Discussion

How many hours a day are people actually studying for the bar exam? Honest answers only

Every time someone mentions their schedule it is nine hours a day seven days a week and I do not believe it.

I am doing about four on weekdays and one long day at the weekend. That is what I can sustain while articling. I cannot tell whether that is fine or whether I am quietly behind and nobody is going to tell me.

8 replies

coffee_and_cpc Sat June 2026

four focused hours beats nine unfocused ones and it is not close. the nine hour people are usually counting the hour they spent reorganising tabs and the two hours the laptop was open while they were on their phone.

thirdfloorlibrary Sat June 2026

3 on weekdays, 6 or 7 saturday, sunday off completely. passed solicitor in june on that. the sunday is not optional, i tried working through and by week 5 i had stopped functioning

Sudden-Blanket-2216

Honestly about two most days and I feel awful about it every single day.

2helpful
nine_tabs replying to Sudden-Blanket-2216

Two real hours a day for three months is around 180 hours. That is not nothing. The people who come unstuck are usually not the two hour people, they are the ones who do zero for five weeks and then twelve a day for the last fortnight.

articling_szn

Something that helped me more than counting hours was counting questions. Hours are easy to fake to yourself. Sixty questions is either done or it is not.

3helpful
barprepburnout

Five or six but a real chunk of that is anxiety with a book open in front of it

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