Passing the Patent Bar: Lessons Learned

Basic Information:

• Attempts: 1
• Resources Used: PLI ($999)
• Duration of Study: Oct 7 to Nov 25, 2025

Methodology:

• Passing does not require prior legal or engineering knowledge. I earned my bachelor's degree in engineering over 10 years ago, and do not attend law school until August. I have 0 patent experience.
• Read all PLI materials and watch all videos. In hindsight, I wished I had watched them all in 2x speed. Do all practice questions. This took me 2 weeks.
• Upon completing the course, begin practice exams. PLI provides 6 sections. I did one section per day, and never completed a full exam besides the actual patent bar.
• The first time through practice exams, practice untimed and look up each answer choice rather than relying on knowledge. For immediate feedback, show answer right after answering. I was scoring between 70 and 80, taking between 4-6 hours per section. This took 6 days.
• The second time through, take it like an actual exam. You will finish earlier than time allotted because you know where to look and remember a lot of answers. I was scoring between 80 and 90, finishing each section in 2 hours. This took 6 days. At this time, you are ready to take the exam.
• The third time was unnecessary. I was burnt out and conducted no lookup. I was scoring in the high 90s off memory. This was a waste of time, so I took a 2-week break after this.
• The day before the exam, I reviewed the sheet that PLI tells you to review.

Test Day:

• I had to skip questions and come back to them if I didn't know the answer. This is suggested in PLI. I did not utilize that strategy during practice exams, but implemented it on test day.
• There were four questions I truly could not put at least an intelligent guess to. The vast majority of questions could be narrowed to 2-3 answer choices.
• My first section, I answered 35 questions in 90 minutes without lengthy lookup. This provided ample time for the rest. Most weren't difficult, but required serious lookup. I had 45 minutes left for ~5 difficult questions. For these, I put my best educated guess.
• I brought lunch, and ate too much. I was sleepy for the second session. I took 20 minutes for this break before resuming.
• I was not as thorough on my second session, and submitted very early when I started getting frustrated with two questions I couldn't figure out. I do not know anything about my score except that I received the preliminary pass.

Reflections:

• You need less time preparing than you think. PLI recommends 2 months maximum to study so that you don't begin forgetting material. I was ready near the beginning of November, but the exam center wanted me to pay for reschedule.
• I did not use material outside of the PLI course.
• I passed Nov 25. My name was published in the Official Gazette Dec 23. I still do not have a registration number.
• PLI is advertised as the premier course with a high pass rate. With a student email and group discount, it costs $999, which is an expense I could not afford in my younger years. I empathize with your situation if these resources are not available to you, but I do not have advice that will pertain to you. I know other successful resources out there exist, so do your best.
• This is not an easy test, but it is passable for anybody with enough effort. Do your best to prepare, and good luck with your studies.