They say that overthinking happens when you don’t trust your gut.
You already know what to do. The problem is that you don’t trust yourself enough to do it.
Maybe you should learn to listen to your gut a little more instead of regretting it later in your most private moments.
Maybe you shouldn’t blindly spin your wheels on an outdated one-size-fits-all agenda that doesn’t go anywhere.
Maybe you shouldn’t waste time as a way to procrastinate.
Maybe you shouldn’t listen to predictions.
Maybe you should focus on learning instead of going through the motions and dicking around.
Are you finally ready to listen yet?
Here’s a quick test to see if you’ve been paying attention
Let’s see if information has been baked into you as insight.
Pick and do one:
- Answer 10 MBE questions
- Write an essay answer
- Write a performance test answer (don’t forget about these guys)
Oh look, here’s a convenient collection of past essay and PT questions from California and various UBE jurisdictions. You should bookmark and use it.
Go ahead. You can even do it open book. I’ll wait. But not too long because we have work to do.
Stop scrolling and do this right now (or come back to it later before proceeding) because we’re about to diagnose you.
How’d you do? Click to see your diagnosis!
For essays, focus primarily on comparing your issues and rules against the answer.
For PTs, focus primarily on comparing the rules you pulled out of the Library and the facts you pulled out of the File against the answer.
Just because you were correct doesn’t mean you were right. Check to see you got them right for the right reasons.
This is ALSO good…
Because now you know the truth instead of finding out 9 months later with nothing to show for it. This is the whole point of bar prep.
Not only do you not know where you stand, but this is the exact kind of passivity and lack of engagement with the material I’m talking about.
This was a trick question because every choice other than D was right.
The part that mattered here was that you actually tried it and reviewed your work. That’s practice. That’s feedback. You would have obtained another valuable data point. Bar prep is a constant process of attempting, failing, and correcting.
If you couldn’t do a simple task now, how do you know you can do it later? If you can’t do it later, how do you know you can do it on the exam?
You don’t want the exam itself to be the time you start collecting data. That’s like skating on a frozen lake without testing how solid the ice is first.
Don’t fret, though. This question doesn’t count. Practice questions don’t count either. The only questions that count are the ones that show up on the exam.
The question is: Are you willing to fail now so you don’t fail later? Or get upset because you got baited into shame by your surrogate Asian dad?
Why do people get stuck in bar prep? (And how do you get unstuck?)
People much less talented than you passed the bar, and now you see their stupid faces on billboards and bullshit “rising stars” lists.
Why is that?
They started badly yet left you behind while you stayed stuck in complacency. I think there’s a fable about that…
REASON 1: Thinking consuming information = “absorbing” information
They read outlines and watch videos and take notes for 7 hours. Some people even try to complete all the assignments 🫵🏻 What good boys and girls!
But they don’t put what they absorbed into practice until the exam is 3 weeks away, stressed tf out and cramming like their life depends on it (it kinda does).
At least they’re taking information in! It’s doing something!
Yeah, so is a wheel spinning in mud.
“I should know how to do this” yet being unable actually to do it is what causes that unease and undercurrent of anxiety.
You learn to swim by getting in the water, not by studying water. 🗣️🗣️🗣️
“Preparing to prepare” has its place, of course, but there are situations where a moment of real experience will give you more understanding than a week of reading.
I see most changes happen with people who finally get unstuck when they realize DOING is more helpful.
Memorizing doesn’t help you recall. Recalling helps you recall.
So if you’re being passive with yourself, pause, and see if what you’re doing is actually helping you answer questions correctly. Information consumed needs to be processed and digested by applying it to examples and seeing if you did it right.
REASON 2: Trying to overhaul their entire prep in one go
Sometimes it’s more exciting to think about starting something new than seeing it through.
So they might start strong. They get a ton of different supplements and go to sleep excited with their outfit laid out next to their bed.
But then sometimes they get bored or burned out within weeks when the initial burst of motivation fades. They get overwhelmed. I don’t hear from them anymore.
This is how workout plans and diets eventually fail. It doesn’t work if you do one huge session at the gym and go on a 25,000-step hike and come back to a week’s worth of chicken with 0 moisture content in the fridge.
Of course you don’t want to go through that again.
Instead, how about letting yourself have small victories (like by doing the 1 essay I asked you to try)?
Maybe uninstall DoorDash and walk to the grocery store? (I’m mostly talking to myself here)
Maybe come up with a simple and effective plan that fits you like a tailored suit and doesn’t waste time on things that don’t help you? (Hint: Your study schedule may not make sense to others and vice versa.)
Everyone can figure out “what to study.” Where people get stuck is in the “how to prepare” aspect because bar review courses and law schools never break it down. They assume law school and the bar exam are the same skills (they’re not).
Set yourself up for success by making it easy to do the simple, boring, repetitive work needed to convert raw information into bar exam skills you can trust. THIS is where confidence comes from, not from some random Redditor telling you “you’ve got this” while doomscrolling in bed.