Let Your Bar Review Course’s Study Plan Be Your Fuel Gauge
The car I drive to work is more than 11 years old. Normally, having a car more than a decade shouldn’t be that big of an issue. But my weekly commute is about 750 miles—from Ohio to Tennessee and back.
The car—a 2011 Hyundai Sonata, that now just reads “NA” on the back of the car because of fallen letters over the years—has travelled about 280,000 miles in its decade-plus lifespan.
I wish I could say that the Sonata has been a reliable car, but it isn’t always. And the only thing that’s been preventing my family from getting a new car right now is that I don’t want to put the weekly commuting miles on a new car.
The car has seen its share of roadside breakdowns, fixes, and replacements—fuel pumps, ignition coils, shock absorbers, sway bars, fuel level sensors, etc. And this doesn’t even include all the regular tune-ups and maintenance. My Sonata is almost just a shell of its OEM pieces.
This past weekend, during my drive back home, the car experienced another issue, which is almost the complete opposite of one of the problems I experienced and addressed previously. After I filled up the car with gasoline, the fuel gauge indicated I had 520 miles to empty, which is the normal reading after a fill-up. However, about 30 minutes into the drive, the fuel gauge read 172 miles, then quickly dropped to 160 miles, then to 150 miles. There was no way I was getting the normal 31 miles per gallon. I was losing gasoline somehow, using up way too much gasoline, or experiencing another malfunctioning fuel gauge.
I’m familiar with broken fuel level sensors because I had one before. But, on that occasion, the sensor indicated I had plenty of gas when, in fact, I didn’t. As a result, I ran out of gas on the interstate in Sterling, Ohio.
But this recent problem is different—the fuel gauge is telling me I don’t have gas when I know I have plenty of it.
I haven’t had the gauge or fuel level sensor looked at by a mechanic yet. I will, but in the meantime, I’ve been tracking my mileage by hand, making sure I accurately calculate the number of miles I’ve driven so that I don’t run out of gas—again. It’s not the ideal situation.
Assuming it’s just a fuel gauge or fuel level sensor issue, I can still drive the car because it won’t affect the car's performance or health in any way (at least I hope it won’t). Sure, it’s a major inconvenience, and my drives won’t be as efficient as they can be. I’ll be making more regular pit stops to fill up the tank to make certain I don’t get anywhere close to empty. And then there’s all the added hassle of writing down all the mileage and doing the calculations to determine when I do need to make a stop—not to mention that my own calculations may be inaccurate. The four-and-half-hour commute from Ohio to Tennessee can easily become five-plus hours with the additional stops. And it likely will be more stressful, too.
How does this relate to your bar preparation?
Almost every bar review course has something similar to a fuel gauge—something that tells you what assignments you’ve completed, what assignments you have left, and what assignments you should prioritize. It usually looks like a structured and sequential set of daily tasks, to be completed in order, so you know exactly what to study, and when.
The bar review courses design their courses to help you maneuver through their courses with the maximum efficiency and effectiveness. Most of the bar review courses’ assignments build on one another, supported by learning science like spaced repetition, interleaving, and retrieval practice.
BARBRI has its Personal Study Plan. Themis has its Directed Study Program. AdaptiBar has its AdaptiBar Prep Method.
They are all designed to organize the assignments and learning in the most efficient and effective manner. And to maximize that efficiency and effectiveness, it’s necessary to complete the program the way that it is intended to be completed.
Is it possible to deviate from the PSP or from whatever plan you’re supposed to follow? Sure, but you want to make sure you’re doing so appropriately, and it’s best to reach out to me or one of the consultants at the bar review companies on how to do so. (In the case of my broken fuel gauge, I can certainly do without it as long as my calculations are accurate, but it would be better for me to contact a mechanic for advice.)
Examinees most often find themselves wanting to deviate from their course’s plan when they either don’t see results or they fall behind in the program.
When it comes to not seeing results as you’re completing a course’s program—which usually manifests itself into missing assigned multiple-choice questions—it’s important to understand that getting questions wrong is actually part of the learning science. (See my previous post, When Getting It Wrong Is Good, Jan. 28, 2022.) But suffice it to say, as long as you’re learning information from getting the question wrong, then you’re moving forward.
When it comes to falling behind in the course’s program, you should consult with one of your bar prep professors or someone at the bar review company to determine the best way to make up ground. Unfortunately, some examinees simply power through the missed assignments and tasks, which means they’re not giving themselves the necessary time (both in amount of time on the assignments to learn the material and the amount of time between the assignments to retrieve the material). Rather, these individuals will be better served by prioritizing some assignments over others, and professors and those at the bar review companies are in a better position to provide you with that information.
