r/PatentBarExam

I failed the patent bar exam for the third time with a score of 66% (33% → 50% → 66%). I have a full-time job and a toddler, so the only study time I have is during spare time on weekdays or at night, with almost no time on weekends. I will try again within a month or two, but I am concerned about my capability in this field.

I was planning to take the LSAT and apply to law school after I pass the patent bar because I don’t really want to do my current job for the next 30 years. I am in my mid-30s and have a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry, plus postdoctoral and industry experience. I am currently teaching at a college.

I have always been a good student, but I don’t know whether I am just not good enough for the legal field. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I am just curious how many questions people actually looked up in the MPEP on the patent bar exam. It seems to me like you just need to know most of it. My studying has no really consisted of utilizing the MPEP that much and just using the outlines to memorize rules and different processes, but I don't know if I should be spending more time memorizing where things are in the MPEP. I just graduated law school where I took patent law and patent prosecution, have done a majority of the PLI course, and have been working at an IP firm but have mainly just helped with action office responses and prior art searches so there are a lot of processes that I don't know deadlines and such still.

Hi, I had my test date booked for next thursday, and I felt semi confident after getting a 69% on the last practice test I took (50 questions). However, I don't feel like it's the best place to be in 2 weeks out from the test. I thought. I could maybe ride it out and just do a lot of studying before the test, but I'm not sure that it's worth the gamble. Any advice on if I should change the date or not? My window closes Oct. 25. Also, I work full time, so studying is a bit hard for me. I try and do an hour a day and sometimes practice tests on the weekend, but I've ran out of the official tests. I can afford the retake, but i would like to not have to pay $500 more hahaha

Wondering if those the passed can share their general strategy:

1. how many total hours did you study?
2. how long did you study for in terms of weeks/months?
3. what study materials did you use?
4. how many times did you

take the exam before you passed?

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

I'm starting to put together my Patent Bar study plan and still undecided about paying for full prep course. part of me thinks having everything organized in one place would make things easier, but another part of me would rather build my own routine around the MPEP and practice questions. for people who passed without taking a paid resource, what did your actual study routine look like?

I'm especially interested in how you organized your week, what you used for practice questions, and what you wish you'd known before starting.

Before I get into it, I want to say thank you to everyone in this community for the advice. I've been excited about being able to post this message, and I definitely couldn't have done it without this community. If you ever feel stuck or like you can't pass during the process, this sub has your back. Thanks again, now get ready for a long ass post.

Prologue

Getting into my process, I am currently a fifth year PhD candidate in chemistry. I decided back in my third year that research wasn't for me. After a semester of existential dread and questioning I rediscovered patent law as a career option and opted to give the exam a shot. I started with free resources like wysebridge's MPEP flash cards and the USPTO examiner training course. This was a very lack period, looking through material in-between time spent in the lab and trying to develop a patent vocabulary. This prologue to studying is also, in my opinion, the most important part for anyone in my shoes as an outsider to the world of patent law; make sure you enjoy patent law. Before you pour money into this endeavor please make sure you enjoy it. Do as much research as possible. My strategy is based on LibraryTricky126's post. Please give them some love!

Phase I - Learning Patent Law

Purchased PLI in October. It sucked, but I'm a grad student living on a grad student stipend - if I can swing it you should try too. PLI makes life a lot easier and structured. Starting in October I began watching the lecture videos up to 2100. Very passive, no notes, no phone, just absorbing knowledge. I'd usually watch an hour of videos 1-2 times a week before I went into lab and worked through the prime questions and quizzes in between lab work. Pretty much just work through the whole course to 2100; quizzes, mini exams, prime questions, homework, the whole shebang. This will help you figure out what you're good and bad at. With procrastination, it took me until after Thanksgiving to wrap up the video section. Following mini exam scores ranging from mediocre to bad I decided to spend December reading through the MPEP. I read the major chapter; 2100, 700, 600, 500, 1800, 1400, 200, and 300. Taking note of the ToCs for each chapter. Reading the MPEP, for me, was more to put everything together rather than learn the material within. 112(a) and (b)? 2164-2173. Interviews? 713. Claims and claim language? 608. Fees? 509. Learn where things are, it makes the whole process easier

Phase II - Mastering Patent Law

I began heavy practice question sessions during the week of limbo in between Christmas and New Year's. I retook everything the PLI courses had to offer. I saw a slight improvement but I opted to go a step further and make anki card decks for each question I saw. Using the PLI explanations I made flashcards on right and wrong answers, MPEP locations, and general patent knowledge stuff.

I ran through the course questions and completed my anki decks by the begin of beginning of February. Over the next month I followed the same work flow, but with the recently released '02 and '03 exams. Take the AM section on Thursday, PM section on Friday, review questions Monday and Tuesday and make flash cards, rinse and repeat for all three full length exams until I was done. I'll also add that I planned my experiments and lab work around these blocks, so I was able to accomplish this studying while progressing my thesis. Once I had these six massive, 100+ card anki decks I went through the all for the next two months. I never really did more than 45 minutes working through my flashcards but you have to do them every day. Writing the cards properly is also really important. I tried not to copy and paste the PLI answers. I made sure I translated the PLI language into my own, so I could say I truly digested what they were teaching.

Once May hit I went through the exams once more; same schedule: AM section on Thursday, PM section on Friday, review questions Monday and Tuesday and make flash cards, rinse and repeat. This is where everything started coming together, and I started to see passing scores. I danced the line of a 70% and I wanted to be closer to the 80-90% range. I felt my understanding of the chapters was still lacking, especially for 700, so I opted to read through the PLI MPEP chapter notes. And guess what I did after that? More anki cards! Live on anki friends, repetition is your best friend. At this point, it was mid May and I decided to try to focus on my stamina. Once a week, on Saturdays, I took a full length exam. I finally saw my 80%, but something felt off. I was burnt out and felt like I was just memorizing the old exams. I took a 2 week break and walked away from my 6 month daily anki grind.

Phase III - The Final Touches

After two weeks of being a chud, I needed a fire under my ass, so I registered for the exam. Giving myself six weeks to get my shit together was what I needed. I made two important choices on this phase - Monday to Friday I took half an hour to go through 50 questions via the PLI custom exam questions section, Saturday I would do another 50 questions the same way. I also moved from the regular browser PDF viewer to a Prometric PDF simulator. The Prometric program sucks. Get on top of it early. The custom questions really helped me master the navigation of the MPEP, the questions are longer and harder compared to the '02 and '03 exams and you're constantly seeing questions you've never seen. It forces you to learn how to pick out keywords from the question to make your search process easier. Some people say you should be able to search up all the answer choices on the '02 and '03 exams, I say do the custom exam questions. I felt like being stimulated by new questions and different topics was more beneficial.

The penultimate week before the exam I took a full week off to spend the entire day going through a full length exam; all 3 previous released exams, then 2 custom exams. I passed 4/5 of the full exams I took that week, only failing a custom exam with a 66. At this point I was sick of studying and finally felt ready. This week I also developed my scratch paper strategy. I used a T chard marked good and bad. I read through the whole exam in 30-45 minutes. Questions I can answer without searching I marked as good, everything else was under bad. Then I'd spend the rest of the exam searching the MPEP and getting shit right. Do this method, it's the best and most objective way to decide for when searching is necessary.

This week I went through all the exam questions I got wrong from my grind week, just reading through them and noting any patterns of forgetfulness. I took two 10 question custom practices to make sure I didn't forget how to use the MPEP and averaged a 70%. At this point I was ready.

The Exam

I took the exam today starting at 8 AM and ending at 3 PM. Oh boy. I won't go into much but the morning half was the hardest fucking thing I ever looked at. I swear I forgot how to read, I spent 45 minutes searching through the MPEP for the first 5 questions and had a panic attack. Most of the exam was 700 and 200, which were my weakest points. At the 90 minute mark I dissociated and locked in to at least put an educated answer down for the 30 questions I left blank. The only thing that kept me going was a post on this sub talking about how the morning section was hard, then the afternoon was easy but they succumbed to the difficulty. Persevere! I was able to finish and took my 45 minute break, 15 of those minutes I spent pacing outside thinking about how much I fumbled the bag, the other 30 I ate a wrap, drank another cup of coffee and got back in the zone.

The afternoon section was cupcakes and roses, this was how I wanted the whole day to go. I pretty much lived in 1800 and 2100 and those were my bread and butter. As I filled out the end of exam survey, my heart was beating out of my chest. Palms sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy, mom's spaghetti. I looked for the percentage too figure out how much I failed by but all I saw was that sweet "You have passed" message. Incredible. It's over. Now I just need a job lol!

Epilogue

Thanks for reading this five part epic. Like I said, I've been so excited write this post as a thank you to everyone that helped and a guide for anyone in my shoes. My 10 month journey might seem a bit like overkill but I really didn't want too take this shit again. Most days I spent 30-45 minutes studying and I thoroughly the process. For everyone outside the patent law field, you can do it! There's just a steep learning curve, and my philosophy for it is slow and steady wins the race. If you're also in a position where you don't need to take the exam ASAP, take your time and study slowly and consistently. Build good habits over the course of the journey and you'll be rewarded. If I had to do it all over again I'd spend more time in the MPEP, especially 700, and I wouldn't use split screen to search the MPEP. The Prometric viewer only lets you use the pdf viewer as a window that obscures the questions. If you've made it this far thanks for reading and feel free to reach out with any questions! Happy studying and you got it, just stay consistent!

Looking for people interested in doing the PLI prep course. If we can get a group of 20 or more we can get up to 40% off of whatever price you’d normally pay. (AKA if you qualify for the student or unemployment discount, you would receive the % off on top of the discount).

EDIT: fill in this Google form if interested! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdh3EW77ok70aR3i2-W9-1gwPN0p\_B10ODkUKQB8m3kBDxhrA/viewform

Hello! I am just starting out on the Patent Bar journey and I am really taken aback by the pricing of the PLI and other resources since I am a student right now. Is there any way I can maybe share or get the PLI for cheaper. I know we get a 1000 off with a student email but that still leaves for 2800 dollars i don't have! Is there anything that I can do to access good study materials regardless of my financial limitations?

I have about one week before I sit for the bar. I got a 73% on my full-length practice exam and will take the other two PLI full-length exams in the next few days. How can I quickly get my score up to the 80s in time for the real thing?

Patent Bar Study Advice?
Hi everyone! Has anyone here taken and passed the Patent Bar? I’m looking for advice on how you studied and what resources you used. I have a computer engineering degree and a technical background, but no legal/patent experience. I’ve been trying to figure out where to start, and compared to other professional exams, I’m having a hard time finding a lot of clear study material and practice questions online.
For those who passed:
What study materials or prep courses did you use?
How long did you study for?
How many hours per week?
I currently work 7 days a week but not rushing to take the exam , probably in a year or so.

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

I’m currently studying for the Patent Bar using PLI, and I’m a little confused about how deeply I should be studying MPEP 2100, especially §§ 101 and 103.

I’ve taken three of PLI’s Recently Released Exams, and my impression is that most of the 2100 questions there test relatively high-level rules. If you understand the basic framework for things like anticipation, obviousness, § 101 eligibility, teaching away, reasonable expectation of success, etc., the questions seem fairly manageable.

But PLI’s Post-Course Exam and especially its 103 Mini Exam feel completely different.

For example, the 103 questions often seem to depend on fairly specific teaching points from cases like In re Omeprazole, Crocs, Wyers, ICON, Eisai, Sanofi, etc. Sometimes I feel like knowing the general KSR obviousness framework isn’t enough — you almost need to have read or memorized the particular case examples in MPEP 2141–2144 to recognize why one answer is better than another.

The 101 questions in the Post-Course material also feel much more nuanced than what I’ve seen on the Recently Released Exams.

For people who recently took and passed the Patent Bar:

How deeply did you actually study MPEP 2100?

Did you:

• memorize/learn the individual case examples and their teaching points?
• mostly focus on the general rules and learn where to look things up?
• find the real exam’s 2100 questions closer in difficulty to the Recently Released Exams or to PLI’s Post-Course/Mini Exams?

I’m trying to figure out whether these PLI questions are intentionally harder for training purposes, or whether I really need to know 2100 at this level of detail for the actual exam.

Any advice from recent test takers would be greatly appreciated!

This took lot more out of me than I expected. There were plenty of days when I felt like I was studying a lot but not actually getting better. I went through periods of changing my routine, questioning my study material, and getting frustrated with practice questions. What helped eventually was simplifying things. I stopped trying to study everything at once and spent much more time going back over the question I got wrong and figuring out why I missed them.

The last few week were probably the most stressful, but also when I finally started feeling the material was coming together. Still processing the fact that it's actually over For anyone preparing now or thinking about a retake, what made the biggest difference for you? Would be interested to hear what worked for others.

I took the patent bar exam in August 2026 and obtained an abysmal 54%.

Before taking the exam, I completed the PLI Patent Office Exam Course Online over about 2 1/2 months, studying for a total of about 280 hours. I completed all of the prime questions, homework questions, and in-course mini exams, plus about half of the post-course practice exams by the time my exam date arrived.

I kept track of my percentages for each question set. While my overall percentage (for all questions answered) was only 78% by the time I finished studying, this had improved dramatically towards the end of the course and post-course mini exams. My scores also separated into two clear populations: For prime questions and mini exams focused on topics which PLI covered in depth, I was consistently scoring in the 85-100% range during the last few weeks. For mini exams focused on topics not covered in depth during the course, where they were clearly using the mini exam as a teaching tool, I tended to score in the 50-60% range.

Among the practice questions which I got wrong, a large fraction fell into one of three categories:

1 (Most common). The question or one or more answer choices included an ambiguous word or phrase, where the most natural interpretation led to one answer choice, but the question writer's interpretation led to a different choice. In most cases, it wasn't clear that there was ambiguity in the question until after I got it wrong and reviewed the answer key explanation, often with the assistance of ChatGPT, and said "Oh, *that's* what they meant? Why did they word it so strangely?".

2 (Somewhat less often). After thoroughly reading the scenario posed, the most appropriate answer to the question was "It depends" (i.e., on facts which they didn't tell us about in the question), and there was more than one answer choice which could be correct, depending on what those unstated facts were.

3 (Relatively infrequently). The question literally asked one thing, but based on the answer key, the question writer intended you to answer a different question. Many of these came in the form of, "What should you do", or "How should you advise your client", then included at least one answer choice which contained a factually correct statement which failed to address the problem posed in the scenario, and an answer choice E) None of the above. I chose E for these questions, while the answer key pointed at one of the factually correct but irrelevant statements.

I was pleased during the actual exam that no questions seemed to fall under category 2, but I have no way of knowing how many - if any - fell under categories 1 or 3.

Other posters on this subreddit said the questions were most commonly from MPEP chapters 600 and 2100, and I know the rules in those chapters well, but I felt that only about 15 questions were on those two chapters in my exam. A large proportion of my questions dealt with multi-fact patterns, describing scenarios where 3 or 4 situations were at play in the same question, and I felt unprepared to know which situation controlled the scenario.

My questions for the forum are:

1. How should I adjust my study approach before my second attempt at the exam?

2. Should I focus on studying important court cases, where the ruling is often tested on the exam? Which court cases?

3. Should I hire a private tutor? How can I find one who specializes in tutoring students for the patent bar exam?

4. Should I take any classes or enroll in any programs which offer certification in patent law? Which ones? For context, I have zero previous background in law; I have a masters degree in biochemistry and over 20 years of experience working in biotech.