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8 STRATEGIES
Successful Clients Use to Pass the
Patent Bar Exam
Maybe you're considering taking the
Patent Bar exam. Maybe you're already
waist deep in the MPEP.
If so, you're probably wondering how to best prepare for and pass this
monster of an exam.
We started helping people pass the Patent Bar exam in 2001. Since
then we've noticed that there are several recurring themes - things that
come up over and over again that contribute to the success of the
clients who write in telling us they passed.
This short report gives you insights on what our most successful clients
do to pass.
Some of this advice may sound like common sense, but it's often
overlooked and is well worth paying attention to.
Strategy #1. Successful Clients Actively Learn
the Material.
If you're reading this, there's no doubt you've taken many college
classes and have a degree (or possibly even multiple degrees). So you
already realize not all study time is equal.
Obviously, studying in front of the TV versus studying in a quiet place is
going to give you different results.
It's the same with passive versus active learning.
Passive learning involves activities like reading, listening to audio, or
watching a video.
It's called passive learning because the information is essentially being
fed to you.
Of the three activities, listening to audio and watching videos are the
most passive. The media can be playing, but you might not be paying
much if any attention.
Reading is a little different, because you have to actually interact with
the text in order to read it, but you may still not be fully engaged with
what you're reading.
Contrast this with active learning which is where you actually engage
with and interact with the material. Examples of active learning include
taking notes while you're reading, answering quiz questions, and
engaging in a discussion (even if it's just online).
Successful clients incorporate as much active learning as possible into
their study time.
They complete the interactive quizzes and practice exam questions we
provide them. Often they work through all the questions we have
(which is well over 2,000 different questions). They take notes and try
to organize the information instead of just passively reading through it
and/or only watching the videos.
“Passed With 3 Months of Studying”
“I used the 3-month study plan pretty diligently. 3 months of studying at
about 12 hours per week. About 150 hours total.
If you are a good self-studier then Patent Education Series is clearly the
best option available to pass the Patent Bar. They provide the material
necessary in a very logical manner in order to learn and understand the
information necessary to pass the exam. This study program saved me
thousands of dollars that it would have cost to purchase a similar
program. Thank you PES and especially Lisa for your quick responses to
e-mail!”
Ross
-Registered Patent Agent
Strategy #2. Successful Clients Learn to Search
the MPEP.
You have access to the MPEP (Manual of Patent Examining Procedure,
which is what the exam covers) on exam day.
However, the search function the day of the exam is very limited.
Unfortunately you will not be able to type in a search string and get
back a nice section like you're used to with a search engine.
The computerized MPEP you have access to the day of the exam will
give you the first location of the search string you type into the search
box. Then you will need to hit next in order to see the next location of
that particular search string. And you'll need to keep going like this to
scroll through all instances of the search string.
But even before you get to that, you need to know which of the MPEP
files to open. There are over 2 dozen chapters in the MPEP plus the
USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) often tests over
exam supplements. Each of these is its own file. So often you will have
more than 30 files to choose from.
You can't search across them all, instead you have to find the right file,
then open it. You have to get the right file open to even use the search
function at all so knowing which topics are covered in which chapters is
a bare minimum.
But our most successful clients don't just stop at learning which chapter
a particular topic is in.
They learn the different sections within the MPEP.
So they know that patent drawings are covered in section 608.02. That
way when they see a question on drawings they know immediately to
open Chapter 600 and go to 608.02 in the table of contents.
Then they can review the subsection headings and find the one that will
contain clues for the question at hand. Many clients become experts at
the structure of the MPEP which means they can look up a number of
facts very quickly on test day.
The MPEP Classification quizzes offered in our program will help you
become an expert at the structure of the MPEP. In addition, we offer
hundreds of summaries on the tested sections, subsections, and even
sub-subsections of the MPEP right in our course.
You can review those summaries throughout the course as well as
watch our Video Digests where we walk you through each chapter of
the MPEP by summarizing each section.
“Instrumental in Training Me”
“PES exams are actually more difficult than any practice exam published
by the USPTO (I cursed them while I studied) but turned out to be
instrumental in training me to know subject matter I needed and aiding
me in my ability to know where in the MPEP subject matter could be
found. The study section and advise regarding knowing chapters and
what subject matter is in each was the most helpful section of all! Topic
exams helped immensely! The old USPTO exam content is just not
enough anymore. I really needed the quizzes exams and advise from PES
to succeed! I already have clients calling me, thank you Lisa and PES!”
C.L.
-Registered Patent Agent
Strategy #3. Successful Clients Focus on What's
Most Likely to be Tested.
Successful clients review all the material they can, however, they spend
the most time on what's most likely to be tested. They will even
differentiate what's most likely to be tested the heaviest. That means
they spend less time on a chapter that might only have 1 question while
they spend much more time on a chapter that's more heavily tested.
Although the PES Patent Bar review has helped create many success
stories, we do hear from people who did not pass the exam from time-
to-time. Many of them realize they did not put in enough study time to
get through the course. Sometimes they might even have skipped a
major section that is usually heavily tested, like PCT or AIA 35 U.S.C.
102.
At an absolute minimum, you need to make sure you get through
everything in our course and then plan to even spend more time on
those most heavily tested sections.
The PES Patent Bar review offers frequency charts outlining the most
heavily tested material as well as a simple 5-star rating system for each
chapter. In addition, there are also in-depth study planners to help you
plot out how to best spend your time. These include 4, 8, and 12 week
planners in addition to 6, 9, and 12 month planners. No matter when
you plan to take the exam, we can help you figure out how to best
spend your time!
Passed the Exam on the First Try With
Only 1 Month of Study
“Hello Lisa: I don’t know how many “Thank you’s” I should say to
express my appreciation. Due to a time conflict, I eventually only had
one month to prepare for the Patent Bar. Your books helped me a lot
and assisted me to pass this exam in the first try. Thank you.”
Boyuan Wang
Strategy #4. Successful Clients Realize They
Can't Just Memorize Old Exam Questions.
The Patent Bar exam pulls 100 random questions from a question bank
of at least several hundred questions. So every instance of the exam is
different.
This means you could see different questions and a different
breakdown of topics each time you take the exam (in the event you fail
it and have to take it more than once) and you will see different
questions and a different breakdown of questions from every other test
taker.
In addition, the questions are copyrighted and with the risk of losing a
hard earned USPTO registration no one is going to publish them. So you
cannot memorize questions from any question bank available to you
and expect to pass.
Instead the best strategy is to review current practice questions and try
to understand why the correct answer is right.
The PES Patent Bar review provides you with well over 500 practice
exam questions along with in-depth answers and MPEP cross
referencing. That way you can look up the material in the MPEP.
All the practice questions are organized by topic so you can see which
topics you need to spend more time on and which topics you've already
mastered. Many of the questions span multiple topics so we do our
best to organize them by topic, however these questions are primarily
meant to simulate the type of question you're most likely to see on the
actual exam (which includes multi-topic questions).
In addition to the 500+ practice exam questions, we offer over 1500
additional questions. These include true/false, fill-in-the-blank, short
answer, and more. This way you don't get fatigued on answering the
same types of questions over and over. There's variety. In the end you
want to focus more on learning the content as well as where tested
topics are located within the MPEP for quick exam day look-up.
“Thank You For All Your Help!”
“I sat for the patent bar exam last week and passed! I passed after 3
months with your course. I had spent about 3 months using a different
site but didn’t like how they presented the material. I failed using their
material so started over with you. Much preferred the environment,
and liked the larger number of quizzes and questions as it is how I learn
most effectively, (a.o.t. reading, taking notes etc.). Thank you for all
your help!”
Graham
-Registered Patent Agent
Strategy #5. Successful Clients Aren't Afraid to
Memorize Some of the Information.
You don't need to try to memorize the entire MPEP, but for topics that
are heavily tested, a little memorization can go a long way. So be
selective on what you memorize, but don't be afraid of using this study
tactic.
For instance, parts of 35 U.S.C. 102 are important to memorize since
this is typically a heavily tested topic. We let you know exactly what
information is heavily tested. Some of it will come easier for you and
you'll have it down after one read. Some of it is more complex.
Consider memorizing the material expected to be heavily tested that
you find is manageable. To clarify, some of it will be too complex to
memorize so in those cases we suggest memorizing the exact section
number it's found within the MPEP.
You could spend 30 hours trying to memorize every last thing from
chapter 100 before you move onto chapter 200, but in the end you may
only see a couple of questions from chapter 100. So spending the time
and energy trying to memorize most of chapter 100 is not worth it.
Leverage your time. Make sure you only spend the time and energy
memorizing information that is crucial to the exam by letting our MPEP
frequency charts guide you.
“Great Study Tool”
“PES was a great study tool for me. I became very familiar with the
types of questions I would see on the exam. Thankfully my hard work
payed off!
I spent 6 months preparing for the test. Average of about 8-10 hours of
study per week. The last month or so was solely exam simulator, with
two full length exams taken on the two days prior to the actual exam.”
SEK
-Registered Patent Agent
Passed the exam on March 11th, 2016
Strategy #6. Successful Clients Keep Going
Even When They're Not Fully Understanding
the Material.
It's a fact that successful students keep pushing through the material
even when they don't fully understand it. Patent law is essentially
made up of a number of laws and rules (hundreds upon hundreds of
them). Sometimes they're confusing, other times they're manageable
and straightforward.
You have to know many of these laws and rules in order to pass the
exam. Sometimes that will mean you have to work with the material a
number of times. Often, it comes down to your willingness to keep
going which may result in you not understanding something complex
until later on.
Much of the material builds on other material, but it's not always
outlined in the MPEP in the right order. We offer our Basic Patent
Training course to enrollees in our Patent Bar review which helps cover
the fundamentals and eases much of the frustration. However, you'll
still run into confusing material when you start getting into the details.
And in many cases, your time will be best spent by skipping ahead.
This complex information may sort itself out for you later, especially as
you work through the quiz and practice exam questions. If not, then
you'll want to start a list of what you're still finding confusing near the
end of your preparations. You may need to plan on looking that
particular material up should you see it in exam questions on exam day.
And that's OK.
You have to spend your time wisely and getting stuck on chapter 100
because there's a section you're not fully understanding is not going to
set you off on a good start. So keep moving forward!
Passed With Only 6 Weeks of Study
“I took the exam on Wednesday, 8 Feb 06. Preliminary results are that I
passed. It is unlikely I would have been able to pass with only six weeks
of study without the materials your course provides. Going in to the
test, I felt extremely prepared.
This particular test was, in my opinion, wicked and nasty. I was
constantly under time pressure, but the preparation provided by your
course materials gave me the confidence and skill I needed to be able to
search out and find the obscure answers required. Thanks for the
course."
Rich W. Houston
-TX Patent Attorney
Strategy #7. Successful Clients Use Their Time
Wisely.
Successful clients typically plot out a plan of attack before they do
anything else. That means they pick an estimated test date for taking
the exam. That can be anywhere from several weeks to months away or
even a year or more in the future.
The important thing to note is that you need to have an actual deadline
or you may drag out studying for years. There's a lot of material to
learn in order to pass the exam, but there's not so much that it should
take 3 or 4 years of your life to prepare! If you're serious about passing
the exam you need to start completing tasks as time moves on.
Once you've picked a deadline to take the exam, you need to download
one of our study planners and start reviewing the tasks to complete.
Mark it out on a calendar you keep at your desk or put it online.
A lot of time went into the creation of the study planners since they are
based on the likelihood of each chapter being on the exam. You are
given more time to complete the most heavily tested chapters so if you
follow a study planner, you'll be using your time wisely.
Passed on My First Try!
“I followed this course using the 6 month study plan. I didn’t follow it
exactly, but i got through all of the material and took about 4 simulated
exams. I am happy to say that I passed on my first try! I was worried
that this course might not be extensive as the other, more expensive
options, but man was I wrong. This has everything you need. By taking
many simulated exams, I was able to get myself to a point where I had
at least an hour on each half of the exam to go over questions I was
uncertain on.”
Mike B.
Passed the exam on March 30th, 2016
Strategy #8. Successful Clients Get Into a
Routine.
The PES Patent Bar review course includes dozens of tools and features
within it. There's so much that you will probably not need to use all the
tools available to you. It's best to start working through the course and
as you do so, get into a routine.
That will mean getting into a routine when reviewing each chapter in
the Guidebooks. The Guidebooks are essentially an outline of the MPEP
including summaries, key points, and frequency charts. Before you start
with a Guidebook chapter, you may want to start with the Video
Digests, then go through the text-based information while taking notes.
Finally, you should complete the Workbook quiz for that particular
chapter. At that point you should move onto the next chapter.
That's just one idea for a chapter-by-chapter study routine.
Alternately, if you're not as interested in watching the videos, you could
jump right into the text-based content taking notes. It's always useful
to re-write complex information into your own words, so as you come
across a section in a specific chapter that's heavily tested (which will be
identified to you in the Guidebooks), then you may want to take notes
on that material. Once you've gotten through that chapter you may
want to move onto the Workbook quizzes.
Do what works for you. This might include using our hard copy
materials which we offer for an additional fee if you feel you need them
to most effectively prepare.
“Very Well Thought Out and Organized Course”
“This is a very well thought out and organized course. The materials are
up to date, well vetted for relevance, and the PES staff was extremely
helpful when it came to answering my questions about the exam and
the materials presented. I would recommend this course to anyone
thinking about sitting for the USPTO Registration Examination.”
Vincent J. Wegher P.E., Esq.
Passed the exam on March 7th, 2016
That's a Wrap of the 8 Major Strategies
Putting these tips into practice will help you make huge strides forward
in preparing for the Patent Bar exam. If you'd like to take the next step
toward passing the exam, sign up for a Free Trial Account. You can get
started and try out the entire course at no charge (no credit card is
required).
Have any questions? Send them to us at:
We look forward to helping you pass the Patent
Bar exam!