Passing the CA Bar Exam as an Older Candidate

You don’t need to be a 20-something Zoomer studying in your parents’ basement to pass the bar exam.

You could be working full-time, a parent, from another country, or not even know what a Zoomer is.

Brendan, in his 50s, is a second-time passer of the California Bar Exam.

Age itself is not a defining factor in this:

I’m a little concerned that my humor resonated with a 66yo.

But I’m a firm believer that each of us is still the kid who wanted to be a grown-up (we have to GO BACK). So it’s totally fine and encouraged to get help and support from others no matter where you are in the process.

Let’s see if we can find some lessons from how Brendan approached his studies.

Table of Contents

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Resources Brendan used to pass the California Bar Exam
1) Customize study materials and strategies
2) Consistent practice and feedback
3) Manage anxiety and exam day surprises
Full story

💬 “Choosing from all the preparation options is a major undertaking, no one method is ‘the best,’ and I am the only one who will sit in that room on exam day.”

Resources Brendan used to pass the California Bar Exam

▶ Magicsheets

💬 “I’m still in shock. Magicsheets were key, as were your comforting and highly relatable emails.”

▶ Smart Bar Prep outlines

▶ AdaptiBar

Use the promo code here to get 10% off (including lectures)

▶ MTYLT coaching emails (get in here)

💬 “What I really benefited from was your emails. I just read your most recent and, as usual, it really hit home.”

If you feel the same, don’t keep me a secret ;)

I found 3 lessons from Brendan’s story…

1) Customize study materials and strategies

Preparation isn’t one-size-fits-all.

If you ask 10 people how they prepared, you’ll probably get some overlaps but won’t get exact same answers. We all have different ways of learning and have different areas we need to focus on.

If you find yourself asking which resource is the “best,” that’s not a well-phrased question because you’re not always going to get the answer YOU need…

First of all, “best” is subjective. And the answer is often from the perspective of the person making the recommendation, not yours!

💬 “Choosing from all the preparation options is a major undertaking, no one method is ‘the best,’ and I am the only one who will sit in that room on exam day.”

Instead, find materials and methods that resonate most with you.

How? Isn’t it frustrating when people (including myself) tell you to “do what works for you”? It needs a bit of hindsight, no?

Yes, if you already knew for sure what worked, you would be passing already.

It’s frustrating when the promised land of the traditional course didn’t work but there are also a ton of different alternatives out there!

So,

Experiment with different materials until you get closer to the answer. Resources that work for most people are a good starting point.
Go toward your learning style (see, for example, Heather’s case study about passing 20 years after graduation).
Listen to yourself more. You are the dean of your own studies. The problem is that you don’t trust yourself to do what you know you should be doing.

Don’t feel pressured to use every resource available either!

For example, if you have too many reference materials like outlines to juggle, that could potentially confuse you more (I would say 3 outlines are too many). Or it might just collect digital dust.

💬 “I bought Magicsheets back when a classmate recommended them and I was feeling out my options for study material. . . . So much I ended up ignoring it after a few weeks because I couldn’t even keep up with downloading and storing it.”

You see those people begging for every bit of material online and posting their emails publicly for everyone to see? If they’re not careful, they’ll get overwhelmed and go into hibernation without even using most of what they collected for winter.

It’s OK to miss out on things.

You don’t even have to stick to materials you initially started with. I’ll be the first person to tell you to use what YOU need, even if it means steering you away from my materials. Brendan drew upon resources that weren’t just mine.

💬 “I tripped over Smart Bar Outlines and really liked them.”

Adjust according to your needs.

2) Consistent practice and feedback

Brandon saw gradual improvement with a structured approach with a focus on writing essays, performance tests, and practicing MBE questions.

💬 “I wrote one essay a day for the first month, then three a day for the last two. I included one [Professional Responsibility essay, important subject for CA bar takers] every day for several of those weeks. I did at least one PT a week, sometimes more.”

💬 “I used Adaptibar for my MBE practice and did 2500 questions. I was scoring over 70 on ALL my tests at the end, consistently.”

It’s important to put pen to paper early and consistently. Regular exposure builds familiarity and confidence.

I also like to recommend quickly cycling through subjects for up to 2 (maybe 3) days each instead of spending a whole week on each subject and coming back months later having forgotten the first subject. (More on scheduling here.)

Brendan also sought feedback from a tutor. Getting feedback is perhaps more important than practicing—whether it’s self-evaluating using model answers and explanations or working with a tutor.

💬 “I had a tutor from Bar Exam Toolbox that reviewed some of my essays, instructed me on what she felt is the proper approach to outlining (which I rebelled against in my own classic Brendan passive aggressive way), and gave me feedback. She was tough, but also gave me some really good feedback.”

Practice questions are a chance to test yourself.

Writing essay and PT answers and picking MBE answer choices are like getting on the scale to measure yourself. Changing what you do in between those measurements is what makes the difference.

BOTH are important parts of preparation.

There are two types of people who “don’t understand what happened”:

1. “I completed the course and all the assignments. Should I re-watch all the lectures?”

Your job is to learn, not transcribe lectures and fill in the completion meter.

2. “I did 7,500 questions!!! Why didn’t I get a good score?”

If you just “do questions” and move on, you may as well not have solved the questions at all.

💬 “2nd time around I tried to focus on quality over quantity and apparently it worked.”

3) Manage anxiety and exam day surprises

One of the common traits of passers is that they do not “freak out.”

When the time comes to face the bar exam, the gap between your composure and others’ panic is where you’ll thrive.

But you may not be able to fully eliminate anxiety or avoid unexpected scenarios on exam day.

💬 “My anxiety level on day one [of first attempt] was through the roof, and that hurt me (though interestingly, my first essay was my best score?).”

How do you adapt to that?

First, anticipate that there WILL be contingencies.

You might get lost on your way to the test center, your neighbor might cough a lot, you might forget the difference between marital communication privilege and spousal testimonial privilege, etc.

But prior preparation lets you regain composure.

You want as many things to be familiar to you as possible on exam day so that you can focus on putting out fires. Things rarely go well if you wing it on the bar.

💬 “I got to where I recognized many of the questions by sight, and I think this might have actually hurt me a bit, because on exam day, I didn’t recognize a single question by sight and while I wouldn’t say that panicked me, it did concern me. But I finished all my MBE questions on time on exam day.”

Nice, Brandon! What did you learn from his second-time success?

Full story

Text version

Dude. That same fuckin garbage truck outside my hotel at 3AM. With the banging and the beeping. I think it’s a ghost truck, haunting all the over anxious Cal Bar exam takers. Maybe it’s Large Marge.

Yesterday was a beast. I could barely make my fingers work the keyboard I was so high strung. It went straight up CP, Con Law, PR, then Evidence/Crim Pro crossover, Contracts, and a memo. My bladder was busting at the end of the first and my eyeballs felt like sandpaper at the end of the second.

I just thought I’d write to say I sooo appreciate your help. The magic sheets and especially your emails.

Much love.

—

Dude. I passed!

I’m still in shock. Magic Sheets were key, as were your comforting and highly relatable emails.

2nd time around I tried to focus on quality over quantity and apparently it worked.

Thank you for all your guidance and support Brian! Couldn’t have done it without you!

—

I wrote one essay a day for the first month, then three a day for the last two. I included one PR every day for several of those weeks. I did at least one PT a week, sometimes more. As I previously shared with you, my anxiety level on day one was through the roof, and that hurt me (though interestingly, my first essay was my best score?). Believe it or not, I saw and wrote the Con Law essay (Q2/my worst score!) not two weeks before exam day, but I could not remember the proper analysis and ended up doing exactly what I did when I saw it in prep time, which was to throw all the due process and EP shit I could at the wall in hopes enough would stick.

I used Adaptibar for my MBE practice and did 2500 questions. I was scoring over 70 on ALL my tests at the end, consistently. I got to where I recognized many of the questions by sight, and I think this might have actually hurt me a bit, because on exam day, I didn’t recognize a single question by sight and while I wouldn’t say that panicked me, it did concern me. But I finished all my MBE questions on time on exam day.

While I wasn’t overly confident in my MBE performance on exam day (because I didn’t recognize the questions), I was hopeful that it, combined with my gut feel for my performance on the PT, would carry me, because I knew I’d tanked at least one or two of the essays. So, to find that my MBE performance was actually lower than my written score was a gut punch. At first I felt like Adaptibar failed me and went to look at UWorld (which I kind of like for the visual imagery it offers in the explanations).

I had a tutor from Bar Exam Toolbox that reviewed some of my essays, instructed me on what she felt is the proper approach to outlining (which I rebelled against in my own classic Brendan passive aggressive way), and gave me feedback. She was tough, but also gave me some really good feedback. I’m undecided about whether I should re-engage with them.

I bought magic sheets back when a classmate recommended them and I was feeling out my options for study material. Concord Law School (which, I had a mostly fantastic law school experience with, but from what I can gather was somehow married to Kaplan at one point, and steered us to Kaplan for prep with a steep discount, which I paid and then did not use), also dedicated a professor to helping us prepare, and he collected a MASSIVE amount of material for us. So much I ended up ignoring it after a few weeks because I couldn’t even keep up with downloading and storing it.

Full confession, I did not draw upon magic sheets to a large degree either. Not because I didn’t like them, but because I tripped over Smart Bar Outlines and really liked them. I did spend a lot of time on them, and probably would again unless you feel another approach might be better for me. What I really benefited from was your emails. I just read your most recent and, as usual, it really hit home. Choosing from all the preparation options is a major undertaking, no one method is “the best,” and I am the only one who will sit in that room on exam day. I know this is your livelihood, and you’ve been very kind to listen and respond to me personally. I want to compensate you because I know you don’t get paid directly for writing those emails, but after looking at the MTYLT site, I don’t know what the best method of doing so would be. I’m open to your suggestions.