A self-professed “Partner/Mom/Grandma/Kindergarten teacher” told me she passed the UBE.
No big deal. I asked Nocona how she DID IT so I could pass her lessons onto you mortals.
Among other things, she told me that she passed the Oklahoma Bar Exam (UBE) using a combination of substantive resources and a mindset that gave her better control over her processes.
You might read all these stories and think, I can do this too (true).
Or you might wonder, why can’t it be me?
It CAN be you, homie. These were all people in the exact same position as you, just time shifted. Why torture yourself trying to reinvent the wheel?
- Resources used
- Some takeaways from Nocona’s approach to bar prep
- ✅ First, if something isn’t working…STOP doing it.
- ✅ Scrape all the meat off the resources you trust.
- ✅ Recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Focus on what’s holding you back.
- ✅ Empower yourself with motivation and fun.
- Nocona’s full story of what changed between her 4th attempt and 5th attempt at the bar exam
Resources used
▶▶ BarMax (for licensed MBE questions)
If you want a more familiar MBE supplemental resource, other popular options are AdaptiBar ($40 discount code) and UWorld
▶▶ Passer’s Playbook 2.0 (tools and techniques for effective bar prep)
▶▶ Mental Engines (mini-course on organizing your mind and emotions for bar prep)
▶▶ MTYLT emails (sign up here)
Some takeaways from Nocona’s approach to bar prep
✅ First, if something isn’t working…STOP doing it.
She started studying from scratch and had to leave behind unsuccessful study strategies and insecurities.
If something isn’t working, I dare you to change it. I dare you NOT to simply say “yeah maybe” and keep doing more of the same thing.
✅ Scrape all the meat off the resources you trust.
You COULD do everything by yourself.
Research case law and statutes. Retake the exam again and again trying to figure it out. Reinvent the wheel. It’s possible!
You could use other resources too, of course. Most people do this.
I’ve specifically designed what I offer to make it EASIER on you to get you that much closer to passing the bar exam.
I’m a repeater myself who was in pain and had to learn.
I’ve spoken with thousands of bar takers. I’ve tested and evolved the strategies and materials with them. I’m sending out these beacons so you can DO something with them.
Nocona did. By doing so, she transformed her life. But if you’re just going to treat my work like intellectual candy, get the hell off my website. I’m more than happy to make room for others.
There may be other “vitamin-rich” nodes in the world of bar prep. You should keep your pulse there too.
Everything is merely a proposal for you to implement into your curriculum as the dean of your own studies.
✅ Recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Focus on what’s holding you back.
It would behoove you to have a strategy for bar prep, not just do things haphazardly or expect things to click once you “complete the course” or “memorize the rules.” Not everything is equally important.
For example, you could make a plan that is FLEXIBLE. It’s an evolving, living document that caters to your needs. This is the macro-schedule I talk about in Passer’s Playbook.
Nocona nailed it by recalibrating her study schedule:
As more examples, techniques like issue checking and essay cooking focus on what’s most important in an essay. Recognizing what — and how — the MBE question is testing helps you hone in on the answer. Even being aware that the performance test is part of the exam is a better start than many who neglect it.
Your mind is also a huge part of bar prep. Bar preparation is emotional preparation.
The entirety of Mental Engines and [the] Playbook helped me capitalize on what I was already good at and focus on overcoming my weakness. Your insights, humor, and substance were the cognitive and behavioral resources I needed to outgrow what was holding me back.”
✅ Empower yourself with motivation and fun.
When you think of bar takers, you think of stressed and overwhelmed people.
Preparing for the bar exam may be difficult, but suffering is optional.
Don’t volunteer to be miserable in advance.
Embrace the suck, but let it go.
Nocona’s full story of what changed between her 4th attempt and 5th attempt at the bar exam
Here’s one of Nocona’s early emails to me. She did not expect to pass in February:
Nocona followed up in April with a game plan for July—her substantive plans and mental plans:
Lo and behold, Nocona emailed me after the July exam:
Nice work, Nocona! Here are the resources she used + the lessons from her story.