What Finally Helped a 64-Year-Old Retaker Pass the Minnesota UBE

I love nontraditional success stories, especially when they’re from younger or older folks.

Richard passed the 2025 July Minnesota UBE at age 64.

💬 “I passed in Minnesota. I had 7 previous attempts in Arizona and Texas, this was my first attempt in Minnesota.”

💬 “My written score went up 13 points and my MBE up 6 points, and now they call me esquire at 64 years young.”

I love nontraditional success stories because they pull the rug of expectations from under you.

Someone could look at success stories from foreign attorneys (from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Turkey, the UK, etc.), people who are 60+ years old, people who worked full-time (including a busy biglaw partner), people who went to unaccredited or no-longer-existing law schools, someone with a 9% chance of passing, someone who was in prison for 32 years, people who studied for a few weeks (or even just 1 week), people who closed 150- and 180-point gaps on the California Bar Exam while literally dying from health issues…

(You can find these actual stories on my blog.)

And they might still say, “But I’m a left-handed Capricorn with a water allergy! Aha, gotcha! I knew everything happened for a reason! You can’t just cherry pick 50 case studies!!!”

Do you want reasons it won’t work out, or reasons it could work out?

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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 and you’ll pass!”

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.

Rewinding the video for the 5th time because you can’t stop thinking about the Roman Empire

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

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Why You Feel Exhausted Studying for the Bar Exam

Let me guess. Is this your idea of bar prep?

  • Listen to lectures while sitting still like a statue
  • Pause to take notes and fill in the blanks (doubling the time it takes to finish the lectures)
  • Read giant outlines and fall asleep with the lights on (osmosis didn’t work)

It’s like you’re experiencing the most annoying part about traveling—sitting for hours next to someone who takes up the armrest even though they got the window seat.

And repeating this every day. Is this what Limbo is like?

You’re drained and demoralized because you’re trying to “study” but aren’t feeling a sense of progress as words and days pass by you.

But why are you trying to do this the hard way?

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What If You Failed the Bar Exam? Should You Retake a Bar Review Course?

So you find yourself in an unbelievable situation: You failed the bar exam.

Procedure in case you failed the bar exam

Reality is undeniable. You dust off your tears. It’s time to take action.

You wonder: What’s the next step?

Should you retake your bar prep course? What’s the alternative? 

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Early Bar Prep: Should You Study Early for the Bar Exam? (When and How)

Some bar takers wonder if they should study early for the bar exam (ahead of the traditional 10-week schedule), whether…

  • They got results months ahead of the next bar exam.
  • They want to get a head start on studying
  • They deferred the exam (from July to February, February to July, or even a year or more)
  • They’re waiting for bar results and want to study “just in case”
  • They have a full-time job to juggle at the same time and won’t be able to take much time off
  • It’s been a minute (or years) since they’ve graduated from law school or taken the bar exam

While there are benefits to studying early and giving yourself a lot of time, there are many traps to doing so. There are also benefits to simply waiting (if your neurotic anxiety can handle it) until study season is in full swing before deciding whether or not to study for the bar exam.

But bar prep is personal. You’re the dean of your own studies.

To help you decide when to start studying, let’s discuss all of this—who early bar prep is right for and the best way to study early and effectively—so that you’re making the most of your time and energy.

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