t always ignore the news. I treated these as things that put your bar prep in perspective. And even if you don’t get through 100% of your bar prep course, know that you still can (and shall) pass the bar! As the Barbri instructors constantly reminded us, the goal is not to be perfect, but to pass.

How do you memorize all that information??

How are you supposed to memorize everything?? That was my biggest worry as I began going through the lectures and realizing how much information we would need to know.

In hindsight, I would say don’t worry too much about this – you will naturally absorb information as you continue doing practice questions and making study notes and outlines. I struggled the most with the essays, and probably would’ve done more practice essays, which test whether you really have the rules down. I would recommend finishing the learning part of the course 1-2 weeks before the bar exam to allow your brain to consolidate all the material and let it sink in. Similar to what you might have experienced during final exams, sometimes concepts start to connect and make sense just days before the exam. And at the end of the day, there’s just no way you’re going to be able to have all the rules down – so focus on mastering the most important and heavily tested concepts, and do the best you can with the rest.

What did I do aside from the Barbri course?

I made outlines, which I would highly recommend. This took a lot of time (sometimes longer than the video lecture), but I created my own outlines from the lecture material, summarizing the key rules and including examples. This helped me learn the material on my own, rather than passively absorbing it from the videos. After I finished the learning part of the course, I also made attack outlines, summarizing each subject in 1-2 pages, which helped me consolidate all the material in my head. I also had CriticalPass flashcards as part of my bar prep package, which summarize all the main concepts and rules. However, I found the flashcards minimally helpful (i.e. I didn’t use them much and wouldn’t pay for them myself). 

Anything I would’ve done differently?

I probably would’ve spent more time on the subjects I struggled the most in. With Barbri, you’ll do a simulated MBE about halfway through the course, and it gives you a litmus test on where you are compared to everyone else taking the bar. I scored the lowest in Evidence and Civil Procedure and wish I had done more questions in those subjects. I would also have liked to do more essay questions – Barbri has you do 4 essays in each subject, but I probably needed more practice in some subjects. 

Anything you can do during law school to prepare??

Not really. As I said in the beginning of this blog post, enjoy your 3 years of law school and don’t worry about the bar exam – focus on your classes, extracurriculars, relationships, and career. People have different views on how many bar courses you should take in law school; personally, I prioritized taking classes that were interesting to me, rather than courses that would appear on the bar exam. While it probably would’ve been easier to learn Secured Transactions or Family Law had I taken these courses in law school, I don’t regret the courses I took, and with the help of Barbri, everything can be learned, even if for the first time.

If you’re a 1L, I would take your 1L classes seriously, not just to get good grades and a 1L summer job, but because you’ll be revisiting all these concepts again when bar prep time comes, so if you understand Contracts your 1L year, it’ll be much easier to relearn it after you graduate. In general, doing well in law school will position you well for success during the bar exam; at the same time, just because you didn’t do so well in your Contracts class doesn’t mean that it can’t become your strong suit for the bar! I think that good study habits and staying on track in your bar prep course will probably carry you the farthest when it comes to bar exam success.

Some Last Words of Encouragement

You have taken many exams over the course of your life and you should treat this one similarly. It’s more straightforward than the LSAT – it’s a predictable exam that isn’t trying to trick you, and oftentimes you either know the answer or you don’t. The same test-taking skills that have guided you to success in past exams will guide you again – effective study habits, time management, mindfulness, staying focused.

Unlike other exams, the goal is not to get an A – the goal is to do the bare minimum and pass. Even if you don’t pass the first time around, it’s not the end of the world (many firms will cover a second bar prep course). Very little of what the bar exam tests on is what you’ll actually be applying as an attorney – at the end of the day, I would consider the bar exam a formal exercise, a mere hurdle to pass to get to where you want to be. It’s a taxing exercise for sure, but every lawyer has done it, most have succeeded, and with the right preparation you will too.

And as long and awful as the studying sometimes felt, I tried to find interest and relevance in the material. Much of the information can be pretty relevant to daily life and quite interesting, so I would try to apply the concepts to daily life as I learned them. For example, I learned a great deal about the process of buying a house from real property. So try to have some fun with the material as well, and it will help you learn the material better too. You got this – we’re all rooting for you!