6 ways to make bar prep enjoyable and effective

Brian Hahn

Is it possible to enjoy bar prep?

It’s one of the driest things a person can do on this planet. But we retain more and pay more attention when things are enjoyable.

The default, typical approach to bar prep involves sitting still like a statue, watching people in suits drone on. 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. Even better for your motivation and momentum if you can have fun while doing it.

Here are 6 things that can help you make steady progress and enjoy bar prep, without the frustration and exhaustion that come with the default approach to studying for the bar exam.

1. Learn by example.

Limit “theory” and seek “application.”

Yes, you’ll want to brush up on the law before you try to use it. Have foundational working knowledge.

But learning Spanish and speaking it with a native are two different things.

The more you raise the issues and use the rules in context of questions, the more you'll gain the intuition.

See how the issues and rules play out in real scenarios. An example of how a rule plays out is worth a thousand words explaining the rule.

2. Knowing the law means knowing the issues.

Issues are where everything starts. When you know the issues, you can "check" through them so you don't miss any in your essays.

If you only know the rules, you'll be lost trying to fit them in randomly, like when you try to force a joke that only makes sense to you and people pretend to chuckle even though they didn't get it.

3. Test yourself against past bar exam questions.

The ghosts of questions past will guide you. You'll be haunted by similar questions on the bar exam.

You're watching some dude drone on at 50% normal speaking speed. Meanwhile, you see other kids play outside while you sit still by the window.

Get out there and practice on past exams as if they were the real thing, and then do the real thing as if it were practice. The bar exam tests whether you can resolve issues, not just memorize a bunch of words you can't remember under pressure.

As the kids say nowadays, "Touch grass." You can't learn how to ride a bike by watching tutorials about it. You might fall and scrape your knees, but at least you'll know what the wind in your face feels like.

4. Get things wrong.

The realization of the correct issue, rule, or answer after getting it wrong is EXCITING, not discouraging. It's these "aha" moments that stay with you.

From there, you'll start to get things right. Defeat is fodder for your victory.

This is how I remembered an issue I missed in an essay the first time.

5. It's OK if you're not confident about the bar exam.

"Oh, but my confidence level… I need to be cOnFiDeNt"

THIS IS HARD STUFF. It's natural to feel anxious and overwhelmed. It's why I have a whole mini-course on organizing your emotions.

Confidence is nice to have. I can give it to you. Nothing wrong with a bit of external motivation.

But too much of it can also be a sign that you don't know what you don't know, or that you’ve merely become familiar with the materials. The goal isn't to be confident or read promises about ease and confidence that lull you into false security. It makes little difference when it comes to passing.

The point is to become competent, and pass.

Two parts to that:

•  Become: This is a process. The bar exam isn't easy, but it's doable with the right approach for you. You WILL get better with the right approach, like all these bar takers.

•  Competent: This isn't about how you feel. It's more about what you do with practice questions and how solving them over and over ultimately makes them predictable and second nature to you on the bar exam.

Minimum competence doesn't mean the bare minimum. It means the amount needed to pass the bar exam.

Perhaps part of confidence is knowing you don't need to seek confidence. Competence will lead to confidence as a side effect anyway. You can't think your way to confidence.

People who end up passing aren't coming out of the exam smug and "confident." In fact, many passers are more nervous than the people who fail.

6. Redo practice questions.

Few people see the value in redoing questions.

This is an underrated strategy that confirms whether you understand the tested concept and makes it less likely for you to forget it. The bar exam tests you within a finite universe. Most of what you'll see has already been tested.

Repetition of the known universe is how you retain that information for the long term.

"But I'll know what the answer is!"

And?

Getting questions right because you've seen them before is the WHOLE POINT of "preparation."

You can at least slam dunk THOSE questions so that you can spend your most valuable resource, attention, on new and tricky questions that the bar examiners come out with every year.

BONUS. Things will get better if you water the bamboo consistently.

It's often a week or two before the exam when things finally start to click.

So if you're stressing over not improving much for the first several weeks, your efforts are not wasted. The bamboo shoots up overnight all at once. Keep watering the bamboo.

(This is one of the mental shifts you learn in Mental Engines, my mini-course on organizing your mental and emotional state for the bar exam.)

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.