The 2027 Examinations begin on Sunday, 5 September 2027. A countdown is useful not because it creates urgency — a year is long enough that urgency is useless — but because it forces the question each month: what should be true by now?
This is the year in phases, with a deliverable for each.
T–11 months: October 2026
What should be true: you have read the bulletin and the syllabus, chosen a plan, and started the heaviest sitting.
- Read Bar Bulletin No. 1-2027 and the coverage for one subject, properly.
- Start Remedial Law — 25% of the result, and the subject that decays fastest.
- Set up the retrieval habit: 20 minutes a day, from the first week.
- Take one timed sitting in a subject you think you know. It will be worse than you expect, and that is the point.
T–9 to T–7: November 2026 – January 2027
What should be true: Remedial Law has a working outline, and you have begun a second subject.
- Finish the Remedial Law blocks in sequence: jurisdiction, civil procedure, evidence.
- Start Civil Law, which is 20% and shares its vocabulary with everything.
- One full paper a month, on a Sunday morning.
- Audit the syllabus for both subjects, and mark what you can produce — reading the syllabus.
T–6 to T–5: February – March 2027
What should be true: three subjects are at outline level, and the annual habit is established.
- Commercial and Taxation (20%) — a large sitting and easy to under-serve.
- Continue weekly retrieval; start the distinction tables, which are where commercial law marks live.
- Two full papers a month.
- First serious look at Legal and Judicial Ethics: it is cheap, and it is on the heaviest paper.
T–4: April 2027
What should be true: the two heaviest sittings are drafted, and the rest are mapped.
- Political and Public International Law (15%), including the international component most candidates skip.
- Labor Law (10%) — small, finite, finishable.
- Full paper weekly from here.
T–3: May 2027
What should be true: five of six subjects have an outline, and Criminal Law is underway.
- Criminal Law (10%): Book One's framework first, then the titles, then the named special laws.
- Keep the two 10% sittings at outline level; do not over-invest.
- Two timed answers a week, marked.
T–2: June 2027
What should be true: coverage is done. From here, no new topics.
- Finish the last blocks; close the syllabus.
- Build the one-pagers — a page per subject, from memory, then corrected.
- Compile the flags list — every doctrine that has beaten you, dated and specific.
T–8 weeks: July 2027
What should be true: you are retrieving, not reading.
- One subject a week, rebuilt from memory, repaired.
- One full paper a week, marked within 48 hours.
- Repair reading only — the text behind a specific failure.
- Confirm your testing centre and travel, in writing, if the assignment is out.
T–4 weeks: August 2027
What should be true: the flags list is shrinking, and the answer shape is automatic.
- Flags list twice a day; one-pagers daily.
- Two full papers a week, at the examination's times.
- Sleep schedule aligned to 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. starts.
- Read the examination's instructions for your year, once.
T–2 weeks: 22 August – 4 September 2027
The pre-week, in full: no new material, one timed answer a day, logistics two days early. The day-by-day shape is in the pre-week.
The days themselves
5 September. Morning: Political and Public International Law. Afternoon: Commercial and Taxation. Do not review the morning paper between sittings.
6–7 September. Two days: hold Civil Law and Labor. Retrieval in the morning, one timed answer in the afternoon.
8 September. Civil Law in the morning, Labor in the afternoon.
9–11 September. Three days to hold Criminal Law and — above all — Remedial Law and Ethics, the 25% sitting. Retrieval and outline rebuilding only.
12 September. Criminal Law in the morning; the last sitting in the afternoon.
When the countdown slips
It will. The rule is not to extend the plan; it is to cut in a defined order:
- Coverage of the two 10% sittings, down to outline level.
- Detail in blocks the syllabus names but rarely examines.
- Any material borrowed from outside your own notes.
Never cut: the daily retrieval, the weekly timed paper, sleep, and Remedial Law.
The only measure
At each phase boundary, one question: what can I now produce that I could not produce last month? A list of three doctrines and one better answer shape is a month that worked. "I read two chapters" is not.
For the detailed monthly allocation, see the twelve-month plan; for where the hours go by weight, playing the weights.