There’s more than one way to skin a cat. Like I keep saying, bar prep is personal.
Richard passed the 2023 February California Bar Exam on his first try. Anyone can learn from this case study since he also passed the UBE.
Corina’s story about passing the bar exam was about MAXIMIZING her coverage. I couldn’t even sleep trying to scrape all the meat off the bone of her story.
Today, I’ll show you a MINIMALIST approach to getting it done.
You’ll also get the benefit of hindsight from someone who used a traditional bar course for his first exam (UBE) and also on his second exam (CA) and passed both times.
How you use any resource for your benefit is key.
Quick stats
- Attempts: New Mexico UBE 1 time + California Bar Exam 1 time
- Weakness: I’m not even sure this man has any weaknesses
- Unique challenge: New father who has no time
Resources used
▶▶ Magicsheets
▶▶ An unnamed bar review course
▶▶ Past exam questions
That’s it. Breathe a sigh of relief.
The part that might interest you is HOW he used these resources.
I didn’t bother following up to ask which course it was because it’s not about the tool but the wielder of the tool.
Now, Richard used practice questions from his bar review course, but there are other places you can obtain questions.
▶ MBE: Consider these sources of questions.
▶ Essays and PTs: Your state bar or check here for links.
Richard’s minimalist bar prep
I’ve extracted some nuggets from his story of how he prepared with a no-fluff, straight-to-the-point approach.
1️⃣ Tailor (or simply tweak) your study plan.
💬 “This time, I used a traditional prep course again but supplemented with Magicsheets. When directed to watch lectures, I watched them at 1.5x speed. When directed to review outlines, I reviewed Magicsheets instead.“
Notice how he followed a structure based on his course…but left the details to himself. He substituted the long outlines with condensed outlines, reducing his workload.
I see so many people complaining about having too many assignments and how it barely moves the completion %.
Is your job to complete tasks or use the tasks to learn?
You don’t have to have the default. You can ask the chef for substitutions, or select dishes a la carte instead of a course meal.
(Yes, that is a metaphor for bar prep. Gotta remember that one LOL. Let’s gently pat ourselves on the back when we impress ourselves — same with your victories in your MBE set or getting the sub-issues right on essays.)
What I want is for you to really sit down and ponder, and learn the basic skills to implement your curriculum. Then you can prepare on your own terms and be less exhausted and less tortured from forcing yourself to follow someone else’s plan exactly. Your bar exam is yours.
Ask: Do you need to put your foot down and say “no more” to things that waste your time and energy?
“But Brian,” you might say, “We don’t always know what is negotiable. We don’t always know what we need or want. Especially when the only how-to guidance is from your bar course (which is very limited).”
True. That’s why I’ve been trying to get the message to you so that you’re aware of strategies you can consider, and empowered to turn the chapter on what’s no longer serving you.
You have an advantage over people who are like “no one ever told me this.” If your friend never got the memo, forward this website to them.
2️⃣ Use streamlined supplements.
💬 “This time, I used a traditional prep course again but supplemented with Magicsheets. When directed to watch lectures, I watched them at 1.5x speed. When directed to review outlines, I reviewed Magicsheets instead. This was essential to my success in passing the CA Bar first try.“
Same quote, different angle.
I’ll acknowledge that creating your own outline can help teach yourself and organize things—if you have the luxury of time.
But why spend your time reinventing the wheel at this point?
💬 “Having the outlines distilled down to easily understandable Magicsheets made the task of outline review less daunting and more productive. My mind would be fresh and I had the ability to focus on what I needed to learn.“
I’m also not saying using condensed outlines (mine or others’) is the only way to streamline things.
Larger outlines have great value. If you need to go over everything in detail, you should.
It’s a matter of balancing overwhelm and productivity.
Allocate your time and fears according to your personal bar prep. Richard’s approach is but one way to skin a cat, but it can be (and was for him) an efficient way to skin the cat.
Here’s how he used the materials:
💬 “I would review Magicsheets one time to get a general grasp on the topic and the information I quickly watched in the lectures. I would then review Magicsheets again at the completion of each topic in the traditional bar prep course. This would begin the memorization process. Then, in bed, with Magicsheets downloaded to my phone, I would work on memorizing one rule at a time.“
3️⃣ Practice essays efficiently.
💬 “When directed to write an essay I would only outline the essay, writing out the rules in full, and then review the sample answer. If I missed a rule, I would highlight it in Magicsheets. These rules became my new focus. I would not waste time writing essays in full, at least at the beginning of the course.“
This is the essence of “essay cooking.”
What’s interesting is that he STARTED by outlining the issues and rules from the start. My recommended approach is the opposite: Check that you can write a full essay before relying on essay cooking.
💬 “By utilizing this speedy process I was able to blast through the prep course, finishing “100%” of the course (albeit with the above described loopholes) two weeks before the bar exam. The last two weeks I began writing out essays and PTs in full–focusing on timing. I would usually do one PT a day and three essays.“
This is totally fine! I want to show you different ways, not just the way I share. I encourage you to test things and see what works.
But Richard did optimize for performance (e.g., focusing on timing) after optimizing for learning, as I recommend.
Again, more than one way to skin a cat. There is no ego or glory in bar prep. I told Richard as much:
4️⃣ Review your work, and memorize consciously.
💬 “The only part of the prep course I would complete in full the recommended MBE questions. Then, if I missed a question, I would review the explanation and again highlight/annotate my Magicsheets. I repeated this process for each subject of the bar review course.“
Bar prep is just a consistent cycle of practice and feedback. Check your work.
💬 “By now I had most of the rules down, however, for the rules that were still giving me trouble I began drafting a mnemonics document. Many of the final rules could be memorized using mnemonics but I would not recommend using mnemonics for every rule because it would be too confusing and actually add more to memorize. I focused on the MBE subjects first then turned to the CA subjects, organizing the CA subjects based on what I thought the probability of the subject being tested would be.“
He prioritized the rules he was having trouble with and did not go overboard with mnemomics.
In other words, he did not treat every rule the same.
There is no need to treat everything the same here. Discriminate! Prioritize what is most important.
An easy way to find out what’s most important? Keep solving questions and you’ll naturally see more of what’s tested often.
You can combine this with the above approach of using an already-streamlined material for you.
💬 “For the last three days, I used two of those days to strictly review Magicsheets and my mnemonics document. This allowed for a refresher of the rules I thought I already had down and then additional review of the harder rules I needed the mnemonics for. On the final day before the exam I relaxed.“
Similarly, a big benefit of “cooking” the essays is that you’ll have a stack of issue and rule outlines. These become solved essays you can very quickly review instead of model answers.
BONUS REMINDER: Chill out when you’re done with the exam.
💬 “As an ancillary matter, I looked at the CA Bar Reddit in the time waiting for scores. I witnessed a ton of people attempting to view the codes or script on the CA admission site to see if they could get any clues as to whether they passed. Knowing I had no background in coding I refrained from doing so. I think this was beneficial to my well being. I ended up deleting the Reddit app and waiting for the results. The only additional research I did was checking the NCBE website to see what the mean score was for the MBE and how other jurisdiction were doing.“
Now this is refreshing.
The ball’s in their court once you submit your answers. Instead of freaking out or trying to find out results ahead of time, Richard simply deleted the app. He briefly looked up some information.
Once he was done with the exam, he didn’t get distracted by temptations or things he couldn’t control, and thus was in a less stressful state of mind.
(I told you this man had no weaknesses.)
Some common traits of passers that Richard displayed:
- They are proactive (like doing basic research). This shows that they are serious.
- They are calm and composed. They do not “freak out.” Save it for the dance floor.
If you want to learn about how to be calm in the face of overwhelm and disarray, check out Mental Engines.
Richard’s full story
Nice work, Richard! Here are the resources he used again.