Brian, Author at Make This Your Last Time

May 17, 2024May 20, 2024 - 2 Comments

Passing the California Bar Exam with a “STEM Brain” on Her Second Try

“R” passed the 2024 February California Bar Exam on her second try. She had some obstacles on her first attempt…

💬 “J23 bar exam, I wasn’t able to study because of personal reasons.”

💬 “That was something I felt in J23, I was not physically prepared to take the bar exam.”

💬 “I have an engineering background, so law school was a whole different beast for me! I was very near the bottom of my class in law school. My STEM brain found it hard to grasp the way of thinking like a lawyer!”

R had a similar background as mine. Coming from a STEM background, law school was a struggle for me as well.

But once it clicks, it clicks. And it only needs to click once before you can go out there and start your career.

In my case, failing the exam was a huge shock that finally unlocked the part of my brain to figure out this bar thing. That must have been some trauma to keep me on this crusade 10 years later.

Here’s what R (and I) did on our second attempts so you don’t have to traumatize yourself…

May 11, 2024May 17, 2024 - 9 Comments

Bar Prep Is Overwhelming: Making Independent Choices for Yourself

You have questions about the bar exam. How to study. When to study. Whether you’re on the right track. Picking the right bar prep supplements out of all the resources out there.

"Yes, it is very overwhelming and the amount of resources out there to help are also overwhelming lol"

When you say you want the “best” answers to these questions, what are you really looking for? A sense of certainty? Someone to just tell you what the hell to do? Best for most people or best for you?

How would you even trust that it’s the “best” answer?

(In my view, it’s one where someone is willing to take responsibility for that answer.)

That’s where the danger lies in the landscape of bar prep. You shop around and yet end up where you started. Everyone who passed suddenly has an opinion (and sometimes a tutoring rate), which you should take as just that.

There are no secrets, and there are a million ways to pass. You have it in you already. It’s always been up to you to make them work for you.

Sounds scary but also freeing, right?

Sure, you could use some support from others, but I want to encourage you to listen to yourself a little more instead of blindly doing what someone else says you “need” to do… Not just with bar prep but with everything else in life.

February 16, 2024February 16, 2024 - No Comments

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.

February 10, 2024February 13, 2024 - 6 Comments

6 Ways to Reclaim Your Time & Energy While Studying for the Bar Exam (Even If You’re Working Full Time)

Your hair feels gross, the fridge is empty, and you’ve been scraping together whatever free time you can.

Words in front of you are jumbling together into a blurry mess, passing by like a dream and also slipping away like one.

I’ve been where you are. In a way, I’m still there.

Bar prep steeps you in this undercurrent of anxiety because there’s so much to study with so little time and you’re feeling the pressure from the exam getting closer and closer. The worst combination.

But it’s not just time. Time isn’t your scapegoat. “Life is short” is propaganda by people who wasted their time.

“Yeah, maybe when I have more time. I’m going to feel motivated someday. Everything happens for a reason.” Oh, okay.

We like to tell people we “don’t have time” or that “time is the most valuable resource” or that “life is short” (even though we love to procrastinate).

Time is not your most valuable resource.

You ALSO need ENERGY and ATTENTION. You need CLARITY so you can be productive. Even if you “had the time,” it wouldn’t mean jack unless you did something with it.

Here are 6 ways to take back your time and energy while studying for the bar exam (even if you’re working full time):

February 9, 2024February 9, 2024 - 2 Comments

Repeater Passes CA Bar Exam After She Ditched Barbri and Stopped “Trusting the Process”

“S” (who wanted her name private) passed the 2023 February California Bar Exam.

What else is new? No, I’m not tired of seeing my readers pass tough exams yet.

This featured passer:

Passed an exam with a 32.5% pass rate
(Makes for a good headline but do pass rates really matter? See point 5 below)
Not a fan of her big bar prep company
Studied while working
Was an MTYLT reader (of course)

(Like this other 2023 Feb passer)

I love her story because it has several parallels to my own experience as a second-time passer. Both of us made the same classic mistakes that first-timers make.

Do you recognize them in your own preparation?