Strategies | Make This Your Last Time

February 13, 2026February 13, 2026 - No Comments

Scoring a 307 on the New York Bar Exam After 1 Week of Prep (Another Double Passer Alert with Doreen Benyamin)

About two weeks from the bar exam, most students:

Get overwhelmed, freeze, and suddenly not know what to do
Panic, overthink everything, and see scores dip
Feel like they’re behind and completely cooked on the exam

I want to share a story about Doreen Benyamin.

Maybe you recognize her. She hosted a live workshop before, where she interviewed me so she could take all my tips for the California Bar Exam for herself.

She passed California.

And then she passed the New York Bar Exam with a score of 307 after studying for just one week (on her first attempt).

She was yet another double passer (like James).

So I had to interview her back. This was a long time coming. There was an incredible amount of insight from our conversation that took me days to process.

But maybe you won’t panic or get overwhelmed after hearing the strategies that allowed her to get it done in one week.

February 7, 2026February 10, 2026 - 8 Comments

6 Ways to Reclaim Your Time & Energy While Studying for the Bar Exam (Even If You’re Working Full Time)

Your hair feels gross, the fridge is empty, and you’ve been scraping together whatever free time you can.

Words in front of you are jumbling together into a blurry mess, passing by like a dream and also slipping away like one.

I’ve been where you are. In a way, I’m still there.

Bar prep steeps you in this undercurrent of anxiety because there’s so much to study with so little time and you’re feeling the pressure from the exam getting closer and closer. The worst combination.

But it’s not just time. Time isn’t your scapegoat. “Life is short” is propaganda by people who wasted their time.

“Yeah maybe when I have more time. I’m going to feel motivated someday. Everything happens for a reason.”

Oh, okay.

We like to tell people we “don’t have time” or that “time is the most valuable resource” or that “life is short” (even though we love to procrastinate).

That’s because time is not actually your most valuable resource.

You ALSO need ENERGY and ATTENTION. You need CLARITY so you can be productive.

You ever see those everyone-has-24-hours “motivational” “quotes”? Even if you had the time, it doesn’t mean jack unless you have the mental energy to do something with it.

If you’re “running out of time,” it just means you’re almost finally done. But you have to use your energy well without tripping and falling before the finish line.

Here are 6 rules to take back your time and energy while studying for the bar exam (even if you’re working full time):

January 31, 2026February 4, 2026 - 2 Comments

The Uncomfortable Truth That Most Bar Exam Advice Ignores

My parents were right… I voluntarily picked up the piano again, more than two decades after my last lesson.

Teaching yourself to play a piece on a piano is the epitome of meta-learning (learning how to learn).

Preparing for the bar exam is no different because all of it is actually self-study, even with a course.

Maybe this is happening: You study for weeks. Nothing seems to improve. It still feels hard. You still feel slow. You still feel anxious. You can’t shake the feeling, “This should be working, but it isn’t.”

The learning techniques I’ve been sharing with you for bar prep are what I use personally, like learning to play a piece well enough. I practice what I preach.

I’m not a genius. I’m not a prodigy. I don’t “know any songs.”

But this is what works for me to this day to teach myself anything. You too can teach yourself how to fish instead of waiting for that program to feed you.

Let me share the raw, inconvenient truth about what it means to “get good enough” at bar prep:

Why “effortless” is misleading
How to use model answers
The difference between learning and performance
When the right time to feel ready is
How to distribute your focus
Where memorization shows up
What plateaus mean
Why time away from the work is part of the work
How to deal with performance anxiety
Why play with the process
A secret but ugly source of motivation

January 16, 2026January 24, 2026 - 2 Comments

How an Australian Lawyer Passed the Illinois UBE (After Passing in California)

I featured James in a previous case study back in 2022. He passed the California Bar Exam as an Australian lawyer back then. Then he passed the July 2025 Illinois UBE.

💬 “Brian, just a heads-up: I passed the July UBE! Thanks for all that you do.”

I didn’t even know James was taking another bar exam. What a masochist.

💬 “After passing the CA Bar exam in 2022, in late 2024 I ended up in the mid-west! Fortunately, given my decade+ experience as an attorney in Australia, I was able to become eligible to sit the Illinois Uniform Bar Exam (UBE).”

Here’s a follow-up to his 2022 case study because I run into folks taking both exams fairly often.

Whether you’re taking the UBE or the CA Bar Exam (or a masochist looking to take both at some point), James compares and contrasts his successful strategies from both exams.

He recommends tailoring your approach to each exam given the differences.

💬 “You might think that passing the UBE would be easy enough (after passing the CA Bar). However, speaking from experience I can advise that it isn’t that simple. In important ways (content tested, timing, structure and scoring), the first day of both bar exams are completely different. This means that if you don’t adapt your strategy accordingly, you could end up failing the UBE!”

💬 “I do not recommend the strategy I used to pass the California Bar be used to attempt to pass the UBE.

These differences dictate the need for a change in strategy!”

January 10, 2026January 10, 2026 - 16 Comments

Enjoying Bar Prep: 6 Ways to Make Studying for the Bar Exam More Fun and Effective (Visual Guide)

Is it possible to enjoy bar prep?

It’s one of the dryest things a person can do on this planet. But we retain more and pay more attention when things are enjoyable.

The default, typical approach to bar prep involves sitting still like a statue watching people in a suit drone on as you fantasize about throwing yourself out the window (not your computer though…you already paid the exam laptop fees).

If you’re especially masochistic, you’ll pause the video and make sure to fill in all the lecture notes because you think your Barbri books will be a fine addition to your future library.

This is all surprisingly exhausting.

As a bonus, you’ll also forget 99% of what you listened to. I’d rather watch water boil because at least I’d have something to show for it, like edible pasta.

“Just complete the course! Here’s some busy work! Play it safe and you’ll be fine!”—The National Association of Barbri (probably)

The default way of doing things feels nice because you can’t get anything wrong when you’re just absorbing information. You won’t taste defeat, but you won’t taste victory either.