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Posted on - No Comments on Passing the California Bar on His Second Attempt After Years of Panic Attacks and Classic First-timer Mistakes

Passing the California Bar on His Second Attempt After Years of Panic Attacks and Classic First-timer Mistakes

N’s internal struggles were as much of an obstacle to his journey to passing the February 2026 California Bar Exam as the usual challenges of passing the bar exam.

💬 “I never struggled with text anxiety prior to taking the LSAT. However, I experienced a panic attack for the first time in my life the first time I took the LSAT.

My body began to shake, my heart pumped out of my chest, my brain stopped working, I started hyperventilating.”

💬 “I think most people feel an overwhelming sense of pride or joy or excitement about graduation. While I certainly felt those emotions, the one emotion that stood above the rest was relief — relief that I had completed three grueling years of law school and could put law school, like the LSAT, in the rearview mirror. I also figured that the panic attacks were a thing of the past.”

He dealt with panic attacks dating back to his first LSAT attempt, and they didn’t stop.

💬 “I experienced this while taking the LSAT (and other tests en route to get to the bar exam).”

To make things worse, he was devasted by the results of the July 2025 exam. He hit emotional rock bottom.

💬 “I opened the results page and saw ‘FAILED’ emblazoned on screen. Devastated, I shared the news with my employer, family, and friends.”

💬 “I struggled on the essays. I only had one essay scored 65 or better.

As you could imagine, the weekend the results were released, I went through a range of emotions. Anger. Sadness. Denial. Apathy. Disappointment. Bitterness. Jealousy. Grief. The list goes on. And so does life.

So, I went to work on Monday, kept my head down, and threw myself into work to distract myself from the pain.”

By the time N saw the word “Pass” on his screen in February 2026, 5.5 years had passed since he first sat down to study for the LSAT.

💬 “I shook and cried when I saw ‘Pass’ on the screen. I couldn’t believe it. And, in some ways, I still can’t believe it.”

💬 “I started working toward this goal of passing the California Bar Exam in December 2020 when I made the decision to study for the LSAT and go to law school. So much had happened — and so much had changed — in the five and a half years it took to pass the California Bar Exam.”

N sent me a 13-page document detailing his struggles, the mistakes from his first attempt, and what changed in this second attempt. (I’ll link you the full story.)

How did N pass the California Bar Exam despite his conditions affecting his test-taking abilities? What happens when you design your studies rather than following defaults out of fear?

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Posted on - 5 Comments on Bar Prep Wisdom from Succulents

Bar Prep Wisdom from Succulents

I went to a succulents gardening workshop the other day 🌱

I figured succulents wouldn’t wither like the flowers I tried arranging before. There’s a limit to how much talent one person can have, I guess.

But there’s no limit to how much I think about bar prep because that’s what I started thinking about when I was listening to the instructor 🤦🏻‍♂️

4 relevant lessons and also photos of my bald-looking succulent bowl:

(First lesson: “You have to kill a lot of plants to be an expert.” 🤯)

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Posted on - No Comments on Canadian Lawyer Thought the UBE Was “10000x Harder.” She Still Scored a 331 on Her First Try.

Canadian Lawyer Thought the UBE Was “10000x Harder.” She Still Scored a 331 on Her First Try.

Megan passed the Illinois Bar Exam as a foreign attorney on her first attempt.

💬 “I am happy to report that I passed the Illinois bar with a score of 331 as a first time test taker. I studied on a full(ish) time basis while caring for my 6-month old son, who is now almost a year old.”

331 is an excellent score, especially for a first attempt by a foreign-trained lawyer!

It doesn’t sound like Megan had the best study environment, but it turned out to be a different animal entirely.

💬 “I am a Canadian trained lawyer so while I have experience with bar exams. I can say without hesitation that the UBE was 10000x harder than the Ontario bar.”

What did she change to make it work anyway?

Continue reading “Canadian Lawyer Thought the UBE Was “10000x Harder.” She Still Scored a 331 on Her First Try.”
Posted on - 1 Comment on I spoke with Mary Basick & Tina Schindler at a UC Irvine bar prep panel. Here’s what they said.

I spoke with Mary Basick & Tina Schindler at a UC Irvine bar prep panel. Here’s what they said.

I sat in on a panel at UC Irvine with Professors Mary Basick and Tina Schindler the other month.

If you’ve spent any time looking into CBX resources, these legends have probably crossed your radar. You might already be using one of their co-authored books Essay Exam Writing for the California Bar Exam or California Performance Test Workbook.

After an hour in that room, I got to confirm what moves the needle in bar prep.

My favorite moment:

Me: “Well, you learn to swim by getting in the water, not studying water.”
Tina: “I love that.”

🥺

My notes and insights from the talk:

Continue reading “I spoke with Mary Basick & Tina Schindler at a UC Irvine bar prep panel. Here’s what they said.”
Posted on - 5 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 is potential energy. It’s what we DO with the knowledge, not the fact that we have it, not the fact that we declare our desire.

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?

Knowledge applied correctly is power.

The top differentiator I’ve encountered with people taking the bar exam isn’t skills or knowledge. It’s HOW they think and how they approach their studies. The hurdle is often internal.

"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."

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

Continue reading “Common Traits of Bar Passers & Why Mental Fortitude Is Important for Bar Preparation”