This is the last lap, final stretch, 4th quarter, and any other sports metaphor that indicates you are almost finished! Everyone is burned out now. Use the last week to practice and get mentally ready.
Most students have 1 of 2 feelings right now. Half my students want another 2 weeks to study the material. The other half want to take it right now. Those are normal feelings. Either way, take a deep breath and proceed to put in one more week of quality effort.
Here are my few tips for the last week:
- Spend time practicing. I talk to students each summer who think they need to memorize just a little more law. I understand the feeling, but no one can memorize all the material for the exam. Keep doing MBE questions each day to maintain scores, and also, look through essays. My suggestion is to write out an essay answer for each subject. After that, issue spot and read the model answer for a handful more.
- Get your body on the exam schedule. I suggest waking up at the exact time when you will wake up on exam day. Get ready just like the exam and eat food at the break times of the exam. Getting a good body rhythm can make a huge difference. You don’t want your brain to be used to waking up at 10am if the essays start at 9am. Don’t miss points trying to wake up.
- Tell yourself every morning, “I will pass the bar next week!” Write notes on mirrors, refrigerators, or anywhere else you will ready daily. High self-confidence can increase scores by a handful of points. I see scores right above and right below the pass line every summer. A handful of points makes a huge difference.
- Lastly, don’t study past noon the day before the exam. My suggestion is to take the whole day off. Enjoy time outside or a bad movie. The mental recharge is better than the last few hours of studying.
The marathon is almost over. Keep up the hard work for one more week.
(Steven Foster)
