Keys to Success: A Study Plan and PRG Patent Bar Review
What have I gotten myself into? That’s what I would be asking Brad if I hadn’t received some excellent advice regarding a study plan from him at the PRG course in Newport Beach. Instead, after five long days of information overload last week, I know what I need to do in order to be successful.
A Study Plan
My study schedule will have to remain flexible, though, since I have a 10 month old son and a wife who works two nights each week as a nurse at a nearby hospital. Since we don’t have a babysitter, I watch the boy when my wife is at work, so as you can probably guess, there will be no Title 35 section 102 until after he goes to bed. I still need to make the commitment to studying, even if it’s for a limited time each night (although I will probably allow myself one night off each week).
The upside to my wife’s work schedule is that when she is not working, I should be able to stay at work a little bit late and get some studying done there, too. The goal is ten hours per week, and with a few hours on Saturdays and Sundays, I think I can do that. I learned at the review course that the USPTO hasn’t released any questions from previous Exams since 2003, but the PRG study materials still have a large database of over 1900 questions. Brad recommends answering as many of these as I can stand, including simulating three and six hour Exam sessions as often as possible, and I plan on doing just that.
Personally, I also study effectively by going over course material repeatedly, so that’s where I’m going to start. Before I get too heavily into simulated Exams, I’m going to go through the course materials again, paying special attention to the sections on 102 (a)-(g). I also need to begin to familiarize myself with the Manual of Patent Examination Procedure, since another study strategy Brad made sure to highlight is to get to know how to use the MPEP. The recommended strategy regarding the MPEP is not to read the entire thing and memorize as much as possible, but instead to learn how to navigate it in order to find desired information quickly and efficiently. This is because there are always several Exam questions that are specifically designed to require an examinee to use the MPEP to find the information. All of these things taken together provide an outline of my general strategy:
- Work towards learning the essential aspects of the MPEP.
- Answer as many ExamWare® questions as possible.
- Learn to navigate the MPEP.
Attending the PRG Patent Bar Review Course
I should also say a few words about the course itself. First, there is A LOT of information delivered over one week. However, the instructor Paul Gardner is very good at preventing the information from being overwhelming because he does an excellent job of staying focused on what is likely to be on the test. If a particular topic is not known for showing up in more than about one question per Exam, then he doesn’t dwell on it, but gives the essential information and moves on to more pressing matters. And when the significance of a topic merits in-depth analysis, he is able to call on his extensive experience to clearly explain the meaning of a rule, as well as the thinking behind it, often with pertinent examples from court decisions or his own history in the field.
Even though each day is full of lectures with slides, the course rarely drags because Paul understands which topics are likely to be, shall we say, less exciting. Since these topics are also likely to be less important for the Exam, he limits time spent on them. Paul’s instruction, in combination with PRG’s other materials and a solid study strategy, should make passing the Exam a likely scenario with the proper time commitment from me.
You can follow Patent Resources Group through a variety of social media sites, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Wordpress. Stay updated on the latest intellectual property news, courses, and educational resources.