Strategies Archives | Page 6 of 17 | Make This Your Last Time

July 13, 2024June 28, 2026 - 8 Comments

Stop “Studying” and Start Learning: The Underrated Practice of Practice in Bar Prep

You’ve sat still during lectures and tried to stay awake. You’ve taken notes. You’ve read outlines. You’ve even answered practice questions.

Then nothing works. Has this happened to you?

Back in college, I gave a copy of my cheat sheet for our engineering midterm to a girl. How do you say no to a girl? Answer: You can’t.

And then she got the lowest score in the class.

It had all the equations needed, but she didn’t know how and when those equations applied. She hadn’t seen those rules applied to similar problems. She assumed that just having the rules there would be enough. (Same reason open-book bar exams would change very little.)

It’s like when someone says, “b urself” or “learn to love yourself.” Okay… what’s that mean? Could you explain that a bit more, bro? Any specifics?

Same with your “black letter law”… What does “related” mean in your rule statement?

You get a better sense of what that means in the context of examples of how that rule is used. You gain an intuition.

You’d think these rules would be plug and play, but they’re not always. Context matters. Knowing when and how to use them matters.

June 26, 2024August 2, 2024 - No Comments

Common Pitfalls of First-Time Bar Exam Takers

First timers might be frustrated seeing advice from people who retook the bar exam and passed.

It’s true that repeaters start from experience. That’s their advantage.

Repeaters can afford to skip at least some of the lectures (as they should if they already watched them before). They can go straight to practice and review.

Meanwhile, first timers are juggling lectures, outlines, AND practice. Or at least they FEEL compelled to stick to The Plan.

First timers are also seeing the material for the first time, so they feel compelled to “get all their ducks in a row” before moving on while feeling increasingly crushed by the time pressure of the exam looming closer.

That’s understandable. Bar review courses latched onto you on your first day of law school.

So when first timers see advice like “take breaks” or “try different things” or “do what works for you”…

How are they supposed to do that?

June 21, 2024May 8, 2025 - No Comments

Fundamental Strategies for Passing the UBE While Working Full Time

Nat passed the 2024 February UBE on her second try while working full time. There are a lot of people working and studying at the same time these days. Times are tough!

💬 “I took the UBE bar in July of 2023. . . . Today [April of 2024], I learned that I passed the February 2024 Bar. I have been studying, waiting, or taking the bar since May of 2023. When I sat down for the bar this time, I felt calm.”

It doesn’t seem like much to take the bar exam twice, but that was almost a full year of her life.

One thing to realize is that each non-pass is costly. You have to wait 6 more months to check results again.

If you retake the exam in February, you’ll be finding out whether you passed in April or May next year. That’s a haunting length of time to stay in limbo.

That’s just one reason it’s imperative to Make This Your Last Time. whether you’re a first timer or a repeater, you can learn from the wisdom of your predecessors. Especially while the exam hasn’t changed.

Like many repeaters, she realized the folly of the approaches she used the first time.

💬 “I thought I was supposed to do that as I had done it last time.”

So she tightened up her approach and did what was helping her learn. She was always pivoting and correcting course instead of being stuck along one path (like many Passer’s Playbook users).

💬 “I would find myself saying things like ‘this is passive learning, why are you doing this?’ and I would change how I was doing it.”

Her motivation? Not taking the bar exam a third time (aka making this her last time).

💬 “My drive for passing? I didn’t think I could take it a third time, I didn’t want to tell people I hadn’t passed AGAIN, and I wanted to keep my job.”

Nat shares a lot of strategies in her story. I’ll break down the key ones. See if you want to try using them.

May 28, 2024June 1, 2026 - 22 Comments

Myths of Memorizing for the Bar Exam

Many bar takers are obsessed with the idea of memorization for the bar exam.

Understandably, a lot of students naturally panic and have concerns about it. There’s a LOT to remember after all.

Novice bar takers tend to stay stuck thinking, “As long as I memorize this perfectly, I will be set for the bar exam.”

This may seem like a safe approach, but it’s actually reckless.

Panic mutates into paralysis because they end up bag-holding theoretical knowledge they don’t know when or how to use, neglect the performance test they don’t even need to memorize for in the first place, and end up with a score that’s not terrible but not great either. After all, they still know enough to be familiar with the material but not understand enough to apply it under pressure.

Maybe that’s why people are excited about the possibility of open-book bar exams in some states.

I eagerly await their realization that it’s not just about having access to information—but whether they can use the information properly. Removing the memorization requirement doesn’t really change the exam. In fact, it will probably hurt if you’re wasting time looking things up.

It’s not that I’m ragging on memorization. You should memorize to succeed on the bar exam—but not at the expense of learning how to wield the information.

Memorizing for the bar exam is simply table stakes. Everyone’s doing it. It’s a minimum requirement. Just a cost of entry.

So you do want to start memorizing as early as you can.

But I want to point out what bar takers miss when they get tunnel vision around memorization. Don’t miss the forest for the trees:

May 24, 2024May 24, 2024 - 1 Comment

Non-Accredited Law Grad Passes CA Bar Exam on His 1st Try

Brian almost flunked out of a non-accredited law school but passed the hardest bar exam in the country on his first try. Wow!

💬 “I passed the February 2024 California Bar exam on my first try. I went to a non-ABA but Ca accredited law school online. I do not know my class position but I did get a 3.3 GPA and I did take the FYLSE and did well on that test.”

He also took his sweet time getting out of school.

💬 “I took a year off in the middle of law school and so instead of 4 years I took 5 and torts, contracts and property were a long time ago.”

It is cool that he was able to snipe the exam in one shot. But I’m not surprised. Why?

The bar exam is the great equalizer.

Bar prep is a learnable skill even if you’re short on academic talent (no offense, Brian), especially if you’re a reader of mine. You don’t need to be a legal rockstar. You don’t need to be a genius or a “good writer.”

Jeez, where were these reassurances when I was studying for the bar? My pain is your gain.

Here are three takeaways (and a satisfying epilogue) from Brian’s success story…