Two biggest fears of a bar exam taker (and how to overcome them)

Brian Hahn

"I need to know all the law first!"

What were those three years of law school for? Never mind.

There's this strange concern in the atmosphere floating around.

A concern that if you don't know it all, then you won't be prepared to solve the problems... The thought that all you need to do well on the bar exam is to "have the information"...

So you sit there, fold your arms, and wait for osmosis. Maybe your soulmate will suddenly come knocking on your door, too.

And then when you finally flip open that essay after weeks of "studying"...

You stare at the blank page.

In front of you, a blank canvas ready to be filled but only reflecting an uncomfortable stillness.

The cursor blinks at you, urging you to fill the awkward silence.

Cold sweat squeezes out of pores you didn't even realize you had on your body.

"..."

You decide to hit the books and videos again. Maybe you just need to study a little more...

You're mostly grasping the material, but then when you take a practice exam it's like everything you know is out the window.

WTF? Why didn't it work?

Two of the biggest fixations of a bar taker: lectures and memorization.

Don't worry. You won't get everything right even if you do "know the rules." No one will.

Too many bar takers get overwhelmed and obsess over getting their ducks in a row first. Some will slog through lectures even if they are not helping.

Being a "perfectionist" means you're afraid.

Afraid to mark every other MBE question wrong with your own hands. Afraid that you won't know what to write about, how to organize, or where to even begin. Afraid of what the exam will look like. Afraid of doing something different from what you're used to from classes. Afraid of not remembering something when you need it.

Afraid of failing the bar exam.

Bad news: The bar exam can be scary.

Good news: You don't need to be afraid.

But realize that trying to know it ALL first is procrastination--pain avoidance in the form of "if I get all this down now, I should be good later

How do you solve this procrastination problem?

Fixation 1: Lectures

First of all, there's nothing wrong with wanting to get through all those videos for a first-pass review.

But if you feel compelled that watching lectures is the only way to study (or that you need to go through them again), consider the following.

There's no requirement to listen to every word of every video. If listening is how you learn or you want to visit/revisit certain topics, go for it. Otherwise, what is it for other than a sense of completion because you "have to"? You don't need to read the entire case book to pass the class. You don't need to consume everything that appears on your news feed. You don't need to read every email in your inbox (although I will read yours). You don't need to read the entire Wikipedia article.

The point is not to fill in the blanks, transcribe the lectures into subtitles, or even complete the program. The point is to gain a general framework and understanding of the law. The real work comes after. Remember that bar prep at its core is a self-learning endeavor. The programs are simply there to support that process.

If your learning style is more compatible with reading than listening, you can do this with the written materials (notes and outlines), which often overlap with the lectures and take less time to go through.

"But, but, I'm so confused and overwhelmed! AAAAAAAHHH"

I'm not saying to cast aside those lectures immediately and entirely. I'm saying to be more conscious about when and how you're using these tools. Balance the way you use time sinks.

The tools are for YOU TO USE however you want. If you're not using the course to your benefit, it's using you. Don't get sucked into their pace. Don't get stuck playing defense.

Ask yourself: Are you doing something because you're supposed to, or because it's helping you prepare?

Fixation 2: Memorization

Yes, memorization is crucial!

It's table stakes. Everyone's doing it. It's a minimum requirement. You must do it to succeed on the bar exam. So you want to start memorizing as early as you can.

But novice bar takers tend to stay stuck thinking, "As long as I memorize this perfectly, I'll be set."

This may seem like a safe approach. It's actually reckless. Panic mutates into paralysis because they end up bag-holding theoretical knowledge they don't know when or how to use. They know enough to feel familiar with the material but not understand enough to apply it under pressure.

If all you did was memorize some words on a page, your body has no clue what to do with them.

That's backward because...

Knowing something conceptually is vastly different from knowing how to use something. When you wrote the definition of a word on your fifth-grade vocab test, did you regurgitate what you memorized, or did you also know how to properly use the word in a sentence? I definitely regurgitated.

You treated everything the same. You tried to juggle everything in your memory without considering whether a rule (or issue) is even important enough to focus on. This dilutes your attention.

You neglected to learn the corresponding issues. Like a joke you wanted to force into a conversation, you couldn't wait to use the rules and concepts you learned. But you didn't know when they were relevant or appropriate to bring up, so you tried to put them somewhere... anywhere.

(You could address this blank-page syndrome using Approsheets to guide you through the shape of an essay.)

The bar exam is not just about having access to information--but whether you can use the information properly.

Memorizing for the bar exam is a learnable skill. I want to point out what bar takers miss when they get tunnel vision around memorization. Don't miss the forest for the trees:

Don't use "memorization" as a safe space.

If you're thinking "I need to know all the rules perfectly before I can solve problems!" You're just procrastinating. You're acting out of fear

Just "memorizing" isn't always enough because there may be a gap between what you know and what you understand. Doing is the best form of learning.

It hurts seeing that you missed a bunch of questions or issues. It hurts WAY MORE to get a failing score on the bar exam. Not passing hurts MORE than struggling now.

Better to get excited about failure now so that you don't have to motivate yourself again 6 months later.

Yes, excited! Every result is a valuable data point with something to take away.

Where there's truth, there's hope. Once you accept the truth, you can do something about it.

It's not just about memorizing rules.

Issues are more important than the rules, especially on the essays.

That's why, in Magicsheets and Approsheets, I spotlight the issues and not just the rules, and organize them as they're tested.

Don't reach for the extreme conclusion and take this as the rules not being important. They're very important.

But issues are like seeds where IRACs sprout from. You could fumble the rule and application and still get some credit. If you can't tell the grader what the issues are to begin with, no IRAC will sprout. You get zero credit for that issue.

Knowing the law means knowing the issues too.

Memorization happens as you use it and after you use it.

There's a reason you don't remember 99% of your lectures.

Knowledge outside the context of fact patterns is nothing. It's possible to have knowledge but lack judgment. The WHAT is artificial if you don't know HOW to use it.

Most of your bar intuition will come from seeing the patterns from old exams and questions. Look to what's done before. The past will guide your future.

Learn by example, not by theory. If you insist on perfecting your memorization of abstract words first to feel ready, you will stay stuck.

This will help you be able to pull out the issues and rules you need from memory, along with your understanding of how to use them.

Because...

It's more about being able to recall what you've memorized and use it on the bar exam

"Recognizing something when you see it"

is NOT the same as

"being able to remember it."

You must be able to recall and retrieve at appropriate times. Not merely recognize, be familiar with, or even memorize (encode into memory).

Now you know to be cautious against tunnel vision and overreliance on memorization.

The best way to get unstuck?

Organize the important information using a streamlined reference. Expose yourself to past exam questions (MCQs, essays, performance tests) to see for yourself what gets tested. And see whether you're able to pull out relevant issues and rules when you see certain fact patterns.

From here, you can reinforce the holes in your understanding and memorize the relevant information.

This raises the question: How do you memorize the material in the first place?

Memorizing for the bar exam is a learnable skill. If you're interested in specific memorization and recall techniques, check out Passer's Playbook.

Brian is the founder and chief strategist at Make This Your Last Time, a patent attorney, and second-time passer of the California Bar Exam after figuring out what works and what doesn't. He's been writing about actionable and effective bar prep since 2014, helping tens of thousands of bar takers across the country pass the exam.