Exam Overview
The Patent Bar exam consists of two sections, an AM
and a PM, each containing fifty multiple-choice questions. You will have an hour
break in which to eat your lunch in between these two sections. You may not bring
anything into the exam with you, not even a watch. You will receive a pencil and
scratch paper at the beginning of each section, which will be taken away at the
end of each section. You will have access to an electronic, searchable PDF formatted
MPEP while taking the exam. This MPEP can be used to look up the answers to questions
to which you do not recall. Using an electronic MPEP can be slow and awkward unless
you have practiced using it many times. Thus, while taking our full-length exams,
it is imperative that you practice look-ups using our seachable electronic PDF
version of the MPEP.
You must answer 70% of the questions on the exam correctly
in order to pass the Patent Bar exam. Ten of the questions on each exam are experimental
and do not count towards your score. Thus, you must answer 68 of the remaining
90 questions correctly in order to pass the Patent Bar exam. Unfortunately, you
will likely not be able to tell which of the exam questions are real and which
are experimental. Therefore, in reality, you must answer 70 questions correctly
to give yourself some cushion in passing the exam. Some of the questions can be
answered in less than a minute, other questions require more time, but on average,
in order to pass, you need to be on a 3 minute per question pace. If you do enough
practice exams to achieve that intuitive, three-minute per question average pace,
and keep to that pace on the exam, you will pass.
A major cause of failure
on the exam a refusal to abandon a question to which an answer cannot be easily
found. REMEMBER, YOUR GOAL IS TO ANSWER 70 QUESTIONS ON THE EXAM CORRECTLY. If
you try to answer all of the questions on your first pass through, you won't finish,
and if you don't finish, you won't pass. Often you will be 90% sure than one answer
is correct. It is tempting to go into your MPEP to confirm that you are right.
Instead, make a note that you want to check the answer at the end and move on.
The computer will allow you to flag questions and to return to them later. Additionally,
you have to put off the hard questions on each section until the end, to make
sure that you answer all of the easier questions, and you have to give up on questions
when your electronic MPEP look-up is not yielding any results.
At the end
of each exam section (AM and PM), with the 30 minutes that you have remaining
from your 3 minute per question pace, go back and make sure to have put an answer
for every question on that section. This can be done by guessing intelligently,
because this is not an exam that punishes guessing; it's an exam that rewards
guessing. There are five possible answers to every multiple-choice question and
two or three can usually be eliminated by the application of memorized facts that
you have learned. Once you have narrowed the question down to two or three possible
answer choices, choose the one that seems most correct and move on. Repeat this
process for each question that you did answer on your first pass through until
every question has been answer.
Finally, and most importantly, you must
practice recognizing old exam questions and knowing what the correct answer is
for each under the current MPEP Rules and Procedures. This is particularly true
of the questions contained in the 2002/2003 exams and the ExamPost. You are going
to get anywhere from 20 and 45 of these past exam questions on your test, most
with the same or only slightly different answer choices. Thus, the more questions
that you can instantly recognize and answer, the more time you will have at the
end of each section to answer the difficult questions and the greater the likelihood
that you will pass the Patent Bar exam!
Course Approach
Lesson
Plan Schedule
Choose the time frame in which you want to complete your
patent bar preparation, and follow the relevant lesson plan. So, if you choose
to complete you studies in 3 months, you would pick the 12 week program, in 4
months the 16 week program, and so on.
MPEP Basics
If you are
new to the field of patent law read MPEP Basics on the first day you begin your
lesson plan schedule. This is a plain english overview of the MPEP that will provide
you with a basic understanding of the Rules and Procedures contained in the MPEP.
The
Six Steps to Success
After picking your schedule and reading MPEP Basics,
complete the following 6 steps for each chapter (the time required will depend
on the lesson plan schdule chosen):
1. Read The MiniReview;
2. Listen to
the associated Live Lecture;
3. Read the MPEP Summary;
4. Skim the electronic
pdf version of the MPEP (only to determine where the topics discussed in the MPEP Summary
are located for future lookup opportunites on the chapter and full-length exams)
5.
Take the Chapter Exam; and
6. Review the Rules and Procedures for those questions
missed in the in the MPEP Summary or MPEP.
The MiniReview and Lectures
The
MiniReview is a concise summary of all of the chapters and sections of the MPEP
that are relevant to the material covered on the patent bar exam in the last 2
years. The lectures coorespond to this reading and can be burned to a cd and listened
to while driving to work or school, or you can download them to an mp3 player
and listen as you relax between classes or on your lunch break. Combined, they
give you a clear mental framework in which to incorporate the information contained
in our more detailed MPEP Summary.
The MPEP Summary
The MPEP Summary
expands on the material covered in the MiniReview and Lecture Series, and, in
addition, covers all of the MPEP topics tested on the exam since 2000 in detail.
The
MPEP
Each week you will be asked to skim various chapters in the MPEP.
The purpose of this is to familiarize yourself with the topic headings of each
chapter, so that you are aware where the material covered in our summary material
is located in the actual MPEP. This will enable you to quickly look that information
up while taking the actual patent bar exam, should your memory fail you on a particular
question. Some chapters have never had a question asked concerning their contents
on the patent bar, so there is no associated chapter exam. Please feel free to
skip those chapters if you are pressed for time. Simply know what topic it covers
and where to look it up in the MPEP should the PTO decide to cover it on your
exam.
Chapter Exams and ExamPost
Take all of the chapter exams
as you progress through the course. The answers to some of these questions my
be outdated, but make certain that you know the correct reasoning under the current
Rules and Procedures Contained in the MPEP Summary. After taking the exam, review
those sections of the MPEP Summary and MPEP that pertain to the questions that
you missed on the chapter exam.
You must also review the ExamPost each week, in order
to view the newest topics and questions that are being asked for each chapter. Make certain that you review the
answers to the questions in the Rules, Procedures and MPEP sections listed.
The
Full-length Exams
Once you have completed all of the MPEP Chapter reviews
and their associated exams, you are ready to begin taking full-length practice
exams. In this portion of the course you will use a searchable PDF version of
the MPEP to aid you in question look-ups. It is essential that you master this
skill, as it will guarantee you valuable points on the exam. You will have 3 hours
to complete the 50 question AM section of each exam, then a one hour break for
lunch, and finally another 3 hours to complete the 50 question PM section of each
exam.
You should pass both sections of each exam with a score of 80% or
better. Some questions will have answers that do not correspond to the current
Rules and Procedures contained in the MPEP. Make a note of this and know what
the correct answer should be. We cannot emphasize strongly enough how important
it is to be able to see a question on the patent bar and automatically know the
answer because you have essentially memorized it from having encountered the same
or similar question on the practice exams. This is especially true of the six
2001-03 exams and ExamPost questions. Make certain that you complete each question
in no longer than 3 minutes, to ensure that you have 30 minutes available for
any final lookups and to put you best guess for every question in the section.
Techincal Issues
Clipboard Access Pop-Up Window
This window shows when you access our initial course material. It is a result of our web page protection method. To get rid of the clipboard access pop-up window follow the instructions below:
In Internet Explorer 6
Go to the IE6 Tools menu, click Internet Options, and then click the Security tab-->Click on the Custom Level button on the Security tab Active scripting-->Under Allow paste operations via script, Click enable, which allows a Web page to cut, copy, and paste information from the Clipboard without user intervention.
In Internet Explorer 7
Go to tools>security>custom level>scripting>Allow Programmatic clipboard access and click enable.
Printing Out Materials
To print out our materials simply go to File > Print and choose a printing option. If you have Adobe Acrobat Professional, or some similar program, you can print to a pdf, or if not, you can print our material out to paper.
Taking Chapter and Full-Length Exams
All chapter and full-length exams open in a separate window. Therefore, in order to view them you must have "Pop-Up Blocker" turned off in both your web browser and your virus protection software (see exam overview and course approach for instructions). Below are the instructions for each of the Popup Blockers that you may have - follow each one step-by-step:
In Google Toolbar
In Google Toolbar Go to the Settings icon(to the far right of all loaded google addons)>Options>More tab>under Popup Blocker uncheck Enable Popup Blocker, click OK, and you're done!
In Internet Explorer 6
Go to Tools>Under Browsing History click on Delete>Delete all>Yes(in the popup window).
In Internet Explorer 7
1. Go to Tools>Privacy Tab and uncheck Turn on Pop-up Blocker, click OK and you're done!
2. Go to Tools>Under Browsing History click on Delete>Delete all>Yes(in the popup window).
For Internet Explorer 7 Addons (Google Toolbar and Yahoo Toolbar)
1. Go to Tools>Manage Add-ons>Enable or Disable Addons>Google toolbar and/or Yahoo toolbar and click disable!
2. Go to Tools>Under Browsing History click on Delete>Delete all>Yes(in the popup window).
Norton AntiVirus 2006
1. Norton Internet Security 2005 usually adds a yellow and orange orb icon to your system tray in the Windows taskbar. You may be able to right-click on it and Disable.
2. Otherwise, click on Start>Programs>Norton Internet Security>Norton Internet Security. In the left hand pane of the Norton Internet Security window click on Norton AntiSpam.
3. Choose the Status and Settings view under Norton AntiSpam. If Settings for Pop-up Blocking display a green checkmark, then Turn Off Pop-up Blocking. To do this, Click on the words Pop-up Blocking.
4. Click Pop-Ups Blocking -> Turn off.
5. The last step is to clear your Cache. To do this you can open Tools >Internet Options > click the "Delete Files..." button OR from the assessment page, while simultaneously holding down the Ctrl key & the Shift key use your mouse to press the browsers refresh button.
*Remember that the last step after turning off Norton Internet Security's popup blocker is to to either delete your Cache or to Refresh the assessment page while simultaneously holding down the Ctrl & Shift keys to open a non-cached copy of the assessment page. If these do not address your issues, or you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact email us for more technical support.
Support Contact
If you have any technical difficulties or problems during your
use of OmniPrep's Patent Bar Review Course, please contact our Administrative
Support Team at: admin@omnipreppatent.com
