Passed the Patent Bar - No course, only 2 weeks to study
First attempt. Feeling pretty good right now. Why only 2 weeks? Because I’m a serial procrastinator, and I’m busy. I don’t recommend only studying 2 weeks. Really the bulk of the studying was done in the last week, probably like 80%. I’m in law school and have taken patent law so I did have some background.
Most people recommended PLI, but I didn’t want to pay for it, I managed to get a pdf of the 2021 PLI guide, and I got the John Watts book.
As for how I studied, I read through the John watts book, which I don’t necessarily recommend. It’s very outdated. What really helped was plugging all my study sources, PLI, and the MPEP into Chat GPT and generating study guides from it. After that whenever I had a question, I’d ask Chat GPT. This set my foundation.
Next step was to memorize the need to know information, and the MPEP chapter headings. This was accomplished by handwriting notes, which helps me remember, and using Anki decks, generated by Chat GPT.
Finally came the stress testing, practice questions and look up training. I made Chat GPT generate questions, using PLI and old USPTO patent bars as source material, adapting them to fit current law. I just kept doing those and learning from my mistakes, all the while asking Chat GPT about whatever scenario or exception I could think of.
What’s the main takeaway you should learn from me if you are going to take it? That you can do it. Don’t be doom and gloom, don’t think you need a $3,000 course, don’t think you need to dedicate 3 months to study. Doing all this won’t hurt for sure, but not doing them doesn't doom you to failure. If I had listened to most people on Reddit, I’d give up before starting.
Also leverage AI, use it for everything, it supercharges your studying. it’s like having a tutor on hand 24/7. Study smarter, not harder.
Thanks for reading