Brian, Author at Make This Your Last Time

June 6, 2025June 10, 2025 - No Comments

How Amy Stayed Calm and Patient Through Bar Prep to Pass the Bar Exam

Amy passed the February 2024 California Bar Exam on her first try.

Yep, she passed last year and is back for more punishment.

💬 “I was a July 2024 CA bar taker and passed thanks to your lifesaving magicsheets and approsheets. I am now relocating to DC and have to take the July 2025 bar in DC.”

This is a good chance to peer into the mind of a high performer:

1) Amy graciously sent a detailed retrospective when I asked her for a recap of her study process, even though a year had passed. Those who are confident about doing it, share how to do it. I assume she’ll use a similar approach for the UBE.

2) The mind is half the battle in bar prep. Amy’s story teaches lessons on knowing when to correct course and staying calm and patient through bar prep.

This one’s for you if you’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and on the verge of a spicy crashout.

May 30, 2025May 30, 2025 - No Comments

From “Studying” 15+ Hours a Day (and Feeling Behind) to Actually Learning

Justine passed the February 2025 California Bar Exam on her first try.

💬 “I’m happy to share that I’ve passed the February bar – on my first try as well!”

She was initially putting in 15+ hours a day with her bar review course!

But I’m about to show you why “working hard” doesn’t always mean you’re going to learn or retain any information.

May 24, 2025May 24, 2025 - 22 Comments

You Need a Personalized Study Plan: Making Your Own Bar Prep Study Schedule

Haters will say it’s impossible:

I’m not saying the haters are right.

I’m just saying…maybe…it’s not about mindlessly stacking assignments and being too busy completing them to absorb what you’re doing?

The only thing I remember from law school is my negotiations professor saying this in class randomly:

“Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”

Is bar preparation worth doing? Then it’s worth doing right. Doing it intentionally. Being an overachiever without being a tryhard.

After all, you’re the dean of your own studies. And we know that enjoying the process creates sustainable momentum (not just fixating on the goal of passing the bar).

Just as what’s enjoyable is personal, bar prep is also personal. Your study plan and schedule are personal.

There are many reasons your schedule will look different from everyone else’s:

You might be working while studying for the bar exam and have 3 hours scattered throughout a workday.
Maybe you live in your parents’ basement and have every day free. Your mom shakes her head as she sees you shitposting on Reddit instead of studying.
Or maybe you only have certain hours of your day free while the kids are at school.

Meanwhile, your bar review course hands you a cookie-cutter schedule that packs in an overwhelming number of tasks or “self-study” sessions where you have no direction on what to do (tfw you get love bombed and ghosted).

Does it make sense that you get the exact same study schedule for every scenario above? Not to me.

Is there a smarter, more effective plan that would serve your needs more and improve your odds of passing?

Yes, one that’s customized to you.

That said, I suggest adhering to a few ideas when planning your bar prep. For example:

May 23, 2025May 25, 2025 - No Comments

Singaporean Attorney Passes the CA Bar Exam (Starting from 40% AdaptiBar, 20 Years Out of Law School)

Imagine: You’re 20 years out of law school. You’re barely getting half the questions right. You don’t even know American law.

💬 “I have never studied in the US or had any experience with the American legal system (England and Singapore are both common law jurisdictions). So, I knew that before I even started to learn the BLL, I needed to study the exam itself. To me, the bar exam was a game and to play the game well, I needed to know the rules of the game.

This meant starting my bar prep from scratch.”

Lesley graduated from law school in Singapore in 2005. Then she decided to take the February 2025 California Bar Exam and pass on her first attempt.

💬 “I am a first-time taker, foreign attorney applicant (English law and Singapore law qualified). I’m 43 years old and graduated from law school in 2005, so exactly 20 years ago!”

She has never seen a July exam and never will.

How many times do I have to say that bar prep is a learnable, acquirable skill?

How many times do I have to prove that you can pass the bar exam—even if you’re a foreign-trained attorney, 60+ years old, or a left-handed rising water moon sign.

Before I dive into her methods, let’s take a moment to thank Lesley because she sent me a five-page write-up for me to break down just for you.

First lesson: How you do anything is how you do everything. Following through and paying it forward are behaviors of a successful person.

(Yes, I expect a juicy story in my inbox after you pass.)

May 17, 2025May 17, 2025 - 35 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 100% and you’ll pass!”

Could you imagine if that’s all it took tho

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 other responsibilities like work or 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.

When you thought the lectures made sense

“Trust the process.”

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