My Gap Year Bar Review Routine:
Start the day with a prayer. Always start your day and study session by talking to God, asking Him for guidance, focus, excitement to learn, and of course, wisdom for comprehension. If you do not believe in God, I suggest you likewise meditate before you proceed. Allot at least 15 minutes of your morning just meditating with breathing exercises, to help clear your mind for better focus, absorption, and comprehension.
Eat a full breakfast and take a shower before studying. It is a must that you eat before you study because a full stomach has effects on one’s concentration. In addition, having a full breakfast will help you save more time instead of taking so many unnecessary breaks just because you keep getting hungry. Taking a shower before studying is not really necesarry. However, if you are a sleepyhead like me, I suggest you take a shower early in the morning to prevent you from going back to bed again (it also helps if you make your bed upon waking up, that way, you will not be tempted to go back to bed).
Listen to some instrumental music to help with concentration. Most people recommend classical music because it allegedly helps with memory and even IQ. Right now my playlist consists of piano instrumentals because I don’t work well with violin 😬 I used to listen to heavy metal while studying but I had to stop because I had way more headbangs than topics studied haha!
Use the Plantie and Focus app. I decided to use the Pomodoro method for my study sessions for better concentration. Both these apps employ said method. The difference is, Plantie is an app that helps improve self-control because it resets the timer when you exit the app hence stops you from using your phone or tablet or what have you for other purposes like social media. On the other hand, I use Focus when I’m waiting for important messages and replies because here, it at least lets you switch apps even with a timer. Using a timer when studying can help you focus and manage your time better, you see.
Start at seven in the morning and end at eight in the evening. A lawyer advised law students and bar reviewees to start reviewing at 7 in the morning and end at 10 in the evening, with breaks in between for reflections. According to him we should study early in the morning and not in the evening because the Bar exam is in the morning anyway (I can’t find the article anymore but it was published by Abogado PH on Twitter and on Facebook). Thus, I decided to follow the 7am routine to train my mind and body to start working early in the morning as I have been used to studying at night. In my case, however, I decided to limit my study time from 7am-8pm because I wanted to allot some me/rest time. I have read so many testimonies from lawyers that having a rest time is a must during Bar review lest you experience stress and overload on the Bar exam itself which can be really detrimental. Their advice is to never overwork yourself.
Read the annotated books of all Bar subjects again. I got this idea from Atty. @procaffeinator who re-read her annotated books during her Bar review 😅 I found it rather helpful when you create a goal for how many provisions and cases to read on your study session. More importantly, allocating a certain number of provisions and/or pages for a certain day or study session improves time management and self-discipline. It also helps you assess just how much time to allot to complete your goal coverage and to make sure that you have enough time to finish the entire coverage.
My study routine this year is still subject to change, relative to my needs along the way. I also realized that it helps to treat your study session a Bar review even if you’re not yet a reviewee. Prepare as if you are preparing for the Bar exam. This is an important mistake which I disregarded during my first to third year. I simply slacked off, I studied for the sake of passing the subject. I finally realized the detriment of studying merely to pass when I began preparing my reviewers. HECK I DON’T REMEMBER ANYTHING FROM MOST OF MY CLASSES. That is why I now wish to rectify this mistake by becoming more diligent in and keen on studying.
NOTE: I decided to post my routine because I believe in sharing-for-accountability lol. I’m going to start sticking to this routine beginning tomorrow because I had to deal with some distractions today. Oops.
