Andrew passed the 2024 July Bar Exam on his first try despite the initial anxiety and pressure.
💬 “Severe testing anxiety. Remember throwing up after the first practice bar exam at school because of poor results.”
Whatever doubts you have, it’s going to be worth it if you can overcome them.
💬 “Just wanted to share that I passed in California! Your materials were a massive help in the final weeks of studying and I’m honestly so grateful for your help. My hands are still shaking, it’s been such a rough week and I had a lot of doubts but I’m so glad that this is over.”
Let’s see how he transformed from feeling inadequate and pressured to succeed — to learning to trust his gut and actually succeeding.
(And what Burger King can teach you about bar prep)
💬 “Doing it my way worked for me in the end and that pivoting to a ‘traditional’ bar study doesn’t work for everyone. It doesn’t for me because that’s simply not how my brain functions. I cannot sit still from 9AM to 5PM and study continuously.”
Resources Andrew used to pass the California Bar Exam
💬 “Magicsheets were ESSENTIAL to my final weeks of prep.”
💬 “I honestly think this is the biggest contributor to my gains in the final weeks.”
💬 “If I was actually confused, the short and effective way of describing the rule on the sheet made it easier to revisit questions, practice them, and understand why the answer came out the way it did.”
Themis Bar Review
Overcoming academic pressure and imposter syndrome
Andrew came from an underdog background, feeling inexperienced and inadequate compared to his peers. He was under a LOT of pressure to succeed.
💬 “It felt like being thrown into the deep end and was beyond anything that I ever expected so I was really overwhelmed which led to underperformance in 1L. I’ve always struggled with academic pressure.”
💬 “I was struggling a lot with imposter syndrome because all of my other peers knew what lawyers they wanted to become, they were extremely talented and motivated . . . but I was very green. For me, I was the first in my family to go to law school, let alone attempt the bar exam and become an actual lawyer.”
💬 “The bar exam was the one thing that I could not afford to falter on.”
Like many others, Andrew started with the traditional approach. But like with many others, this just led to more anxiety.
💬 “I partially tried a rigid schedule like my classmates to really clamp down and try to study hard (I experimented a lot during bar prep), but that simply doesn’t work for me. I needed cooldown periods in between learning segments in order to maximize my retention. Otherwise I was simply building up my anxiety and frustration and burning out much quicker.”
Anxiety makes you do things that cause more anxiety.
Hard work is a given.
But if you’re spinning your wheels at full speed without matching it to the results you’re getting back, you’re just gassing yourself out. Bruteforcing can dig your wheels even more into the sand.
How did Andrew overcome this?
💬 “I’ve been in similar situations too many times before and I wanted to take a different approach this time out.”
Take a cue from Burger King
People hate on Burger King, but I (a BK fanboy) would like to point to Exhibits A, B and C:
Sesame seeds on the buns, the best cost per nugget, and friendly baristas. Do you think McDonald’s employees will care if a fight breaks out?
Fight me on this if you want, but you will be on the wrong side of history, just like the filthy pineapple-on-pizza deniers who lost the cultural war.
Most importantly, BK wants you to “have it your way”, which is exactly what Andrew did.
💬 “My whole gist from the above is that doing it my way worked for me in the end and that pivoting to a ‘traditional’ bar study doesn’t work for everyone. It doesn’t for me because that’s simply not how my brain functions. I cannot sit still from 9AM to 5PM and study continuously.”
As lawyers, we can argue for and justify anything (which is useful for performance tests).
But it’s important to try to listen to your unique study style and identify what your path is instead of rationalizing something that doesn’t feel right for you at your core.
Take breaks during your prep
You gotta LOCK IN for bar prep. But that doesn’t mean you can’t go in cycles. Walking takes two feet.
💬 “I told myself at the start of bar prep to take breaks often and to have more cooldown periods, and I tried not to shame myself for doing so because that’s how I knew I would study the best.”
💬 “It is not fatal to take breaks. Mental state of mind is essential to performing well.”
I was able to enjoy studying longer by going in a cycle of 20 minutes of studying and 10 minutes of doing something enjoyable (like shitposting on the now-dilapidated Top Law Schools forum who kicked me off the partner program because my feedback made too much sense I guess). I wrote about the “20/10 cycle” in this old article if you want to spend your 10 minutes checking out my writing style from 2015.
It’s OK to take a break (often)! In fact, it’ll probably help you see things with new eyes and more energy.
💬 “I finished the entirety of Ghost of Tsushima while studying for the bar exam, and I passed. It’s okay to enjoy some downtime.”
Everyone is different, though. Some like to treat it like a 9-to-5, focus, and “shut the laptop” early. Some (like Andrew and me) like to take our time.
💬 “I would study from usually 10AM – 9PM with regular breaks in between when my attention would deviate or when I would become frustrated with my performance. After 10, I would completely stop all bar review and go play video games or watch a show.”
This is another example of “doing what works for you.” This can mean ignoring what others tell you.
💬 “I received a lot of advice from peers and professors who advocated for one way or the other so I ended up just following my gut feeling and staying motivated but knowing when to take a break when I felt that I was about to burn out.”
Advice is autobiography. Unless they know your situation, advice is often just a reflection of their own situation and agenda.
So find out how to fit bar prep and breaks around other responsibilities in your life.
Self-awareness and personalized study regimen
Andrew studied according to HIS strengths and weaknesses.
💬 “My schedule started out pretty structured with following the Themis schedule pretty closely and supplementing with Magicsheets on the side when needed. After a while, I started becoming more flexible and focusing on material that I only really needed practice with. For example, I was secure on Civil Procedure but needed more help on Property. I would shape a work day around focusing on Property instead.”
He also used Themis and other resources as supplements to each other.
💬 “Themis on its own is a decent and complete package. The information that is given through lectures are decent, but sometimes there were frustrating gaps that were covered in the MCQs that weren’t talked about in lecture, which led to me having to do independent research (or cross referencing with Magicsheets) to develop that knowledge.”
There’s no way around the work
Andrew emphasized practice. We talked about emphasizing weak areas above, but Andrew suggests keeping up with everything.
💬 “Even if solid on a subject, always good to ensure that the blade never gets dull.”
He stuck to a consistent daily practice regimen.
💬 “I would do a minimum of 34 MCQs a day (using primarily UWorld) and at least 1 to 2 essays. (if I felt comfortable with the essay content, I would outline the essay with rule statements, my shortened analysis, and compare and contrast the model answer.)”
💬 “You’d be surprised how fast you develop the material with consistent practice. DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED BY POOR RESULTS. The whole point of prep is to expose your weaknesses so that you can get better. Keep fighting!”
He’s right. Practicing with past exam questions lets you poke holes and stress test your knowledge so you know where you need to patch up. It’s a GOOD thing if you’re getting things wrong.
Then you can come to finally trust your gut.
💬 “I found myself missing more questions during Uworld prep simply because I was second guessing myself far too often.”
When you can trust yourself, you can do anything.
Andrew’s transformation from throwing up from anxiety to trusting his instincts came from focusing on his own path, embracing his personal study style, and refusing to let insecurities hold him back.
Full story
Hey Brian!
Just wanted to share that I passed in California! Your materials were a massive help in the final weeks of studying and I’m honestly so grateful for your help. My hands are still shaking, it’s been such a rough week and I had a lot of doubts but I’m so glad that this is over. Thank you again so much for all your help.
—
First Time Taker in California (and passer!)
– Severe testing anxiety. Remember throwing up after the first practice bar exam at school because of poor results.
– Rough start to law school and under a lot of pressure to perform meant that for my own sake I wanted and had to pass on my first attempt.
○ It felt like being thrown into the deep end and was beyond anything that I ever expected so I was really overwhelmed which led to underperformance in 1L. I’ve always struggled with academic pressure, so a lot of that can be attributed to studying to simply to survive and not lose.
○ I was struggling a lot with imposter syndrome because all of my other peers knew what lawyers they wanted to become, they were extremely talented and motivated (coming from VERY good undergraduate schools), most of them had actual job experience, mostly in legal before going to law school, but I was very green. For me I was the first in my family to go to law school, let alone attempt the bar exam and become an actual lawyer.
○ So to me, the bar exam was the one thing that I could not afford to falter on.
Study Technique:
– I struggle a lot with studying traditionally because I have attention deficiency. Meaning that a typical bar study day for me would last around 10 hours with breaks where some of my classmates would have a rigidly structured schedule that would have completed the required tasks with around 6-8 hours of studying.
– I partially tried a rigid schedule like my classmates to really clamp down and try to study hard (I experimented a lot during bar prep), but that simply doesn’t work for me. I needed cooldown periods in between learning segments in order to maximize my retention. Otherwise I was simply building up my anxiety and frustration and burning out much quicker
– I told myself at the start of bar prep to take breaks often and to have more cooldown periods, and I tried not to shame myself for doing so because that’s how I knew I would study the best.
○ I received a lot of advice from peers and professors who advocated for one way or the other so I ended up just following my gut feeling and staying motivated but knowing when to take a break when I felt that I was about to burn out.
○ I would study from usually 10AM – 9PM with regular breaks in between when my attention would deviate or when I would become frustrated with my performance. After 10, I would completely stop all bar review and go play video games or watch a show.
– My schedule started out pretty structured with following the Themis schedule pretty closely and supplementing with MagicSheets on the side when needed. After a while, I started becoming more flexible and focusing on material that I only really needed practice with. For example, I was secure on Civil Procedure but needed more help on Property. I would shape a work day around focusing on Property instead.
– I would do a minimum of 34 MCQs a day (using primarily UWorld) and at least 1 to 2 essays. (if I felt comfortable with the essay content, I would outline the essay with rule statements, my shortened analysis, and compare and contrast the model answer.)
– And when it came to the final few days of prep, I would shift entirely to memorization instead because my practice knowledge had already been fleshed out with constant practice. (Dozens of essays in total and I think almost 2,000 MCQs inclusive of both UWorld and Themis)
Resources Used:
– Themis Bar Review
○ Themis on its own is a decent and complete package. The information that is given through lectures are decent, but sometimes there were frustrating gaps that were covered in the MCQs that weren’t talked about in lecture, which led to me having to do independent research (or cross referencing with MagicSheets) to develop that knowledge.
○ The biggest strength of this resource is essay prep honestly. I’ve never been more demoralized than when I was doing Themis MCQ but the essays and the feedback were good. Doing more and more essays and reading more under the Themis system made it so that I was able to understand and recognize patterns, allowing me to better deploy rule statements and develop my reasoning of the law versus trying to remember what the law was to begin with.
○ For essay practice, I think Themis Bar was a good contribution to that skill development. The addition of UWorld access for MBE access was another plus, but purely on a logistics and resource side.
○ MagicSheets was ESSENTIAL to my final weeks of prep. I had reached about 60% in the Themis program before it started to repeat continued MCQ practice and additional essays. I had completed an average of 4-5 essays for each subject, (fewer for some subjects) and the MCQ was frustrating me so much that I decided it was time to go back to how I studied in law school which was to cram an outline.
§ There was little time to write my own outline and that honestly would have been a waste of my time.
§ MagicSheets however is EXACTLY how I wrote my notes in law school and how I would have imagined my outlines to have looked. So that’s what I relied on for practice the last 2-3 weeks. I would wake up in the morning, run through two subject outlines, try to memorize what rules I could, and go to practice essays and MCQs with focus on weaker areas. MagicSheets had few gaps (if any) and if there were any obscure or confusing rules that I picked up from bar prep I wrote them into the margins on a PDF and constantly revisited each sheet for retention. I honestly think this is the biggest contributor to my gains in the final weeks.
§ In short, I think that MagicSheets was a massive contribution because it fit the way that I studied perfectly but also because if I was actually confused, the short and effective way of describing the rule on the sheet made it easier to revisit questions, practice them, and understand why the answer came out the way it did.
§ Last two weeks, I downloaded all the Magicsheets my phone and took it everywhere with me, writing in the margins, and studying and reciting the rules.
○ Goat Bar Prep is more of an informal resource but a very good one! I used this material primarily for the MBE portion of the exam and found it useful for retaining really dumb or obscure rules because of the way that the resource delivers its content through memes. It really helped with memorizing because if something obscure on the exam showed up, I would remember something like the picture of a goat in a Formula 1 car reciting the elements of a certain crime and be able to answer.
○ This is a great resource to use as a break from traditional bar study and to revise and review information that has already been covered. Fast and straight to the point.
Key Takeaways from my experience
1. Do it your way.
a. My whole gist from the above is that doing it my way worked for me in the end and that pivoting to a “traditional” bar study doesn’t work for everyone. It doesn’t for me because that’s simply not how my brain functions. I cannot sit still from 9AM to 5PM and study continuously.
2. There’s no way around the work. Practice, practice, practice.
a. Even if solid on a subject, always good to ensure that the blade never gets dull.
b. AT a minimum, as stated before I did 34 MCQ and 1-2 essays a day. (with all the associated research, review, and studying)
c. You’d be surprised how fast you develop the material with consistent practice. DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED BY POOR RESULTS. The whole point of prep is to expose your weaknesses so that you can get better. Keep fighting!
3. BUT REMEMBER Taking breaks is fine!
a. I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing to say this, but I finished the entirety of Ghost of Tsushima while studying for the bar exam and I passed 
. (you can choose whether to include this Brian)
b. It is not fatal to take breaks. Mental state of mind is essential to performing well and is something that I constantly reminded myself of when doing prep because I hate academic pressure. I’ve been in similar situations too many times before and I wanted to take a different approach this time out. You end up hurting yourself if you are not comfortable performing.
Exam Day Tips
– Honestly felt that essay day was my strongest. I’m not sure about the rules for discussing the specifics so I will not get into them.
– I took the essay portion like I usually did with law school exams. (Rules and formatting for EACH individual essay first along with my stated position before formally writing) This ensures that I do not get confused and potentially lose that information when I’m writing through another subject’s essay first.
○ For part 2, I lead with the two essays first because I know I need the most time for the performance test. This I feel gave me the most comfortable cushion from my prep because the essays are more straightforward and consistent with prior practice while the performance test always has an x-factor to it that makes it slightly unpredictable.
– MBE Day was tough but doable with practice.
Some of the more obscure questions kinda stumped me but I think that I was able to address them fairly effectively. For questions where the subject matter is familiar but shown in such an obscure and weird way, I lead with assessing the answer choices first to see if the answers give hints towards what the question is specifically asking for. If the question has multiple variations on the same thing and for some reason I would blank out on what the law is, I would last resort to common sense to try to understand what the logic was. I know this isn’t a full proof strategy but I guess what I’m trying to say is to trust your gut, trust in your prep and practice and send it. I found myself missing more questions during Uworld prep simply because I was second guessing myself far too often.
