Make This Your Last Time | Page 2 of 19 | A candid, no-BS look at bar exam prep

January 19, 2019January 25, 2019 - 1 Comment

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

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

It had all the equations needed, but she got the lowest score in the class because she didn’t know how and when those equations applied. She hadn’t practiced applying those rules on similar problems.

She was my gf at the time btw. Awkward! Oh well, live and learn.

And that’s what I want to talk about—learning.

It’s not putting in the time itself that makes you better. Improvement comes from constant feedback and learning every time you try to solve a difficult problem.

Everything you get wrong while practicing can be a painful lesson you carry over to future instances. Embarrassment is the best way I’ve found to learn a lesson.

This seems obvious enough. Why aren’t more bar takers doing this? Why so overly concerned with memorizing (over recalling and applying rules)? Why focus on sheer quantity of questions (over reviewing answers carefully and perhaps redoing them)?

January 12, 2019January 25, 2019 - No Comments

Simple Ways to Improve Your Bar Essays

A big complaint about essays: “Essays are so freaking subjective!”

Good, let’s use the subjectivity to your advantage. We’re going to take advantage of the impatience of a human who has thousands of shitty essays to read.

January 5, 2019January 11, 2019 - No Comments

3 Illusions You Might Be Trapped In When Preparing for the Bar Exam

I see some strange juxtapositions whenever I make the mistake of leaving the house:

Words: “Don’t drive even after a beer. It’s dangerous.”
Action: Drives with one eye on the phone and another eye on the road

Words: “Do your civic duty and go vote. Here’s a sticker!”
Action: Actively avoids making a direct impact on the community through jury duty (I am registered to vote; sit down dude)

Words: “I’m never drinking again!”
One month later: “I’m never drinking again!”

(My low-carb diets taught me that bursts of “never” don’t last long and that sustainability and consistency are more valuable)

What are some other ones? Let me know in the comments what you’ve noticed.

And then we have bar takers. Souls wandering in limbo. Not yet a licensed attorney but not a regular person either.

We see some interesting behaviors with bar takers as well: