I had one week to revise for nine units. Not by choice, mind you. I would not recommend it, but if you have found yourself in the same boat, then perhaps my mess of a timetable will make you feel a little less doomed.
Despite years of sitting law exams, nothing really prepares you for the bar. You would think after all that training, I’d have a handle on how to manage stress, revise sensibly, and get a decent night’s sleep. Instead, I was relying on coffee, panic, and a stack of past papers. And to be clear, this was not a cramming exercise for topics I’d never touched before. Most of it I had learnt before. I was just trying to remember [emphasis added] it all. That is what made it harder.
How It All Went Wrong
It started with a portal issue. I had deferred all my papers in March, so naturally, I had to re-register before 20 September. I tried. Repeatedly. But the school portal was not working, and the Council of Legal Education staff were on strike. By the time the strike ended, the registration window had closed, and I was told that I would have to sit the exams in March 2024. So I gave up. I started my pupillage at the Court of Appeal and moved on. Then, with less than two weeks to the November exams, CLE issued a late notice allowing last-minute registration. That left me ten days [emphasis added again] to revise for all nine papers.
Ten. Days. I had two choices. Sit the papers under impossible pressure, or wait four more months and try again in March. I chose chaos. Registered the next day and began the scramble.
My strategy was simple. I would look at the course outline for each unit, check whether I could answer a past question on that subtopic, and if I felt I could wing it, I would cross it off. This was triage. Not every subject got the same treatment. Probate, Trial Advocacy, Ethics, those got what you would politely call minimal attention. Civil Litigation, Commercial, Conveyancing, and Legal Practice Management demanded my entire soul. Some topics made absolutely no sense, even after several reads. But I had no time for academic pride. I focused only on the bits most likely to appear, and if something felt truly impossible, I simply moved on.
The Night Before
No matter how much you revise, the night before a law exam always feels the same. Too much left to read, not enough brain cells to do it. I coped by revising with a friend every evening [shout out to Komen]. We would test each other with questions, fill in the blanks where the other struggled, and regroup at 4:00 a.m. the next day for one last pass before the exam. There is no such thing as enough sleep during bar prep. There is only tea at the KSL cafeteria, scribbled notes in hand, and prayers mumbled in silence.
Exam Days
Every day, one paper. Every day, one fresh wave of dread.
Criminal Law was not too bad, actually. I did fairly well in it, though everyone else seemed to think it was dreadful. Conveyancing, on the other hand, is a monster. That unit deserves its own obituary. And then there was Legal Writing and Drafting [emphasis added to the power of 2]. Let me just say that paper wiped the smile off everyone’s face. The first question stumped me so badly, my brain seized up and forgot everything I’d read, including how to draft a deed, a topic I’d revised that morning. I skipped the second question entirely, stared at the ceiling for a bit, then moved on. I nearly didn’t finish the paper. I had fifteen minutes to scribble out the final answer. When I handed it in, I felt tears coming. Not because I’d done badly, but because I’d survived.
Wrap Up
So yes, I had one week to revise for nine units. Out of pure circumstance, panic, and a stubborn refusal to wait till March and while I would nott recommend it to anyone with a working nervous system, I somehow made it through. The best advice I can give? Past papers are gold. They are not just revision, they are survival. And take every unit seriously, even the ones that sound like a walk in the park. Legal Writing and Drafting humbled the entire room (2023 November CLE exams).
At the end of the day, the bar exam is not about mastering everything. I crawled. I survived. Next article shares my 9Ps celebration! Yesssss.
I Passed the Bar!!!!!
Law School Diary Reads