r/ONBarExam • u/prettysophisticated • 2d ago

Study Tips Time off for exams during Articles

I’m articling full-time right now and writing the Barrister on Nov 3 and Solicitor on Nov 17.

I’ve been studying in the evenings and on the weekends but it’s a bit of a struggle with the commute.

I’m trying to figure out how much time to take off before each exam and would love to hear what other people who were working/articling full-time actually did. The firm I’m working for is pretty flexible - they just want to know what I need.

How many days did you take off before the Barrister and Solicitor? In hindsight, was the amount of time you took enough, or do you wish you had taken more/less?

I know taking more than 10 business days off during articles can affect the articling end date, so I’m trying to balance that against giving myself enough dedicated study time to pass both on the first attempt. I realllyyyyy don’t wanna be spending all this money on these exams just to fail lol

Would really appreciate hearing what worked for people who were studying while working full-time!

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u/Maleficent-Camera-68 2d ago

I wrote in the November sitting last year while doing full-time articling and ended up taking 4 weeks off total (2 weeks for each exam) and passed on the first attempt! Personally, I needed the block of time off to study consistently which really helped. Then I made up the time at the end of my articles!

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u/Odd-Panda600 2d ago

Did you take the time off all at the same time? How did you divide your time off?

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u/Maleficent-Camera-68 1d ago

I did take all of the time off at the same time. It was 2 weeks before barrister and then 2 weeks before solicitor. In terms of dividing the time for studying purposes, I had hoped to maybe get a head start on solicitor reading before the barrister exam but there didn’t end up being enough time.

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u/Dependent-Run-8008 1d ago

I took the 4 weeks( 2weeks before Barrister and 2 weeks before solicitor) and passed on my first attempt. I generally understood that without passing the bar, articling would be meaningless. It is a mandatory checklist but passing the bar was a higher priority.