Mindset/Psychology | Page 9 of 11 | Make This Your Last Time

April 10, 2020May 15, 2020 - No Comments

Bar Exam Success Rules that Buck Tradition: Keeping Yourself Mentally Sane During Bar Prep

I’m excited to share this guest article by Jennifer Duclair, Esq., a Bar Exam Mentor who specializes in mindset mentoring for powerful bar exam results, and offers regular five-day challenges to set up your own study plan. Today, you’ll learn how to work with your mind, rather than have your mind work against you on your way to bar exam success.

Bar takers could do with less suffering and more enjoyment in this rite of passage to becoming an Esquire.

However, most bar prep rules were developed ages ago and haven’t been updated much since then. Here’s what to do to get away get from those methods that are so 1998, and do what really works today.

March 19, 2020November 20, 2022 - No Comments

Coronavirus and Bar Exam Preparation (Do You Study Now or Later?)

You’re probably getting a headache from all the news about the novel coronavirus, the contradictory posts in your social feed, and companies you forgot existed emailing you random thoughts about COVID-19 (“we’re here for you”).

While I reserve the right as an introvert to smugly judge those who have cabin fever after ONE day of quarantine (what the hell’s wrong with you guys), I understand that this pandemic may be seriously impacting your livelihood—or even threatening your lives or those around you.

Bad news one minute, good news the next.

Despair and hope, rinse and repeat.

Look. Things have changed. Accept it.

We don’t have all the information. We don’t know what’s going to happen. We have to adapt to the new situation, but without panicking.

We’re all susceptible to panic. Panic causes regressive reasoning, which effectively turns us back into children. But we also have the ability to trigger a “circuit breaker” to go back to making rational and growth-oriented decisions.

Just like how we are “flattening the curve” of new infections through social distancing and lockdowns, we can “flatten the curve” of how we react to the situation.

Here are some “circuit breakers” to consider if you are preparing for the next bar exam (or just scared in general).

November 15, 2019January 11, 2022 - 3 Comments

Preparing for the 2020 Bar Exam: Learn from Their Biggest Mistakes

It’s that time again. Results for the 2019 July bar exam are in for every state.

You’ve endured the obligatory “aww… you got this” and “I’m sure you passed” comments for weeks and months.

Anxiety squirting into your heart every time you thought of the moment of truth. Heart ricocheting around your ribcage as you check for your name on the pass list. Waiting is the hardest part.

Well, the insanity of the wait is over. But it turns out your nightmare isn’t over…

July 6, 2019January 11, 2022 - 6 Comments

“Bar Exam Literacy”: How to Cure Uncertainty in Bar Preparation

Hello? Can you read this? You’re all good if you’re literate with the written word—my favorite way to communicate and same with the bar examiners.

You may be literate in many other ways: digital literacy, media literacy, critical literacy, financial literacy…

Yeah, I’m proud of us, too. But I want to talk about “bar exam literacy.”

You’re capable of graduating from law school, you survived all those exams, you may be up to date on developments in case law, etc.

But you’ve noticed by now that the bar exam is a different beast altogether.

You may have had moments of panic… that sinking feeling in your chest that you might be spinning your wheels… a feeling of dread you haven’t felt since you sent the wrong text to the wrong person.

First of all, it’s normal to feel uncertain about the bar. Second, that uncertainty can be cured.

June 25, 2019July 3, 2019 - 2 Comments

Stop Trying to Pass the Bar Exam

I’m guessing some of you weirdos out there actually, literally LOVE bar preparation. Probably the same kind of people I didn’t talk to in law school.

I encourage you to enjoy bar prep to the extent possible… But this probably isn’t your passion and calling. So why stay trapped in it any longer than you have to?

The goal is to pass the bar, not to think about passing the bar. [Share on Facebook]

One leads to your heart immediately entering a lowkey hum of disappointment and regret as soon as you wake up.

The other leads to a free life where you’re not chained to your circumstances. You can finally live where you want. You can finally do the work you want. You can finally start chipping away at those student loans and pay for appetizers.

How do I know this?