Bar Prep Is Overwhelming: How to Make Independent Choices for Yourself

You have questions about the bar exam. How to study. When to study. Whether you’re on the right track. Picking the right bar prep supplements out of all the resources out there.

Here’s how questions go on social media:

“What’s the best program/tutor/outline?”

It makes me wonder: Do you just want to be told with certainty, or do you actually want the objective best?

If you crowdsource the answer, by definition, you won’t know which one is “best” because you’ll get different answers based on everyone’s own experience.

In fact, the more options you have, the more hesitant you get. There are pros and cons to every option.

How would you even trust what’s best until you try it yourself?

There are no secrets, and there are a million ways to pass. It’s always been up to you.

Sounds scary but also freeing, right? You have it in you already.

Sure, sometimes you want to vent and get some support from others. See what other people are doing.

But bar prep is personal. I want to encourage you to listen to yourself a little more instead of blindly being influenced by what someone else says you “need” to do (not just with bar prep but with everything else in life).

That’s where the danger lies. Everyone has an opinion (and sometimes a tutoring service). Is that comment even a real opinion or just an ad? Are you reading something thrown up by AI and not respectful of your attention?

You shop around the astroturf and end up where you started.

But it’s all so overwhelming…

Frequently asked questions:

• Which course/program should I take?
• Should I get a tutor?
• “Any tips” for the MBE/essays/passing the bar?
• Should I get AdaptiBar or UWorld?
• Which outline should I get?
• I’m a retaker. What do I do now?
• ThOuGhTs?

X or Y? A vs B? Should I do Z?

If you want to make the wrong decision, listen to everyone. Debate over conflicting views. Ask question after question and don’t do anything with the answers.

Analysis paralysis keeps you from doing anything at all.

It’s good to do your research to be aware of the options, but waiting for perfect knowledge before you act can make you LESS certain.

Advice is autobiography. Unless someone knows your situation, advice is often just a reflection of their own situation and agenda. Consider whether that mirrors yours.

All I can do is put myself in your shoes and give you some ideas based on what I’ve observed. (My blog should be the first place to check if you want my “thoughts.”)

But it’s ultimately up to you because bar prep is personal.

Oftentimes, you already know the answer! Maybe you just want someone to validate you in this time of uncertainty and noise.

But I want to empower you to make your own independent choices (and be confident about them).

How to make decisions about bar prep (supplements and advice) when you’re overwhelmed

Due diligence is part of making a decision, but let me offer some suggestions to narrow down that process.

1️⃣ Part of getting good answers is asking questions well.

“Great questions are a much better indicator of future success than great answers.”

Bluntly speaking, ask better questions if you want better answers. It’s difficult to answer vague questions. It’s a waste of time for everyone.

Observe the differences between these examples:

Example question 1: “I failed the bar exam. Do you have any tips for me?”

• No background information, doesn’t specify the state, forces the other person to probe or give a useless answer (or worst case, ignore entirely)
• No regard for the other person’s time and attention. The epitome of a Google-able question
• Vague and broad enough to be struck down if it were a regulation of speech

Result: General answers or overwhelming answers that are not targeted to what you need the most, since people can’t read your mind. NOT USEFUL TO YOU.

Or I take my time to reply because I need to step away and make myself a G&T and prepare to suffer. Then I can squeeze out whatever limited cognitive bandwidth I find to figure out what I can reasonably assume about them and what I need to ask back without overloading with too much info and branching possibilities. Because if I respond to their one-liner with more than three lines or god forbid ask a clarifying question, it’ll be complete crickets and a waste of my 11 minutes. DO YOU SEE WHY MY BRAIN GETS MAD AT ME WHEN I MAKE IT DECODE A QUESTION LIKE THAT WHEN I COULD BE LOOKING AT WAY BETTER EMAILS IN MY INBOX

Example question 2: “Thanks for this great email as always! I learned XYZ. But I have a question about X that I couldn’t seem to find an answer to.

Here’s my history with bar exams: [first timer/repeating the XX state exam]. I struggle with ABC. I have these resources.

What would you do in my shoes about X? Thanks again! No rush and no worries if you can’t get to it.”

• Appreciative, easy to dive into (Hint: Busy people don’t answer in order received)
• Good communication skills: High regard for the other person’s limited attention, has already done due diligence, doesn’t put the responsibility on me to tell you what to do but rather tell you what I would do
• Specific but concise, doesn’t assume I know which state they’re in (I’m looking at Californians who think the world revolves around us)

Result: I answer with exactly what you need and become more likely to be open to future questions. I also become optimistic about your general future.

If you want vague or overwhelming platitudes that sound nice (aka useless answers that waste everyone’s time), ask vague questions that took 5 seconds to dictate to your iPhone. Might as well ask ChatGPT.

If you want thoughtful and useful answers, do the work up front and ask thoughtful questions.

Quality of output ∝ quality of input. Just like how we assume a lazy generic dating profile means a lazy dater (even if it may not be true). Thinking about your reader is useful in your essays, career, and everyday life.

At the same time, you can be confident knowing that there are many right answers. This is why I send Fire-up Friday case studies. If you read the success stories, you’ll see that there are common traits of passers but also that everyone carves their own path. The variety is astounding. It’s irrefutable proof that there are many ways to go about this.

That means…

2️⃣ If you need structure, any major course or program will “work” (but I’m not a fan of Kaplan).

It’s not about which tennis racquet you use against Serena Williams that’ll make the difference. It’s your technique with the racket.

A course is a supplement, not a default.

If you use a course, know how to use it properly so that you’re actively learning from it.

3️⃣ Curate advice as well, not just tools.

There’s a cost to getting 7 different tutor recommendations, collecting 100 random PDFs, and joining every free workshop and study group:

You’re lowering the signal-to-noise ratio. How are you going to decide which advice to use? How are you going to incorporate all the information? You get even more confused.

Yes, it can hurt. Your biggest resource and bottleneck is your attention.

If you want to be efficient, pick and stick to only a few sources of advice you can trust. And MOVE.

You don’t need that much information. Filter information OUT.

4️⃣ Our minds play a trick on us where we think that the more extreme an action is, or the more we pay for something, the more we think it’ll change things.

It’s still on you show up and exert yourself. See 2️⃣ and 3️⃣.

What I learned from hiring a personal trainer is that they’ll correct your form and keep you accountable, but you’re still the one who has to exert the effort.

5️⃣ No one can teach you. You can only learn.

You could have a gym trainer but see no changes because you just go through the motions and then “reward” yourself with a cheat meal.

You could have a therapist and not see any changes because you’re unwilling to change your thoughts.

Of course, like anything else, there are good ones and ones who aren’t a good fit—for you.

There’s a lot of advice out there. The question is how you can implement it in your specific situation. Take what you can use, and leave the rest. There’s no such thing as the “best,” only what is a fit for you.

And when you factor in the time spent overthinking about different options, they no longer become the fastest, best, or easiest. What’s best is what works for you. That’s what you’ve been looking for the whole time.

Instead of agonizing over the “best” resource, you should be concerned about how YOU can be a good student. Successful students turn information into insights, and apply the advice they do get instead of waiting for the perfect advice.

I’ve already curated some tools and approaches that have worked for me and many others. There’s no way for me to guarantee an outcome, but I can help you weigh the options.

6️⃣ Find out by finding out.

I was once on the fence about buying a course. I talked with the creator. He offered some perspective and ultimately said to “find out by finding out.”

This is how I approach uncertain decisions now. Worst case, you find out it’s not right for you. What you pay is insurance against never knowing.

If you try something and it doesn’t work, great! Elimination is one way to progress. Cross it off the list, and try another. There are a million ways to make it work.

This is how you figure out what works for you—confidently—and personalize your approach.

Ultimately, bar preparation is a self-study endeavor. Tools, courses, and supplements are simply there to support that.

Put another way, you’re the dean of your own studies. (This is a mantra that my readers remember by the end of bar prep.)

Here’s how to fix 4 common mindsets that hold you back from being an effective dean.