MBE Archives | Make This Your Last Time

April 23, 2026April 27, 2026 - No Comments

Do I Really Need a $3,000 Bar Prep Course? Is Self-Study Enough to Pass the Bar Exam? What the Data Shows

You’re staring at your bar exam registration deadline trying to come up with a game plan.

Your inbox is full of emails from Barbri, Themis, and Kaplan. “Sign up for our course to pass. Hurry!!!”

Then you see the price tag.

Is this mandatory? Or just a sales pitch?

What typically happens is that prospective bar takers default toward courses on auto-pilot after exposure to three years of marketing.

Understandable! You’re not sure where to even start, and law schools will farm you out to big courses. They’re not going to go out of their way to teach you. (What are they, some kind of charity?)

And it’s exciting when the first video starts playing. Time to buckle down and dive in! Yeah!! Whether you’ll end up lost and frustrated anyway in 5 weeks is another matter.

The bar exam sounds scary, and that’s exactly what they’re banking on. We’re drawn to what feels “safe” and familiar even if it may not the best thing for us. But if you think about it, there’s no real reason you must take a course.

Courses are a luxury option when it comes to bar review. Treat them as such.

❌ “What’s the nicest option?”
✅ “Where in this bar prep process are you going to feel stuck, and what can I use to make that part go smoother?”

❌ “Should I use Barbri or Themis?”
✅ “Should I use Barbri or Themis at all?”

The first question is like sorting by business class when shopping for plane tickets. Maybe this is how you want to travel, especially if it’s long distance or an important trip.

There are legitimate reasons some folks should buy a course. Not everyone should DIY this.

But maybe you weren’t even aware of other options that also get you to point B more cost-efficiently (and more effectively while wasting less time). The first time I took the bar, I didn’t know there were paths other than the default one given to me. I even got excited because “everything I needed to know was in that box of books”!

I’m going to show you the evidence and perspectives you may not have considered so that you can decide for yourself.

December 7, 2025December 13, 2025 - No Comments

MBE Tips and Best Supplements to Get

Ah yes, the MBE, everyone’s favorite multiple-guess section…

1.8 minutes per question for 6 hours
Paranoia from seeing seven C’s in a row on your answer sheet
50/50 choices that make you go, “Damn, what’s with this ultimate decision?”

Up to 50% of your bar exam score hangs on a series of letters. I don’t mean essays, which are also a series of letters.

Wow! Sounds important.

For some people, the MBE comes easily while the essays don’t. For some other people, the essays come very easily while the MBE seems impossible.

If neither is your strong suit (like it was for me)…then you’re out of luck.

Just kidding. It’s never over. If you lack the talent of high scores, develop the talent of grit instead.

While the MBE is a formidable portion of the bar, improving on it is figure-out-able.

So how do you improve your MBE score? Here are:

3 quick tactics you can try RIGHT NOW
3 study strategies for success on the MBE
How to implement these tactics and strategies

April 23, 2023January 4, 2025 - 2 Comments

Struggling with the MBE? Don’t Gloss Over These Tips

For the MBE, I often see bar takers trying to seek endless questions and debating minutiae like AdaptiBar vs UWorld.

Instead, you want to know the rules cold. This doesn’t just mean memorizing the general rule. It means knowing sub-issues like the elements, exceptions, possible defenses, and other nuances so you can hone in on and eliminate choices better.

The more nuanced your understanding of the rules, the clearer the choices, and the fewer ultimate 50/50 decisions you’ll be forced to make.

A relatively general understanding of the law can be enough for essays (as they are more about issue identification). The MBE is more focused on testing the specific ins and outs of the rules—and of course, knowing how to use those rules.

That’s how you could be one of those bar takers who are stellar at the written portion (essays and PT) but still struggle with the MBE.

But we can address this!

August 26, 2022December 19, 2025 - 17 Comments

AdaptiBar vs. UWorld MBE QBank: Which one should you get?

Not sure if AdaptiBar or UWorld is better for your MBE needs? Someone had a succinct dilemma about this:

Good dilemma (and choice of outlines). Here’s a breakdown of both and a summary table.

May 16, 2022February 9, 2024 - 1 Comment

How do Magicsheets and Approsheets fit into your other bar exam study materials?

There are a LOT of study supplements, resources, and outlines for bar prep. As time passes, more and more get added to your potential repertoire.

Sometimes, the sheer overwhelm causes bar takers to load up on all sorts of materials, attend every workshop, DM everyone offering something — spreading themselves so thin that they end up not using any of it!

The materials collect digital dust, and bar takers end up restarting at square one, exhausted. But “the great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” (Herbert Spencer)

I, too, offer study materials for the California Bar Exam and the Uniform Bar Exam. Here’s my answer to questions about them, including HOW to use them. This will be useful whether or not you use my material.