Alex passed the July 2025 California Bar Exam on his first attempt.
He started with a bar review course but didn’t quite follow it closely. He skipped a bunch of Themis assignments. He ended up not completing the course.
💬 “I basically followed the Themis study schedule. I completed about 85% according to their tracking metric. But that’s not entirely accurate as I marked some tasks complete that I didn’t do to get them off the schedule. For example, I didn’t do any of the outline readings except for the first one and I did skip some of the essays. I also skipped the essay and MBE review videos as I felt they were time consuming and I did not get much out of them.”
Wait a minute! Aren’t you supposed to do everything they say? What did he do instead?
💬 “I think adapting bar prep materials to work for you and your learning style is the biggest thing.”
Resources Alex used to pass the California Bar Exam
💬 “I purchased your Magicsheets during 2L. . . . Fast forward to bar prep, and I used Magic Sheets to supplement Themis.”
Themis Bar Review (incomplete)
Ed Aruffo’s Bar Exam Essay Rules for the California Bar Exam
Here are my takeaways from Alex’s approach to get it one and done without relying solely on a bar review course.
1) Adapt the materials to your needs
Bar review courses aren’t the only way to learn. In fact, they’re often too bloated and overwhelming to use unless you use parts of them deliberately to learn.
Alex kept track of what was no longer working for him and what worked better for him.
💬 “I felt like Themis outlines were too much, so after the first assigned reading I stopped and just read Magicsheets and listens to Ed Aruffo’s rule statement audio book.”
Are you willing to be stubborn about sticking with something to prove your choice was right? Or will you adapt quickly like Alex?
💬 “I think adapting bar prep materials to work for you and your learning style is the biggest thing.”
I’m not saying to abandon your commercial course completely. It’s one tool in your self-study arsenal. Take what you like from it.
For example, you don’t need to listen to every lecture or read every outline. But if you’re having trouble with a particular topic, you can (and should) look it up and dive deeper.
You don’t read the entire encyclopedia, just the parts that matter to you. You didn’t read the whole casebook in law school.
2) Don’t expect to master the material just from being spoon-fed
Alex didn’t clutch onto Themis assignments. He easily dropped things that weren’t working for him.
💬 “I didn’t do any of the outline readings except for the first one and I did skip some of the essays. I also skipped the essay and MBE review videos as I felt they were time consuming and I did not get much out of them.”
💬 “When reading the Themis outline I realized that I wasn’t recalling the last page I read so it was just a time waste. It didn’t work with how I learn so I dropped that task.”
We’re all susceptible to sunk costs, where we stay invested in something because we already paid for it.
But tools are meant to help you, not keep you stuck.
If something you try doesn’t work, you might waste a few thousand dollars. I agree that’s not the ideal outcome.
But wasting money is MUCH more preferable to wasting time forcing yourself to stick to something just because you paid a lot for it.
As a lawyer, your lifetime earnings could literally be THOUSANDS of times what you paid for some program. Retaking the bar exam and delaying your career by half a year could cost you $50,000 or more each time.
It’s a relief to learn that something isn’t right for you, even if it cost you thousands of dollars. Change how you use it, or cross it off the list. Elimination is one way to progress. Whatever you do, MOVE.
A response to someone who’s been reading and telling me how inspired he was for months but finally opened up after I gave him a more direct nudge to do something about it
Programs can easily spoon feed you information through a conveyor belt and give you an illusion of progress. But only YOU can process this raw information to acquire usable insights. Only you can prevent forest fires. Eat and then digest.
How did Alex do this?
3) Have a repeatable process (and enjoy the process)
The turkey doesn’t get cooked any faster if you blast it with too much heat. It just burns.
In the end, it’s time that makes the most difference, not intensity.
Alex did the same things over and over. He repeatedly exposed himself to the information…
💬 “I started listening to Ed’s audiobook in July. I would listen to it when I drove and when I would do cardio at the gym. I focused on the chapters that covered areas of law that I felt had less intuitive rules. So essentially I listened to a lot of Civ Pro and Con Law on repeat while running lol.”
💬 “I would skim through a Magicsheet outline every night before bed. During the last week before the bar I upped it to reading all the outlines before bed. I think that amounted to about 45 pages so not bad.”
He also cycled through essays by practicing outlining issues and writing down rule statements.
💬 “I locked in on the graded essays which I completed by outlining the issues I could spot closed book, once I outlined the issues I used the Magicsheets to write the rule statements.”
And not only did he hit multiple choice consistently, he also enjoyed his hobbies and went to the gym every day.
(Wait, that last one’s pretty hard because I feel like I can’t exercise unless I’m done with everything for the day, which never happens. Anyone else?)
💬 “I think the biggest thing for me was ensuring I had time to enjoy my hobbies. I like going to the gym so I ensured I had time every day to exercise. I just supplemented my workout with doing MCQs, skimming the Magicsheets, and listening to Ed’s audiobook.”
What’s the takeaway here? Do the quiet, boring thing repeatedly.
Our impatience sometimes causes us to look for shortcuts and force our way up before we’re ready. But if you enjoy what you’re doing, it keeps you motivated, and you’ll find that you made improvements without even noticing.
