Mindset/Psychology | Page 5 of 11 | Make This Your Last Time

June 9, 2022March 28, 2023 - No Comments

What to Do in the Weeks Leading up to the Bar Exam

Not really sure what’s working in the weeks leading up to the bar exam? Or what you should be doing?

If you’re taking a bar review course like Barbri, Themis, or Kaplan, then first make sure that you’ve been using it correctly (and that it hasn’t been using you to fill up its completion meter). Sometimes they don’t make clear what you should be doing to be prepared by the end of it all, other than the endless lectures and review sessions they make you sit through.

It’s like you aren’t feeling as confident or ready as you feel you should be after all that time spent. Studying for the bar exam can be a grueling process, so it’s important to have strategies in place to help you stay focused and motivated — and most important — make progress.

What should you be doing to make sure you’re really preparing enough for the big day? Here’s a framework to help you in the weeks leading up to the test:

May 16, 2022February 9, 2024 - 1 Comment

How do Magicsheets and Approsheets fit into your other bar exam study materials?

There are a LOT of study supplements, resources, and outlines for bar prep. As time passes, more and more get added to your potential repertoire.

Sometimes, the sheer overwhelm causes bar takers to load up on all sorts of materials, attend every workshop, DM everyone offering something — spreading themselves so thin that they end up not using any of it!

The materials collect digital dust, and bar takers end up restarting at square one, exhausted. But “the great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” (Herbert Spencer)

I, too, offer study materials for the California Bar Exam and the Uniform Bar Exam. Here’s my answer to questions about them, including HOW to use them. This will be useful whether or not you use my material.

April 26, 2022June 28, 2022 - 1 Comment

How Hard Is the Bar Exam? Why Is the Bar Exam So Hard?

No doubt, the bar exam challenges even the toughest and baddest law students. It requires a great deal of preparation if you want to improve your chances of passing.

Is the bar exam that difficult? What makes it so hard? How hard is the bar exam really?

It’s not just the overwhelming academic aspect of it. There are several aspects that make the bar exam an ordeal (as some call it, a hazing ritual or a rite of passage).

Why Is the Bar Exam So Hard? How Hard Is the Bar Exam?

These five aspects of what makes the bar exam difficult to pass are often overlooked:

Financial (the true cost of the bar exam)
Mental
Emotional
Physical
Psychological

Let’s go over these in detail one by one so you can prepare for them.

March 23, 2022March 23, 2022 - 1 Comment

Feeling Worried or Anxious Waiting for Bar Results?

First two weeks after the bar exam: Excited over congratulatory meals even though you haven’t passed yet

In between: Alternating between boredom and nightmares that remind you that you already took the bar exam and it can’t hurt you anymore

Last two weeks before bar results: HELP ME

In your desperation, you seek advice regardless of who it is…

You: “How do I handle the post-exam stress and anxiety of waiting for bar results?”

Your drunk uncle: “Don’t dwell on it… Trust in yourself… Don’t think about your answers…”

You nod politely and close the door behind you.

One problem: Our brains don’t always listen to reason! It’s hard not to think about the most important exam of your career.

In your most private moments, when all is still, you get flashbacks to the exam, relive the things you did wrong, and blow it up to the worst proportions.

The smallest error, realizing that you answered a few MBE questions wrong or made one misstatement in an entire essay, can seem like the difference between passing and failing. (“It WAS spousal testimonial privilege, not marital communications privilege! FUCK”)

You can’t just tell your brain to “stop thinking about it”… It’s inevitable that you’ll think about it. But you can change HOW you think about it and ease the agony a bit.

After screaming into your pillow, try these three ways to reframe your situation to reduce waiting anxiety (more details follow):

The worst case: What’s the absolute worst that could happen?
Reducing anticipation: Mentally push back D-Day
Don’t be miserable in advance

February 5, 2022February 11, 2023 - 2 Comments

“I’m so unmotivated to study for the bar exam”

Feeling unmotivated to study for the bar exam?

There’s a lot of talk about motivation around this time of bar season.

"How to bring back motivation?

I’m a retaker. I was doing pretty well score wise the last couple of weeks and felt generally decent. But this past week has me mentally exhausted and unmotivated. I can barely bring myself to do any meaningful study.

I know I can’t let this continue. It’s crunch time for God’s sake! How the hell do I bring back my motivation??"

"Failed simulated exam and feeling unmotivated

I'm a mess. I started off very optimistic but I'm just nervous and scared now. I've done all of the MBE subjects and 3 MEE subjects (I still have family law, corporations, agency and conflicts of law left). I scored a 79/200 on Barbri's simulated MBE and I'm just scared that I won't have time to practice. Has anyone failed the simulated exam but still managed to pass the bar? Do you have any advice? I'm sobbing."

"Seeking Motivation

I know this may be a little too soon into the process of preparing for the February Bar Exam, but how do you seek motivation? I know I’m supposed to study, but I just can’t seem to get through my tasks. I don’t know how more to get into the psyche of “I need to study because I want to pass” but I’m really struggling to motivate myself to put myself through the process. Any tips?"

Let’s first distinguish being unmotivated from being mentally exhausted.

If you’re TIRED, don’t accumulate exhaustion and enter a downward spiral. Stop at a reasonable point. Take an early day off. Reset your mind. Go the f🌕k to sleep.

Passive activities like watching (or rewatching) lectures, transcribing notes, or “reading” for hours also can be DRAINING if that’s all you do. Thinking about doing it is more exhausting than actually doing it. Don’t autopilot on default to avoid doing what helps you learn. Be more methodical and deliberate.

This is pretty boring stuff! It’s normal if you just can’t or don’t want to study right now. But this feeling will pass if you break eye contact with bar prep for a while. Your energy is at least as important as time, as we’ll talk about in the next email.

If you have the energy but still aren’t feeling motivated, that’s a separate issue. Being able to self-motivate is key. Otherwise, you might wait for a long time for things that make you say “I needed this today!” and do nothing about it.

Category: Mindset/Psychology