How to prepare for the pre-exam
I had started studying for the pre-exam that was supposed to take place on 16 March 2020 (but was cancelled because of Covid) at the beginning of August 2019. This means that I had 7 months to prepare for the pre-exam, which felt like a reasonable and sufficient amount of time. So, if you start any time before August, you will be fine, as long as you take it seriously and put your time in. I advise starting sometime during the summer slowly and then taking it more seriously from September.
If you are here for a magic trick, you will be disappointed. However, if you are interested how I studied, what method and books I used, keep reading, I will share everything. Please keep in mind though that I am not here to tell you the one perfect way. Many people have different methods, and these different methods can all be successful. What’s more, I don’t even know if my way is successful. But I know that I enjoyed studying and I definitely learned a lot. Since I have not seen an EQE study guide anywhere, I am sharing everything I would have found helpful when starting.
I believe in the importance of enjoying what you are doing. Studying for the EQE will definitely take away a lot of free time from your next 2 years. So, I hope that you can find the best system (best materials, best schedule, etc.) that you enjoy and that works for you. If you have any tips that you would like to share with the others, feel free to comment below.
My method
Ok, so you have 6+ months and thousands of pages to digest. How to start?
You will need to create a system and decide when you will study and which books (and courses) you will use. Are you someone who can study 8-10 hours each Saturday? Or 2 hours every weekday so that you have a free weekend? Or 45 minutes every evening after finishing work and 4-6 hours each weekend? For me, this last version worked the best.
Some of my friends prepared by reading a certain number of pages from the Guidelines every day. However, I was never someone who could just sit and read hundreds of pages. I preferred studying by answering questions from the DeltaPatents L book (“Basic Legal Questions for Pre-Exam and Paper D”) using my EPC reference book. I decided that I wanted to finish all questions by a certain date (I don’t remember what this date was) and so I opened my calendar and calculated how many days I have for one topic. I literally started with the first question of the first topic on day 1. I remember that I had about 2 weeks for each topic of the DeltaPatents L book. If you add the topics to your calendar now, there is more chance you will actually get down to it, because it already sits in your calendar like a meeting.
If something came up that was not completely clear for me, I checked the relevant parts in the Guidelines as well. However, I have never read the full Guidelines.
I suggest you don’t use a timer when answering these questions. You are just starting and do not know your materials yet. Sometimes it will take 30 minutes just to find the page you are looking for. That is OK, and that is part of the studying. Basically, a big part of your studying will be getting to know where to find the information you are looking for as quickly as possible. I remember being frustrated when I thought I had time to do 2 questions before dinner, but in 30 minutes I have not even found the part of the book that could help me answer the first question. You will probably have similar situations when starting, mostly with PCT questions.
Calendar
My schedule was something like this:
Summer: answering questions from the DeltaPatents L book
from September the previous, plus:
EPO online pre-exam course (starts 1 September, costs about EUR 350)
subscribe to EPO Coffee Break questions
December-January the previous, plus:
Previous pre-exams (there aren’t too many, so I would not start earlier)
February: I wouldn’t plan anything for the last month in order to leave time for doing anything you didn’t have time yet and refreshing all topics, especially your weak points (PCT). In February, you can for example:
repeat the quizzes from the EPO online pre-exam course, and
doing last years’ pre exams one more time.
Books/materials
You will need:
EPC reference book (e.g. Visser/Hoekstra)
EPO Guidelines (this will be available online during the e-EQE, so you don’t need a printed version –> so you can also study by using the online version)
PCT reference book (e.g. Cees Mulder)
Your own notes/printed tables:
The books that I used:
Some additional useful PCT materials you can study:
WIPO's "Learn the PCT" video playlist on youtube (29 short videos, each 10-18 minutes long)
Don’t be afraid to add your own notes to the margins of your books. If you cannot find something in you reference book, there is a chance you might need that information later as well. After two years, my Hoekstra EPC reference book is full with my notes.
While obviously any pre-exam course is useful; if your firm does not pay for it, I wouldn’t suggest attending any courses –other than the EPO online course– before the pre-exam.
Some advice
As I mentioned, it takes time to get to know your materials. Any time you spend with your books will help you get better. Even those 10-20 minutes when you are just trying to find an answer.
It follows that even if you don’t feel like studying, maybe just open your book and at least add some post-it notes marking certain Articles or just try to find a certain topic, etc.
Find a way to keep yourself accountable. Find a study group, study partner, coach or just set some goals and reward yourself after completing them. Another option that I already mentioned is having a study plan and pre-filling your calendar with the questions you will do on a certain day. This way, you don’t have to think about what you should study when you finally sit down, you can just simply start doing the thing that is in your calendar for that day.
Make your own notes. At first, I started making notes in a separate book, but then I realised that I don’t want to have even more materials, so then I just simply added everything to my reference book, to the margins or to post-it notes.
Don’t necessarily try to find logic. At first, I tried to understand the whole system, notice the correlation between some Articles, and then I tried to apply my logic when answering some questions. However, I was then warned that we should not use our own logic, just simply looking up the answer in the books and applying the EPC.
And finally, remember that you are not studying only for the pre-exam. Putting in the time now will give you a huge advantage when starting preparing for Paper D next year.
Good luck!
Thank you!
I really hope you found my EQE blog helpful.
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you can buy me a coffee or the next edition of Hoekstra book ( :-) ) via the link below.
Thank you so so much!