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There are many things that you should have mastered before ever stepping foot into a Prometric testing center. These involve the MPEP, prior exam questions, the searching function, making a list on exam day, time lines, and a system for success. Each one of these items plays a role in passing the examination. All of these play a part in the PatBar program.
Since the USPTO is testing the MPEP, you must have reviewed almost all of the material that is currently being tested on the patent bar exam. This is not difficult if you have prepared for and passed the patent bar and spent about twenty years reviewing prior exam questions. With that background you can easily pick out the topics and other necessary background material that should be mastered for the patent bar. This will reduce the MPEP to a very small portion of the entire contents of the manual. With a review of this material, you can begin memorizing as much as possible and developing a good 30-40 page final outline for examination preparation. As you can see, it is impossible for the uninitiated to do this, so a patent bar review course is necessary.
Once you have developed a good background in the material being tested on the examination, it is time to begin practicing using prior exam questions. The last five patent bar exams that were used in the years 2001-2003 are extremely important. These exams have been released by the USPTO and many of the questions remain in the USPTO question pool. Anyone preparing for the patent bar should be able to score a 90% on each of these examinations by taking them in 1½ hours sections (not the 3 hours that you will have on exam day).
Additionally, many new patent bar questions have found their way into the question pool. Many of these have been reported over the internet. A good 3 to 4 week period of scrutiny at around 4-5 web sites should allow you to handle most of these new questions. Of course all of this is unnecessary since PatBar has done this for you if you purchase our patent bar review course.
The next step involves learning how to efficiently search the MPEP during the examination. This is not difficult, and with an introduction to the search function and a few examples, you can begin practicing this function while you are taking old examinations. You will quickly realize the limitations of the search and some of the best places to start. Through trial and error a logical system is easily developed.
Another useful tactic is to make a list of the examination questions on scratch paper so that you can easily refer back to patent bar exam questions that require additional work. If you make a list of from 1 to 50, you can use this to list to note whether you are satisfied with a question or whether you should go back. At that time you should also list answers that are obviously wrong so you can ignore them later on. Such a list can be a powerful record keeping tool and allow you to manage your time more efficiently.
Another powerful tool for passing the patent bar is time lines. You should begin making time line diagrams to keep track of items and their respective dates. With a standardized set of symbols and a system of making time lines, many complex questions can be outlined in this way. In many cases the time line will make selecting the correct answer more obvious than you would think possible.
The last point is that a logical system is necessary to manage your time and produce the proper result. Any patent bar review program should allow a student to plan their time in small increments (such as one hour) so that it can be scheduled and completed on a timely basis.
