Motivation | Page 5 of 7 | Make This Your Last Time

May 22, 2020July 11, 2020 - 2 Comments

How to Focus on Bar Studies While Stuck at Home in Quarantine

It’s hard enough to focus when there isn’t a cloud of coronavirus covering the planet. Or all the hubbub about what the exam will be like. Or wondering when it’s even going to be.

The stress of adjusting to “the new reality.” Dealing with uncertainty about the bar exam. Running out of yeast for your new bread machine.

You’re at the brink of feeling burned out before the exam is even happening.

First of all, if we’re quarantining, we should be thankful to have a place to stay and a refuge from everything going on outside (even if we’re forced to coexist with our housemates).

But it may be frustrating to not have a quiet place to focus if your go-to study place is suddenly gone. We’re stuck at home. Libraries are closed. Daycares are closed. Coffee shops don’t let you linger around.

Being productive in your bar preparation has become more challenging than it’s ever been.

How do you get into that flow if where you live is the only place left to study?

The two biggest killers of focus and concentration are external distractions and your energy.

Address each by designing your environment and optimizing your sleep as follows:

May 8, 2020April 17, 2022 - 2 Comments

How to Get 20/20 FORESIGHT for the 2020 Bar Exam

Welcome to 2020, where “social distancing,” “the new normal,” and “stay home” are the new meme phrases to replace “in this economy.”

But life and the bar go on relentlessly no matter the state of the planet.

It’s that time yet again. Results for the 2020 February bar exam are in for every state (pass rate in California 26.8% WTF?).

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 hard part. It’s even harder to get non-lawyers to shut up about obligatory “aww… you got this” and “I’m sure you passed” comments for weeks and months.

Well, I’m just gonna ask you. Did you pass?

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…

September 21, 2019May 17, 2024 - 7 Comments

Why Are Pass Rates Lower in February than in July? (Yours Doesn’t Have to Be)

Bar exam takers are some of the most anxious and superstitious people on the planet.

They spend more time agonizing over which subjects will be tested than actually preparing for each subject (…and then get really mad when the subjects actually get leaked, like they did for the California Bar Exam in 2019)
They plug numbers into score calculators to figure out how many wrong MBE answers they can get away with… AFTER the bar (I’m also guilty of this)
They get worked up over the smallest indications of possibly passing the bar (“My account won’t let me sign up for the next bar exam! My character and fitness status is different! There’s some text that changed colors! I “hacked” my account and read HTML markup and my tea leaves just moved on their own! Does this mean I passed the bar?! Do they even have my answers???”)

It wouldn’t surprise me if someone used a ouija board to divine what a magic 8-ball would say about their bar results.

I’m only judging a little bit because it’s natural to get anxious over a high-stakes exam. But we sometimes focus on minutiae too much that ultimately doesn’t matter.

One such question that some repeaters (or first timers who don’t take it in July) have is whether they should take the bar in February or July. The lingering concern is whether the bar is harder in February than in July. Is it really?

This is an understandable question but one that you need not worry about too much.