Make This Your Last Time | Bar Exam Preparation

May 16, 2026May 16, 2026 - No Comments

Performance Tests: The Most Overlooked Way to Score on the Bar Exam

Most bar takers obsess over the MBE and the essays.

And for good reason! There’s a lot to cover and memorize all at once.

But there’s a section of the bar exam that a lot of candidates take for granted until it’s too late… the performance test (PT).

I know you didn’t want to hear this, but that’s exactly why you shouldn’t forget about it. This could be your edge.

Why are you trying to draw astrology charts to divine which subjects are going to show up on the essays, when you know the PT is right there? You keep meaning to deal with it. You even see other people talking about it.

Then you figure you can panic-cram or wing it. Why are you doing that? That’s just as much gambling as studying the “predicted” subjects.

Here’s why you need to master the performance tests ASAP.

May 15, 2026May 15, 2026 - No Comments

How Adam Added 140 Points on the CA Bar Exam (But What Cost Him the Pass?)

Adam took the February 2026 California Bar Exam for the second time.

Starting with an overall score of 1201, Adam closed a 140-point gap between July 2025 and February 2026. That’s a remarkable jump by any measure.

He did this as a foreign-trained lawyer with zero prior knowledge of U.S. law, no commercial bar prep course, and roughly two months of prep.

If you did the math, you’ll have noticed that he didn’t pass this time… His February total score of 1341 was 50 points away from the pass score of 1390.

💬 “Regret to tell you, I failed again. I scored 1341.0200. . . . No matter what, thank you for all your help.”

This is the 75^th installment of Fire-up Friday, but it’s the very first one where I’m featuring a non-passing attempt.

Why?

Defeat is fodder for your next victory. We ought to document both what worked and what didn’t work.

Adam’s story isn’t over yet. This is just part 1. He’s coming back for the rest of his points in July.

In the meantime, we get to find out what worked for his second attempt, and what he could do differently for his third.

There are insights we can glean from Adam’s mistakes and improvements. He has graciously allowed me to share his painful story. And he must have done SOMETHING right to go from 1201 to almost passing.

Passing is easily achievable for Adam from here on. (Hint: A 50-point gap in California is smaller than you think.)

May 14, 2026May 15, 2026 - No Comments

4 Examples of California Bar Exam Score Reports (Feb 2026)

I dove into four actual score reports from the February 2026 California Bar Exam.

Walking through these score reports, I suggest how they should prepare for their next attempt, and include advice for anyone struggling with different portions of the California Bar Exam.

0:00 Intro (and defending my outfit)

0:33 Example score report 1 (total scaled score 1382.8700)
8:16 Example score report 2 (total scaled score 1341.0200)
16:28 Example score report 3 (total scaled score 1362.8950)
22:41 Example score report 4 (total scaled score 1298.9950)

28:46 The 5-layer priority of CBX components in order of importance

29:58 Framework for analyzing your score report
32:05 The importance of 5-point increments on the California Bar Exam

May 10, 2026May 10, 2026 - 41 Comments

Should You “Trust the Process”? You’re the Dean of Your Own Bar Exam Studies

Here’s something that people who pass the bar exam never say:

“All I had to do was listen to all the bar course lectures and take a lot of notes. Just complete the course and you’ll pass!”

Sometimes we think “doing whatever it takes” to pass the bar exam means exhausting yourself and throwing 1000 hours and even more dollars into a black hole. (But it doesn’t have to be expensive.)

Or following some unsustainable cookie-cutter schedule that doesn’t care if you have a job or a family. Good luck if you fall behind by one day.

Or letting a perfectly fine morning slip through by religiously sitting through 4 hours of droning lectures. Worse, pausing lectures to fill in all the notes.

Then not even remembering 99% of it.

Rewinding the video for the 5th time because you can’t stop thinking about the Roman Empire

I remember those days. All of those things above are things I stopped doing on my second attempt at preparing for the bar exam.

May 9, 2026May 9, 2026 - 16 Comments

Bar Prep Is Overwhelming: How to Make Independent Choices for Yourself

You have questions about the bar exam. How to study. When to study. Whether you’re on the right track. Picking the right bar prep supplements out of all the resources out there.

"Yes, it is very overwhelming and the amount of resources out there to help are also overwhelming lol"

Here’s how questions go on social media:

“What’s the best program/tutor/outline?”

It makes me wonder: Do you just want to be told with certainty, or do you actually want the objective best?

If you crowdsource the answer, by definition, you won’t know which one is “best” because you’ll get different answers based on everyone’s own experience.

In fact, the more options you have, the more hesitant you get. There are pros and cons to every option.

How would you even trust what’s best until you try it yourself?

There are no secrets, and there are a million ways to pass. It’s always been up to you.

Sounds scary but also freeing, right? You have it in you already.

Sure, sometimes you want to vent and get some support from others. See what other people are doing.

But bar prep is personal. I want to encourage you to listen to yourself a little more instead of blindly being influenced by what someone else says you “need” to do (not just with bar prep but with everything else in life).

That’s where the danger lies. Everyone has an opinion (and sometimes a tutoring service). Is that comment even a real opinion or just an ad? Are you reading something thrown up by AI and not respectful of your attention?

You shop around the astroturf and end up where you started.