I had been out of law school for more than 10 years. I was working full time. Some of the subjects on the exam were completely new to me. And I decided to take the exam only 10 weeks before I sat it.

As I start preparing for another bar exam three years later, I've been thinking about what worked the first time around.

My approach wasn't particularly complicated. I didn't use a traditional commercial bar course, as I was self-funding. Instead, I spent a short amount of time researching available resources, then locked in and focused heavily on active learning and practice. I knew I needed to have short, sharp rule statements so well memorized that I didn't have to spend much mental energy reconstructing them on exam day.

First, a few things I had going for me

I don't want to pretend I went into the California Bar with no advantages.

I'm probably slightly unusual among lawyers in that I don't hate exams. At law school, if I had a choice between an exam and a take-home essay, I would choose the exam. I'm reasonably good at memorization, and I tend to perform well under time pressure. Those things undoubtedly helped. So I wouldn't take my experience as evidence that 10 weeks is the right amount of preparation for everyone - it was simply the amount of time I had. But I also don't think a short preparation period necessarily means you're doomed to fail.

Working at a Magic Circle firm also taught me to write clearly and succinctly under time pressure.  On the other hand, more than a decade of legal practice didn't necessarily give me much of a head start on the substantive law. I’d spent most of my career negotiating complex technology, IP and M&A contracts - none of which was particularly relevant to learning Contracts for the bar exam.  

I focused on active learning

After doing some initial research, I decided not to buy a full commercial bar course. Partly that was cost. But more importantly, I didn't want to spend a large proportion of my limited preparation time watching lectures.

I used outlines to learn the substantive law, but then condensed them into my own shorter outlines and eventually into attack plans. I practiced MBE questions. I wrote essays. I compared my answers with model answers and worked out what I'd missed. As the exam got closer, an increasingly large proportion of my preparation was active rather than passive.

That approach suited me. Someone who learns particularly well from lectures might make a different choice.

I memorized short, sharp rule statements

Memorization was a significant part of my preparation, particularly for the essays.

I didn't want to get to an essay on exam day, recognize the issue, and then have to construct the relevant rule from a vague recollection of an outline I'd read three weeks earlier. I wanted recitation of the core rules to be automatic.

So as I worked through the material, I kept condensing it. Full outlines became shorter outlines; shorter outlines became attack plans and concise rule statements. Then I memorized them.

The goal wasn't to memorize every possible nuance of every subject. It was to have the important rules available quickly and accurately enough that I could spend my limited exam time spotting issues and writing the analysis rather than trying to remember the law.

This is one of the biggest things I'm carrying into my UBE preparation.

I did a lot of practice questions

The other major component was practice.

For the MBE, I wanted to use real, licensed NCBE questions rather than questions written to imitate them. I used UWorld and found that its explanations worked well for me. Perhaps most importantly, when I got questions wrong (or guessed the answer) I would spend time reviewing why I got it wrong. If I misunderstood or misremembered the rule statement, I would handwrite it out to help with retention. 

I approached essays similarly. I started open book and moved to closed book as soon as I reasonably could. I'd write an answer under timed conditions, compare it with the model answer, and write out important rules or issues I'd missed.

By exam day, answering bar-exam questions felt very familiar.

The resources I used

I deliberately kept my collection of resources fairly small.

Outlines: Smart Bar Prep

Smart Bar Prep's outlines were my main source for learning the black-letter law. I started with the full outlines and then created my own shorter outlines and attack plans from them. The process of reducing the material was itself useful: I had to decide what the rule actually was and how I wanted to remember it.

MBE: UWorld

I tried the free trials of both UWorld and Adaptibar before choosing. I preferred UWorld's explanations, but that's very much a personal preference. If I were choosing again, I'd still try both and see which format clicked. The thing I did care about was practicing with licensed NCBE questions.

Essays: Mary Basick's California Bar Exam Essay Rules and Ed Aruffo's rule statements

Mary Basick's book was the core of my essay preparation. I started by writing essays open book and moved to closed-book practice as quickly as I could. After each timed answer, I'd compare what I'd written with the model answer and make a note of important issues and rules I'd missed.

I also used Ed Aruffo's rule-statements book. It was inexpensive and particularly useful for the kind of concise rule memorization I was trying to do. Toward the end, I bought BarMD's Final Forecast packet for some additional last-minute practice.

I also subscribed to BarEssays.com. I found it reassuring to see what actual passing answers looked like, but ultimately didn't use it very much and, given the relatively high price, I probably wouldn't buy it again.

Performance Test: BarMD

For the performance test, I took the approach that seems fairly common among California candidates: BarMD's free PT lectures and lots of practice using released past exams.

The lectures helped me understand the structure and approach. After that, actually doing PTs was what helped most. I made sure I was familiar with the structure of the common types of PT tasks, such as objective memos and persuasive briefs.

Supplemental Resource: Bar Exam Toolbox

I listened to a lot of the Bar Exam Toolbox podcast while walking and commuting.

It was useful for reinforcing substantive topics without taking additional dedicated study time, but I also liked it for the broader discussion of how to approach the exam. The hosts struck me as sensible about bar preparation generally, and there was useful material specifically for foreign-qualified lawyers.

What I'd take from the experience

I came out of those 10 weeks feeling well prepared, but I don't think the lesson is that everyone should skip a commercial course or try to prepare for California in 10 weeks. The broader lesson I would take away is that bar preparation doesn't necessarily have to look the same for everyone.

For me, reading an outline was useful. Turning it into something shorter was more useful. Trying to retrieve the rule without looking at it was more useful again. And ultimately, having to apply that rule to an actual MBE question or essay was where I learned the most.

Three years later, I'm approaching the UBE with much more time but with many of the same principles: learn the law, make myself retrieve it, practice applying it, and pay attention to what's actually working.  The useful question isn’t whether I’m preparing the way most people are - it’s whether the way I’m preparing is working for me.

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