u/MrBipBop

I passed this week! I benefitted a lot from hearing other people share their experience on this sub so I'd like to share mine (also sorry this post ended up longer than expected). A little about me:

My background is in computer science.
My work experience is in software engineering and I studied while working full-time.
I'm starting law school this fall and wanted to do something technology-driven, although not necessarily patents.
My goals with taking the patent bar were to figure out if I enjoyed the subject matter and get it out of the way early if so.

I began studying in January after buying PLI via a group discount. My study schedule was as follows:

January/February: Follow the PLI lectures and study guide (binder but it's online now). I followed the common advice - read the study guide chapter beforehand and follow along during the videos.
March: Took a break.
April: Took all the post-course exams (not the full exams). Registered to take the exam in June to help hold myself accountable. It took about a week after applying before being approved to take the exam via letter in the mail. Took one of the three PLI full exams as a diagnostic; scoring about 50%.
May: Did sets of 25 questions (an hour and a half) on the custom exams via PLI Patware. I kept a wrong answer journal and wrote down explanations and MPEP location for questions I got wrong or didn't quite understand. At the end of the month I took a second full exam, scoring about 65%.
June: Locked in. Tried to do at least one 25 question set every weekday and a full exam's worth of questions on weekends. Scored 85% on the third full exam two weeks before the exam date. At this point I was consistently scoring over 70% on the custom exams. Used the remaining time to retake the other full exams and review my wrong answer journal.

Here are some observations from taking the test:

As others have reported, I didn't encounter any pre-AIA subject matter.
The MPEP reader was rough, but honestly not as bad as I was expecting based on what others said. There's no CTRL+F but the find+repeat is pretty responsive and it's readable despite being blurry. The biggest issue is that you don't get an indication of how many search results there are like you would with CTRL+F, so it's hard to gauge if you chose a good search term without clicking through. I used PatentBarFidelity (great site!) to simulate the interface in some custom exams the day before and it was enough to get comfortable.
The search feature seems to struggle with italicized text. For example, if the phrase prima facie obviousness had a portion italicized, the search string "prime facie obviousness" would not work. So try multiple search terms before giving up, and the shorter and more unique the better.
It took like five seconds to load the next question each time. Keep this in mind if you plan to go back to questions later.
Most of the subject matter seemed like fair game based on what was covered in PLI. Maybe slightly more emphasis on topics outside of MPEP 700/2100 than I expected. I looked up stuff in the MPEP for almost every question. There were questions drawn to the subject matter in supplemental materials outside the MPEP, so make sure you don't neglect those.
You are allowed to finish either of the two sections or your hour-long break early. After the exam, you will be given a short survey about the testing experience and told if you passed.

Based on my studying, here is what I would recommend and some comments (assuming using PLI):

Speed through the videos and study guide. The videos aren't in-depth enough to be your only exposure to the subject matter, and I found the watermarked study guide too inconvenient to refer to often. They can be good refreshers if you're away from the material for a while.
PLI recently (I think in May) made an update to remove pre-AIA content from the course. There are a few stray questions that didn't get updated correctly, but this drastically improved the quality of my study. Send a message to the instructor if you think a question is confusing.
A lot of people recommend retaking the three full exams until you get them right, and I did do this but I feel like it leads to memorization/over-familiarity with those specific questions. I've also seen the recommendation of making Anki flashcards. I would not recommend this, except for brightline issues and things that come up constantly. There's so much material it's impossible to remember it all, and you'll want to look things up in the MPEP even when you're confident in your answer.
The PLI course recommends reading through MPEP 1200 and 1800. I think skimming is fine. I read them each twice front-to-back but still looked stuff up on every question about appeals and PCT. It's good to read the MPEP SOME to get used to it, but that was overkill.
I did ~forty 25-question sets, which adds up to about 60 hours. The videos are 40 hours, and doing the study guide readings beforehand took another 20 or so. The post-course quizzes and practice exams + retakes accounted for about 50 hours. I also spent time reading the MPEP on its own. Altogether, it probably took 200-250 hours of studying.
I do not recommend taking a break in the middle of your studies if you can help it.

TL;DR - I found grinding the Patware custom exams in PLI to be the most valuable practice, and I encourage using it to get proficient with MPEP lookup. You may be able to get a similar experience from other courses with a large question bank. Keep a wrong answer journal to help absorb the material. You should get to the point where you can look at a question and immediately know what section of the MPEP relates to it (and use the Subject Matter Index if not). This was a huge grind, but I found the experience rewarding! Best of luck to everyone.

Passed this week! My journey and test experience

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