Brian, Author at Make This Your Last Time

November 21, 2025June 12, 2026 - 2 Comments

Almost Failing Law School to Passing the CA Bar Exam in One Shot

You don’t need to be a legal rockstar to pass the bar exam. Like me, Christian wasn’t the best student in law school.

💬 “I graduated from law school with a 3.08 GPA. My 1L year was extremely challenging for me, turning me from a student accustomed to receiving A’s in high school and undergrad to suddenly receiving my first D+ in Property Law. So needless to say, I was terrified at the idea of taking the California Bar Exam, notoriously known as the most difficult in the country.”

But we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t know the ending already.

Christian passed the July 2025 California Bar Exam on her first try. I’m not even surprised anymore. This is normal around here.

💬 “I’m so excited to share what helped me pass the CA Bar Exam on my first try. Reading these stories was so motivating for me, and I was so excited for the day I could write my own!”

November 14, 2025June 13, 2026 - No Comments

Passing the Kentucky Bar Exam (UBE) with AuDHD on Her Third Attempt

Jessica passed the July 2025 Kentucky Bar Exam (UBE) on her third try.

💬 “Here’s a pretty good follow-up. I passed with a 269. Although that is one point away from 270, a pass is a pass. Kentucky requires a 266.”

💬 “I graduated near the bottom of my law school class, and one regret I have with the law school experience was not putting into practice questions a lot sooner than outlining.”

What happened on her first two attempts?

💬 “In my first two attempts, I was using Themis and was completely burnt out by the time I took the exam in both July 2024 and February 2025. I failed both attempts as a result.”

This is the same old story that fresh grads don’t hear about. A lesson that they won’t learn until they get burned personally. And then the cycle continues.

But good thing you’re here to stop that cycle for yourself.

What did Jessica do differently on her third attempt to make it successful?

August 19, 2025August 19, 2026 - No Comments

How to Study for the Bar Exam While Working Full Time

Studying for the bar exam while working full time is a tough ask.

You already have a full plate at work, and now you’re supposed to come home and grind through lectures and questions on top of that. It sounds brutal because, well, it is.

But the thing is, working candidates pass the bar exam every single day. You don’t have to be gifted or lucky, just focus on the right things that help you learn efficiently. It’s very doable if you study smart, stay consistent, and refuse to compare your journey to someone sitting at home studying eight hours a day while doomscrolling for half that time.

The guiding principle here is that constraints force you to be creative with your time and focus on what moves the needle. We’ll trim the fluff and time wasters (like repeating lectures on 0.75x speed).

Whether you’re working full time at a firm, doing contract work, or coming home to a baby who won’t sleep while you’re wishing you could, the strategies here are practical and built around the reality of limited time.

July 11, 2025November 25, 2025 - No Comments

UK Attorney Got a 316 on the NY UBE on Her First Try While Working Full Time

Sushmita passed the February 2025 New York Bar Exam on her first attempt:

as a UK-trained attorney
right after taking another exam
while working full time
starting with ZERO prior knowledge of American law
with a score of 316 (!)

💬 “I did not study any US law during my LLM save for a short intro module for international students, i.e., I did not require an LLM to be eligible to take the bar exam.”

💬 “I am delighted to share that I’ve passed the UBE in NY with a score of 316.”

That’s just unnecessarily impressive.

On top of that, she went into prep already knowing she didn’t want to use a big box bar review program.

💬 “I have no wish to purchase bar prep from the big players like Barbri, Themis, JD Advising, Kaplan etc.”

💬 “Given my trauma in dealing with these terrible companies, I was looking for assistance similar to what I found for the [Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE)], from people who genuinely want to help students. I found your website again when looking through my old bookmarks from 2022, and I am glad I did.”

Most first-time bar takers default to using a big course. How did she so confidently decide not to use one?

More importantly, how did she beat this exam without using one on her first try?

July 5, 2025July 5, 2026 - No Comments

How to Know If You’re Actually Learning the Law or Just Memorizing the Words

Many bar exam candidates spend weeks or months watching lectures and reviewing outlines, only to freeze when they sit down to answer practice questions.

You’ve read the material over and over. You’ve highlighted your notes. You can nod along when your bar prep course explains a concept. But when exam day arrives, you’ve suddenly got amnesia, and the rules you thought you knew suddenly feel slippery.

The problem is that you’ve been memorizing words on a page instead of learning what they mean. There’s a vast difference between the two. True understanding means you can recall the rules (not just recognize them in an outline), and adapt them to new fact patterns (until they become repetitive) under pressure.

Becoming familiar with the issues and rules feels productive in the moment but is unreliable when you need it most. Understanding this distinction is the first step toward transforming your bar prep mastery.