Passer’s Playbook — tools and techniques for effective bar prep

Learn what Barbri and Themis won’t teach you

(before it’s too late)

If you’re like many bar takers, you see your neat package of shiny new course materials and shrug:

“How hard could it be? Everything I need to know is in that pile of giant books.”

But does it make sense to you that…

• You go through hours of lectures, diligent note taking, and “studying” only to be EXHAUSTED and forget 99% of it anyway?
• “Big box” bar prep courses tell you WHAT to study, but they don’t teach you HOW to prepare for the bar exam?
• Someone balancing a job or family has the exact same cookie-cutter one-size-fits-all study schedule as someone whose full-time job is to study for the bar?

Not to me.

You’re the dean of your own studies, not anyone else. Not Barbri, not your professors, not even me.

You don’t have to follow “The Plan.” No matter what you use, bar prep at its core is still a self-learning endeavor. Courses and supplements are merely there to support your learning. Like a buffet, or your social media feed, what’s laid out for you are just suggestions.

On my first attempt at the bar exam, I did the things that you’re probably doing...

• Meticulously watching exhausting 4-hour-long videos (pausing them to fill in the blanks), and reading outlines religiously (sending myself thoughts and prayers)
• Fixating on checking off all the assignment boxes and filling in the completion % meter
• Grasping at any sense of security knowing that they had it all planned out for me. “Just follow The Plan, and you’ll pass!”—The National Association of Barbri (probably)

EXHAUSTION.

The truth is, these things usually don’t move the needle. You’ve probably thought about doing some of them...maybe redid them multiple times!

It wasn’t FUN or MOTIVATING because I wasn’t seeing any PROGRESS. Enjoying the process is key! The more you enjoy this process, the more energy you will have to absorb the material and sharpen that intuition. Your brain will reject what you don’t like.

I was being a tryhard but not an overachiever. I was going through the motions without doing the mental work.

Ultimately, it was a failure of myself because of arrogance, underestimation of the bar exam, and mindless tactical hell. It was caused by a failure to focus on the right things that moved the needle.

More importantly, I was allowing someone else to dictate my pace, my studies, and ultimately my fate. It was college and law school all over again, just going with the flow.

Well, could you blame me—or yourself? It’s extremely daunting and overwhelming to even think about juggling over a dozen subjects. It’s soothing to do what feels productive (like reading outlines and trying to memorize rules). You feel like you’re still in control. It becomes hard to see that a course is simply a reference tool, not a duty you must fulfill.

What I realized since was that it was up to me to prevent forest fires. No one can teach you. You can only learn.

That’s why someone who collects all the “best” tools, pays for a huge course, and studies for 12 hours a day can still end up spinning their wheels getting nowhere — while someone who knows how to study can pass without the exhaustion or frustration (seemingly effortlessly).

That’s why you don’t NEED a huge course that just eats up your precious time and energy. It provides structure (especially for first-timers and bar takers who have a lot of lead time) but can be inefficient.