People from all walks of life take the bar exam. Many have passed the bar exam before you. You’re not alone.

For your inspiration, I’d like to share a few of my readers’ stories and regimen that led to their bar exam success. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Extract what you like and leave the rest.

You can be part of the passing group even if you think…

• you’re not “a naturally good test taker” or
• you’re not “the type of person who’ll be a good lawyer” or
• you “don’t deserve to pass” (see Steph’s jaw-opening story at the end).

Sure, there are some “natural geniuses” out there, but most of us aren’t. The rest of us have and will continue to pass.

This is a learnable skill. No one is born to take the bar exam, nor is it a life skill you need to have cultivated since childhood. If you can graduate from law school, you can pass the bar exam. Invest in yourself and work smart, not just blindly work hard spinning your wheels.

Scroll to see unconventional stories from…

• Maureen: 63 years old, slow typer, no big-box prep course. She passed the 2018 February California Bar Exam on her second try (27.3% pass rate).
• Siarra: Canadian applicant who passed the 2021 February California Bar Exam on her second try after believing that she could pass without a traditional commercial program.
• Akshay: Realized his childhood dream by passing the 2020 February California Bar Exam on his second try (26.8% pass rate).
• “Kevin”: Took the California Attorneys’ Exam three times unsuccessfully, until he stopped writing like a lawyer and started writing like a bar taker.
• Anonymous: A foreign-trained LLM who took the New York Bar Exam five times after persevering and steadily increasing her scores until she passed.
• Plato: A non-native English speaker passed the 2019 February California Bar Exam bar on his first try without using a big-box prep course (31.4% pass rate).
• Valerio: Foreign attorney with LLM who passed the 2018 July California Bar Exam, the exam with the lowest recorded pass rate for July (40.7%).
• Rana: “Not everyone is at the top of the class . . . I had to step away from what I was ‘supposed’ to do, to what I actually NEEDED.” Passed the 2018 February California Bar Exam, 27.3% pass rate.
• Ashleigh: A repeater of the California Bar Exam who passed the 2019 July exam by playing to her own strengths. One trick she used was to do the Performance Test first in the afternoon portion of the written day.
• Naoki: Member of the Japanese bar (3% passage rate). Non-native speaker. Never went to an American law school. Worked full time. Passed the 2017 July California Bar Exam.
• Marlow: Studied while working 40+ hours a week. He “doesn’t do well on standardized tests,” and it had been years since graduating law school… and he passed the UBE with flying colors.
• Anonymous “A”: Repeater who passed the 2017 February California Bar Exam (34.5% pass rate) while working full time.
• Karrie: Mother of four children, learned the law all over again three years after graduating from an unaccredited school. Improved by 130 points to pass the California Bar Exam on her second attempt by studying smart, not just hard.
• Camille: Second-time passer of the California Bar Exam. She used different strategies over the course of a year, such as getting study buddies who were committed to her success and using modern tools to create much-needed alone time.
• Barry: Third timer, a foreign lawyer from Ireland. Focused on the MBE, his weak area, to pass the Texas Bar Exam.
• Kathleen: 49-year-old mother with English as her second language. Tried various resources and techniques and implemented what worked for her on the California Bar Exam.
• Jennifer: Cut through the fear and closed a 150-point deficit as a “threepeater” of the California Bar Exam.
• Steph: Was in prison for 32 years, had to learn how to use a smartphone and the Internet, and closed a 150-point gap to pass the California Bar Exam as a second timer.

MAUREEN: A nontraditional student—63 years old, slow typer, no big-box prep course. She passed the California Bar Exam on her second try (2018 February CA bar, 27.3% pass rate).

Click to read how she did it (opens in a new tab):

SIARRA: Foreign (Canadian) applicant who passed the 2021 February California Bar Exam on her second try after believing that she could pass without a traditional commercial program.

Click to read how she did it (opens in a new tab):

I love this write-up for a few reasons. It’s very specific and organized like a lawyer’s writing should be! There are plenty of takeaways:

1. Have self-awareness of your strengths and weaknesses. This is very important and will put you ahead of the curve if you want to take a more conscious approach instead of doing the default.
2. Know your WHY. I love that she emphasized actually spending time on this, putting on a straitjacket for just 10 minutes to reflect. Starting anything difficult is the hardest part. But if you have a guiding reason, you won’t “lose motivation.”
3. Your mindset (positivity) is your own. (This is a general theme in this write-up.) You can change your mind. How you think is how you do because it’s our heart that drives us.
4. Read my emails (and other resources). Most successful bar takers I’ve seen do their own research, implement what they learned behind the scenes, and quietly move on with their life.
5. Use a short list of resources and tools you trust that fit your style, not a collect-a-thon of 100 documents that overwhelm you and get buried somewhere. Have a purpose for each.
6. Do what works for you. There’s a lot of advice out there. “How do I KNOW this will work for me?!” You don’t. Like putting on hats, if it doesn’t look good on you, try on another hat. Don’t be afraid to go off the beaten path. You are the dean of your own studies, not Barbri, not me, not anyone else. Instead of worrying about what the best resource is, worry about how to be the best student.

AKSHAY: Realized his childhood dream by passing the 2020 February California Bar Exam on his second try (26.8% pass rate).

“KEVIN”: Took the California Attorneys’ Exam three times unsuccessfully, until he stopped writing like a lawyer and started writing like a bar taker. Big takeaway points:

• It’s not just “IRAC.” There is a specific approach to every issue. Learn by example, not theory.
• Contrary to rumors, it’s not all about writing long analyses. I have a whole chart on the idea of “be an overachiever, not a tryhard” in Passer’s Playbook.
• More specifically: Issues > Rules > Analysis. See the high-scoring student answers in BarEssays (find an offer code in the private Facebook community or by signing up for my emails).

In sum, forget everything you learned in law school or work, and start fresh. The only experience that counts here is what you’ve learned from bar preparation.

ANONYMOUS: A foreign-trained LLM who took the New York Bar Exam five times after persevering and steadily increasing her scores until she passed. She realized that points can come from the most unexpected places.

PLATO: A non-native English speaker passed the 2019 February California Bar Exam bar on his first try without using a big-box prep course (31.4% pass rate).

VALERIO: Foreign attorney with LLM who passed the 2018 July California Bar Exam, the exam with the lowest recorded pass rate for July (40.7%).

RANA: “Not everyone is at the top of the class . . . I had to step away from what I was ‘supposed’ to do, to what I actually NEEDED.” Passed the 2018 February California Bar Exam, 27.3% pass rate.

ASHLEIGH: A repeater of the California Bar Exam who passed the 2019 July exam by playing to her own strengths. One trick she used was to do the Performance Test first in the afternoon portion of the written day.

NAOKI: Member of the Japanese bar (3% passage rate). Non-native speaker. Never went to an American law school. Worked full time. Passed the 2017 July California Bar Exam.

MARLOW: Studied while working 40+ hours a week. He “doesn’t do well on standardized tests,” and it had been years since graduating law school… and he passed the UBE with flying colors.

Get your discount code for $30 off AdaptiBar by signing up here. You’ll also get my famous weekly emails that helped everyone get featured on this page.

“A”: Repeater who passed the 2017 February California Bar Exam (34.5% pass rate) while working full time.

KARRIE: Mother of four children, learned the law all over again three years after graduating from an unaccredited school. Improved by 130 points to pass the California Bar Exam on her second attempt by studying smart, not just hard.

CAMILLE: Second-time passer of the California Bar Exam. She used different strategies over the course of a year, such as getting study buddies who were committed to her success and using modern tools to create much-needed alone time.

BARRY: Third timer, a foreign lawyer from Ireland. Focused on the MBE, his weak area, to pass the Texas Bar Exam.

KATHLEEN: A mother with English as her second language. Tried various resources and techniques and implemented what worked for her on the California Bar Exam.

JENNIFER: Cut through the fear and closed a 150-point deficit as a “threepeater” of the California Bar Exam.

STEPH: Was in prison for 32 years, had to learn how to use a smartphone and the Internet, and closed a 150-point gap to pass the California Bar Exam as a second timer. You have no excuse.

Want to join their ranks?

It’s not all doom and gloom. This isn’t unrealistic. It’s easy to let pass rates take the blame, but plenty of people do pass.

And you can be one of them—if you make it a priority.

Don’t shy away from success.

“If you want success, figure out the price, then pay it.”—Scott Adams

I’m offering these tools so that you can become another success story instead of another statistic: