Options when to take the Patent Bar
Some students take the exam when they graduate with their STEM credentials. Some take it in their first year of law school so they have the credential for their first summer employment. Most law students opt to take the patent bar during law school. Why? To avoid having to study for and pass the traditional bar exam and then having to study and pass the patent bar. Additionally, students choose to take the patent bar in law school to let employers know they’re eligible to prosecute patents. The experience of UNH Franklin Pierce Law students is all over the place. Some report the credential provides a competitive advantage in getting a job. Others report that employers just require you pass the patent bar by the time you begin employment. Most students report feeling relieved to have "gotten it out of the way". Students believe passing the patent bar would likely help you stand out among others applying for that sort of position.
There is no uniform answer for each student. There is a consensus that the sooner you can take the exam the better. As long as you meet the requirements to pass the exam, you should start preparing. It’s possible to pass this exam over summer if you study diligently or even over a few breaks (like summer, winter, and spring break) if you can’t quite squeeze it in over one.
Reports on how much time to allocate to study for the exam
The morale of the story is this: you need a plan of action thought out in advance. If you take a course, like the PLI course, you are going to need about 150 hours of study, which includes 50 – 60 hours during the immersion course and another 90 – 100 in the post course, which about 75 hours laid out for you by PLI.
If you have no background at all, it will take 60 days, with about 2 hours of study per day on average, to complete our course. Thus, it will take about 120 hours in all to go from zero knowledge to expert on the material tested in the patent bar exam. If you have some sort of background in patent law, then you can complete our course in as little as 90 hours of study.
Our experience and customer surveys have taught us that it takes about 150-200 hours of study using our course for a student to pass the exam.
With PLI’s Exam-Focus approach, you’ll need 150 hours of preparation time, at a minimum. So, you should begin by selecting a period during which, preferably, over a 4- to 8-week period, you will be able to devote 150-200 hours, in at least 3-4 hours increments. Any time that you can study full-time for one month, or part-time (20 hours per week) for two months, should suffice.
Through years of experience, we recommend approximately 150 hours of study for effective Patent Bar Exam preparation. However, our data reveals that on average, Wysebridge.com users spend about 90 hours with our materials and still achieve an impressive 80% first-time pass rate.