15 Jan, 2008
10 days in: Illinois Bar Review
Well, it's 10 days into Bar/Bri. The strains of working while taking a comprehensive bar review course are about what I expected. At this point I'm making flashcards like crazy and keeping some pretty strange hours.
Last time I checked in, I was trying to follow the course exactly as instructed.
That went on for about two days. On the advice of friends who took and passed the Illinois bar, it occurred to me that any return brought about by reading the extensive outlines of an entire subject before lectures is probably outweighed by the large chunk of time it takes to wade through such an outline.
It was nice to hear that from people who have passed the bar because reading the extensive outlines before lectures is nearly impossible for someone who is working full-time. I definitely don't want lecture preparation time to cut into the practice or reviewing that definitely needs to be done.
A lot of studying for the bar while working full-time is about being efficient with time, so I basically cut the large outlines out of the plan. Most of my time is spent condensing the short outlines and lecture notes into flashcards right after the lecture, and then doing the assigned practice problems and essays. Hopefully this works!