Make This Your Last Time

January 16, 2026September 27, 2026 - 4 Comments

How an Australian Lawyer Passed the Illinois UBE (After Passing in California)

I featured James in a previous case study back in 2022. He passed the California Bar Exam as an Australian lawyer back then. Then he passed the July 2025 Illinois UBE.

💬 “Brian, just a heads-up: I passed the July UBE! Thanks for all that you do.”

I didn’t even know James was taking another bar exam. What a masochist.

💬 “After passing the CA Bar exam in 2022, in late 2024 I ended up in the mid-west! Fortunately, given my decade+ experience as an attorney in Australia, I was able to become eligible to sit the Illinois Uniform Bar Exam (UBE).”

Here’s a follow-up to his 2022 case study because I run into folks taking both exams fairly often.

Whether you’re taking the UBE or the CA Bar Exam (or a masochist looking to take both at some point), James compares and contrasts his successful strategies from both exams.

He recommends tailoring your approach to each exam given the differences.

💬 “You might think that passing the UBE would be easy enough (after passing the CA Bar). However, speaking from experience I can advise that it isn’t that simple. In important ways (content tested, timing, structure and scoring), the first day of both bar exams are completely different. This means that if you don’t adapt your strategy accordingly, you could end up failing the UBE!”

💬 “I do not recommend the strategy I used to pass the California Bar be used to attempt to pass the UBE.

These differences dictate the need for a change in strategy!”

January 10, 2026September 27, 2026 - 19 Comments

Enjoying Bar Prep: 6 Ways to Make Studying for the Bar Exam More Fun and Effective (Visual Guide)

Is it possible to enjoy bar prep?

It’s one of the dryest things a person can do on this planet. (Don’t let space aliens try this.) But we retain more and pay more attention when things are enjoyable.

The default, typical, boring approach to bar prep involves sitting still like a statue, watching people in suits drone on as you fantasize about throwing yourself out the window (not your computer though…you already paid the laptop exam fees). You might even pause the video and make sure to fill in all the notes.

This is all surprisingly exhausting.

The default way of doing things feels nice because you can’t get anything wrong when you’re just absorbing information. You won’t taste defeat, but you won’t taste victory either.

Instead of playing defense, it’s time to go on offense. You can even enjoy bar prep this way.

Ultimately, you can have fun with anything. It’s a mindset. And if it isn’t fun, you can just enjoy not having fun!

Here’s a visual guide with 6 ways to make steady progress and enjoy bar prep, without the frustration and exhaustion that come with the default approach to studying for the bar exam.

January 9, 2026June 12, 2026 - No Comments

Passing the CA Bar Exam (First Try) Without Completing a Bar Review Course

Alex passed the July 2025 California Bar Exam on his first attempt.

He started with a bar review course but didn’t quite follow it closely. He skipped a bunch of Themis assignments. He ended up not completing the course.

💬 “I basically followed the Themis study schedule. I completed about 85% according to their tracking metric. But that’s not entirely accurate as I marked some tasks complete that I didn’t do to get them off the schedule. For example, I didn’t do any of the outline readings except for the first one and I did skip some of the essays. I also skipped the essay and MBE review videos as I felt they were time consuming and I did not get much out of them.”

Wait a minute! Aren’t you supposed to do everything they say? What did he do instead?

January 3, 2026September 23, 2026 - No Comments

Are you finally ready to listen yet? Here’s how to get unstuck in bar prep

They say that overthinking happens when you don’t trust your gut.

You let your “perfectionism” keep you playing defense for weeks. Manually listening to every word in your course. Re-reading giant outlines (because you’ll retain the information this time). Planning your schedule down to the minute.

Meanwhile, someone dumber than you figured it out and became an attorney.

You already know what to do. The problem is that you don’t trust yourself enough to do it.

Maybe you should learn to listen to your gut a little more instead of regretting it later in your most private moments.

December 27, 2025December 29, 2025 - 1 Comment

Holiday Motivation for Bar Exam: 3 Ways to Keep Going During Bar Prep

What do you say when you’re not sure how to talk to a new person at a networking event (or holiday party)?

A script that worked well for me:

Walk toward someone.
Extend a hand.
Say, “Hi, I don’t think we met. What’s your name?” or “Mind if I join?”

And then you’re off to the races.

If this seems too simple, that’s the point.

It’s not the perfect tactical wordsmithing that makes or breaks you. It’s the fact that you acted and short-circuited your approach anxiety.

The parallel here to bar prep is to not spend too much time agonizing over which supplements to use, which newsletters to follow (mine of course)…

When you factor in the time spent overthinking about different options, they no longer become the fastest, best, or easiest.