How a Full-time Working Father Passed the CA Bar Exam (by Streamlining Resources)

Brian,

I’m thrilled to share my passing story with you.

You know my overall story:

First time taker in California for F24. Nailed the MBE’s, but didn’t do as well on the essays/PT’s, and missed passing by just a few points. What a gut punch. Soul sucking.

I delayed my dream of becoming an attorney for decades for my family, my career, and just the thought of four years of part-time law school, plus this exam (and the financial and opportunity costs, because I would have to take less responsible or less demanding roles in my career to make this work).

I’m an older test taker, looking for a second career. I’m a full-time working father, with a family. I hate my current career and what it’s become, and need to become an attorney for my own sanity (although this choice for sanity may be questionable).

For F24, I used a wide variety of resources, all of which were highly recommended, including Magicsheets and Approsheets, along with Passer’s Playbook (all MTYLT products). All were helpful and had their pros and cons, and I’m glad that I used them all. Other resources used:

• BarEssays. While no one could ever write an essay like BarEssays does under timed conditions (theirs are not written this way), the essays give a good roadmap to issues and organization, which is key to passing this monster of an exam. I did not use their issue templates and rule templates. More on this below.
• Mary Basick’s Essay Writing for the California Bar Exam, Performance Test, and MBE’s (three books). For essays, I used the Essay Writing book for organization and structure and issue spotting. I did not use her issue templates and rule templates. Of note: a few of the rules are outdated, but a new book is in the works for the essays. (used for F24 only)
• JD Advising Sheets. (used for F24 only).
• BarMD sheets and videos. (used for F24 only).
• Lean Sheets (used for F24 only).
• Strategies and Tactics for the MBE (all editions, yes, all). (F24 only)
• Uworld. (F24 only).
• AdaptiBar (F24 and J24). Many like Uworld. I LOVE AdaptiBar. It works with my learning style. I used it only for the MBE’s; no add-ons.
• CalBar: released essays answers and PT’s.

The MTYLT emails were a constant source of encouragement, even on the dark days of studying for this exam (particularly studying as second time).

Overall approach

For my take in J24, I decided to cull my resources significantly and to focus on what would work best for me, knowing that my main issue was memorizing rules (and remembering them!). I’m a later-in-life law school graduate and Bar Exam taker, so things that come easier to younger people take a bit more time for me. I also have a family and work full time. Studying for this exam takes up so much time. It becomes all-life-consuming.

I’m generally lazy. I must be interested to be interested. Flashcards do nothing for me. Never have, never will. I’m a writer. I need to read to understand. Magicsheets and Approsheets easily meet that bill for me. For J24, I focused on Magicsheets and Approsheets as my main source of foundational study materials. They distill what you need to know and cut out the noise. If a rule varied from how I originally learned it, I used whichever I could most easily remember. However, I also realized that the key to the Bar is conceptual – you don’t have to know the rule exactly – just major elements of the rule, and you must be able to spot issues, which drive the rule and vice versa. That helped. Repetition helps. Repetition helps. Repetition helps. Essays. PT’s, MBE’s (now MCQ’s).

I also can learn auditorily, when coupled with reading. Listening to a quick explanation helps, me too. I wrote down rule statement that I didn’t understand (or couldn’t remember) – sometimes verbatim from Magicsheets. I also made the Sheets into an audio file, combining Magicsheets and Approsheets into one document for each subject, and then into one overall audio file, by subject. I listened to this on repeat for a couple of months, when I went to bed and while I slept. I remember waking up in the middle of the night talking to myself about joint tenancy and right of survivorship, and products liability, etc.

I paired this with a review of every single essay selected answer that was published on the Bar’s website and did the same for the PT’s (PT’s were not an issue for me, but it was good to see how they test it). I also used BarEssays to do the same thing. I wrote about 40% of them word for word – just the process of reading and copying helped me to remember patterns, structure, what’s tested, etc. I typed these, just as I would type them on Exam Day. I timed them just as I would on Exam Day. I started to really hone in on elements and tying facts to elements cleanly and simply. I continued to use capital letters for headers. If I needed a sub header, I italicized or underlined. I continued to make sure I had time to use spellcheck. I also continued to make sure that I had time to reread before I moved on to the next essay (or to the PT) to make sure my essays read cleanly. I still finished early on both essay/PT sessions, both times.

MBE

I used AdaptiBar (again) for my MBE preparation. For F24, I did about 5,000 questions. For J24, I did about 4,000 questions. All through law school, we did practice (in-house developed) MBE’s. They made me nuts. I absolutely hated them. You know what? Once I started using AdaptiBar, and started paying attention to the answer explanations, how the material is tested, and what is emphasized, I started to really enjoy the MBE’s, as difficult as that is for me to say. I know from my first attempt that MBE’s were a major contributor to my score; on my second (passing) attempt, I know that I did even better (I ordered the NCBE Score Report). I firmly believe that MBE’s helped me to pass this exam. They also helped me think better. They also helped me reinforce the (federal and common law) rules. And, when drilling on AdaptiBar, I was able to visualize the Magicsheets, and the California differences for the MBE subjects, which helped to solidify the differences. I’m still amazed at how much I grew to enjoy doing daily MBE’s (well, almost daily). As my scores rose, I grew more and more confident overall. This helped me to conquer my mind. I was down to around 45 seconds a question for most questions (some longer questions took more time, just because there was more to read). I made sure to read each answer explanation – right or wrong, and read the other answer choices as well to see the nuance between the answer choices. I don’t do a ton of writing on paper in life, so I didn’t do a lot of writing for this, either, in terms of outlining the MBE’s that I missed. I made a point of slowly reading, and then absorbing. I also learned to see the patterns by subject, and over the repetition, I learned the rules and how they are tested. I did 70-105 MBE’s per day – equal number per subject, 3-5 days per week. Didn’t care if I did well or not per subject per day – just kept hitting it. I did these first thing, when I was fresh. I also did each subject for each of my sessions. I segregated my study by doing my question sets by subject; for example, 25 Torts, 25 Crim, 25 Real Property, etc. That way, I wasn’t having to constantly shift subjects in my brain, and each question helps build on other questions in the same subject; you get the recency effect, which also helps to solidify knowledge. I did the same thing on the Bar Exam. My MBE scores were very good in AdaptiBar and on the Bar Exams. I had two tutors as well, but defaulted to the Sheets as my source of rules and approach. The tutors helped with refining my writing and style, using the Sheets as my base, and with any MBE issues that I got stuck on.

As the prior paragraph indicates, you must study (almost) daily. Sure, you can take breaks, and days off. Life happens. Sometimes, you just need a break. Sometimes you’re just too tired. That’s cool. No problem. But don’t become complacent. This stuff tends to leave your memory cells quickly if it’s not being used. Break up your study if you need to. But study. Regularly (ideally, daily).

I had a plan going in on game (exam) day: I spent 7-10 minutes simply flipping through the MBE question book and marked the subject of the question. Didn’t have to be perfect. If I got a subject classification wrong, I just did it in the moment, which meant there was one less question for some other subject. (if you use this method, you must be *absolutely* sure that you mark your answers correctly; it’s easy to get out of order on the answer sheet and if you do that, you will *absolutely* fail). Then, I went back and did the questions subject by subject. Yes, eight rounds through the question book (first round to mark, then one each for seven subjects). I practiced this with 100 question practice runs – getting down my timing, and correctly bubbling in the answers without making mistakes. And you know what? I still finished with a good amount of time to spare. Both times.

I know that the “new” exam is going to be different. I took the experimental exam, which was offered before I knew I’d passed. I wanted the possibility of those extra points just case. I took it at home, remote. I could not find a way to easily segregate the questions. However, if you go in-person, you will have a whiteboard, and you can use that whiteboard to create seven columns (each subject) and just write the question numbers in each column (since you won’t have a hard copy booklet). The process still works. Practice it.

Essays

For essays and PT’s, I either wrote or outlined just about every essay and PT that was available on Cal Bar’s website (that’s about 20 years?). If I didn’t have time, didn’t get to it, or just didn’t feel like writing, I read, carefully, each essay and PT. I mentally outlined the issues, the rules, how to organize, it how to write what the examiners want to see, what do the instructions ask for, etc. There is no substitute for this work. It sucks. It’s tedious. It’s incredibly boring. But you must do it. I also did this with BarEssays, albeit with less time – more looking for rules that I wanted to see and organization (particularly because on the released answers, many rules are incorrect – but they still passed).

I practiced the MBE’s relentlessly. I practiced essays and PT’s less relentlessly, but still obsessively. I practiced with timed exams. I worked until I could work so fast, that I would have time to spare on every part of the exam. That worked. I had time to go back and review every essay and the PT during the exam, which was great, because I ended up making some adjustments, rewriting a little, and adding things that weren’t as clear as they could be, or that I missed. I still had time to spare. (Being a fast typist really helps here; if you’re a slow typist, you are doomed on this exam, but you can fix this with practice). Same on the MBE’s. I went back through every MBE a second time, made any changes, and still had time to spare.

Strategic differences on my second attempt

As you have seen from my story, I was very intentional about how I went about prep, particularly the second time. I used far more resources the first time. For the second time, I greatly culled the resources down to a select few, with Magicsheets and Approsheets as the foundational base of everything. No more books. No more videos. No competing “sheets” from other vendors. Basically, this came down to AdaptiBar, BarEssays, CalBar, and Magicsheets and Approsheets. I used two tutors; one for essays/PT and one for MBE’s. That wasn’t additional work for me; that was keeping me focused and on track.

Working full time and with a family and other obligations, I could not spend more than 3-4 hours per day (once in a while, 6 hours per day) studying. I had to be super-efficient. I wasn’t the first time around, and it created a lack of inertia that wasn’t good. Second time around: focused, streamlined, and generally good inertia.

That was the sum and substance of what I did for J24. It worked. I took the Sheets with me to the hotel and the evening before Day One, and I reviewed them all one last time. The Sheets are the only study aid that I took to the hotel. On the early morning of Day Two, I logged into AdaptiBar and did 10-20 questions to “warm up”.

If your school provides BarEssays, your only costs here are AdaptiBar (or Uworld), and Magicsheets and Approsheets (which are relatively inexpensive and come with lifetime access).

For anyone taking the California Bar – the hardest in the country – these products WORK. If they work for California, they work for any UBE jurisdiction as well.

Brian, it’s so wonderful that you were always there to answer questions if I had a question about something on the Sheets. You put your heart and soul into these Sheets, and into your products. You REALLY want people to pass. It shows.

I took your advice and walked into the Bar confident. But as Mike Tyson would say, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze.” Or the old military adage “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.” J24 had some challenging questions that I and I believe many others weren’t expecting to see, either in subject matter or in terms of complexity. Many froze. I froze. But I regained my composure and plowed through. I had the Sheets in my mind and knew that I would just have to do the best that I could. I didn’t want to disappoint you and all of those who have been in my corner to pass this beast.

I used your Sheets to do the foundational work to pass. I couldn’t have done it without the Sheets and without your constant motivation and support. Thank you so much.

Michael, J24 Passer

The question you may get – now that I’ve reread this – is “what happens if I take this at home where no scratch paper is allowed to segregate the MBE questions?”. It’s a good question. The Bar sent out a post-experimental bar exam survey last Wednesday. This was something that I noted as an issue – that I couldn’t figure out a way to “save” notes within the note pages on the exam and or parse out questions. I don’t know what the answer is, because I don’t know what the Bar will do, if anything, to equal this out (e.g.: testers at a test center have a whiteboard, but remote testers at home have nothing). I can tell you that doing MBE’s (now MCQ’s) this way saves a ton of time in the end, and gets scores higher, in my experience. There’s just less mental gymnastics to do during the exam.

—

The idea of marking the questions is to approach the MBE/MCQ totally differently: rather than just start at number one and go through to 100, it’s purposeful in that each question is subject marked, and then you do each subject by itself. For example, if Crim is q 1, 17, 43, 76, 89, 95, and 100, and you’ve marked those, and you want to start with Crim (a good place to start because it’s generally an easier subject, so 1) you’ll get through it without getting stuck; 2) you’ll answer them all with more assurance and not have to skip and come back as often (if at all); and, 3) you’ll build momentum for the harder subjects that follow the easier subjects, so that you know that even if you have to skip or run out of time and guess, and you left a few real property questions (usually I do those last as the patterns are longer and more complex), then you know that you only did that for a few and in one subject and the rest are good to go). I think, but don’t remember for sure, that I did something like crim/crim pro, torts, con law, contracts, civ pro, evidence, and real property. Typically, these are in the order of easiest to hardest for most people. (this isn’t my trick; one of my tutors told me about it [. . .] I don’t want to steal his thunder (other tutors vehemently opposed this as taking too much time, but it didn’t)). So I would go through the booklet and mark every question by subject. Then I would go back and start with page one, and look for my first crim/crim pro question, (which I just marked as crim for ease) – so I would do q’s 1, 17, 43, 76, 89, 95, and 100. Then go back to page one, and do the questions for torts, etc. Then go back and do con law, etc. It’s tedious to keep going back and forth from q 100 to q 1, but you’re focused on one subject at a time and it goes really fast (if you’ve practiced). And no mind switching constantly. And if I mismarked one – say crim should be torts – I’ll just do it when I do crim since I marked it, and it’s one less tort I have to do (and I’ll mark it in the book as done and make the correction). The key here to is to make sure that you’re not out of order on answer bubbles. It’s easy to do – and it’s a fail by necessity because the answers will be all wrong (or mostly all wrong). On my second pass, I’m checking that the answers match the bubbles. On the third pass, I’m rereading any questions I had issues with and also rereading all questions and double checking answers. But after pass one, every question has an answer bubbled in. I *still* has 15-20 minutes to spare. All four sessions (Bar #1 and Bar #2). Without the whiteboard, this is harder to do. So I would agree to note that, but that’s really the lesser of the issue here; it’s the way to go about the questions. Based on what I saw, and assuming no changes, one could just look at each question and do the same thing mentally: “this is a contracts question – let’s skip it for now, I’m looking for torts” or whatever. But that’s perilous without any note paper or whiteboard, although I suppose since it’s all online, you’d know if you missed one (it seems the color or tone of the question number changes if it’s been answered or not). It takes discipline and *practice, practice, practice* to do this. It’s got to be down to a science.

As for working and studying; I’m usually pretty efficient at work such that when I work remotely, I can usually find time at various times of the day when work is slow to get in some studying. It depends on my workload, however. If I have a heavy workload, then it’s all at home off hours, and I just have to do it. It’s really a matter of compartmentalizing. And getting enough good sleep, and food, and being able to stay focused, and shift tasks where necessary.