Roxanneh passed the 2024 February Washington Bar Exam (UBE) on her first try, with enough room in her score to spare.
💬 “I took the California bar twice unsuccessfully, and finally decided to go back to take it in Washington, where I went to law school. I passed Washington on my first try (and on a February exam) comfortably, with a score high enough to transfer to any of the UBE states.”
But she switched from another bar exam elsewhere (California), so she still brings the wisdom of a repeater!
Let’s see what she did to make her attempt at the UBE successful.
- Resources used on Roxanneh’s successful attempt
- 1) Reframe the emotional and mental aspects of bar prep.
- 2) Enjoy the process of bar prep.
- 3) Move the needle in bar prep (3 ways).
- a) Don’t be afraid to disobey your bar review course or program, if you’ll benefit from doing so.
- b) Prioritize doing what you’ll be doing on the exam (aka practice).
- c) Start memorizing early and as you go.
- Full story
💬 “Enjoying the process really will make it go much better for you. This is already an all-encompassing endeavor, so you’re going to lose your mind if you don’t try to make it somewhat pleasant for yourself.”
Resources used on Roxanneh’s successful attempt
▶ Magicsheets
▶ Mental Engines
▶ Critical Pass flashcards
▶ SmartBarPrep Priority Outlines
▶ Themis
▶ UWorld MBE QBank
1) Reframe the emotional and mental aspects of bar prep.
The mind is half of bar prep.
Bar preparation is emotional preparation.
Roxanneh was intimidated by everything she had to know, so she knew that it wasn’t simply about “just doing it.” She needed to change how she saw this rigorous process of bar prep.
💬 “I knew from the beginning that part of my issues were mental. I was so intimidated by the exam and the sheer amount of information that I had to learn, memorize, and be able to regurgitate on exam day that I was crippled by self-doubt despite my long days of studying. Your mini courses on topics like ‘embracing the suck’ and ‘everything is figure out-able’ were like mini pep talks I turned on whenever I needed them.”
She used my mini-course on organizing the emotions of bar prep “for pep talks and to reframe the emotional and mental aspects of bar prep.”
💬 “I owe a great deal of this to your emails and materials, specifically the Mental Engines and Magic Sheets.”
One of the concepts in Mental Engines is that events themselves (like the situation you’re in) are actually neutral.
Our perceptions, interpretations, and reactions color these events. With practice, those are the things that we can actually control. You can choose how to look at and feel about an event.
💬 “You have to decide for yourself that previous failed attempts will not inform your ultimate destiny.”
What specifically changed as a result of choosing her perspective?
2) Enjoy the process of bar prep.
“Brian, here you go again with this ‘enjoy the process’ nonsense. Can’t you just tell us some tricks and hacks to make this all go away instantly?”
The quickest way to get rid of the bar exam is to pass it.
Strategy is important, but so is having a proper mental and emotional frame to handle the stressors involved in this process.
For Roxanneh, enjoying the process was part of what improved her score. She had to let go of her ego, pride, and shame that was holding her back.
💬 “I had a lot of emotional baggage from failing twice as someone who was a perfectionist, hard on myself, and got a lot of validation out of doing well academically. . . . Ultimately, I was finally able to move past the shame of that and used it as motivation to pass Washington.”
💬 “Enjoying the process really will make it go much better for you. This is already an all-encompassing endeavor, so you’re going to lose your mind if you don’t try to make it somewhat pleasant for yourself. For me, seeing improvements in my scores was enough to keep me going and showed that the work I was putting in was finally paying off. I also found fun ways to study by watching law-related shows and movies to study (i.e., Legally Blonde).”
Need motivation? Progress is motivating. Confidence comes from competence.
But if you get impatient, your desire to get one good result after another causes you to start looking for shortcuts.
When you’re feeling impatient, take yourself from hot to cool. Frazzled and chaotic, to calm and methodical.
Another concept I teach in Mental Engines is to “go slow to go fast.”
💬 “Once I started actually enjoying the process, slow as it was, and focusing on being a little better than the day before, I saw my scores start to improve and that was enough of a morale boost.”
This is great, but we also need to do some work.
3) Move the needle in bar prep (3 ways).
There’s nothing wrong with using a course or program to prepare for this huge exam.
In fact, it’s a good idea to get guidance for this ordeal. You should use anything that will drive you toward your ultimate goal (but not overload yourself with too many resources—that’s a common mistake).
My only beef is against doing things that are not actually helping you learn.
A flaw of ambitious, curious people (like you) is that we want to know everything and perfect everything. How we do anything is how we do everything. We have standards, damn it!
💬 “I had a lot of emotional baggage from failing twice as someone who was a perfectionist.”
That’s why I’ll keep reminding you to keep your eye on the prize.
The ultimate goal is to pass the bar exam. I know it’s tempting to fill the course progress meter, but you’re NOT graded on how well you fill in lecture notes or complete assignments.
(One thing I wouldn’t want to happen to you is to get overwhelmed and burned out. That’s why I compare Passer’s Playbook to a buffet: You’ll probably find something good when you take a look around, but you don’t have to consume everything, maybe other than some starting recommendations.)
Roxanneh, like countless others (and myself), made the mistake of blindly obeying The Program.
💬 “Do things that actually move the needle forward. Like many others, I fell into the trap of false security by going along with everything my first bar prep company told me to do, and was shocked when I didn’t pass after completing nearly the entire program religiously.”
Like I said above, use the program. Don’t let it use you. It’s a tool to achieve an end.
What did Roxanneh do differently her second time around to “move the needle forward”?
a) Don’t be afraid to disobey your bar review course or program, if you’ll benefit from doing so.
💬 “Study the way you study for finals in law school. I always broke up my subjects into smaller sub-topics and memorized them that way for exams. I don’t know why I didn’t do that the first time I took the bar (probably fear of disobeying my program), but I reaped the benefits when I did so on my last attempt because I was actually able to recall information.”
💬 “Know when to pivot. I am ecstatic to finally be starting my career two years after graduating, but part of me wishes I had pivoted back to taking the UBE after my first attempt at taking California because I would have been a bit farther along as an associate.”
How do you know ahead of time if it’s going to benefit you?
Find out by finding out. But you’ll have some ideas if you’ve been with me for some time.
b) Prioritize doing what you’ll be doing on the exam (aka practice).
💬 “The second time, I ended up doing a lot more practical practice (issue spotting, doing practice problems and MPTs), and saw an improvement in my score even though I fell short again.”
Don’t expect to fly a plane just by reading a manual, swim just by watching someone else, or “know” how to ride a bike by watching a video tutorial.
Does it help get you started? Definitely. Reading and watching give you a fundamental understanding and familiarity.
But to master this skill, your body has to learn by actually doing things and engraving the actions into your neurons. You have to repeat them too, or else the battery will lose its charge over time.
c) Start memorizing early and as you go.
There’s no reason to save memorizing until the last few weeks.
💬 “Start memorizing from the beginning instead of waiting until the end or when you’re ‘comfortable’. You will learn by seeing the same facts over and over again, but it’s much easier to memorize a bit of what you learn every day as you go along rather than waiting until the end, when you may not have touched some subjects in a while.”
💬 “One of my friends told me about your Magic Sheets when I was a 3L, and I’m so glad she did! These were easily my favorite references and I looked at them the morning of the exams for a quick refresh on the main topics before going in. You boiled everything down to its essential parts beautifully, and it was great to be able to check them quickly to see if I was on the right track during memorization.”
One last motivation…
💬 “Thank you again for everything… I always dreamed of sending off this email to you one day, and now I finally get to!”
I’m always thrilled to feature success stories and celebrate your progress. My success is measured by yours.
Nice job, Roxanneh!
Full story
