Here’s a post from Dr. Venkat, our resident podcaster who specialises in breaking bonds on how to breakdown and plan your time:
My experience dealing with competitive exams includes cracking the IIT entrance exam, GATE for Ph.D, general aptitude exams like GRE, and many others during my Ph.D. One thumb rule for all “It is better late than never”. Cracking any competitive exams involves planning, devoted time for study, and regular practice of previous year’s exams. It is no brainer, this remains the same for clearing the Patent agent exam 2018.
Last week, IPO has announced the registrations for Patent Agent exam open from July 17th onwards and now the exam is scheduled on October 28th 2018. This leaves close to 100 days to prepare. If this information can be translated into different time units, it is 2400 hrs, i.e, about 14 weeks.
Now, let us look at the course material from LexCampus and chalk out our preparation plan. The time invested on watching the lectures on LexCampus (Paper I and Paper II) will be 32 hrs. If we factor in quiz time at the end of every lecture to 8 hrs, this leaves 40 hrs for covering the course material alone.
With 2400 hrs (100 days) in the bank, if we factor in other significant activities per day such as, 700 hrs of sleep (7 hrs/day), 1000 hrs for work and commute (10 hrs per day), barring any other activities if 2 hrs/day for preparation would yield 200 hrs and still 500 hrs of reserve time (5hrs/day) to tap until the D-day. This is exactly the time split we all have to prepare for this exam.
If 2 hrs/day is spent on the course material, you may finish the course material in 20 days (~ 3 weeks). The entire course can be finished in 20 days (40 hrs), while the remaining 80 days (160 hrs) decides how well you are prepared for the exam.
Effectively, you can revisit the entire course content three more times with ~2 full weeks available for mock exams and other revisions. If you are smart, the reserve time allotted per day can be used to supplement your efforts.
Dr. Venkata S. Raman is a chemist and researcher at heart with a Ph.D. from Tufts University. He worked as a Patent Analyst for an IP firm in USA, and analysed PCT patent applications for USPTO. He is learning Indian Patent law, with the focus on drafting good patents and help bridge the gap between the Inventors and Attorneys. He is aspiring to become a Patent Attorney. Venkat hosts the podcasts at LexCampus.