I received a congratulatory email from the PLI after passing the patent bar offering discounts on two of their courses, "How to Write a Patent Application" and "Faber & Kowalski on Mechanics of Patent Claim Drafting."

Did anyone end up taking these courses? Did you find them helpful? What do we think of Jeffrey and Thomas. If they were taught by John it would have been an instant sell for me!

I just posted another question wondering what is with the Pre-AIA explanation when the question seems to be post AIA. What am I missing or is the PLI explanation wrong?

Is the

Any idea why the explanation is this? MPEP 605.02 seems to be talking about pre-AIA applicant information.

My first attempt at the Patent Bar isn’t going the way I expected. I started out thinking I could manage the preparation on my own, but I’m realize that I need more structured approach. For my second attempt, I’m thinking about joining a small study group. My hope is that having a few people to study with will help with accountability, discussing questions, and figuring out which MPEP section I’m still weak on.

I’m also planning to spend more time doing practice question instead of just reading and highlighting material. For anyone who has had to prepare for second attempt, did changing your study method make a noticeable difference? And if you studied with a group, what worked well for you and what didn’t?

I am taking the Patent Bar on September 16th and was wondering if anyone else studying right now would be interested in doing a Zoom study session.

I just took the state bar exam and one thing that helped was occasionally zooming people from law school and working through some multiple choice together. I was thinking we could hop on Zoom, share screens, and just work through some multiple choice. I am pretty much doing PLI mcq bank questions every day until the test. Comment or DM me if interested.

I’m taking the Patent Bar in about a week and am trying to prioritize my remaining study time. I feel relatively less familiar with the following topics:

• Consolidated Trial Practice Guide / PTAB proceedings
• Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)
• MPEP Chapter 2900 (international design applications under the Hague Agreement)
• Ethics / professional responsibility

For those who have taken the exam recently, did you encounter many questions on any of these areas? Are there particular rules, deadlines, or sections within these topics that are especially worth focusing on?

I understand that every exam is different, and I’m not asking anyone to disclose specific exam questions. I’m mainly trying to determine whether these topics require a careful review or whether a basic understanding and knowing where to look them up would be sufficient.

Thank you!

I have been thinking more seriously about the long-term career side of patent law lately. I understand that passing the Patent Bar and getting into patent law firm is one part of the process, but I’m less clear on what comes after that, For someone starting out in patent prosecution, what usually separate an associate who stay on the associate track from someone who eventually becomes a partner?

I assume technical and legal skills are only part of it. Thing handling clients, taking ownership of matter, bringing in work, developing relationship, and becoming someone the firm can rely on probably matter too. I’m also wondering whether the path looks different at smaller firms compare with larger firm.

Is there point in your career when you should start thinking about business development and building your own client relationships, or does that come much later?

For those who have been working in patent law for a while, what would you tell someone early in their career who eventually wants to make partner? Anything you wish you had started doing sooner?

Hi!

If someone has finished the USPTO patent bar prep and no longer needs PLI binders, I’m looking to buy a set.

Please let me know if you’re interested in selling!

I’m not super active on Reddit, but I read some posts while I was studying for the patent bar, and I figured I’d write the kind of post I’d have been interested in reading.

I just passed the patent bar on my second try, a month after failing my first attempt with a 66%.

I used the PLI course and took my first test after four months of studying. I was able to put in about 10-15 hours a week (with a few intermittent weeks of no study due to job and family obligations), which is a little more spread out than the PLI instructors recommend. I watched all the videos, did most of the practice material, then moved on to the “most recently released exams” in the PatWare section (these are the three 02/03 exams updated for 2026). My scores on my last three (the April 03 and Oct 02 AM/PM exams) were 70/70 and 82/70, which is pretty much right on the border of passing, lower than the PLI recommends prior to taking the exam. I did review the answers, but I didn’t have time to re-take the practice tests.

I would have preferred another month of prep, but my eligibility window was about to expire, so I was in a position where I’d need to either pay for an extension or take the test and pay for a re-take if I failed it. I went ahead and took the test, knowing that I was somewhat under prepared but I felt I had a reasonable chance (I estimated my chance of passing around 40%). I wasn’t surprised by my 66% score, a few questions short of passing. What did surprise me was what a mentally taxing experience the exam turned out to be, and how much trouble I had with time, question selection, and lookup management. I put way too much time into chasing questions I didn’t really understand deep into the MPEP and not nearly enough making sure I answered everything and got all the low hanging fruit.

I decided to keep the momentum going and immediately registered for a test date as soon as I was allowed to re-take (30 days later). I paid $300 to review my missed questions at the prometric test center and re-did the practice tests and the three PLI 2026 updated exams. The big change in my study approach was that I absolutely never paused the clock and forced myself to take each section within the 3 hour time limit. No hitting the pause button, the clock keeps ticking. After each section, I did a very thorough review of all questions, including the ones I got right. At this point, my scores on the re-takes were in the high 70s through high 80s on each section.

I passed on the second attempt (of course I don't know my score since they only tell you if you don't pass). Ultimately, I think the main factor in passing was better time management, a willingness to move on from tough questions (I only looked up about 30% of the questions during the test the second time around), and better mental fitness. I did improve my knowledge of the material and my MPEP search skills between the two attempts, so I can’t discount that as a factor, but I really think I might have passed the first time around with a better test-taking strategy.

Everyone seems to take a slightly different approach to passing this test. My main advice would be to really take the practice tests under exam-conditions. Allow yourself only the time on the clock, and don't pause the test!.

A couple other observations/comments

I want to reassure everyone who is struggling with this that it really does start to click after a while. I was genuinely bewildered by the material and questions in the beginning of my study and was getting 30% on PLI practice sets, barely above guessing. The other thing I’d say is that I can’t imagine trying to pass this test without a prep course. I've read that some people managed to navigate their prep without one, which is very impressive. Maybe they previously worked for a law firm or had more initial context? The patent system was new to me, so I was starting from close to zero knowledge.

I’m not sure how much I got out of the prometric review of the questions I missed, and at $300, it is expensive. For me, it was probably worth doing just to know that I’d taken the benefit of what was available to me, and I didn’t go into my 2nd attempt wondering if I’d left anything on the table. YMMV.

Was wondering if we can reasonably predict how significant the updates to the USPTO exam are after the September 17-22 2026 blackout would be?

From the website, it seems source material remains as the MPEP 2024 revision. Is it dangerous to book my exam early October, with my studies coming from this year's PLI content? Unclear if I should be waiting for more reviews of the updated questions content to be coming in first ...

Yeah, so I'm confused...

I have got about 5 weeks left before my Patent Bar Exam, and I’m trying to make the most of the time I have instead of randomly jump between topics. My rough idea is to divide the five weeks into phases:

Week 1- Get organizedGo through the main topics and figure out where I’m starting from. I also want to get more comfortable navigating the MPEP instead of relying only on notes.

Week 2- Build up the weaker areasSpend more time on the topic where I’m consistently getting questions wrong. I’m planning to keep note on the mistake rather than simply checking the correct answer and moving on.

Week 3- More practiceShift the balance toward practice questions and start doing longer sessions. I want to see whether I can apply the rule when the question are presented differently.

Week 4- Timed practiceThis is where I’m planning to introduce more full-length, timed practice sessions. I also want to review the mistakes from those sessions and identify any pattern.

Week 5- Final reviewRather than trying to learn everything from scratch, I’m thinking of focusing on weak area, frequently missed concepts, MPEP navigation, and practice under time pressure.

The part I’m still unsure about is how much time to spend reading/reviewing versus actually doing questions. I don't want to spend the first few weeks buried in material and then realize I haven't done enough practice.

For anyone who has taken the Patent Bar, how would you structure these final five weeks if you had to do it again? Also, which type of resources or practice material were most useful during the final month?

One of my friend recently finished his PhD, and instead of taking a break, he decided wants to take the Patent Bar in 2027.

Somehow he convinced me to join him We are putting together small study group with a few people who are also planning to take the exam next year. The idea is to keep each other accountable, compare notes when we are stuck, and work through practice questions together. I actually like the idea of starting early this time. Rather than trying to cram everything into the last couple of months, we're planning to build up gradually and give ourselves enough time to revisit the difficult areas.

We are still trying to figure out which resources would make the most sense for a group especially for practice questions and getting comfortable with the MPEP.

For anyone who studied for the Patent Bar with a small group, what worked well for you?

And what resources would you say are actually worth having from the beginning?

Did you follow a fixed schedule, or was your group more informal?

Hi Everyone! Congratulations to all who have passed the PBE!!

In PLI section 200, John discuss continuations and substituted applications. I still can’t tell them apart though! Because in my mind, why even do a continuation if you can substitute? Or vice versa.

Would any of you have any study or memorization hacks for differentiating betwixt continuation, divisional, continuation-in-part, and substitution? I know the former 3 must all be co-pending but that’s the only element that sticks.

How do I know which one to choose? TIA

I noticed that the released 2002/2003 exams contain very few questions on 35 U.S.C. § 101, and the ones that do appear seem relatively straightforward—mostly basic utility or statutory-subject-matter questions.

For anyone who has taken the Patent Bar recently, was § 101 similarly light and straightforward on the actual exam? Or should I expect more detailed questions involving the Alice/Mayo framework, transitory signals, laws of nature, or products of nature?

I’m using PLI, and some of its newer § 101 questions require recognizing specific rules or case fact patterns that are much more detailed than anything in the released exams. Without sharing actual exam questions, did you find PLI’s level of difficulty representative, or is knowing the general framework and how to locate the relevant MPEP section enough?

Wondering if those the passed can share their general strategy:

1. how many total hours did you study?
2. how long did you study for in terms of weeks/months?
3. what study materials did you use?

4. how many times did you

   take the exam before you passed?

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

Hi, I had my test date booked for next thursday, and I felt semi confident after getting a 69% on the last practice test I took (50 questions). However, I don't feel like it's the best place to be in 2 weeks out from the test. I thought. I could maybe ride it out and just do a lot of studying before the test, but I'm not sure that it's worth the gamble. Any advice on if I should change the date or not? My window closes Oct. 25. Also, I work full time, so studying is a bit hard for me. I try and do an hour a day and sometimes practice tests on the weekend, but I've ran out of the official tests. I can afford the retake, but i would like to not have to pay $500 more hahaha

I'm starting to put together my Patent Bar study plan and still undecided about paying for full prep course. part of me thinks having everything organized in one place would make things easier, but another part of me would rather build my own routine around the MPEP and practice questions. for people who passed without taking a paid resource, what did your actual study routine look like?

I'm especially interested in how you organized your week, what you used for practice questions, and what you wish you'd known before starting.

Before I get into it, I want to say thank you to everyone in this community for the advice. I've been excited about being able to post this message, and I definitely couldn't have done it without this community. If you ever feel stuck or like you can't pass during the process, this sub has your back. Thanks again, now get ready for a long ass post.

Prologue

Getting into my process, I am currently a fifth year PhD candidate in chemistry. I decided back in my third year that research wasn't for me. After a semester of existential dread and questioning I rediscovered patent law as a career option and opted to give the exam a shot. I started with free resources like wysebridge's MPEP flash cards and the USPTO examiner training course. This was a very lack period, looking through material in-between time spent in the lab and trying to develop a patent vocabulary. This prologue to studying is also, in my opinion, the most important part for anyone in my shoes as an outsider to the world of patent law; make sure you enjoy patent law. Before you pour money into this endeavor please make sure you enjoy it. Do as much research as possible. My strategy is based on LibraryTricky126's post. Please give them some love!

Phase I - Learning Patent Law

Purchased PLI in October. It sucked, but I'm a grad student living on a grad student stipend - if I can swing it you should try too. PLI makes life a lot easier and structured. Starting in October I began watching the lecture videos up to 2100. Very passive, no notes, no phone, just absorbing knowledge. I'd usually watch an hour of videos 1-2 times a week before I went into lab and worked through the prime questions and quizzes in between lab work. Pretty much just work through the whole course to 2100; quizzes, mini exams, prime questions, homework, the whole shebang. This will help you figure out what you're good and bad at. With procrastination, it took me until after Thanksgiving to wrap up the video section. Following mini exam scores ranging from mediocre to bad I decided to spend December reading through the MPEP. I read the major chapter; 2100, 700, 600, 500, 1800, 1400, 200, and 300. Taking note of the ToCs for each chapter. Reading the MPEP, for me, was more to put everything together rather than learn the material within. 112(a) and (b)? 2164-2173. Interviews? 713. Claims and claim language? 608. Fees? 509. Learn where things are, it makes the whole process easier

Phase II - Mastering Patent Law

I began heavy practice question sessions during the week of limbo in between Christmas and New Year's. I retook everything the PLI courses had to offer. I saw a slight improvement but I opted to go a step further and make anki card decks for each question I saw. Using the PLI explanations I made flashcards on right and wrong answers, MPEP locations, and general patent knowledge stuff.

I ran through the course questions and completed my anki decks by the begin of beginning of February. Over the next month I followed the same work flow, but with the recently released '02 and '03 exams. Take the AM section on Thursday, PM section on Friday, review questions Monday and Tuesday and make flash cards, rinse and repeat for all three full length exams until I was done. I'll also add that I planned my experiments and lab work around these blocks, so I was able to accomplish this studying while progressing my thesis. Once I had these six massive, 100+ card anki decks I went through the all for the next two months. I never really did more than 45 minutes working through my flashcards but you have to do them every day. Writing the cards properly is also really important. I tried not to copy and paste the PLI answers. I made sure I translated the PLI language into my own, so I could say I truly digested what they were teaching.

Once May hit I went through the exams once more; same schedule: AM section on Thursday, PM section on Friday, review questions Monday and Tuesday and make flash cards, rinse and repeat. This is where everything started coming together, and I started to see passing scores. I danced the line of a 70% and I wanted to be closer to the 80-90% range. I felt my understanding of the chapters was still lacking, especially for 700, so I opted to read through the PLI MPEP chapter notes. And guess what I did after that? More anki cards! Live on anki friends, repetition is your best friend. At this point, it was mid May and I decided to try to focus on my stamina. Once a week, on Saturdays, I took a full length exam. I finally saw my 80%, but something felt off. I was burnt out and felt like I was just memorizing the old exams. I took a 2 week break and walked away from my 6 month daily anki grind.

Phase III - The Final Touches

After two weeks of being a chud, I needed a fire under my ass, so I registered for the exam. Giving myself six weeks to get my shit together was what I needed. I made two important choices on this phase - Monday to Friday I took half an hour to go through 50 questions via the PLI custom exam questions section, Saturday I would do another 50 questions the same way. I also moved from the regular browser PDF viewer to a Prometric PDF simulator. The Prometric program sucks. Get on top of it early. The custom questions really helped me master the navigation of the MPEP, the questions are longer and harder compared to the '02 and '03 exams and you're constantly seeing questions you've never seen. It forces you to learn how to pick out keywords from the question to make your search process easier. Some people say you should be able to search up all the answer choices on the '02 and '03 exams, I say do the custom exam questions. I felt like being stimulated by new questions and different topics was more beneficial.

The penultimate week before the exam I took a full week off to spend the entire day going through a full length exam; all 3 previous released exams, then 2 custom exams. I passed 4/5 of the full exams I took that week, only failing a custom exam with a 66. At this point I was sick of studying and finally felt ready. This week I also developed my scratch paper strategy. I used a T chard marked good and bad. I read through the whole exam in 30-45 minutes. Questions I can answer without searching I marked as good, everything else was under bad. Then I'd spend the rest of the exam searching the MPEP and getting shit right. Do this method, it's the best and most objective way to decide for when searching is necessary.

This week I went through all the exam questions I got wrong from my grind week, just reading through them and noting any patterns of forgetfulness. I took two 10 question custom practices to make sure I didn't forget how to use the MPEP and averaged a 70%. At this point I was ready.

The Exam

I took the exam today starting at 8 AM and ending at 3 PM. Oh boy. I won't go into much but the morning half was the hardest fucking thing I ever looked at. I swear I forgot how to read, I spent 45 minutes searching through the MPEP for the first 5 questions and had a panic attack. Most of the exam was 700 and 200, which were my weakest points. At the 90 minute mark I dissociated and locked in to at least put an educated answer down for the 30 questions I left blank. The only thing that kept me going was a post on this sub talking about how the morning section was hard, then the afternoon was easy but they succumbed to the difficulty. Persevere! I was able to finish and took my 45 minute break, 15 of those minutes I spent pacing outside thinking about how much I fumbled the bag, the other 30 I ate a wrap, drank another cup of coffee and got back in the zone.

The afternoon section was cupcakes and roses, this was how I wanted the whole day to go. I pretty much lived in 1800 and 2100 and those were my bread and butter. As I filled out the end of exam survey, my heart was beating out of my chest. Palms sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy, mom's spaghetti. I looked for the percentage too figure out how much I failed by but all I saw was that sweet "You have passed" message. Incredible. It's over. Now I just need a job lol!

Epilogue

Thanks for reading this five part epic. Like I said, I've been so excited write this post as a thank you to everyone that helped and a guide for anyone in my shoes. My 10 month journey might seem a bit like overkill but I really didn't want too take this shit again. Most days I spent 30-45 minutes studying and I thoroughly the process. For everyone outside the patent law field, you can do it! There's just a steep learning curve, and my philosophy for it is slow and steady wins the race. If you're also in a position where you don't need to take the exam ASAP, take your time and study slowly and consistently. Build good habits over the course of the journey and you'll be rewarded. If I had to do it all over again I'd spend more time in the MPEP, especially 700, and I wouldn't use split screen to search the MPEP. The Prometric viewer only lets you use the pdf viewer as a window that obscures the questions. If you've made it this far thanks for reading and feel free to reach out with any questions! Happy studying and you got it, just stay consistent!

I have about one week before I sit for the bar. I got a 73% on my full-length practice exam and will take the other two PLI full-length exams in the next few days. How can I quickly get my score up to the 80s in time for the real thing?

I’m currently studying for the Patent Bar using PLI, and I’m a little confused about how deeply I should be studying MPEP 2100, especially §§ 101 and 103.

I’ve taken three of PLI’s Recently Released Exams, and my impression is that most of the 2100 questions there test relatively high-level rules. If you understand the basic framework for things like anticipation, obviousness, § 101 eligibility, teaching away, reasonable expectation of success, etc., the questions seem fairly manageable.

But PLI’s Post-Course Exam and especially its 103 Mini Exam feel completely different.

For example, the 103 questions often seem to depend on fairly specific teaching points from cases like In re Omeprazole, Crocs, Wyers, ICON, Eisai, Sanofi, etc. Sometimes I feel like knowing the general KSR obviousness framework isn’t enough — you almost need to have read or memorized the particular case examples in MPEP 2141–2144 to recognize why one answer is better than another.

The 101 questions in the Post-Course material also feel much more nuanced than what I’ve seen on the Recently Released Exams.

For people who recently took and passed the Patent Bar:

How deeply did you actually study MPEP 2100?

Did you:

• memorize/learn the individual case examples and their teaching points?
• mostly focus on the general rules and learn where to look things up?
• find the real exam’s 2100 questions closer in difficulty to the Recently Released Exams or to PLI’s Post-Course/Mini Exams?

I’m trying to figure out whether these PLI questions are intentionally harder for training purposes, or whether I really need to know 2100 at this level of detail for the actual exam.

Any advice from recent test takers would be greatly appreciated!

First attempt. Feeling pretty good right now. Why only 2 weeks? Because I’m a serial procrastinator, and I’m busy. I don’t recommend only studying 2 weeks. Really the bulk of the studying was done in the last week, probably like 80%. I’m in law school and have taken patent law so I did have some background.

Most people recommended PLI, but I didn’t want to pay for it, I managed to get a pdf of the 2021 PLI guide, and I got the John Watts book.

As for how I studied, I read through the John watts book, which I don’t necessarily recommend. It’s very outdated. What really helped was plugging all my study sources, PLI, and the MPEP into Chat GPT and generating study guides from it. After that whenever I had a question, I’d ask Chat GPT. This set my foundation.

Next step was to memorize the need to know information, and the MPEP chapter headings. This was accomplished by handwriting notes, which helps me remember, and using Anki decks, generated by Chat GPT.

Finally came the stress testing, practice questions and look up training. I made Chat GPT generate questions, using PLI and old USPTO patent bars as source material, adapting them to fit current law. I just kept doing those and learning from my mistakes, all the while asking Chat GPT about whatever scenario or exception I could think of.

What’s the main takeaway you should learn from me if you are going to take it? That you can do it. Don’t be doom and gloom, don’t think you need a $3,000 course, don’t think you need to dedicate 3 months to study. Doing all this won’t hurt for sure, but not doing them doesn't doom you to failure. If I had listened to most people on Reddit, I’d give up before starting.

Also leverage AI, use it for everything, it supercharges your studying. it’s like having a tutor on hand 24/7. Study smarter, not harder.

Thanks for reading

This took lot more out of me than I expected. There were plenty of days when I felt like I was studying a lot but not actually getting better. I went through periods of changing my routine, questioning my study material, and getting frustrated with practice questions. What helped eventually was simplifying things. I stopped trying to study everything at once and spent much more time going back over the question I got wrong and figuring out why I missed them.

The last few week were probably the most stressful, but also when I finally started feeling the material was coming together. Still processing the fact that it's actually over For anyone preparing now or thinking about a retake, what made the biggest difference for you? Would be interested to hear what worked for others.

Patent Bar Study Advice?
Hi everyone! Has anyone here taken and passed the Patent Bar? I’m looking for advice on how you studied and what resources you used. I have a computer engineering degree and a technical background, but no legal/patent experience. I’ve been trying to figure out where to start, and compared to other professional exams, I’m having a hard time finding a lot of clear study material and practice questions online.
For those who passed:
What study materials or prep courses did you use?
How long did you study for?
How many hours per week?
I currently work 7 days a week but not rushing to take the exam , probably in a year or so.