Make This Your Last Time | Page 30 of 38

September 21, 2019August 6, 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.

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.