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Preparing for the California Bar Exam was a fascinating experience for me. Not only was it the most mentally challenging endeavor I had ever undertaken, it prov

by hoag 16y ago

Preparing for the California Bar Exam was a fascinating experience for me. Not only was it the most mentally challenging endeavor I had ever undertaken, it proved to be the most psychologically challenging as well. Fortunately, our two bar prep professors were not only licensed attorneys, but also Ph.D.s in neuropsychology. Part of our rigorous training therefore was not simply learning the law, but actually learning how to learn -- in particular, how to store and recall so much data on demand -- and above all, how to manage our time. (It turns out the human brain is actually quite good at writing and storing data, but really bad at what can be best described as "random access memory" operations: recalling random data at will, instantly.) A great deal of emphasis was placed on structuring extremely precise "living schedules," for example, what to study when, for how long, when to eat, what meals, and above all, how and when to sleep. And how to force ourselves to sleep when we couldn't. Long story short, forcing ourselves onto regular sleeping patterns was both immediately necessary and yet proved to be one of the hardest disciplines to learn: to force yourself to stop studying at a given hour (typically 10PM) even in the midst of learning something, and allow time to drive home, have a snack, rest, unwind, and then fall asleep by 11PM, to then awaken at 7 and be back at the library at 8... every single day, for 2 months... that was truly an act of willpower. Especially for me, as I've always been the personality type where, once I start doing or learning something, I can't stop until it's totally finished or mastered. Forcing myself to stop studying without having yet completed the particular matter was excruciatingly difficult. The same thing proved true for the three-day bar exam itself of course: had to sleep between 9 and 10PM and awaken by 6AM, with virtually no studying at all in between days. At this point, you just had to trust your brain to marinate on all that it had absorbed in the 2 months leading up to those fateful three days. Looking back on it now, it was due largely to my discipline with sleeping habits that I was able to pass the bar on my first try.

forensic 16y ago
You're assigning your success to disciplined sleeping habits which seems very strange. I would ascribe your success to proper nutrition, proper mnemonics, adequate sleep, and lots of studying. Getting enough sleep (and not too much) is important but what is the advantage of keeping it within those tight boundaries? The natural human sleep cycle is often running on non-24 hour cycles and the science I've seen indicates that if you CAN work on these cycles it enhances memory, cognition and creativity. I don't understand why you give so much credit to your rigid sleep schedule, especially because all the science I've seen indicates that what is important is getting adequate sleep and then studying properly, not sleeping at particular times.
- hoag 16y ago
  I am certain that disciplined sleeping habits had a lot to do with it: absent the discipline, I would have often gone to bed around two or three in the morning, gotten less sleep -- or less quality sleep -- and, were I to have maintained this haphazard schedule, would have never been able to have set my biological clock to the necessary 10-6 sleeping schedule required for the three days of the exam itself. Beginning at 8AM, we had to be there by 7-730 or so, and I had to allow time for an adequate (light) breakfast. Obviously I didn't mean to exclude the value of the actual studying, I'm just saying that studying -- without proper sleep and sleeping schedule -- would have lead to physical and mental and fatigue. And the nature of the bar exam material makes it virtually impossible to adequately perform on a sleep-starved mind.
DennisP 16y ago
How do you force yourself to sleep? "How to store and recall so much data on demand" sounds interesting too.

by hoag 16y ago

forensic 16y ago

You're assigning your success to disciplined sleeping habits which seems very strange. I would ascribe your success to proper nutrition, proper mnemonics, adequate sleep, and lots of studying. Getting enough sleep (and not too much) is important but what is the advantage of keeping it within those tight boundaries? The natural human sleep cycle is often running on non-24 hour cycles and the science I've seen indicates that if you CAN work on these cycles it enhances memory, cognition and creativity. I don't understand why you give so much credit to your rigid sleep schedule, especially because all the science I've seen indicates that what is important is getting adequate sleep and then studying properly, not sleeping at particular times.

hoag 16y ago
I am certain that disciplined sleeping habits had a lot to do with it: absent the discipline, I would have often gone to bed around two or three in the morning, gotten less sleep -- or less quality sleep -- and, were I to have maintained this haphazard schedule, would have never been able to have set my biological clock to the necessary 10-6 sleeping schedule required for the three days of the exam itself. Beginning at 8AM, we had to be there by 7-730 or so, and I had to allow time for an adequate (light) breakfast. Obviously I didn't mean to exclude the value of the actual studying, I'm just saying that studying -- without proper sleep and sleeping schedule -- would have lead to physical and mental and fatigue. And the nature of the bar exam material makes it virtually impossible to adequately perform on a sleep-starved mind.

DennisP 16y ago

How do you force yourself to sleep? "How to store and recall so much data on demand" sounds interesting too.