Memorization | Page 2 of 2 | Make This Your Last Time

July 2, 2020January 11, 2022 - 7 Comments

How should you really practice for the bar exam? “I keep practicing, but I’m not improving”

So you want to pass the bar. You’re super serious about it.

You pore over your outlines, trying to make sure you have a grasp of all the rules. There are still other subjects to review. You don’t think practice will be productive unless you “get” the theory.

It’s all so overwhelming.

But you did it. You can focus on practice now that you’ve had a good solid review of the core subjects first. You’ve been doing a few MBE questions and looked at a few essays already, but now it’s time to buckle down and get to writing those essays (you’ll get to the PTs… later).

After all, they said to “practice practice practice.”

But something’s wrong…

No matter how many times you do it, every essay is a mystery.

The blank-page syndrome is giving you irregular heartbeats and making you break out into a cold sweat.

You keep picking the incorrect answer choice on your MBE questions.

The prospect of grading your work makes you want to lie down on your bed instead.

Here’s why you’re stuck and what to do to get unstuck:

Observe the “10-40-40-10 rule” of bar preparation.

December 8, 2018September 29, 2024 - 18 Comments

Memorizing for the Bar Exam: 5 Ways to Remember and Recite the Rules

There’s this weird phenomenon where you meet someone new and then 1 second later it’s impossible to remember each other’s names.

If I didn’t care about them 10 seconds ago, I’m not gonna care about them all of a sudden as if they were my newborn whom I just met 10 seconds ago also.

But what can I say? It’s impressive, for that exact reason, when someone actually remembers your name in conversation without having to say, “Sorry what was your name again? I’m so terrible with names hahahahaha!!”

Forget social fluency for now (if you haven’t already preparing for this death ritual). Let’s impress the bar graders by memorizing (or more importantly, remembering), which is needed to succeed on your essays and the MBE.

And as you’ve noticed, your bar exam requires you to remember a LOT.

Fortunately, the brain is great at absorbing experiences and making powerful connections. When the same neurons get used over and over, or certain neurons get triggered hard, the connection gets stronger. As those neurons are fed that input less and less, the connection drops. Sounds like, you know, a muscle.

Let’s take advantage of what else our brains can do to help us memorize things…