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Posted on - No Comments on Tired of Bar Prep? Guarantee Motivation to Beat the Bar Exam with These 5 Reminders

Tired of Bar Prep? Guarantee Motivation to Beat the Bar Exam with These 5 Reminders

How often do you see motivationals like this?

I wanted to pass the bar exam.

So instead of actually preparing for it, I made an image of a bar license card with my name on it using Microsoft Paint. You know, for visualization and manifestation like random people suggested online.

I’m not even kidding. Look and cringe:

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Posted on - No Comments on Scoring 85% on AdaptiBar in the Last Two Weeks of Bar Prep

Scoring 85% on AdaptiBar in the Last Two Weeks of Bar Prep

Grace took the California Bar Exam in July but only passed in February after forming a strategy.

💬 “Despite my bad 1L grades, I still had secured a job in biglaw. Maybe as a result of that, the threat of something not working out didn’t really set in. . . . My heart wasn’t in it and I had no strategy.

After July 2023 results came out, I was hurt but not surprised.”

She approached bar prep on her second attempt differently and even ended up reaching up to 85-90% on AdaptiBar!

How did she do it?

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Posted on - 8 Comments on Stop “Studying” and Start Learning: The Underrated Practice of Practice in Bar Prep

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.

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Posted on - 1 Comment on Face Your Weaknesses to Pass the Bar Exam

Face Your Weaknesses to Pass the Bar Exam

Passing the 2024 February CA Bar Exam on her second try allowed Esme to put this nightmare behind her forever.

💬 “I passed the February 2024 CA bar exam on my second try! Can’t tell you how thrilled I am to never have to take that test again and finally get on with my life.”

How exciting. But there’s a price to pay for this ultimate reward.

First of all, there’s way too much to know.

Pls tell me you recognize this classic meme template

You also go through a range of emotions.

You go from being anxious, overwhelmed, panicked, unmotivated, stressed, incompetent, ashamed, HAPPY YOU GOT SOMETHING RIGHT, depressed, embarrassed…

Not only is there a mental toll and an emotional toll, but there’s a financial toll as well. Each attempt involves exam fees, subscription fees for study supplements (which is why my study tools come with updates for life), and opportunity costs.

That adds even more stress!

Mental fortitude is key to bar prep. “The mind is 50% of this exam.”

Esme had to learn about these tolls the hard way on her first attempt. Then she conquered herself and the bar exam by facing inconvenient and uncomfortable emotions.

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Posted on - 4 Comments on Common Traits of Bar Passers & Why Mental Fortitude Is Important for Bar Preparation

Common Traits of Bar Passers & Why Mental Fortitude Is Important for Bar Preparation

They say knowledge is power (and you can never have too much power).

But why is it that with all the information out there, we don’t always get to where we want to go? Why do 80 percent of New Year resolutions fail by February? (Remember those? LOL)

“If more information was the answer, then we’d all be billionaires with perfect abs.”

Knowledge applied correctly is power.

Knowledge is potential energy. It’s what we DO with the knowledge and the desire, not the fact that we have them, not the fact that we declare our desire.

But even then, the top differentiator that I’ve encountered with people taking the bar isn’t skills or knowledge.

It’s HOW they think. I lowkey hesitate to use the term “mindset” because it’s sometimes associated with impractical woo-woo things like visualization.

But the point remains: The hurdle is often internal.

If you have the raw material but can’t bring yourself to make a sand castle, if you can’t turn that potential energy in your mind into kinetic energy, what’s the use?

"half of bar prep involves preparing oneself mentally"
"the bar exam is all about your mental fitness and your ability to retain a crap ton of information without going crazy. Take care of yourself this time around."

It’s getting harder to pass the bar exam…and that’s exactly why you should go for it now. And make this your last time.

It’s not going to get easier. But when the bar is set high, it’s actually an opportunity to stand out more.

How?

If you observe people who have passed the bar exam long enough, you notice some patterns in their behavior:

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