Create a study calendar!
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.” We’ve likely all heard this Benjamin Franklin quote before. Importantly, though, when it comes to the Ontario bar exam, its wisdom rings true: if you want to pass, you need to come up with a proper study plan. If you don’t, well, don’t be surprised if ol’ Ben Frank’s warning comes to fruition in your case.
There’s many important aspects of a strong Ontario bar exam study plan. One of the most important ones, however, is your study calendar. You should know well in advance of the actual bar exam just how many weeks you plan on dedicating to your bar prep. Better yet, you should know which specific days on a given week you plan on dedicating to studying.
So, for example, if you were planning on writing the July 2022 bar exam, you’re probably going to want to block out most of June for studying. You should also know which specific days in June you plan on studying. The easiest approach — keeping in mind that the life circumstances of each candidate vary — is to just treat studying as a full-time job. Block out Monday-Friday of each week in June for studying purposes. Take weekends off (or at least don’t study as much). But on the days you do study, make sure you’re studying hard — mindlessly flipping through your study material pages isn’t doing any good!
It’s also a good idea to know which materials you’re going to study on a given day. For instance, if you’re preparing for the barrister exam, you may want to dedicate the first few days to the professional responsibility materials. After that, move on to civil litigation for a few days. Then criminal law. Continue to do this until you get through all of the materials. Your are FAR more likely to stick to your study plan if you commit to finishing a specific section by a given day.
The fact of the matter is that the study materials are, on balance, rather dull. Setting mini-goals for yourself — e.g., I will finish reviewing the “Family Law” materials by Friday — will help you slog through them.
