Patent Bar Archives - Patent Education Series

Learn Anything Faster

March 10, 2020/in Patent Bar /by Editorial Staff

Preparing for exams can be tiring, stressful and frustrating, especially when it is a career-defining exam such as the patent bar exam. In such cases, it helps to have some study tips on how to learn things quicker and more effectively.

Read this article to get tips for learning things faster.

Sleep Well

It is of paramount importance that you are not sleep deprived when starting your study session. Ensure that you are well rested, energetic and fresh before sitting to prepare for the patent bar exam so that you are able to memorize the content quickly, more easily, and conveniently. When studying with a fresh mind, you are also able to retain the information for much longer.

Teach What You Learn

Many people claim that teaching fellow students and course mates what they have recently learned themselves helps them to keep that matter fresh and acts a revision session for them. Also, teaching others does not always involve the same learning techniques, you have to opt for different, newer teaching approaches. This helps you understand the topic more clearly and enables you to remember it for longer.

Learn in Short Time Bursts

According to memory experts, it is very helpful and effective to learn large amounts of text and information in short bursts of time. Do not sit down for long study sessions. Instead, opt for numerous shorter study sessions. The small study breaks in between each session will help freshen you up and you’ll be able to learn quicker and more efficiently. Brief but frequent learning sessions are much more helpful in retaining all the information that has been assimilated.

Make Handwritten Notes

When making notes, avoid taking them down electronically and instead write them down by hand. Also, when jotting down the important points try to read them out aloud. This will stimulate your brain cells and your senses, thus allowing you to hold on to the information for longer and memorize it quicker. Hand written notes will also improve your focus and attention span and help you participate more actively.

Use Mnemonics

If you find it difficult to learn all the clauses and statements for the patent bar exam, try using mnemonics. It could be a music mnemonic involving a song or maybe color mnemonics that might help you memorize the matter more quickly. You could also create letter sequences to form sentences in order to better learn the text.

Use Mental Spacing

Mental spacing can help accelerate the learning process significantly. Try distributing your learning material for different days of the week. Going back to it after a pause will help you take it in quickly and you will be able to remember it for much longer.

These are all the tips that you can try in order to prepare for the patent bar exam quickly and more effectively.

Giving Up on the Patent Bar: Don’t Do It

February 25, 2020/in Patent Bar /by Editorial Staff

If you’ve failed the patent bar exam or have been unsuccessful in completing your preparation for it more times than you can count, you might consider giving up altogether. All of us have faced failure in our lives multiple times. Some of these setbacks make us stronger while others demoralize and dishearten us. However, giving up in the name of adversity does not solve any problems, instead, it makes them worse. Here is why you should reconsider your decision of dropping out and giving up.

1. It’s OK if You’ve Failed the Patent Bar Before

Maybe you’ve failed the patent bar exam and feel unintelligent, demoralized and extremely disheartened. It may be perfectly natural to feel this way, however, this does not mean that you should continue to feel the same way endlessly. The patent bar exam is difficult, challenging and agreeably hard to clear in one go. It is perfectly fine if you did not pass it the first time since countless people re-sit the exam every single year. You can always work harder, prepare better, and try your hand at it again.

Learn from the mistakes that you made the first time around, focus on your weaknesses, and work on them. You will soon notice a significant improvement and this will help boost your self-confidence for taking the exam once again.

2. You’re Afraid You Might Not Pass It

You have prepared tirelessly for the upcoming patent bar exam and have left no stone or page unturned and yet you fear that you might not be able to pass the exam. It’s OK to feel this way, but not giving up on passing the exam just because of the fear of failing is only going to make it tougher for you to try again. By preparing for the exam you are already halfway through; have faith in yourself and revise frequently. You will certainly pass the exam as long as you have prepared well for it.

3. The Feeling of Giving Up Might Only be Temporary

Reviewing your notes, memorizing all the matter and preparing for the patent bar exam can get very exhausting and might overwhelm you, making you want to give up and not sit for the exam altogether. However, this desire to not continue with the preparation and give up on the exam might be temporary and one of the many phases that candidates preparing for the exam go through. It might also just be an impulsive reaction towards the demanding and mentally draining exam.

It’s completely normal and natural to want to give up, but it’s equally important to understand that this uneasiness is only for the time being and is probably being caused because of all the added pressure, stress, and anxiety. Once you have sat for the exam, you will actually be glad that you decided not to give up and went ahead with it. It will be a turning point for you and your career and only benefit you in the future. Therefore, whatever you do, just don’t give up for this too shall pass.

Improving Sleep to Help You Prepare For the Patent Bar Exam

February 11, 2020/in Patent Bar /by Editorial Staff

Patent law is a branch of intellectual property rights law where new inventions, ideas, designs, devices and contraptions are registered. Getting something patented gives the inventors and creators exclusive rights to their property in terms of selling, purchasing, copyrights, distribution etc…

As interesting and entertaining as the profession may sound, sitting for the patent bar exam can be extremely difficult and challenging. Fortunately, certain tips and tricks can help you prepare better and more comprehensively for the exam. One such tip is improving your sleep so you can get through preparing for the exam.

Preparing for the exam can turn you into a night owl and make you burn the midnight oil. However, it is not a wise decision to stay awake and study throughout the night. Having a good sleep pattern and sufficient rest is crucial for a thorough and productive study session.

Here are some measures you can take to improve your sleeping patterns:

Avoid Excessive Caffeine Consumption

Caffeine is scientifically proven to chase away sleep. Despite its many benefits such as enhancing concentration, fighting off fatigue, and having energizing effects, it does stimulate our nervous system. Because of this stimulation, we are not able to sleep. That is exactly why it’s advised to avoid coffee and caffeine containing products such as tea, chocolate, cola etc, after 4 p.m. in order to avoid sleeping problems.

Avoid Long and Irregular Naps During the Day

While many find quick, short power naps really helpful in getting them through the day, these naps can actually disrupt our natural sleeping pattern. In order to sleep well, you should try to either avoid taking long naps or not nap at all. This is because sleeping during the day disturbs our circadian rhythm making it difficult for us to sleep at night. By avoiding naps during the day, you’ll be exhausted enough at night to be able to sleep properly and wake up fresh and energetic.

Decrease Blue Light Exposure in the Evenings

Excessive blue light exposure at night can negatively affect our circadian rhythm thus confusing our brain into functioning as if it’s still day time. This malfunctioning reduces the production of the sleep inducing hormone, melatonin, making it harder for us to fall asleep.

Reducing blue light exposure helps regulate melatonin secretions and allows us to sleep more peacefully and on time. Blue light exposure can be decreased by reducing the use of electronic devices that radiate large amounts of blue light.

Set a Sleep Schedule

Try to sleep more consistently and develop a sleeping schedule. Try going to bed and waking up at a set time everyday for a week and you will notice how your internal clock will soon start getting used to it.

These are some of the steps that you can take to improve your sleeping patterns and prepare better for the patent bar exam.

5 Easy Tips to Help Maximize Your Learning

January 28, 2020/in Patent Bar /by Editorial Staff

Learning new things is both exciting as well as daunting. You may be learning things all the time, from learning how to solve a calculus equation or learning about historical events. However, most people find themselves lost when learning something new. Read this article to get some handy tips on how to learn new things especially if you’re taking an important exam such as the patent bar exam.

Chunk Your Material

It can be very difficult to learn something new. This is particularly the case if the text is too lengthy or complicated. To make the learning process easier, try dividing the text into chunks. This makes it easier for the mind to read and process it.

Enhance Your Memory

Learning can be made easier and more effective if you have a good memory. Practice memory-enhancing exercises such as repetitive reading, quick reading, mnemonics, and making notes. The sharper your memory, the quicker and easier you learn new things.

Opt for writing notes by hand instead of creating electronic copies as this will stimulate your mind and you will retain the information for longer periods. Similarly, when you’re trying to learn something new, read the text out loud. This will help you remember the text more vividly since you will be involved with it both visually as well as acoustically. Little practices like these boost your memory and make the learning process easier for you.

Learn in Short Spurts

Learning and memorizing are time-consuming procedures and can leave you both physically as well as mentally exhausted. In order to learn better and more effectively, try to learn in short spurts instead of in one long study session. The small breaks in between each session allow your brain to relax, freshen up, and reboot.

Learn in a Group

Learning can be more enjoyable and much easier when done in groups. When learning with different people, numerous different teaching approaches are applied to cater the needs of each individual learner. Some are visual learners while others are auditory learners. There are also those who learn by practical implementation. All these techniques, when applied in a study environment, help to stimulate the learners’ minds especially when they are exposed to more than one learning method. This enables them to learn the matter quickly and hold on to it for much longer.

Mind Association

Mind association is another great way to learn new matter. Mind association tricks such as mind maps, flow charts and diagrams help people associate learning material with texts, illustrations, and colors. When remembering something from the memorized texts, these colors and illustrations trigger memories of the times when the topics were being studied and revised. This not only helps people learn quickly, but also allows them to remember the material for much longer.

These are all the tips and tricks you need for learning how to learn. They are especially useful for the preparation of tough professional exams that require heavy memorization and learning such as the patent bar exam.

Memory Techniques to Help You Conquer the Patent Bar Exam

January 14, 2020/in Patent Bar /by Editorial Staff

Preparing for the patent bar exam can be demanding, time consuming, as well as mentally and physically exhausting. It can get especially frustrating if you find you cannot memorize the content and exam material. Fortunately, there are certain memory tips that help patent bar exam candidates memorize the material better and retain it for much longer.

Mnemonics Help You Remember More

Mnemonics are among the most effective and popular memory techniques because of how they help you remember details easily and for longer periods of time. Mnemonics are essentially any system or device formulated to help memorize text easily; this can be any sequence of letters, ideas, or colors. One of the most common mnemonics is ROY G. BIV, used to remember all the names of the rainbow using the first letter of each color i.e. red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.

Mnemonics can also include music mnemonics where information is memorized using a catchy song’s tune, or rhyming mnemonics where rhyming words are used to memorize information. Use these techniques to learn and memorize the patent bar exam’s matter more efficiently. Make use of rhyming words, your favorite song’s tune, or even letter or color sequencing to help you remember better.

The Chunking Technique Helps

The human brain is limited in the amount of information we can memorize and successfully retain. Due to this limitation, we can only store a restricted amount of data and information in our short-term memory. However, the chunking technique helps us extend and enhance our short-term memory’s range. This technique involves grouping and combining different smaller segments as one bigger segment. This technique helps you remember small, tiny details easily because of the large segments.

Read It Out Loud

Silently reading the subject matter repeatedly certainly helps, but many people claim that reading the text aloud helps them memorize the same content a lot quicker and more effectively. When reading aloud, you are not only reading your text but also hearing it, which stimulates your brain to work more actively. Try reading the patent bar exam material aloud and you’ll be surprised at how you easily memorize the text.

Develop Mental Associations

At times, reading aloud, mnemonics, or even chunking techniques do not seem to help. In such cases, experts suggest creating mental associations with the information that is to be memorized. This helps make the memorization process easier and faster. These mental connections with the reviewed matter acts as flags in your mind and trigger associated thoughts when remembered. For instance, flow charts, diagrams, and idea webs help people memorize information much easier as compared to simply reading the same material.

Mind maps are also a popular mental association method. They help create a visual representation of all the text and information that needs to be remembered and makes it easier for candidates to remember the information at the time of their exam.

Try these tips if you are sitting for the patent bar exam anytime soon and worrying over how to memorize better and more effectively.

How to Avoid Procrastination on the Patent Bar Exam

December 17, 2019/in Patent Bar /by Editorial Staff

Preparing for the patent law bar exam can be demanding, time-consuming, challenging and exhausting. Since this exam can be extremely difficult, people tend to avoid studying for it by procrastinating. Although it might not sound like a very serious problem at first, procrastination often leads prospective patent practitioners to fail the exam.

Fortunately, there are effective measures that help avoid procrastination. Here are some of the most common tips to help you avoid procrastination:

Finding Your Peak Productivity Hour

The best way to avoid procrastination is to find out when you work the best and most efficiently. Whenever you sit down to study, notice when you think you are the most productive. You could be a morning, afternoon, evening, or even a night person. Once you’ve figured out your peak productivity time, try to study more during those hours in order to help prevent procrastination.

Get the Most Difficult Tasks Out Of The Way First

Mark Twain famously advised people to get done with the most difficult tasks first thing in the morning so that the other tasks could be carried out more efficiently. The same applies to everyday tasks.

In order to be more organized, productive, and active, it is best to complete the most demanding and difficult tasks first so that you have more time and energy left for the remaining tasks. This also keeps you busy and helps reduce procrastination.

Set Realistic Goals

In order to be more productive and prolific, set pragmatic and realistic goals you know you can achieve. Achieving your set objectives will not only help you get your work done, but will also give you a sense of approval, achievement, and motivation for future tasks.

Create a Flexible Agenda

In addition to ensuring that your goals are realistic, you should also make them flexible. Allow yourself some additional time in order to achieve your goals, and do not be unrealistic, rigid, or limiting with your goals or your schedule. Some days will be busier than others and some will require more focus and energy. Create a schedule that addresses both your strengths as well as your weaknesses and gives you some flexibility with your timetable.

Meditate and Clear Your Mind

Sometimes overworking yourself can lead to procrastination. Studying for long hours and not resting can exhaust you. Give yourself a break, take a deep breath, meditate and clear your mind. This will help you think more clearly, focus more easily, and concentrate better. Meditation will also help calm your nerves down helping you feel more relaxed. This will help you get back to work with more energy and focus.

These are just some tips on how to avoid procrastination which will help you become more productive for preparing for the patent law bar exam.

Productivity Hacks to Help You Ace the Patent Bar Exam Quickly

December 3, 2019/in Patent Bar /by Editorial Staff

Preparing for the patent bar exam can be laborious, taxing, and exhausting. Most of the candidates aiming to sit for this exam fall prey to procrastination and end up not doing very well on their exam. This article features some effective and helpful productivity tips to help you ace the patent bar exam.

Turn Off Your Phone

Turning off your phone and other electronic devices will help you stay focused and away from unnecessary distractions. Social media can be more time consuming than you can imagine. It’s best to deactivate your accounts while you’re preparing for the patent bar exam since thinking about using it is just as distracting as actually using it. This will help you stay more focused and on track.

Make Study Notes

When feeling lazy or unmotivated, start making study notes. Not only will this bring your attention back to your study matter, it will also stimulate your mind and make you more active. Moreover, writing your notes by hand rather than noting them electronically helps you memorize them quicker and retain them for much longer. Numerous scientific studies have proven that only typing your notes doesn’t leave an impression on your memory, whereas writing down points by hand has a much longer-lasting impression.

Use Different Colored Pens

Constant studying can bore you and exhaust you both mentally as well as physically. To avoid procrastinating, try writing with different bright colored pens. The different colored inks will make studying more fun and less monotonous. By using different colored pens, you are visually separating the notes into different segments making them easier to memorize. This also acts as a mind association trick and will help you remember the different matter written in different colors by just remembering the color it was written in.

Take Regular Breaks

Studying constantly can wear you out easily and make you give up quickly. To remain focused and active, take short breaks from your studying sessions frequently. They will help you reboot and freshen up and you will be able to work more energetically. A short ten-minute break between each study session will allow your brain to rest and you will be able to learn your exam material quicker.

Set Alarms

Some people perform best under pressure when they have deadlines to meet. If that’s what motivates you, start setting alarms and timers for each task you aim to complete. When you sit down to prepare for the patent bar exam, set an alarm for all the topics that you are planning to finish learning that day. This will help you prioritize better and focus more.

Find Your Most Productive Time

Some people work best in the morning while others perform best in the afternoon, evening, or even at night. Find out when you are most active and productive and try studying at that same time every day. This will help you save time and get done with more learning in shorter time periods.

These are all great tips you can follow to be more productive, prepare better for the patent bar exam, and ace it.

Speed-Reading: Hoax or Real?

November 19, 2019/in Patent Bar /by Editorial Staff

Be it a student or a working adult, we read one thing or another everyday both consciously as well as subconsciously. Certain professionals have to read as a part of their jobs such as authors, proofreaders, publishers, and patent attorneys, etc. For regular readers, reading is not a difficult task, whereas others might struggle with how much time it takes and opt to learn how to read faster.

By definition, speed reading is a technique where content is rapidly read by reviewing or skimming several sentences in one go. While many have high regards for this reading technique, there are others who question its credibility and effectiveness. This article sheds light on the highly controversial and debated topic of speed-reading.

What is Speed-Reading?

First introduced in 1959, speed reading was claimed to be a quick method of reading by reducing the constant effort that readers had to put in while reading. The technique quickly developed an industry of its own, with many people rushing to benefit from accelerated learning courses. These speed-reading courses pledge to help people assimilate text faster than normal readers but without affecting or losing the content’s comprehension.

Is it Even Possible to Speed-Read?

Let’s discuss the possibility of speed-reading and retaining the information that you’ve read. Many people question the effectiveness of speed-reading and rightly so. Some people claim to have the ability of reading over 10,000 words per minute using this technique. Now, there are two reasons why such claims are immediately dismissed and rebuffed, and why speed-reading is considered to be a hoax.

First, there are anatomical and neurological facts that force us to dismiss such claims. When reading, our eyes have to stop at certain parts of the text. These points are known as fixation points. It must also be noted that our eyes have to make rapid movements to the next fixation points. These movements are called saccade. Once the eyes have gone through all the text and fixation points using saccade, our brains are required to assemble all the information in order to comprehend it. Speed-reading at 10,000 words per minute does not give the eyes or the brain the chance to follow any of these necessary steps, making comprehending the text an impossible task.

Secondly, speed-reading cannot be real or effective because of the constraints in our working memory. The human brain only retains 3-5 bits of information at any given time. This is why dissecting numerous sentences and phrases simultaneously makes it harder for the information to be comprehended, retained, and stored. Hence, speed-reading is a hoax because of both anatomical as well as memory limitations.

However, we are not negating the reading technique of rapid scanning. Readers can most definitely skim and scan quickly through the text to find particular words, sentences, and phrases but this is not the same as speed-reading.

Therefore, if you are someone who has to read long texts on a daily basis like authors, publishers, and legal attorneys or just a student preparing to sit for the patent bar exam, we suggest you to read thoroughly instead of opting for speed-reading.

Learning Is the Only Skill That Matters

October 8, 2019/in Patent Bar /by Editorial Staff

Learning is unavoidable, we are learning all the time, every day of our lives, both consciously and subconsciously. It is an essential and crucial life skill that is necessary for anyone who wants to continuously progress in life. Learning is considered by many the only skill that truly matters since lifelong learning is a vital and indispensable tool for progressing both personally and professionally.

What is Continuous or Lifelong Learning?

Lifelong learning is the process of acquiring knowledge continuously, throughout one’s life. Continuous learning involves constantly attaining new skills and expanding your skill set. It helps develop opportunities for future ventures and helps in building you both personally as well as professionally.

Why is it so Important?

Knowledge is widely available and easily accessible now that learning is a necessary requirement for both personal and professional growth. It helps to hone our skills, develop our strengths, and overcome our weaknesses. However, there are other more important advantages of continuous learning as a skill.

Here’s how continuous learning can help:

It Helps You Remain Relevant

Learning continuously and constantly brushing up on your knowledge and skills helps you stay relevant. We live in a time where everyone is persistently working towards progressing and moving further up the ladder of success. Not learning new things is going to leave you behind.

Certain professions, such as a career in patent law or the field of medicine for instance, require constant learning and an updated profile for career progression. This can only be possible with persistent learning. Ensure you remain significant in your industry by keeping up to date with new certifications, qualifications, and soft skills.

Prepare for the Unanticipated

Continuous learning helps in preparing you for the unexpected. You can put yourself in the position to better adapt to changes and overcome new challenges and difficulties. For instance, in case you lost your job, your newly learnt skills and newly acquired certifications are going to keep you updated with new introductions in your industry, making it easier for you to find a new job.

Boosts Your Professional Profile

Learning is regarded as one of the most important skills because of how it alone can boost your professional profile significantly. When an individual from any professional field keeps learning new things constantly, he or she keeps improving in the different aspects of that field while also enhancing a few of their skills. These improvements and enhancements help you develop your profile and make you more noticeable in the job market.

Competence is the Key to Confidence

When you’re able to learn new things quickly and easily, you feel a sense of accomplishment, which helps in boosting your self-confidence. Confidence is the key to growth—be it personal or professional—and learning new things, keeping up-to-date, and being knowledgeable are the easiest keys to confidence. Learning is important because it enhances your aptitude and hones your skills, making you more adaptable to difficulties and new challenges.

These are all the important reasons why both employers as well as employees consider learning to be the ultimate skill. The more you learn over the course of your life, the more prepared you are for different challenges and the more you will succeed.

How to Get Back into Studying for the Patent Bar Exam After a Long Break

September 24, 2019/in Patent Bar /by Editorial Staff

Passing the patent bar is a dream for many. It takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and commitment to prepare for this exam. It requires your blood, sweat and tears as well as often burning the midnight oil. The entire process can be daunting and distressing to the extent that some people actually give up and abandon their hopes of becoming a patent attorney or agent.

However, once the exam is passed, this career field has its own perks and benefits, making many students reconsider their decisions and choices. If you’re one of the many students who want to get back into preparing for the patent bar exam after a long hiatus, read on to find out how you can achieve your goal.

Find Your Motivation

First and foremost, it is very important for you to be motivated enough to get back into studying for the patent bar exam. You need to have enough passion for this career to not give up again. Research its advantages, benefits, and career progression requirements. Once you are motivated and dedicated again, you will be able to prepare more efficiently and be more committed to your preparation for the patent bar exam.

Plan it Out

Set out to get more organized and prepared this time in order to prevent getting overwhelmed or demoralized. Set realistic goals for yourself including those you know you can achieve if you work long and hard enough.

Once your goals have been achieved, reward yourself. This will help keep you motivated to continue studying for the exam. For instance, treat yourself each time you complete a chapter in the MPEP.

Make sure you are sleeping well, eating healthy, and stick to your schedule to avoid procrastination. Start prioritizing your tasks according to their difficulty level and the time they will take to be completed. This will help you prepare for the exam more efficiently.

Clear Your Study Area

Studying in a cluttered space can wear you out quickly, throwing you off track. Ensure that your designated study space is always clean and organised so that you feel more motivated to study. To make yourself more comfortable, place a plant on top of your study table to freshen you up when you feel low. It is also important that you clear your table from everything that might distract you so that you’re able to focus more easily.

Maintain Healthy Habits

In order to prepare well for the patent bar exam, it’s crucial for you to stay stress free. In order to remain calm and relaxed, sleep for at least 8 hours every night, stay hydrated, and consume a lot of healthy foods. These steps will ensure that your body is always recharged, your mind is fresh and focused, and you are energetic enough to take on the long study sessions. You will also notice you have become more attentive and productive following these lifestyle changes.

These are great tips to help you prepare more efficiently and thoroughly for the patent bar exam. It can be difficult getting back into studying for the exam but these tips should help you ease back into it.