After completing my PhD in June, I set off on a bike tour, intending to travel until I lacked money or enthusiasm. After reaching Mexico, I decided that I would benefit from remaining stationary to finalize paperwork for my new job in Malaysia, but I also knew that I needed to keep busy. I have been interested in patent law for several years, so studying for the patent bar became my primary activity. Becoming a patent practitioner was not vital to my immediate career, which may differentiate me from others studying for the exam. As I had just finished five years of school and was in the middle of a six-month stretch of joblessness, I decided to forego expensive review courses, which range from just under $500 to well over $2000, and study independently. I took the test on December 21, after studying for just over two months, and my preliminary results indicate that I passed. Here is what I did to succeed; although, if I took the exam ten more times, I would only pass score on five attempts.
I was blessed with a free schedule, so I started my studies by reading the MPEP while taking notes. The goal was not to retain knowledge of every idea, but merely to expose myself to the material and identify important points. In order to identify important points, I noticed where the redundancies were located in the MPEP. My other secret to success was follow some of the reading guidelines given by My Patent Bar, starting with Chapter 2100 to learn the basics; then moving to Chapters 1500, 1600, and 2400 to learn about types of patents; then moving to Chapters 700, 600, and 200 to learn about prosecution and details. Finally, I breezed through the remaining chapters in numerical order to see what they contained. The whole process of reading and taking notes took about one month, while studying around four to six hours per day, excluding most weekends. At that point, I felt that I was ready to start doing practice questions.
In addition to some helpful studying materials on My Patent Bar, the website contains 12 publicly-available exams from 1997-2003. Although material about interference practices and pre-AIA USC 102/103 are outdated, the main concepts, layouts of questions, and process of taking the exam can be honed by running through the old exams. In addition to the questions and answers, there are detailed explanations for each correct and incorrect answer that also indicate where in the MPEP they derived the solution. While reviewing each exam, one is able to look up any answer that may have changed since the question was written. I spent the second month of my study running through eight of these exams. By the time I was ready to take the exam, the main troubles I had were due to reading the questions carefully and, for example, choosing a correct answer when the question asked for what would be incorrect. I also allowed my study period to drag beyond when I was no longer interested. I was no longer fascinated by the interesting concepts of law in the MPEP (such as the difference between “comprising”, “consisting of”, and “consisting essentially of”, or that “With the exception of cases involving perpetual motion, a model is not ordinarily required by the Office to demonstrate the operability of a device.“). Instead of being fascinated, I was mostly bored, and I was also preparing to leave the country (and all of my friends) for at least a year, so I reduced my studying and increased my social time. I was concerned about how that would affect my results, but was glad that I had not invested the extra $2,000 for a course that I may have been wasting.
In the week prior to my exam, I stopped taking practice exams, instead preferring to review the changes in materials due to the AIA, so that the recent material was fresh in my mind. I went to the testing center on the day of my appointment, and tried my best. In the morning session, I barely had time to review any questions, but I had about 30 minutes to review nearly all of the questions that concerned me in the afternoon. I finished the survey after the exam, then was quite surprised to see that my preliminary results indicated a passing score. Again, I am sure that I would only pass five times out of ten more tries; however as I left the exam, my main thoughts were about how glad I was that I didn’t waste two grand on a review course when I was capable of studying alone. Certainly, the lack of pressure surrounding the exam was helpful, but I truly wonder how much more prepared I would be after spending money for a proper review course, especially as I grew disinterested in favor of Christmas activities and preparing to move abroad. All of the material is available online, although a moderate amount of extra work is required for ensuring that you learn relevant answers.
Studying without a review course for the USPTO Registration Exam is probably not for everybody, but I have shown that it can be done. If your company pays for a review course, or you need that certification for your career, then it might be a good idea; however, if you just have a few months to kill and want to stay busy, then just read the damn thing and save some money.