Brian, Author at Make This Your Last Time

June 28, 2024June 28, 2024 - No Comments

Passing the DC Bar Exam on Second Try with a 269: “A Pass Is a Pass”

Rebecca passed the 2024 February DC Bar Exam (UBE) on her second try, with a 13-point improvement from a score of 256 to 269.

It wasn’t a “crazy” jump… but you don’t need a crazy score!

💬 “Didn’t pass my first time in July 23 (256, needed 266 for DC). Took February 24 and all I wanted was a 267, ended up with a 269! Sure, it’s one shy of the “every jx” score and it’s not a ~crazy~ jump or anything but I am literally over the moon. Also, who cares, a pass is a pass, and I can practice in the jxs that *I* want.”

I share big jumps too to show the possibility for anyone with a large score deficiency.

But Rebecca emphasizes that a pass is a pass.

You just need enough. (Remember that the bar exam doesn’t require 100% perfect accuracy.)

Someone who gets a 300 gets to be an attorney just the same as someone who gets a 270, 266, or whatever you need for your jurisdiction.

💬 “I surpassed my jurisdiction’s score by three points and my personal goal by two. Let’s be real, 269 isn’t the best but it is the funniest score I could get. I don’t need to practice in any 270 jxs any time soon, and also reciprocity/waiving in exists. It’s fine, everything is fine. I’m including this dumb rant because if any of your readers are like me, they might see the people boasting 290s, 300s, or other such impressive leaps in scores on repeats, which is genuinely great for those people, but in this weird, awful rat race we’re in, I legit found myself thinking at one point, damn I “only” got a 269 😪 which is bonkers. Friends, retakers, you just need to pass for your jurisdiction(s). Anyone who asks you about your passing score or who tries to make you feel less than for a p a s s i n g score is a knob.”

Now, that’s not to say that you should aim for the bare minimum.

To help you get past your threshold, I’ll share some specific strategies from Rebecca and what she did differently on her second attempt.

June 26, 2024August 2, 2024 - No Comments

Common Pitfalls of First-Time Bar Exam Takers

First timers might be frustrated seeing advice from people who retook the bar exam and passed.

It’s true that repeaters start from experience. That’s their advantage.

Repeaters can afford to skip at least some of the lectures (as they should if they already watched them before). They can go straight to practice and review.

Meanwhile, first timers are juggling lectures, outlines, AND practice. Or at least they FEEL compelled to stick to The Plan.

First timers are also seeing the material for the first time, so they feel compelled to “get all their ducks in a row” before moving on while feeling increasingly crushed by the time pressure of the exam looming closer.

That’s understandable. Bar review courses latched onto you on your first day of law school.

So when first timers see advice like “take breaks” or “try different things” or “do what works for you”…

How are they supposed to do that?

June 22, 2024June 22, 2024 - 5 Comments

Bar Prep Wisdom from Succulents

I went to a succulents gardening workshop the other day 🌱

(This is relevant to you, promise.)

I figured succulents wouldn’t wither under my care 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.” 🤯)

June 21, 2024December 4, 2024 - No Comments

Fundamental Strategies for Passing the UBE While Working Full Time

Nat passed the 2024 February UBE on her second try while working full time. There are a lot of people working and studying at the same time these days. Times are tough!

💬 “I took the UBE bar in July of 2023. . . . Today [April of 2024], I learned that I passed the February 2024 Bar. I have been studying, waiting, or taking the bar since May of 2023. When I sat down for the bar this time, I felt calm.”

It doesn’t seem like much to take the bar exam twice, but that was almost a full year of her life.

One thing to realize is that each non-pass is costly. You have to wait 6 more months to check results again.

If you retake the exam in February, you’ll be finding out whether you passed in April or May next year. That’s a haunting length of time to stay in limbo.

That’s just one reason it’s imperative to Make This Your Last Time. whether you’re a first timer or a repeater, you can learn from the wisdom of your predecessors. Especially while the exam hasn’t changed.

Like many repeaters, she realized the folly of the approaches she used the first time.

💬 “I thought I was supposed to do that as I had done it last time.”

So she tightened up her approach and did what was helping her learn. She was always pivoting and correcting course instead of being stuck along one path (like many Passer’s Playbook users).

💬 “I would find myself saying things like ‘this is passive learning, why are you doing this?’ and I would change how I was doing it.”

Her motivation? Not taking the bar exam a third time (aka making this her last time).

💬 “My drive for passing? I didn’t think I could take it a third time, I didn’t want to tell people I hadn’t passed AGAIN, and I wanted to keep my job.”

Nat shares a lot of strategies in her story. I’ll break down the key ones. See if you want to try using them.

June 14, 2024June 20, 2024 - 2 Comments

180+ Point Jump on the CA Bar Exam While Battling Health Issues

“Babe, wake up! Brian dropped another Fire-up Friday.”

Yes, that’s a real quote (maybe):

When I read Bella’s story, I told her: “Frankly, anyone who will have the privilege of reading this story will have no excuse.”

Now you have the privilege of reading her story.

Bella passed the 2024 February California Bar Exam on her 6^th try. Well, that’s not THAT rare, right…?

WRONG

Bella was going through some shit—literally.