Almost Failing Law School to Passing the CA Bar Exam in One Shot

You don’t need to be a legal rockstar to pass the bar exam. Like me, Christian wasn’t the best student in law school.

💬 “I graduated from law school with a 3.08 GPA. My 1L year was extremely challenging for me, turning me from a student accustomed to receiving A’s in high school and undergrad to suddenly receiving my first D+ in Property Law. So needless to say, I was terrified at the idea of taking the California Bar Exam, notoriously known as the most difficult in the country.”

But we wouldn’t be here if we didn’t know the ending already.

Christian passed the July 2025 California Bar Exam on her first try. I’m not even surprised anymore. This is normal around here.

💬 “I’m so excited to share what helped me pass the CA Bar Exam on my first try. Reading these stories was so motivating for me, and I was so excited for the day I could write my own!”

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Passing the Kentucky Bar Exam (UBE) with AuDHD on Her Third Attempt

Jessica passed the July 2025 Kentucky Bar Exam (UBE) on her third try.

💬 “Here’s a pretty good follow-up. I passed with a 269. Although that is one point away from 270, a pass is a pass. Kentucky requires a 266.”

💬 “I graduated near the bottom of my law school class, and one regret I have with the law school experience was not putting into practice questions a lot sooner than outlining.”

What happened on her first two attempts?

💬 “In my first two attempts, I was using Themis and was completely burnt out by the time I took the exam in both July 2024 and February 2025. I failed both attempts as a result.”

This is the same old story that fresh grads don’t hear about. A lesson that they won’t learn until they get burned personally. And then the cycle continues.

But good thing you’re here to stop that cycle for yourself.

What did Jessica do differently on her third attempt to make it successful?

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UK Attorney Got a 316 on the NY UBE on Her First Try While Working Full Time

Sushmita passed the February 2025 New York Bar Exam on her first attempt:

  • as a UK-trained attorney
  • right after taking another exam
  • while working full time
  • starting with ZERO prior knowledge of American law
  • with a score of 316 (!)
💬 “I did not study any US law during my LLM save for a short intro module for international students, i.e., I did not require an LLM to be eligible to take the bar exam.”
💬 “I am delighted to share that I’ve passed the UBE in NY with a score of 316.”

That’s just unnecessarily impressive.

On top of that, she went into prep already knowing she didn’t want to use a big box bar review program.

💬 “I have no wish to purchase bar prep from the big players like Barbri, Themis, JD Advising, Kaplan etc.”
💬 “Given my trauma in dealing with these terrible companies, I was looking for assistance similar to what I found for the [Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE)], from people who genuinely want to help students. I found your website again when looking through my old bookmarks from 2022, and I am glad I did.”

Most first-time bar takers default to using a big course. How did she so confidently decide not to use one?

More importantly, how did she beat this exam without using one on her first try?

Continue reading “UK Attorney Got a 316 on the NY UBE on Her First Try While Working Full Time”

Marilynn Winged Bar Prep and Failed. Then She Passed the Bar Exam Doing This

Marilynn passed the February 2025 California Bar Exam on her second attempt. A classic repeater situation.

Right now, you have a massive advantage:

If you’re a repeater, you are starting from experience, not from scratch.

If you’re a first timer, you have a crystal ball into your future. It’s up to you to decide how much of these visions you’ll adopt or let pass as a dream.

If you aren’t confident academically, the good news is your law school grades are meaningless. It took one cycle of mistakes for Marilynn and me to realize that law school and bar prep are separate skills.

💬 “I was feeling so much disappointment, despair, and guilt for not passing the first time, especially as someone who also finished at around a 2.8 GPA in law school.”

Here’s where you’ll once again learn about the pitfalls of first timers you can avoid today.

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Bar Prep Wisdom from Succulents

I went to a succulents gardening workshop the other day 🌱

I figured succulents wouldn’t wither under my care like the flowers I tried arranging before. There’s a limit to how much talent one person can have, I guess.

But there’s no limit to how much I think about bar prep because that’s what I started thinking about when I was listening to the instructor 🤦🏻‍♂️

4 relevant lessons and also photos of my bald-looking succulent bowl:

(First lesson: “You have to kill a lot of plants to be an expert.” 🤯)

Continue reading “Bar Prep Wisdom from Succulents”