Mental tips for the CA Bar & Personal Story Forum

[guitar519]

Hey guys, I want to share my story and give a few helpful tips. I'm Canadian but went to law school in California to "chase a dream" lol lame. I only had a work permit for one year after I graduated. I'm a first generation immigrant and my parents live in Canada. I maxed out my bar loans just in case I would fail the bar first time around (try living on $16K for 10 months). I was absolutely crushed when I failed the July bar. I was recovering from a terrible ankle sprain where I wore a boot for 2 months, unemployed (not by choice) and my girlfriend broke up with me as well because I failed, she found a fancy job and didn't want to emotionally support me anymore. BUT I HAD TO KEEP GOING!!!

Now, I'm working in the legal department at a studio, just found out I passed, and have a new girlfriend that is much better. YOU CAN'T GIVE UP!!! The bar is all a MENTAL GAME and we are all capable of passing.

Aside from people telling you how to study, how to IRAC, what your day should be like, etc., here is what truly worked for me MENTALLY and might work for you:

- WORK OUT! I was lucky in a way where because of my injury, I HAD TO go to physical therapy twice a week. That is all I needed to feel like I was doing something other than studying and felt productive in my life. Sure, it wasted 3 hours of those days but it was worth it.

- MEDITATE! Before this experience, I never ever meditated in my entire life. But when my anxiety and confidence was at an all time low, this helped A LOT! I meditated before I went to bed for 10 minutes using this app called Calm. Then once a week on Sundays, I went to a meditation class by my house. Again, another waste of 3 hours at my day since I could have kept studying and the class was at 7pm. But again, WORTH IT!

- ROUTINE! Every day, do the same thing. My day started with 50 MBEs and review law the rest of the day (my weakness was MBEs) until the last 3 weeks. Then, I switched to 30 MBEs, review law, read/outline essays - I would read an essay, write down my rule statements to make sure I remember rules (another weakness was issue spotting), then read 3/4 answers on baressays. Just knowing what was happening everyday (especially if self studying) was just something I didn't have to think about.

- UNROLL.ME! This is a service that compiles all of your junk-ish email and you just get a newsletter type email at the end/beginning of the day. I am an email junkie where I check my email ALL THE TIME. So if I saw an email from OldNavy, I would just literally browse it for an hour even though I'm not going to buy anything. Unroll.me helped so much where I did not get distracted by a ding on my phone and wasted so much time.

- DELETE SOCIAL MEDIA! I don't care what anyone says. You don't want to make yourself upset by looking at your friends having fun, ESPECIALLY if you're repeating. If it's the only way you keep in touch with people, tell those people that you're studying for the bar exam and give them your number. Simple. I did not want to delete my social media but my best friend changed my password and refused to give it to me until bar exam ended. Granted, I could have just requested to change my password but this was one of the greatest gifts she did to me, especially in my fragile broken up state.

- FIND OUT WHAT WORKS FOR YOU AND FIND IT FAST! Kaplan? Barbri? Critical Pass? Adaptibar? Themis? THERE ARE TOO MANY OPTIONS. I knew my weakness was MBEs so Adaptibar was the easiest choice for me. Then I tried one of their Civ Pro videos, really understood material and it increased my Civ Pro score DRASTICALLY. This might not work for you but contrary to popular belief (since I've only seen a handful of people praising Adaptibar videos) it worked for me VERY WELL. I did not listen to others about the PMBR or Kaplan MBEs and just listened to what worked for me. In addition, I had cheat sheets from friends and baressays but I looked at these since day 1 and did not go crazy looking at multiple materials (mistake I made during first time).

- HAVE AT LEAST 2 STUDY PARTNERS STUDYING DIFFERENTLY THAN YOU! I had one friend doing Themis, another doing Barbri, and I did my own thing. Every day, we held each other accountable for being at the library. We did not study together at all. We each had our own rooms next to each other so when we needed a hug (lol) we were there. This eliminated us from enabling each other to talk constantly and only interrupted each other if we REALLY needed help. If I didn't understand something, I would always struggle with it first and then go to them if I was completely clueless. In addition, we all smoked heavily during the bar (we all quit since woop!) and we quizzed each other and talked about black letter law/common essays during our smoke breaks. Talking things out in a social matter in layman terms (emphasis on social, not in a classroom bar class setting) made me understand the material so much better. The reason I say that you should not have only one study partner is that there was always some things two of us did not understand that the third person explained. This was SO KEY to never wasting time.

GRANTED - I DID NOT DO THESE THINGS CONSCIOUSLY! This is just what I did for the February bar that really worked.

Congrats to all those that passed and congrats to all who didn't for their hard work as well. It's not about being smart enough, it's about unlocking what works for you. Let me know if you have any other questions and if you want an Adaptibar code. YOU GOT THIS!