Asmita (a T14 law school grad) passed the February 2026 California Bar Exam on her fourth attempt.
Making this your last time truly pays off!
She’s not the only one who’s reported back on the relief. You’re going to have to lock in sooner or later. Might as well do it now.
What kind of strategic planning did she do? Stay tuned…
Just kidding, here we go.
Resources Asmita used to pass the California Bar Exam
💬 “They really helped me to understand Professional Responsibility especially which was the toughest for me. I liked the flow charts and issue spotting technique.”
Performance Test Toolkit (comes with the above)
💬 “I also used your past essay bank resource to read through past essays to get an understanding of a realistic passing score because the sample answers always messed with my head.”
UWorld MBE QBank
- Visit UWorld here to activate the discount, and use code “BRIAN10” at checkout for 10% off
Themis
MTYLT emails (get in here)
💬 “Your Fire Up Friday emails got me through on my worst days.”
Looking back on her first three attempts, Asmita found that the reason for failure boiled down to one thing: She wasn’t motivated.
If you’re only studying passively (like I did on my first attempt), you’re not motivated.
If you don’t care to know the rules of the game and figure you’ll be fine winging it, you’re not motivated.
If you’re not figuring out your time management, you’re not motivated.
If you don’t have your “why,” you’re not motivated.
If you’re looking for shortcuts all the time, you’re not motivated.
If you’re only concerned about how many questions you need to pass, you’re not motivated (and looking to get away with the bare minimum and should do as many as you can).
If you’re resting on the laurels of your T14 degree, you’re not motivated. This is a clean slate. My PhD classmate with top 10% grades and I (in the bottom 11%) repeated the bar exam and returned to dust all the same.
“What do you mean I’m not motivated? I’m doing all this work…”
Spinning your wheels in the sand takes a lot of work, too.
If you’re stuck going through the motions and assume that simply stepping on the gas harder will automatically make you move forward, perhaps you’re not seeking the right kind of work.
Now I’m not saying you can’t pass as an unmotivated and unserious student. There are plenty of bar takers who “go through the program” and pass (if they do what Asmita does below). Brute forcing can work.
But if you’re someone who memorizes all the rules word for word but doesn’t know how to use them, you’re just a big know-it-all hiding behind books. Someone stupider than you just might pass before you and have their face on a billboard.
Compare with someone who actually wants to understand this shit and enjoy DOING it. There’s a vast difference.
A comedian who just rattles off memorized lines just isn’t as funny. But the ones who test and tweak their jokes over and over while the stakes are lower end up with their own shows.
Asmita shows how she did this with her bar prep…
1) Practice with intentional review (eat and then digest)
Consuming isn’t enough. You need to use what you consumed. Eat and then digest.
Here are examples of how Asmita ate…
The performance test is often the last thing people prepare for but the easiest to fix and a high priority (which is why I try to make it a point to mention it before essays to keep short circuiting your tendency to get drawn to them).
For essays, she implemented a progression of pre-review (Themis outline) → open-book essays → closed-book essays. Practice was combined with grading and self-review with my essay answer bank.
She recognized that it was about identifying relevant issues, stating the corresponding rule, and discussing the facts (in that order). Writing like a bar taker, not like a lawyer, to a grader who has 90 seconds and a checklist. She didn’t need to sound like a brilliant lawyer. Keep it stupid simple.
If you’re writing like 500 words, then maybe you’ve missed something. But word count doesn’t actually matter that much. It’s the wrong metric to track. The better metric is whether you’ve scraped all the issues and sub-issues (nuances, exceptions, defenses).
For the MBE, she went straight to reps and reviewed her work deeply.
That’s all great. You measure yourself and generate data. But just like how you don’t stop at reviewing outlines, don’t stop at measuring yourself.
How did she digest?
Reviewing your work doesn’t feel like motion. It’s slower than moving on to more questions.
But studying explanations and model answers and reviewing your work are where the most learning happens. It’s where you get feedback. I suggest spending at least as much time doing this as doing the questions, which is why I allocate at least double the time in the schedule (e.g., “1 hour of MBE practice” actually equals at least 2 hours).
So when you hear “practice practice practice,” I’m actually not a fan of this advice because it overcorrects and oversimplifies. That’s all you end up doing.
Don’t worry. There are more questions around the corner. Take the time to study your opponent before getting in the ring again.
By test day, she was just doing what she’d already rehearsed a thousand times.
Does all of this sound too daunting? It’s completely natural to feel the fear and overwhelm, but you want to get it out of the way before the exam. The more you lean into the discomfort, the more comfortable you’re going to feel about it.
2) Support is all around you
Motivation runs out.
Asmita was fortunate to have a support system right by her.
But help is all around you if you look carefully. I dug up this ancient email I sent back in 2014 about 10 places to find help around you.
(I went down the rabbit hole looking for that email and found proof all along that I’ve been begging you to practice PTs, that advice is autobiography, and how “passing the bar freaking owns”. Damn, something is wrong if my old self makes me laugh because I’m not as funny anymore 🥲)
Even with a cheerleader by her side, the emails I spend every week working on were another source of help Asmita turned to lift her out of her worst days.
Build belief by seeing others win. Reading other people’s success stories empowered her to believe she too could be one of those people being featured like this.
Do you believe you can do it too?
3) Things will go wrong on test day, but you can still pass anyway
Repeat bar takers are probably some of the most anxious people on the planet. They know what happened last time and aren’t sure their identity as a smart person could take another hit.
Asmita showed up anyway, despite three previous unsuccessful attempts. Then again, you don’t really have a choice once you’ve decided to take this exam.
She was far from convinced she passed. But this is the type of people who often end up passing over the ones who don’t know what they don’t know.
Confidence isn’t required. It’s nice to have. I can give it to you. But confidence makes little difference when it comes to passing. Competence is what ultimately matters.
During the exam, think in terms of “how much can I get correct here, because I’ve seen this before” (arrogance, trust in the preparation, and just having fun with it). Not “how many points did I just lose” (anxiety, paranoia).
But you earn the right to do this before you step foot into the testing hall. It’s like mise en place. 90% of the work is done before you turn on the stove.
The last thing you want to do is give up, hope for the best, and make the exam a “practice exam.” You’ll still have to do this whether it’s now or 6 months later.
It was when Asmita finally got serious about bar prep, changed her strategy, and stayed motivated that all she had to do was show up and answer a few questions.
Full story
Big email update coming Monday. At a wedding this weekend and plan to enjoy the hell out of it ahah. Thank you for everything ❤️
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I had a dream about you! I was studying for the bar, and then you asked me what I was doing, and I was like just studying, and then you looked at me confused and I was like oh wait, I passed already!!! and we laughed. What a relief man, this is the best feeling and I truly want everyone studying right now to experience it in November!
I have been slowly making edits to my email I plan to send you and this Fire up Friday email made me think I should let you know I am still working on it haha. Have a great weekend!
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My dearest Brian!
I’m sorry about the delay in this email but I hope it’s of some use still.
I passed on my 4th try 5 years after graduating from a T14.
This is what I think happened the first few times. First time- studied only passively and refused to play the game. Second time- terrible time management for essays, got a 0 on one of the essays. Third time- mental and physical health at an all time low; worked full time; only signed up for external reasons and was not motivated to study or take the test at all.
This time around, I quit my job; started therapy; ate/slept/exercised; didn’t let the test consume me; rested without guilt; enjoyed my hobbies and life in general; stayed internally motivated; didn’t isolate myself from my support system, and most of all practiced all the time, even when it was hard.
1. Practice with A LOT of very slow and intentional review.
For Essays: I used IDE DON workshop outlines on Themis and memorized a general attack outline. Then I went through the essay bank on Themis for each subject and just outlined or fully wrote out a lot of essays (started open then moved to closed), and submitted some for grading which was a great ego boost. I also used your past essay bank resource to read through past essays to get an understanding of a realistic passing score because the sample answers always messed with my head. There were a lot of times where I opened an essay and felt like I knew nothing about anything but the point is, I finally started to do the hard thing and learned from practicing/reviewing/writing essays in time conditions instead of avoiding. The more I practiced, the more I realized that it helped me to focus on the big picture of what I was being tested on. Once I got an understanding of the high level issues, I prioritized dissecting the facts as much as possible. On test day, I made IRAC my best friend. A high level issue, simplified rule, a big paragraph with a bunch of facts squeezed in with sentences like “It could be argued….” “On the other hand…” just to sound competent to someone who would barely glaze over the essay. I also always made sure I wrote out a conclusion so the essay sounded complete even if it wasn’t. I thought I failed the first day because I felt like I barely wrote anything for the PR essay so I am sure my other essays carried me. But I also want to say that I have generally only written between 700-900 words and have received 60-70 often so I don’t think it’s the word count as much as spotting the right issue and choosing the right facts in the analysis.
For MBE: I used Themis but I didn’t follow their structure or watch any videos/lectures. I used the flex mode and just practiced MBEs (you can toggle between uworld and themis simulated). I did both untimed question sets (20-30 and reviewed them in the same day) and timed sets (50 or 100/200 questions and reviewed them in two or three days). I dissected each question intensely, both the substance and my thinking process (how much time I took, did I identify the issue correctly, my level of focus and energy during the question, what words tripped me up in the question or answer choices, did I truly understand why the answer was right and why the others were wrong, how can I not make the same mistake again, any patterns I needed to identify in the question itself, etc.) There were many days where I felt too slow in my process which also made me question my intelligence but I am glad I trusted my gut because this time something just clicked and I was no longer guessing the answer choice. It was probably likely the tips and tricks to watch for from chatgpt that helped me identify certain patterns too. The more I reviewed the more I experienced the brain fog lift and felt confident. I ended up with about 1000-1200 questions which may not seem like a lot, but there was a lot of review and learning from each question so it felt like 2000. On test day, I never felt like I knew the right answer, I just trusted my practice. I believed there was only one right answer, I tried to think of the answer beforehand, and if I was stuck between two choices I made an educated guess going through tips and tricks list in my head (from chaatgpt) instead of just picking one out of fatigue and moving on. There were also a lot of experimental questions which were half a page long so they sucked up a lot of time and I had to bubble C for the last five questions on both morning and afternoon. This hadn’t happened before so I left feeling I failed the second day as well :).
I spent the last week of studying taking a full practice test and reviewing the rest of the days, and issue spotting and reading past essays. I’m telling you I really went hard on practice and review lol.
Performance Test: I practiced the crap out of the performance test and used your Performance Test Blog post, along with Maureen’s tips. I spent a whole weekend writing out like 5 PT’s and reviewing until it finally clicked.
2. Support system
I also had the best support system in my partner who truly took care of me and treated me like a baby and ensured all my basic needs were met at all times. I couldn’t have done this without his constant reminder that this test ain’t shit and doesn’t define me, and I just need to keep doing the hard thing (practice) especially when its hard, not focus on the results.
Your Fire Up Friday emails got me through on my worst days. Reading other people write that they thought they failed but ended up passing, emphasizing the importance of practice, pushing through multiple times, stories of perseverance, etc. just pushed me to quiet my imposter syndrome and believe I too will pass and be writing you one of these emails one day.
3. Expect everything to go wrong and still pass:
I was VERY close to not showing up for the test because all the past failed attempts made me think low of myself. But, I still showed up to the hotel the night before… forgetting all my notes!!, at my mental lowest because I had just started my period and my hormones were all crazy with sadness, anger, fatigue, I had the worst low back spasms, meanest proctor who marked my sheet in the middle of the test for the dumbest reason.
Regardless, the day of the test, I was soooo calm. I didn’t care about the test defining me. I didn’t care to pass or fail. I just knew I had practiced and studied and life would move on just like it had the last three times I had failed, and everything would be okay. I didn’t have to care. I just needed to answer a few questions and keep living my life.
Of course, two days after the test, all that positive thinking went down the drain and I ordered more barprep materials that I can no longer return, which speaks to how bad I thought I failed. But, here I am.
Thank you for your continued support and motivation, Brian and let me know if I can ever be of any use to you. 
Peace and love,
Asmita
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Yes, the attack outline was from Themis.
Yes, your PT pdf.
Yes, I used the approsheets my second and third time (when I researched you) to practice issue spotting. They really helped me to understand professional responsibility especially which was the toughest for me. I liked the flow charts and issue spotting technique. By the 4th time I didn’t need them anymore since I felt like I knew the content already and just needed more practice to not blank on test day.
