Ryan did everything Themis told him to do. He followed the study plan, stayed on schedule, kept up with the material.
But he wasn’t able to write anything on his practice essays. He couldn’t even start.
This was 6 weeks before the February 2026 Michigan Bar Exam (UBE).
Then he walked out of the exam room with confidence. He passed with a score of 300 on his first attempt.
💬 “When it came time for exam day, I walked out of the room feeling like I had actually killed it. I wasn’t sure if I was delusional or had really actually done well.
Upon receiving my results, I did actually kill it. I scored a 300, with three perfect essay scores.”
Quick stats
- Jurisdiction: Michigan (UBE)
- Attempts: 1
- Score: 300
- Strength: MBE
- Weakness: MEE
💬 “The biggest change for me was realizing approximately 6 weeks out from the exam date that Themis’s large comprehensive outlines and the massive amount of information they provided were working against me.”
Resources Ryan used to pass the Michigan UBE
Performance Test Toolkit (comes with the above)
💬 “I found the MPT pocketbook helpful for devising an approach strategy and was able to combine that knowledge with what Themis taught me. I ended up with a 4 and a 6 on the MPTs.”
Pocket Guide “17 Strategies to Get Un-stuck and Un-frustrated by the Bar Exam” (comes with the above)
Themis
Does this seem familiar to you?
- Following Themis’s study plan diligently, completing everything on the schedule
- Taking several hours to read and re-review outlines running 20+ pages per subject
- STILL missing rules, unable to retain rule statements from bloated outlines
- STILL blanking on essays, never getting past “issue spotting” an outline
- STILL overwhelmed, getting cold sweats, and feeling like you’re fucked
This was Ryan’s situation. Typical for many first-timers.
How did Ryan go from that to getting perfect essay scores and committing first-degree murder of the bar exam?
More work =/= more prepared
You’re willing to put in the effort. In fact, you’re more at risk exhausting yourself in the process of being a try-hard who follows The Plan exactly.
Ryan (like many others) did the work he was supposed to do. He started following Themis’s program without cutting corners.
But the work wasn’t translating into anything he could use on exam day. Ryan knew this, too.
💬 “My initial approach was simply following my Themis study plan, and doing what was on my schedule. I did this diligently and made a good effort. Some of my essays never progressed past an outline, others I was unable to spot the issue and move forward, or did not know what rule applied to the issue, and there were some I flat out blanked on, like actually wrote nothing down. I wasregularly getting scored between 1-3 points on the essays.”
💬 “I knew if I maintained my current path, I would be screwed on testing day.”
What were the actual symptoms and problems?
💬 “I was blanking on essays, missing rules, and generally struggling with the in depth and voluminous outlines provided by Themis. Although they were filled with all necessary information, I had difficulty studying them effectively and even more difficulty retaining rule statements from them.”
The big outlines from Themis or Barbri are accurate and comprehensive. Using them isn’t wrong. (Using Kaplan’s shit ass materials is wrong. I don’t care if they blacklist me from, what, enrolling in their products ever again?)
But internalizing a 20+ page outline per subject takes a long time. What do you think is a better way to use these longer outlines? What do you think is their purpose?
(Hint: See Steve’s case study.)
“Am I screwed?”
Look, you can do anything you want but not everything you want. There just isn’t enough time to do everything you want in bar prep.
Ryan thought he was done for mid-prep …
💬 “About 5-6 weeks from my February exam date, I was still receiving less than satisfactory evaluations of my essay scores, and began to feel very overwhelmed and lacking confidence. For lack of better words, I was certain I was screwed and on the verge of losing it.”
💬 “I vividly remember flipping through some of your material to a section that says ‘am I screwed,’ which somehow eased my nerves.”
Here’s the section Ryan is referring to in the Pocket Guide (comes with Magicsheets and Passer’s Playbook):
Hey, at least I’ll be honest and won’t say “you’ve got this~” until you’ve earned the right.
Well, how do you become less screwed?
Sometimes you have to make independent executive decisions, as the dean of your own studies.
If you want to make time for repetition, skill building, and making the material stick, be willing to forget about the sunk costs, and rebel from the expensive supplement you got (typically Barbri or Themis).
💬 “The biggest change for me was realizing approximately 6 weeks out from the exam date that Themis’ large comprehensive outlines and the massive amount of information they provided were working against me.”
Saving Private Ryan (I crack myself up)
One way Ryan found to save his limited time was to use condensed source materials.
💬 “I needed to get my study materials down to something condensed and concise enough that I could easily reference if I was stuck and could spend 30 minutes to an hour reading each night instead of spending several hours on each outline. ”
Magicsheets made it possible for Ryan to review multiple subjects in one day. They allowed Ryan to reclaim his sanity and time to do some real studying.
💬 “I dumped Themis outlines and spent the majority of my time reviewing Magicsheets and outlining/writing any and all available practice essays I could find. The Magicsheets made it so I could easily review 3-4 topics every night after I had completed my Themis study plans.”
Ryan was, by his own admission, certain he was screwed, just six weeks before the exam. But he went from writing nothing on attempts at practice essays to walking into the exam confident.
💬 “I got to the point where I no longer needed to reference any outlines for the majority of my essays, and if I did, I only needed them to ‘perfect’ my essay in a way and make sure I hit every rule statement. This changed my entire outlook, and I felt confident walking into the exam room when it came time for the MEE. ”
What changed?
People often measure their progress in bar prep in terms of quantity.
But this doesn’t actually say anything about your strategy or skill output, which are indications that correlate better to whether you’ll pass the bar.
How many hours, how many questions, “how much of the course you completed” are just inputs into your prep. They’re just proxies of the above and useful as loose indications.
Ryan measured different and more meaningful metrics:
💬 “I ended up with a 4 and a 6 on the MPTs. I think the biggest thing here was picking your strategy, budgeting your time, and sticking to both.”
💬 “I scored a 300, with three perfect essay scores. It is my opinion your supplemental resources paired with Themis were instrumental to my success and I’m not sure I would have done as well otherwise.”
💬 “The instant relief I felt when I began reading and implementing your resources into my study programs was incredible.Everything was there, easy to understand, and even easier for me to retain.
My practice essay scores changed for the better, I regained my confidence, and felt I had gotten a renewed lease on my studying life.”
(BTW you could also bundle Magicsheets outlines with Approsheets issue checklists and flowcharts to fix that blank-page syndrome on the essays.)
Think about how you could evolve your standard for measuring your progress, using Ryan’s yardstick:
- How many essays and PTs can you write well?
- How many rules can you recall? Not just recognize, not just be familiar with, not just “memorize,” but remember and be able to write down
- Can you pick the right choice if you come back to the same practice question later?
Confidence comes from competence. Your goal is competence rather than mere coverage. (And my goal is to make myself obsolete to you.)
Balancing Themis with supplementation
Ryan clearly needed to improve his writing to go from blank page to writing perfect essays. But he also worked on his strengths.
💬 “Multiple choice has always been a strength of mine, but there were times I was struggling prior to the Magicsheets simply because I did not know my rule statements well enough. I was able to fix this with a nightly review of 3-4 Magicsheet subjects, which would have taken half a day had I used the Themis outline. ”
💬 “I coupled this strategy with taking up to 100 questions a day, examining why I got each answer wrong, and then writing the specific rule statement down for each incorrect question. This translated to practice test scores ranging into the high 70% regularly, which only gave me more confidence. ”
He was able to do this because of the time he freed up using condensed materials, which gave him time to analyze his work.
💬 “While doing this, I would write out the rule statement to any questions I got wrong and try my best to understand where things went wrong with my original answer.”
So what do you notice?
The question that matters is whether you can access what you’ve learned. You’ll need to do this when it’s time to solve questions, whether during practice or on exam day when you have nothing in front of you.
Everything changed for Ryan when he found a way to retain rule statements without wasting hours doing it. This came in handy when he was blanking on essays or struggling with MBE.
Ryan made the switch with six weeks left (using Magicsheets). You might have more time than that. You might have less. But the direction is the same:
Accrue the necessary knowledge. Practice using the knowledge. And as always, get things wrong.
Congrats Ryan on the 300! Thank you for sharing the before-and-after details.
Unedited Full Story
R
Ryan
Hey Brian, I wanted to reach out about my opinion about magic sheets. My original program was Themis…
May 4, 2026
Hey Brian,
I wanted to reach out about my opinion about magic sheets.
My original program was Themis. I diligently followed my study plan, did everything I was supposed to do, and still felt I was inadequate.
I was blanking on essays, missing rules, and generally struggling with the in depth and voluminous outlines provided by Themis. Although they were filled with all necessary information, I had difficulty studying them effectively and even more difficulty retaining rule statements from them.
About 5-6 weeks from my February exam date, I was still receiving less than satisfactory evaluations of my essay scores, and began to feel very overwhelmed and lacking confidence. For lack of better words, I was certain I was screwed and on the verge of losing it.
I decided to try a supplement, and went with your program. The instant relief I felt when I began reading and implementing your resources into my study programs was incredible. Everything was there, easy to understand, and even easier for me to retain. My practice essay scores changed for the better, I regained my confidence, and felt I had gotten a renewed lease on my studying life.
When it came time for exam day, I walked out of the room feeling like I had actually killed it. I wasn’t sure if I was delusional or had really actually done well. Upon receiving my results, I did actually kill it. I scored a 300, with three perfect essay scores.
It is my opinion your supplemental resources paired with Themis were instrumental to my success and I’m not sure I would have done as well otherwise. Long story short, your supplemental resources were a critical part of my success and I thank you for providing exam takers with the opportunity to have such a valuable resource available.
Thank you!
Regards,
Ryan
R
Ryan
Thank you! Sure thing. For the MEE: MEEs were my biggest issue. My problem with the Themis outlines was the overwhelming amount of information…
May 6, 2026
Thank you! Sure thing.
For the MEE:
MEEs were my biggest issue. My problem with the Themis outlines was the overwhelming amount of information. It was all good and relevant info but there was so much more than I felt was actually necessary. The length of some of these outlines exceeded 20 pages per subject, and reviewing each outline was very time consuming. It also made it difficult to retain specific rules because I was attempting to take in so much at once.
My initial approach was simply following my Themis study plan, and doing what was on my schedule. I did this diligently and made a good effort. Some of my essays never progressed past an outline, others I was unable to spot the issue and move forward, or did not know what rule applied to the issue, and there were some I flat out blanked on, like actually wrote nothing down. I was regularly getting scored between 1-3 points on the essays. Although the grader insisted that these were acceptable scores and things would be okay, I knew if I maintained my current path, I would be screwed on testing day.
The biggest change for me was realizing approximately 6 weeks out from the exam date that Themis’ large comprehensive outlines and the massive amount of information they provided were working against me. I needed to get my study materials down to something condensed and concise enough that I could easily reference if I was stuck and could spend 30 minutes to an hour reading each night instead of spending several hours on each outline.
So, I purchased Magic Sheets and began my new strategy. I vividly remember flipping through some of your material to a section that says “am I screwed”, which somehow eased my nerves. I dumped Themis outlines and spent the majority of my time reviewing Magic Sheets and outlining/writing any and all available practice essays I could find.
The Magic Sheets made it so I could easily review 3–4 topics every night after I had completed my Themis study plans. After implementing this strategy, I got to the point where I no longer needed to reference any outlines for the majority of my essays, and if I did, I only needed them to ‘perfect’ my essay in a way and make sure I hit every rule statement. This changed my entire outlook, and I felt confident walking into the exam room when it came time for the MEE.
For the MPT:
I did not have many issues. I knew that all of the information I needed would be available to me and it was on me to do the rest, which is something I felt confident in. I found the MPT pocketbook helpful for devising an approach strategy and was able to combine that knowledge with what Themis taught me. I ended up with a 4 and a 6 on the MPTs. I think the biggest thing here was picking your strategy, budgeting your time, and sticking to both. I talked to several people who spent too much time on one or another and it hurt them on the one they could not get to.
For the MBE:
Multiple choice has always been a strength of mine, but there were times I was struggling prior to the Magic Sheets simply because I did not know my rule statements well enough. I was able to fix this with a nightly review of 3–4 magic sheet subjects, which would have taken half a day had I used the Themis outline. I coupled this strategy with taking up to 100 questions a day, examining why I got each answer wrong, and then writing the specific rule statement down for each incorrect question. This translated to practice test scores ranging into the high 70% regularly, which only gave me more confidence.
I apologize for the brevity but I am at work and have to get back to it. Please let me know if you need any additional information or if I can answer any questions, as I am happy to advocate for your materials. They truly made a difference in my bar prep!
Regards,
Ryan
R
Ryan
No worries! The statement was included within the supplemental materials I had purchased from you. It may have been the Pocket Guide…
May 14, 2026
No worries! The statement was included within the supplemental materials I had purchased from you, I cannot remember specifically which document it was, but it was within a larger packet. It may have been the Pocket Guide.
My MBE prep was mostly Themis/U-World based. I followed the study plan mostly. Towards the last 6 weeks of my studying, I would attempt to go through an additional 100 questions a day. While doing this, I would write out the rule statement to any questions I got wrong and try my best to understand where things went wrong with my original answer.
My Essay/MPT prep was mostly Themis as well. I did all of the required essays per my study plan and then all additional extra practice essays they offered. I did my best to write complete essays but there were some essays I felt comfortable enough to do a basic outline and move on. I may have read and viewed additional essays on other platforms but did not make any attempts to outline or answer them.
Regards,
Ryan
R
Ryan
Yes, this was my first and only attempt
May 18, 2026
Yes, this was my first and only attempt.
Sent from my iPhone