Bar Exam Preparation
Stephanie was a classic repeater of the California Bar Exam, who followed a big box course on her first try and then switched to better (more efficient and effective) learning strategies on her second, successful try.
It’s a familiar story you see all the time. Too many stories of repeaters regretting using Barbri and other cookie-cutter programs.
Here’s how she did it and the tools she used to do it:
Continue reading “Classic Repeater Story of Passing the CA Bar Exam on Her Second Try”This rant was inspired by a moment I had in therapy, a new thing that I started in December. Yeah, I don’t do New Year’s resolutions. Anyway, I’ll tie this back to the therapy story later.
Bar exam takers have passed using Barbri.
People have passed using Themis.
People have passed using Kaplan Bar Review…
And this is despite all the shit I say about Kaplan because they’re like Olive Garden trying to be everything which ends up being bland and giving you diarrhea. Just look at how many fucking tests they prep for LOL
Continue reading “Don’t obsess over the “best” bar exam supplement. Be the BEST STUDENT instead.”Surprise, surprise… Barbri doesn’t work for everyone. As a foreign-trained Australian attorney, James needed a way to get a handle on the sheer volume of material and become skilled at USING it.
To do that, he also needed to understand the bar exam in the first place because there were differences in legal practice in Australia and in the U.S.
He then passed the 2022 July California Bar Exam and put together a thorough write-up in collaboration with me, linked below.
This is a rare opportunity to dive DEEP into the mind of a recent bar taker. He drops many gems on what worked for him, with commentary by me such as:
One of my readers put it this way: ‘Make the bar exam process work with your learning style, not the other way around.’“
But enough about me. This is about celebrating and empowering bar takers like you to overcome this hurdle.
My breakdown and James’s full story below:
Continue reading “How an Australian Lawyer Passed the California Bar Exam Despite the Sheer Overwhelm”Back when I first took the bar exam in 2013—
Wow, where did the time FLY? This is getting depressing already.
Anyway, I was able to write these beautiful rule statements. Something out of a treatise. Flowing with prose fit to be in a presidential speech. Baroque music in the background. Some renaissance shit.
What’s really depressing is that despite my perfectly memorized (and perfectly recited) rules, they were still mostly useless.
Ask the average bar taker, “Where do you want to be in February/July/exam time?” And that’s the dream they have—to have the “black letter law” memorized perfectly.
They chase after knowledge over experience and intuition. Mere exposure and familiarity over understanding.
Memorizing rules is important for sure! But memorizing the rules is merely the cost of admission. What’s the real goal here?
Not just knowing the law but knowing how to use the law.
Continue reading “Why Bar Takers Can’t Remember What They Need To”I want to talk about dreams.
The world is changing, and so must we. We can’t stay the same and can’t pretend everything else will stay the same.
Changing means not staying complacent.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” —Charles Darwin paraphrased
Do our dreams have to change? Your dream of becoming an attorney doesn’t have to change… BUT how you get there might have to.
Continue reading “dreams of becoming an attorney”