Make This Your Last Time | Page 16 of 34

February 16, 2022February 17, 2024 - 2 Comments

Admire the Buttcrack (and 9 Other Last Minute Tips for the Bar Exam)

Ahh shit… You utter the first word of the day as a dying declaration.

Because it’s time. Is it really that real? Let’s do this!

Implementing, practicing, and doing. I hope, by doing those things consistently, you’ve made solid progress!

Maybe you don’t feel ready. The good news is that the more prepared you actually are, the less you feel prepared. The bad news is that the other way isn’t necessarily true. You don’t know what you don’t know.

Not all hope is lost, ye weary traveler. It’s time to put your training to the test.

For now, go in with a “might as well, even if I don’t feel ready” or a “you never know until you try” attitude.

You’ll be able to say, “I’m glad I tried.”

You’ve worked hard these past weeks and months. You’ve come all this way. Let’s finish it without any hiccups at the very end.

We don’t want a “failure of the last mile” to undo all we’ve done up until now.

February 10, 2022February 10, 2022 - No Comments

What to Do in the Last Two Weeks of Bar Prep

You might be panicking or experiencing setbacks as you prepare for the bar exam. Whatever calmness you may have had 1-2 months ago is now fair game for anxiety to go after.

But the last two weeks are when things often click.

The final couple weeks are typically best spent consolidating your knowledge and intuition by using what you know — attempting to solve past exam questions and self-critiquing against model answers.

This impending pressure is an opportunity to do what you need to do: ditching the easy work of passively consuming, and doing the not-so-easy work of putting fingers to paper/screen, agonizing over identifying the issues, bearing the stress of grading your MBE question set, and enduring the embarrassment and promising to yourself not to make the same mistake again.

Keep pushing and you’ll break through that plateau.

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.

Here are some strategies to fix the “unmotivated” issue:

January 18, 2022January 18, 2022 - No Comments

Setting Up Clear Goals You Can Follow for the Bar Exam

When preparing for the bar exam, set up clear goals you can follow.

Say someone asks you what you want. You say that you want to pass the bar. Great, a north star that you can reach toward!

But the end goal itself doesn’t tell you what to do at any given moment. It often makes you feel good about the future end result, but it doesn’t mean you will do the needed things in between now and the desired result.

For example, a new year’s resolution like “I want to lose weight” gives you a nice self-affirmation and a burst of motivation.

However, 80% of such resolutions fail by February. There are many actions required, such as watching your calories and macros, exercising, and doing so consistently. Simply jumping in with a new gym membership is a recipe for your goal getting ghosted.

There are three main components to good goals…

December 8, 2021December 8, 2023 - 1 Comment

Which MBE Supplements Should You Get?

There are many MBE supplements out there, although only a few come to mind as the leaders of the space:

AdaptiBar
UWorld
the Strategies & Tactics for the MBE book

They can all help you raise your MBE score, but how do you choose which one(s) to use? There’s a balance of price, features, and the number of questions.

Here’s what you should consider: