Make This Your Last Time | Bar Exam Preparation

November 22, 2025November 24, 2025 - 24 Comments

You Need a Personalized Study Plan: How to Make Your Own Bar Prep Study Schedule

Haters will say it’s impossible:

I’m not saying the haters are right.

I’m just saying…maybe…it’s not about mindlessly stacking assignments and being too busy completing them to absorb what you’re doing.

Maybe…you don’t actually have to do everything they tell you. Why are you acting like you read every case back in Contracts class?

The only thing I remember from law school is my negotiations professor saying this in class randomly:

“Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.”

Is bar preparation worth doing? Then it’s worth doing right. Doing it intentionally. Being an overachiever without being a tryhard.

After all, you’re the dean of your own studies. And we know that enjoying the process creates sustainable momentum (not just fixating on the goal of passing the bar).

Just as what’s enjoyable is personal, bar prep is also personal. Your study plan and schedule—and even the materials you use to support your prep—are personal.

There are many reasons your schedule will look different from everyone else’s:

You might be working while studying for the bar exam and have 3 hours scattered throughout a workday.
Maybe you live in your parents’ basement and have every day free. Your mom shakes her head as she sees you shitposting on Reddit instead of studying.
Or maybe you only have certain hours of your day free while the kids are at school.

Meanwhile, your bar review course hands you a cookie-cutter schedule that packs in an overwhelming number of tasks that turn into “self-study” sessions where you have no direction on what to do (so now you’re getting lovebombed and ghosted by two people).

Does it make sense that you get the exact same study schedule for every scenario above? Not to me.

Is there a smarter, more effective plan that would serve your needs more and improve your odds of passing?

Yes, one that’s customized to you. It should work for you and serve your needs, not the other way around.

While I encourage a bespoke study plan, I suggest adhering to a few ideas when starting to plan your bar prep. For example:

November 21, 2025November 21, 2025 - 1 Comment

Almost Failing Law School to Passing the CA Bar Exam in One Shot

You don’t need to be a legal rockstar to pass the bar exam. Like me, Christian wasn’t the best student in law school.

💬 “I graduated from law school with a 3.08 GPA. My 1L year was extremely challenging for me, turning me from a student accustomed to receiving A’s in high school and undergrad to suddenly receiving my first D+ in Property Law. So needless to say, I was terrified at the idea of taking the California Bar Exam, notoriously known as the most difficult in the country.”

But we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t know the ending already.

Christian passed the July 2025 California Bar Exam on her first try. I’m not even surprised anymore. This is normal around here.

💬 “I’m so excited to share what helped me pass the CA Bar Exam on my first try. Reading these stories was so motivating for me, and I was so excited for the day I could write my own!”

November 15, 2025November 15, 2025 - 36 Comments

Should You “Trust the Process”? You’re the Dean of Your Own Bar Exam Studies

Here’s something that people who pass the bar exam never say:

“All I had to do was listen to all the bar course lectures and take a lot of notes. Just complete the course and you’ll pass!”

Sometimes we think “doing whatever it takes” to pass the bar exam means exhausting yourself and throwing 1000 hours and even more dollars into a black hole. (But it doesn’t have to be expensive.)

Or following some unsustainable cookie-cutter schedule that doesn’t care if you have other responsibilities like work or family. Good luck if you fall behind by one day.

Or letting a perfectly fine morning slip through by religiously sitting through 4 hours of droning lectures. Worse, pausing lectures to fill in all the notes.

Then not even remembering 99% of it.

Rewinding the video for the 5th time because you can’t stop thinking about the Roman Empire

I remember those days. All of those things above are things I stopped doing on my second attempt at preparing for the bar exam.

November 14, 2025November 14, 2025 - No Comments

Passing the Kentucky Bar Exam (UBE) with AuDHD on Her Third Attempt

Jessica passed the July 2025 Kentucky Bar Exam (UBE) on her third try.

💬 “Here’s a pretty good follow-up. I passed with a 269. Although that is one point away from 270, a pass is a pass. Kentucky requires a 266.”

💬 “I graduated near the bottom of my law school class, and one regret I have with the law school experience was not putting into practice questions a lot sooner than outlining.”

What happened on her first two attempts?

💬 “In my first two attempts, I was using Themis and was completely burnt out by the time I took the exam in both July 2024 and February 2025. I failed both attempts as a result.”

This is the same old story that fresh grads don’t hear about. A lesson that they won’t learn until they get burned personally. And then the cycle continues.

But good thing you’re here to stop that cycle for yourself.

What did Jessica do differently on her third attempt to make it successful?

November 11, 2025November 15, 2025 - 6 Comments

Why You Feel Exhausted Studying for the Bar Exam

Let me guess. Is this your idea of bar prep?

Listen to lectures while sitting still like a statue
Pause to take notes and fill in the blanks (doubling the time it takes to finish the lectures)
Read giant outlines and fall asleep with the lights on (osmosis didn’t work)

It’s like you’re experiencing the most annoying part about traveling—sitting for hours next to someone who takes up the armrest even though they got the window seat.

And repeating this every day. Is this what Limbo is like?

You’re drained and demoralized because you’re trying to “study” but aren’t feeling a sense of progress as words and days pass by you.

But why are you trying to do this the hard way?