How do you study for the bar exam while articling full time?
i get home at 7 on a good day. 9 on a normal one. i am supposed to do what exactly
everyone keeps saying just be consistent and i am consistently fucking exhausted, so
not looking for "just wake up at 5" because i have tried that and i was useless at work and useless at studying. looking for what people who have actually done it did
9 replies
Lunch. 40 minutes a day five days a week is over 13 hours a month and nobody notices you doing it
do you actually get a lunch though
Accepted answer
Articled through mine and passed, so here is the honest version.
You do not find extra hours. You accept that weekdays give you one real block and stop grading yourself on the days they do not. Mine was 45 minutes after dinner, and I protected it the way I would protect a call with a client. Phone in another room, one topic, done.
The weekend does the heavy lifting. One long day, not two, because two long days means you never recover and by week five you are producing nothing on either. I did Saturdays properly and kept Sunday completely clear and I would do exactly that again.
Nobody says this out loud but you will do less total study than the people who are not working and you will pass anyway. Most of what they are doing past hour six is not landing.
"stop grading yourself on the days they do not" is going on a sticky note
Sat in june while articling. Seconding one long weekend day.
The other thing is commute. I did flashcards on the train both ways and it added up to more than I expected. That is where a third of my memorisation happened.
My principal was surprisingly good about it once I actually asked. Worth a conversation if yours is approachable, a lot of Bay Street firms will flex the last couple of weeks
terrifying but probably right
I asked mine and got a very enthusiastic yes followed by no actual change to my workload, so ymmv 🙃
Lurker, first post. Articling + this is tbh the hardest thing I have done and it helps a lot to see it is not just me
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