I'm two months into preparing for the February 2027 Uniform Bar Exam, and so far, things are going surprisingly well.

I passed the California Bar in 2023, so this isn't my first experience of bar preparation. But this time, I have around six months to prepare, instead of the intense 10 weeks I had for the California bar. I’m still working full-time and have other commitments I don't want to put on hold, like ultramarathon training. I wanted to spend the first two months refreshing my memory and building a solid foundation.

My initial plan was modest: around five hours of substantive study per week, plus short spaced repetition sessions, to rebuild my knowledge before moving into more intensive practice. In practice, I was able to achieve a bit more than that.

Between August 23 and October 22, I logged just under 53 hours of study, including around 36 hours of substantive outline review and almost 15 hours of spaced repetition.

I've completed initial reviews of all of the core subjects - Agency, Partnerships, Corporations & LLCs, Contracts & Sales, Evidence, Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Real Property & Torts. 

I began with a closed-book diagnostic of 50 mixed MBE questions, scoring 64%, and have since completed 45 additional targeted questions, with results ranging from 60% to 90% across small sets.

Here are four observations from the first two months.

One advantage of having previously studied for the California Bar is that most of the material is at least familiar. As I've worked through the outlines, the concepts generally ring a bell. I'm not starting completely from scratch, which makes it easier to understand how the rules fit together.

But recognizing a concept is very different from being able to recall the precise rule.

Despite having spent months memorizing black-letter law for California, remarkably little of it has survived intact (other than the definition of hearsay - an out-of-court statement offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted. Apparently, that one is permanently lodged in my brain).

For almost everything else, I can usually remember the general concept, but not necessarily the elements, exceptions or precise formulations needed to answer an exam question.

My previous experience has given me a useful head start, but there's still plenty of memorization ahead.

Probably my biggest positive surprise has been how well spaced repetition is working.

My routine is ten questions per session: four revisiting material I've previously answered incorrectly, and six introducing new material. It generally takes around 20–30 minutes, which I fit in over my morning coffee before work.

My experience is that after encountering a rule two or three times through the questions, and typing out the response, it often starts to stick. Rules that I initially struggled to recall become much easier to reproduce after repeated testing.

I haven't yet tested how much of this information I'll remember several months from now. But so far, spaced repetition has been one of the most useful parts of my routine, and something I intend to continue throughout preparation.

One of the reasons I started preparing six months before the exam was to avoid having to fit an intensive study schedule around a full-time job.

I initially aimed for around five hours of substantive study per week, plus daily spaced repetition. Over the first two months, I've logged almost 53 hours, without finding it too difficult to fit studying around everything else.

My routine is straightforward: around 20–30 minutes of spaced repetition in the morning, followed by approximately an hour of outline review after work. Having a regular routine has made it relatively easy to maintain consistency.  Importantly, I haven't felt that studying has required me to put the rest of my life on hold. I've continued working, running and doing the other things I normally do.

Of course, this is still the early phase of preparation. I'm not yet spending hours every day completing timed essays and practice exams, and I fully expect the workload to increase significantly as February approaches.

But it's been encouraging to discover that I can make meaningful progress with relatively manageable daily sessions.

My initial priority was to work through the substantive law outlines and rebuild my knowledge before focusing heavily on practice questions and essays.

I'm glad I've taken that approach. Having six months to prepare means I can afford to spend time reviewing the law in detail. If I were working with a shorter timeline, I'd probably approach this differently. But I'm also becoming increasingly mindful that reviewing outlines is only the beginning.

I've progressed through the material faster than expected, which has allowed me to start incorporating some MBE practice. My initial diagnostic result of 64% was encouraging, given that I hadn't reviewed the law beforehand. More recently, I've scored 7/10 and 6/10 on Contracts sets, 6/10 on Constitutional Law and 9/10 on Torts. These are small, targeted sets, so I wouldn't draw any firm conclusions about my proficiency from them. But they're useful for identifying areas where I need to revisit the rules or improve my application.

Looking back, the main thing I'd change is to introduce active practice immediately after completing each subject. Rather than moving straight from one outline to the next, I'd do a set of MBE questions and an open-book essay to consolidate what I'd just reviewed.

The essay component is particularly important. California gives candidates an hour per essay, whereas the UBE's Multistate Essay Examination allows just 30 minutes. I'm curious to see how much depth is expected in that shorter timeframe, and how I'll need to adapt my approach.

There's also a balance to strike between understanding the material thoroughly and continuing to make progress. If something isn't clear, I think it's worth spending a little extra time working through it. But there's a risk of getting bogged down trying to master every detail before moving on.

For now, my approach is to trust the overall plan, dig into concepts when necessary, and keep moving through the material.

I have a three-week holiday planned for November, so my immediate priority is to get into a good position before then. After I return, I'll be moving into a more intensive phase of preparation through December, January and February.

I want to incorporate MBE and MEE practice more systematically, and I'll continue with spaced repetition, which has earned its place in my study routine.

So far, the longer preparation timeline seems to be working well. I've established a consistent routine, rebuilt my familiarity with the law and started memorizing material without making bar preparation the center of my life.

But it's still early. The real question is how well that foundation translates into performance on timed questions and essays over the coming months. That's what I'll be figuring out next.

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