24-year-old Foreign LLM Student Passes CA Bar Exam on Second Try
Camille passed the California Bar Exam on her second try as a foreign-trained LLM student.
Like the other passers, she did it her way, despite being foreign-trained, having no idea how the U.S. legal system worked, and studying from scratch with a full-time job on the line.
There are many ways you can pass the exam. You are the dean of your own studies, and pass rates have no bearing on your own chance of success.
Unique challenge: No idea how the U.S. legal system worked, started studying from scratch, full-time job on the line
“Nothing else matters but knowing the law. You will get acquainted with the methodology as you practice. But you cannot practice without knowing the law.”
Camille’s observations on how to start from scratch and pass the bar exam
1️⃣ Know the law.
There was mad emphasis on this by Camille:
💬 “Nothing else matters but knowing the law. You will get acquainted with the methodology as you practice. But you cannot practice without knowing the law.“
💬 “You must know the law. There is nothing else to it. I reviewed my outlines daily, listened to Ed’s podcast for the essay rules as I was driving/walking the dog daily or even when cooking. I reviewed and recited my outlines for my 7 MBEs front to back.“
💬 “You cannot evade knowing the law. Know the subtopics by heart, know how they relate to the other subtopics. For instance, civ pro – I just learned all of it and my outlines made it digestible.“
Part of her approach was to be steeped in the mass of rules so that she’d be ready to fire them off when the time came.
💬 “Know the definitions and main exceptions for each subtopic by heart – like Grossman says, be ready to spill the definition immediately when prompted!“
2️⃣ Engage with the material.
This is where many people stop…
They “read.” They “watch lectures.” They “take notes.”
But there’s a difference between knowing the law and knowing how to USE the law.
Even though Camille emphasizes KNOWING the law, this also implies knowing it to the extent that you can WIELD it effectively.
Camille recommends doing what helps you learn, retain, and be able to use it—however you’ve been doing it.
For her, that was creating her own outlines (based on other outlines), externalizing the content, and practicing with it.
💬 “Civ pro was so hard at first, but when you actually spend the time to LEARN ALL THE LITTLE PARTS OF THE LEGAL DEFINITIONS AND EXCEPTIONS FOR EACH SUBTOPIC, then it’s actually the easiest topic. And I still remember/retain so much….my two-cents, learn the law, however you have been learning it in the past (for me it’s always been my long/detailed outlines + constant review out loud/explaining/diagraming them + PRACTICE).“
💬 “For the essays, I zoomed with a friend every single night for 2-3 weeks and we went over your outlines for the essay portions and did 2 or 3 past essays (one MBE topic and one non-MBE).“
Her strengths also included her energy! Updating her outlines, Zooming with her study buddy, and going to work full time as well.
💬 “I was working full time as a law clerk and took three weeks off before the bar. Went right back to work the day after.“
It’s important to take care of your mind and cultivate your mental strength.
3️⃣ Focus the Practice + Feedback Loop on your weakest areas.
Practicing does double duty…multiple duties actually:
Testing yourself
Understanding and memorizing important rules and issues (memorizing is based on frequency of attempts to recall)
Refreshing your memory
Seeing new angles that you don’t see with just one attempt (and thereby learning something new)
💬 “Because I knew MBEs were my weakest portion of the exam, I mainly practiced MBE topics and did lots and lots of practice. I didn’t score high until the last two weeks, where I was scoring 70-85% (with a few 60% here and there). At that point, I knew the law so well that they could hit me with anything, I knew the answer quickly because I knew the law.“
I talk about the P+F Loop elsewhere (such as in Passer’s Playbook), which involves a cycle of testing your understanding and updating your understanding:
Camille evolved her outline based on the results of her practice.
Now that’s a loop that spins faster and faster like a flywheel!
💬 “Sometimes, they would test super obscure things or in an odd manner, and then I would not know, but I would then add it to my outline and review it as I went.“
“I wrote my own MBE topic outlines FROM SCRATCH and FROM MARY’S BOOK – I spent more than a month doing them to cover all 7 MBE topics. Then, I would add to them as I practiced with the tricky MBE questions and added nuance/more law into my outlines that way. This took me FOREVER and I don’t recommend it for someone who only has 4 weeks to study. This takes time and I started studying three months before the Feb bar.“
But you can still learn most things (and from past mistakes) and prioritize what’s important. You overshoot so that you can be as prepared as you can, or do well enough on the exam.
💬 “Some things I never got, like the reaaaal difference between covenants and easements, or RAP but I could BS my way out of it.“
💬 “I was so sure with my MBEs (which is what sank me last time) and my essays went great for some, okay for others (looking at you essay 2 and 3 from feb 2023) but the easier ones, I did really well because I knew all about civ pro and evidence, and PR so it was easier to spot issues/analyze. Looking at the median and curve….I just hoped I had done ENOUGH to withstand it.“
It’s OK to be a bundle of nerves, too.
The bar exam is important to you because you worked hard, didn’t you?
💬 “Mentally, it was a shit show. I was consumed by the anxiety and could barely exist. the wait was even worse because I left knowing I had it because there was NO way I had failed.“
As a foreign trained, young, and not an English native speaker, this Bar was really a chaotic and extremely stressful experience. This failure by 14 points really showed me I can do this and I am capable of passing – which is both infuriating and comforting as I was so close. I scored well on my essays (between 55 and 70, with a 70 on my PT) – total of 1420ish. I had two essays under 60, which definitely could use more structural work i.e. be better with IRAC etc, as issue-spotting was not really the issue (just takes practice). But my MBE sank me…which is what I expected; I still somewhat scored 1334 (scaled) even though some of my percentages (looking at you evidence) were abysmal (less than 20%).
If I can keep up the MEE/PT, and do better on my MBE (I am preparing for the MPRE, which I also failed last time, and my Multiple test scores are 20% or more higher already….just because I know the law and specifically the strategy better).
Even if I was just shy of passing, your MagicSheets have been so helpful – I just did not know how to properly apply it for the MBE – and I also unfortunately started the memory game too late. I have signed up for Themis again but will only be using it for essay grading, PT grading/practice, and the practice exams, and that is about it. I have Uworld but I am also thinking of purchasing Adaptibar for Grossman’s videos as the MBE is my weak point. The Mary Basick book for the MBE has been an absolute lifesaver, so thinking of perhaps just sticking with that + UWorld.
Thank you for getting back to me and for sending me the link, truly appreciate it, I was so close, just needed more time and practice re MBE. I feel much more confident about this exam now; it was both infuriating yet comforting to fail by so little.
Thank you for your kind words and all your help!
[After getting her second-time bar results where she PASSED]
Hello Brian,
Just wanted to tell you – I DID IT!
Happy to share my experience as an 24 year old LLM and foreign trained student, who never had taken multiple choice in their entire life before the bar but who does good on PT/essays. Not sure how to download my essays but happy to do so if helpful!
Thank you for saving my life with magic sheets – thank you!!!
I’ll try to give this a go and let me know if you need more/different format but here goes:
Background: 24 year old from France/Italy, trained and educated in France, Singapore, Germany, Norway, the U.K. and the U.S. I did two internships, one in Singapore and one in Paris, and summer schools in Germany (all law). I also have two undergraduate law degrees from France and England and a LLM from Norway (in my niche, maritime law), and a LLM from Berkeley law, in environmental law. Took the CA Bar twice, passed on second try!
My weaknesses: never was a very academic student, always was more in the practice side of things (moots, research, internships, externships, competitions). Also, had no idea how the U.S. legal framework works (even though England helped to some extent), and was starting all these core subjects from ABSOLUTE scratch (looking at you civ pro/real property). I am also young and that really gaslighted me into oblivion, thinking that I did not deserve it and that I was too young compared to my peers to even remotely succeed on their same level. I was also dealing with a lot of anxiety because my U.S. law clerk job (now associate) was on the line. One of the bigger weaknesses was that I never, ever, took multiple choices in my entire education (from primary school until law school graduation) – that was a real issue for me as I did not understand the strategies of the MBE well at first. I was working full time as a law clerk and took three weeks off before the bar. Went right back to work the day after.
Strengths: essays and PT- in England and France, all my legal education was dissertations/commentaries, short, targeted and analytical essays answering hypo’s.
To give you a taste, I took the MPRE in march 2022 and scored a 68. I studied for a week with Themis, took some multiple choice tests, and listened to their videos – I simply did not understand and thought the MCQ were always testing something outside of what we had reviewed in virtual class as if the content and substance of the lecture in Themis did not match the questions asked. I studied again in November 2022 and took it right after I got news I had failed the bar by 15 points, in CA. I studied for a month, did my OWN outlines with JD ADVISING classes/outlines and Themis’s BIG outline book. VIDEOS ARE NOT ENOUGH because I did not know anything about the law to start with. I passed with 110 the second time. The exact same thing happened with the Bar.
What I did this time around and how I “cracked” it while working full-time:
Nothing else matters but knowing the law. You will get acquainted with the methodology as you practice. But you cannot practice without knowing the law.
I bought the Mary Basick MBE book and essay book – the MBE book was my life savior, which I discovered too late for the July bar (only two weeks to go). Second time, I never watched any of Themis videos. I’m sure the long outlines would have been helpful to some extent but I needed someone to focus on the most tested/the big picture but also go into enough details, and Mary Basick’s MBE book was the perfect mix.
I wrote my own MBE topic outlines FROM SCRATCH and FROM MARY’S BOOK – I spent more than a month doing them to cover all 7 MBE topics. Then, I would add to them as I practiced with the tricky MBE questions and added nuance/more law into my outlines that way. This took me FOREVER and I don’t recommend it for someone who only has 4 weeks to study. This takes time and I started studying three months before the Feb bar. By end of January, all my outlines were done and printed.
I did a lot of MBE practice, 34 every day as I was working for 2 months and 50+ every day for the last three weeks
You must know the law. There is nothing else to it. I reviewed my outlines daily, listened to Ed’s podcast for the essay rules as I was driving/walking the dog daily or even when cooking. I reviewed and recited my outlines for my 7 MBEs front to back. I did that every morning for the last three weeks (and then did 50MBEs and then did some essay subjects prep). Last two weeks, I was studying from 8am until 9pm with an hour break for lunch. Before that, I did 9-5/6. And before, with work, I studied after work for 90 minutes or so and during my lunch break, not counting my podcast time with Ed (as I drove 40 min x2 every day)
You cannot evade knowing the law. Know the subtopics by heart, know how they relate to the other subtopics. For instance, civ pro – I just learned all of it and my outlines made it digestible. It is the one I knew best because the questions are so specific and technical, but it’s all in the law so you either know or you don’t. Easy points. Real property was harder because it was more abstract but still did my best (def my weakest subject). Know the definitions and main exceptions for each subtopic by heart – like Grossman says, be ready to spill the definition immediately when prompted!
Because I knew MBEs were my weakest portion of the exam, I mainly practiced MBE topics and did lots and lots of practice. I didn’t score high until the last two weeks, where I was scoring 70-85% (with a few 60% here and there). At that point, I knew the law so well that they could hit me with anything, I knew the answer quickly because I knew the law. Sometimes, they would test super obscure things or in an odd manner, and then I would not know, but I would then add it to my outline and review it as I went. When I got out of the MBE portion on D-Day, I could safely say I had 85-90% right in the AM and 75-80% right in the PM because I knew the answer quickly (as I knew the law so there were little doubts), then I would tick that answer and go over the other options and cross them while justifying to myself why they do not work. I finished with 20 minutes to spare each session.
For the essays, I zoomed with a friend every single night for 2-3 weeks and we went over your outlines for the essay portions and did 2 or 3 past essays (one MBE topic and one non-MBE). I knew the essay CA topics well enough to do okay on an essay, but in no way as well and extensively as the MBE topics. I did study PR quite a bit as it was the one that sank me in July – scored 52%…..I just made sure I troubleshooted and spoke about every single SENTENCE in the PR essay and linked it to an issue – as I had missed a main issue last time. In terms of essays, I had IRAC down to a tea and just plugged in all the knowledge I had. I made sure to write a rule in my own words (no need to know it by heart, just understanding it for essay topics is good enough…even for the MBE topics as long as you remember all the requirements/main exceptions) and then write a LONG and EXTENSIVE analysis, even if it was kind of redundant/stupid. One line of rule = 5-8 lines of analysis. But in Feb, they tested no CA topics aside from PR. But they could have put any topic in front of me, I’d be okay – I knew what parts of the essay’s subtopics I had to focus on and learnt these really well but the rest, I just made sure to understand them but not learn them more than that.
Some things I never got, like the reaaaal difference between covenants and easements, or RAP but I could BS my way out of it. Civ pro was so hard at first, but when you actually spend the time to LEARN ALL THE LITTLE PARTS OF THE LEGAL DEFINITIONS AND EXCEPTIONS FOR EACH SUBTOPIC, then it’s actually the easiest topic. And I still remember/retain so much….my two-cents, learn the law, however you have been learning it in the past (for me it’s always been my long/detailed outlines + constant review outloud/explaining/diagraming them + PRACTICE). I then made hand-written attack outlines out of all MBE outlines, but it was more for me to learn it/stick it in my brain at that moment, than actually reuse in the future. I would suggest in the AM, review the law (however you’d like), then practice in the PM. In the last three weeks, I made a full AM of one MBE topic law review, then PM I would mix with practice. Repeat for three weeks (and because there were 7 days a week, it was Civ Pro review every monday morning for three weeks, then 50 mixed MBEs, then 2-3 essays, one Civ pro and two other nonMBE topics + nonMBE topic review)
PT was always rather easy for me. The harder part was structuring my legal arguments. I would start with reading the law, then analyzing the two or three requirements per issue (then highlight it in one color), and do the same for the other issues. Then I would go to facts and highlight in the SAME color the facts that match that issue. Then, Id write the structure as I went ie. I. X because….. II. Y because…… III. Z because….
I made sure to write the Intro first to MAKE SURE I UNDERSTOOD WHAT THEY WERE ASKING. So I took 10 min just to read the prompt/write intro and start structuring it as requested (memo, id add the date, re, names etc, for oral argument, id write “dear judge” or whomever else, and make sure I signed/dated it, and concluded the format before moving on to the substance). Then I would do my color strategy. Always finished with 5-10 min to spare to re-read.
Mentally, it was a shit show. I was consumed by the anxiety and could barely exist. the wait was even worse because I left knowing I had it because there was NO way I had failed – I was so sure with my MBEs (which is what sank me last time) and my essays went great for some, okay for others (looking at you essay 2 and 3 from feb 2023) but the easier ones, I did really well because I knew all about civ pro and evidence, and PR so it was easier to spot issues/analyze. Looking at the median and curve….I just hoped I had done ENOUGH to withstand it.
Just make SURE you keep the time, that is a true silent killer and is unforgiving. Everyone else is given an hour per essay, no one’s perfect, just move on. The wait instilled so much doubt and anxiety, especially with the job on the line. I gaslight myself into oblivion. When I got the results, I cried for days out of sheer relief.
I award this all to Mary Basick’s books (both MBE and essays – MBE was worth every single dollar and is only 60, essays I could have spared because I am good at them generally), Themis for their essay videos with that UC David prof and PT/essay grading (and Uworld access!!), and you, for all the outlines but especially the essays topic outlines (cause I had NO time or need to write my own outlines for those!)
My essays and PT are on my personal laptop, so I will do that for you this weekend,
Hope this helps and let me know if I can answer further questions/clear up confusions,
