“I have fallen behind in my bar exam preparation, and I have no idea what to do. “ By Celia Lerman

Although it is necessary that your bar exam preparation is a well organized process, there are many instances where life circumstances can come into the way, causing some individuals to fall behind in their preparation. The fact of the matter is this: diligence is required for an individual who has fallen off of their planned study schedule and is now behind.

There is no perfect or exact study plan that will work for every individual, and it is important for lawyers studying for the bar exam to understand. If ‘falling behind’ means that you are not as far along in your prep-course as you had planned, you must remember that there are some people who finish the course that do not pass, and some people who don't get halfway through and do pass. It is vital that if you fall behind, you take a personal evaluation of your understanding of content not based on course progress, but on your understanding while doing practice.

If you have fallen behind, the best method to take is to stop watching lectures, stop skimming outlines, and start practicing. Work through those MBEs, start writing out those essays, and begin your memorization. It is going to feel disheartening at the beginning, but you'll very quickly find out where your knowledge is lacking and identify the topics under each subject that you need to refresh your understanding. Take a day in between practice to review, then get right back to working out more practice questions. With this, if you have taken a specifically targeted class to a topic during law school, skip the lectures and go straight to the practice problems to save time during your studies during your limited prep time.

While falling behind is never ideal, it is also important to remember that life is always going to throw obstacles at you, even during your most critical times in life. How one chooses to respond is what sets those who will pass versus those who will not pass apart from one another. The bar is designed to weed out those who do not dedicate themselves to the process. If you are in a position that you did not plan to be in for your studies, there is never a bad time to recommit and focus in with the time you have left. Good Luck!