Make This Your Last Time | Page 29 of 37

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 29, 2019May 20, 2023 - 3 Comments

How Do You Even Know You’re Practicing Correctly for Bar Prep?

They tell you to “study,” but do they ever teach you HOW to study? Are you studying correctly? Of course bar takers get lost when there are so many different ways to go about preparing.

You could try everything yourself, or you could find a few trustworthy sources and ignore the noise. You could pinpoint insights rather than cobble together information from random people with their own views (bar prep is personal).

Why?

Too much conflicting information actually STOPS you from doing anything.
I want the right insights, not just information. The information doesn’t have to be perfect, as long as it makes sense to me and gets me to do something about it.
The more I respect the insight, the more likely I am to do something with it.

How do you know whether to trust someone? Trust yourself to know.

Some resources and advice will work for others, and some will work for you. Big bar review courses cater to the lowest common denominator. It’s like Olive Garden’s menu where there’s something for everyone but also the primary ingredient for everything is butter.

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?

May 25, 2019January 11, 2022 - 1 Comment

Regrets of Past Bar Exam Takers

By now, reality has sunk in: Bar Is Coming.

BTW, I have only seen one episode of Game of Thrones in my life. So I am (1) not going to understand any other reference you throw at me and (2) immune to spoilers so don’t even try.

Before you ask me why, you probably have better things to get cold sweat over, like…

“OMG, the pass rate last year (for example, California) was 40.7%… What should I know before preparing for the bar?”

They say hindsight is 20/20. Let’s look ahead instead of thinking backward.

Here’s how to get 20/20 FORESIGHT: Study your predecessors, especially the ones who took the bar more than once. What are their regrets? What would they do differently?

Luckily for you, I already asked your fellow students for help, who took the bar exam in different jurisdictions (California, UBE, and more). Here’s a sample of what they had to say after coming out of the trenches.

December 8, 2018September 29, 2024 - 18 Comments

Memorizing for the Bar Exam: 5 Ways to Remember and Recite the Rules

There’s this weird phenomenon where you meet someone new and then 1 second later it’s impossible to remember each other’s names.

If I didn’t care about them 10 seconds ago, I’m not gonna care about them all of a sudden as if they were my newborn whom I just met 10 seconds ago also.

But what can I say? It’s impressive, for that exact reason, when someone actually remembers your name in conversation without having to say, “Sorry what was your name again? I’m so terrible with names hahahahaha!!”

Forget social fluency for now (if you haven’t already preparing for this death ritual). Let’s impress the bar graders by memorizing (or more importantly, remembering), which is needed to succeed on your essays and the MBE.

And as you’ve noticed, your bar exam requires you to remember a LOT.

Fortunately, the brain is great at absorbing experiences and making powerful connections. When the same neurons get used over and over, or certain neurons get triggered hard, the connection gets stronger. As those neurons are fed that input less and less, the connection drops. Sounds like, you know, a muscle.

Let’s take advantage of what else our brains can do to help us memorize things…