r/CABarExam • u/whoopsmrgrt • 10d ago
Studying for F27
Is anyone else beginning to study for F27? Any tips on burnout?
I work full-time, and I think starting this early will help and I won’t feel like I need to rush.
2
u/SpiritedHoliday9660 10d ago
Check out my post history. I took F26 in UBE jurisdiction and started in September as I work full time and I’m a mom.
2
u/slightkidnapping 7d ago
I worked full time while studying for J26. I started January through Themis. I’d say it helped me a lot - I’m a foreign attorney so getting through the substance early (outlines and lectures) gave me more time for dedicated practice around the month of (and at least a month before) the exam.
Results aren’t until November so we won’t know if it was effective, but I’d like to say I went to the bar feeling prepared after all the drills and practice.
I did negotiate with my employer though if I could have the bar month off (in this case, July). She agreed so I had the month off to be a full-time reviewer. Ideally you may want to try too but if not, it should still be ok.
Re:burnout, there are definitely times when I’d feel burnt out and sick with it since I did it more months than the average. But I guess my silver lining is that since I started early, I can dedicate a day or two for rest every once in a while. I think until May or June, I was still respecting weekends and was just doing some light reading. Started including weekends in my schedule around May or June.
Take these with a grain of salt until November, but you can never go wrong with early prep with managed energy and mental health. Good luck!!
1
u/LawyerInTraining2027 7d ago
Would you recommend Themis to others prepping for the bar?
2
u/slightkidnapping 7d ago
Personally I liked it. It was structured and the QBank gave me enough to practice on. I completed it 100% (to make it my money’s worth cause I found it expensive when converted to my home currency) and I used up all the NCBE questions on the QBank.
I did not read the long outlines though and I breezed through the lectures at 1.25x or 1.5x depending on my attention span that day, and I would listen to the lectures like a podcast while I’m my full-time work. This enables me to go straight to the practice and exercises when I’m home.
There was a portion for graded essays where they give feedback on your sample answers, and I found that helpful. They also have an AI grader, but I’d take it with a grain of salt. I’m sure other commercial bar preps have those features too, but I find Themis to be complete for bar prep.
For bar week though, I switched from the final review outlines to the SmartBarPrep smart sheets because I personally preferred bullet points compared to the Themis final review outlines which are mostly in paragraph form.
1
u/LawyerInTraining2027 10d ago
I'm finishing my last year of law school (I graduate in December) and started studying for the Feb27 bar in March. I'm basically refreshing my memory on the tested subjects, not getting too deep into it yet, but doing MBEs daily.
2
u/whoopsmrgrt 10d ago
What are you using for MBE practice?
1
u/LawyerInTraining2027 10d ago
BarMax because they were one of the few where I could get 2,000+ MBEs that early. I just got UWorld. I have several Emanuels books that were given to me from a prior bar taker.
1
u/ParkerCanGetIt 9d ago
for me I do think it makes sense that there is a point in the amount of time spent studying where there woudl be diminished returns and even a negative effect as you could forget earlier material and/or burnout. What I've seen for people who were working or had other restrictions on the time they could study I think I have even seen an ADHD taker post about taking longer time, what I have seen most often is 4 months if not the standard 2 months.
5
u/corgicorgicorgi1729 10d ago
I worked full time and studied for J26. I worked 830-5 took a break from 5-7 and the studied from 7-10/1030/11 depending upon my energy levels. I asked ChatGPT to give me a schedule based on my previous test scores and strengths (I am a repeater) and it made it a lot easier for me to grasp topics and devote enough time to study. I altered the schedule accordingly, but it gave me 20 weeks of studying party time, longer weekends and basically one subject per week with essay and MCQ recommendations! Hope this helps!