Active vs. Passive Learning for Patent Bar Prep

How Many Hours?

Many people ask how many hours you need to prepare to take the patent bar.  The answer depends on several factors, including your experience with patent law.  While no general answer may be able to address the many individual situations, one thing is clear: because of the way TAPRE Course is structured, you will need less time to prepare for the patent bar using TAPRE Course than other courses.  Three aspects of the structure help make TAPRE Course the most efficient way to prepare.

1. Focus

First, TAPRE Course carefully focuses on the material you need to know for the exam.  The careful focus allows you to use your time efficiently because you are learning material relevant for the exam without the confusion and time-waste that often comes with extraneous information.

2. Practice Throughout

Second, practice tests are included throughout the study schedule – not just at the end of the course. This allows you to see how you are doing along the way. You go through the material in TAPRE Course multiple times. If you are doing well on the early practice exams, you may be able to cut out significant chunks of the schedule.

3. Active Learning

Third, TAPRE Course is efficient because of its active learning approach. Other courses drag you through a lot of passive material (watching videos).  It's true that the passive stage is easy.  You just sit and watch.  But, it takes a lot of time and, unfortunately, does not help you reach the level of mastery you will need on the exam.  Videos may help you feel like you are accomplishing something while you are putting in very little effort.  As with many things, however, what you get out depends a lot on what you put in.  The real learning and preparation for passing comes when you begin to commit the material to memory and practice using it. That is true for TAPRE Course as well as other courses.  TAPRE Course simply skips the passive stage so you can jump straight to the active learning stage to avoid wasting time. You do this by using flash cards, doing drills, taking practice tests, and learning material in small chunks and then immediately practicing it.

The Bottom Line

As to the number of hours required to prepare, many patent novices will be able to prepare in 150 hours.  If the hours are spread over a long time (many months), you will likely need more hours.  Those will some patent experience or who pick up material quickly, may be able to prepare in signficantly less time.  Using TAPRE Course techniques, some students have prepared in 60 or less hours and passed.  These results are not typical though.  The 30-day schedule included with TAPRE Course is for 150 study hours. In about 70-hours you can make it through the course once and take the first practice test.  At that point you will be in a good position to evaluate where you are and how long you will need to finish preparing.