I was not your typical California Bar Exam candidate.
I did not have the summer off to prepare. I worked full-time and studied in my spare time.
I did not attend an ABA-approved law school. I grew up, lived, worked, and studied law in a different country altogether.
I did not follow one of those bar prep courses. I prepared using two textbooks and a set of flash cards.
I did not take countless practice tests and stay up late nights worrying about cramming everything in. I tailored my studying strategy to maximize my chances of passing.
And it worked — I passed!
If you’re currently studying for the upcoming California exam, just signed up and are trying to figure out how to get started, or are thinking about writing it at some time in the future, this blog was written for you.
What’s set out below is intended to serve as a (somewhat) brief overview of how to tackle studying for the California Bar Exam when you have limited time, limited resources, and limited knowledge of California law. With some tips (along with links to some documents I’ve created to help me study) to guide you as you prepare, you too can ace the Exam.
And, trust me, if I managed to pass, you can too!
Some Context about Me
I had one of the shortest legal careers on record. I summered in both 1L and 2L at reputable law firms and even went on to clerk for 10 months post-grad. The second I got called to the bar I went to business school, where I studied corporate finance and landed a job in M&A and later corporate development in the United States. Having that piece of paper has been and continues to be super helpful for me but I was never a “lawyer” per se.
As a law student, I spent very little time studying. I paid no attention in civil procedure and evidence class and avoided anything to do with moots. I didn’t stay up late to read case law or prepare CANs. (Footnote: I had to Google “CANs” to remember what that abbreviation stood for). I definitely couldn’t recite the rule against perpetuities if my life depended on it, let alone apply it to a fact pattern. I was an average student — at best. I got C’s and a handful of A’s here and there but, for the most part, my marks were middle of the pack. Based on my transcripts, you wouldn’t peg me as a likely candidate to pass a closed book, multi-day exam, covering over a dozen subjects, on my first try.
As I alluded to earlier, I also didn’t go to law school in the United States. While I was educated in a common law jurisdiction, I had never heard of diversity jurisdiction or remittitur or the Dormant Commerce Clause. Although Canada and the United States share a common jurisprudential lineage, our systems differ considerably. Learning the American legal system for the purposes of passing this Exam would require not only learning (for the first time) U.S. law and terms of art but also re-learning many of the legal concepts I had previously seen in law school — and I had graduated over four years prior!
So, why then did I embark on the journey of passing the California Bar Exam? Trust me, it’s a question I asked myself more than a couple times while preparing for this Exam. My motivations, however, were three-fold:
- Employment Opportunities. Even though I still have no intention of returning to law, having the option of doing so is extremely valuable. Moreover, having the option to do so in two different countries is even more appealing to potential employers.
- Social Mobility. As an immigrant in a new country, having a professional designation and being a member of a professional assocation opens many doors that would otherwise be unavailable to you. I figured one of the easiest ways to build my network in a new market was to become a member of state bar. So far, that has played out in my favor.
- Being Able to Say I Did It. I didn’t want to wake up twenty years from now and say to myself, “I wish I would’ve done it”. In life, you never want to be in a position where you regret not doing something when you had the chance. I was very fortunate to have had some time on my side (thanks to the pandemic cancelling all my summer plans) and no dependents to care for, which would’ve made studying for this beast of an Exam impossible to juggle with my already busy and stressful life and work schedule. And, so, I took the Exam because I could.
Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen — Michael Jordan
I am the first to acknowledge that my position of privilege likely made my situation easier than many applicants but there were plenty of factors stacked against me as well. For better or for worse, however, these exams don’t give a shit who you are or where you’re coming from. The passing score is the same for all test-takers. And while this may be a painful pill for some to swallow, it is empowering to know that you are the master of your own destiny. You — and you alone —will be the reason you pass. Let that sink in.
Never Underestimate Your Foe
This exam is tough. Plenty of very successful and intelligent people have failed this exam on their first attempt. You definitely cannot wing this exam.
But don’t let this deter you. The California Bar Exam is not impossible. If you prepare and prepare properly, you stand a very good chance of passing. If you do not prepare at all, well, then (and pardon my French) you’re fucked.
By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail — Benjamin Franklin
Now, without further ado, let’s get right to it.
What You’ll Need to Buy
I opted not to enrol in one of those bar prep courses. With three months to prepare while working full-time, I figured I wouldn’t have had enough free time to sit through all the classes, follow a pre-ordained lecture schedule, take notes, study independently, and then take practice exams and analyze my performance. To maximize my return on study time investment, I instead chose prep books over prep courses.
Given my choice of strategy, I had to make sure that the prep materials I was purchasing were going to adequately prepare me. One thing I learned early on was that not all bar prep materials are created equal. After spending considerable time researching options and going through countless Reddit threads, I purchased the following books and a set of flashcards for just over $300:
- Essay Exam Writing for the California Bar Exam by Mary Basick & Tina Schindler (which I will refer to as the “Basick book”)
- Strategies & Tactics for the MBE by Steven Emanuel (which I will refer to as the “Emanuel book”)
- CriticalPass MBE Flashcards, which came with a one-year license to access these flashcards on the CriticalPass app.
Each of these three sets of materials covered different content and served different purposes. The Basick book, for instance, contained California-centered black letter law outlines and also provided dozens of practice essay questions with full answer explanations. The Emanuel book taught me strategies for approaching the multiple choice section of the exam, along with hundreds of actual MBE questions. The flashcards walked me through valuable content that would be tested in both the multiple choice and, to a certain degree, essay section of the Exam as well.
These materials, in the aggregate, gave me a run-through of the content I had to learn, opportunities to practice, and strategies for improving my score on the multiple choice and essay sections of the Exam. (I’ll cover my strategy for the MPT section later). Once I had my materials sorted out, my next step was to plan my studying schedule.
Quick Aside: You would be amazed at how much you can learn by casually reading over the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. If you’re looking for a way to boost your score on that section of the Exam, give this a shot!
Plan Your Study Schedule Early On and Stick to It
Before I got started reading through the books and flashcards, I spent a couple hours mapping out my next three months. For someone who struggles planning the day ahead of him, this seemed like a daunting task. In actuality, however, it was well worth the time investment.
My first step was determining how much time I needed to devote to (1) reading the materials; (2) practising essays and multiple choice questions; and, (3) learning the content and committing some of it to memory.
Seeing as the Basick and Emanuel books came to just under 2,000 pages, I knew I needed to set aside time to reading as much of these books as possible. Perusing through those books, I realized that they were maybe 50% content and strategy and 50% practice problems. That meant that I would really only have to read 1,000 pages of actual content. I figured — give or take—I could read roughly 25 pages in an hour. That meant I needed at least 40 hours to get through the material. I decided to set myself 50 hours — just to be safe!
I know they say practice makes perfect but there’s also a point where you are achieving diminishing returns. I figured I would need to do at least one or two practice essays for each subject and would need to do a couple practice MBE sessions. I’ve heard of some people spending weeks writing practice tests. I didn’t have that luxury and knew that, even if i did, I would get frustrated or cut corners because — let’s face it — I’m not the studious type! With this in mind, I approximated I would need roughly 25 hours to practice under simulated conditions. This equated to just under two hours per subject.
With closed-book exams like this one, you need to memorize content. While mnemonic tools are helpful, there is no shortcut to transferring things from your short-term memory to your long-term memory. The process simply takes time. I figured this would take up the bulk of my studying time and decided to allocate 75 hours (the sum of the time it would take to read and practice) to memorization.
The next step was mapping out the time I would have available to study. I knew my job would keep me busy from 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday. That meant a lot of early mornings and/or late nights during the week. I’ve always been more productive in the morning so, for me, it was an easy choice. I devoted two hours of each workday morning and one hour of each workday evening to studying. When it came to weekends, I figured I would need to grind as much as possible and set a goal of at least ten hours across Saturday and/or Sunday.
In total, I estimated I would be spending roughly 25 hours per week studying, which over the course of 3 months, would amount to 300 hours. Those 300 hours would easily cover all my reading (50 hours), practising (25 hours), and memorizing (75 hours) and some. In fact, I would be able to double the amount of time I spent reading, practising, and memorizing.
Everyone’s personal study habits are different. For me, memoriztion was never my strong suit whereas I knew from experience that I could read through materials without expending too much brain power. That was why I made sure to spend more time memorizing than reading. Your preferences may be different than mine. Having completed years of schooling, you likely have a pretty good grasp of what does and what doesn’t work for you. Tailor your study schedule to suit you! Whatever schedule you choose, be sure to stick to it. You will get through it all — trust me!
Go Through All the Content (At Least) Once
Once you’ve parceled out your studying time, you can get to cracking open the books.
In terms of which book you should start with, I don’t think it matters much. For context, I read both concurrently, doing one chapter in one book and then one in the other. I then supplemented my reading in the Emanuel book (which has less “content” and more practice problems) by going through the flashcards.
As you go through the materials, make note of areas where you feel your knowledge is lacking. You’re going to want to go over those areas in more depth after you go through all the materials. For me, I knew right away that those areas would be real property and civil procedure. Those were two of my worst marks in law school. I also figured it would be good for me to spend more time on constitutional law (for obvious reasons).
You should also take note of the areas that you find most interesting. I, for one, absolutely love contract law and business associations. Whenever I was in a slump with studying, I would turn to these subjects and the change of pace would give me the motivation to tackle other areas that I was less interested in.
No matter how you choose to tackle these subjects, just make sure that you go through all the content once — at least. You’ll likely have time to re-read sections but you will for sure need to at least see every topic once.
After You’ve Gone Through the Materials, Do a Practice Test
I know it sounds crazy but trust me on this one. Do a practice test right after you finish going through all the materials once. You will likely get slaughtered— but that’s okay! Don’t dwell on your results at this stage; instead, focus on where you went wrong.
Spend a couple hours going over all your response and comparing them against model answers. You want to know early on which subjects give you the most trouble and which ones come naturally to you. You’ll likely be pleasantly surprised. Even though I loved contract law, I didn’t score well on multiple choice questions involving contracts. On the other hand, I was never really passionate about criminal law but, for whatever reason, I was able to recite the law regarding search and seizure almost verbatim without any prior knowledge of the intricacies of that topic.
Don’t sleep on your correct answers either. You want to be sure that the questions you got right were right for the right reasons. If you rush through analyzing your correct answers, you may rush to conclusions when faced with a similar question on future tests only to be disappointed when you find out that you misunderstood a concept or disregarded a pivotal piece of information.
Armed with this knowledge, you can then move on to more strategic re-reading and memorization.
Focus on What You Need to Know
While it may seem tempting to convince yourself you can learn every subject inside and out, it isn’t worth your time to do so and, if you’re like me, you don’t even have enough time to do that if it were. Instead, you should allocate your time spent on learning each topic within a given subject in proportion to the likelihood that the topic will be tested on an exam. The more likely it is to be tested, the more deep your mastery of that topic should be.
What topics tend to be tested most frequently? I’ve included a link here to a spreadsheet I put together that shows the frequency of each topic based on past MBEs and the essay portions of the California Bar Exam. If you take nothing else away from this post, I hope you download a copy of this spreadsheet for yourself and use it to guide you throughout the coming weeks.
With topics that have appeared on at least 30% or more of previous exams, it’s not enough that you have a casual understanding. You have to know them. Period. Some of these topics should come as no surprise. You have to be able to recite the hearsay rule and rhyme off a lawyer’s duty of loyalty, without missing a beat. The presumption in favor of community property should be cemented into your long-term memory and you must know the prongs of the test for negligence.
Clearly, mastering these topics necessitate understanding broader subjects. For example, Fourth Amendment protections are part of a basket of rights afforded to criminally accused. You will also want to know exceptions to warrant requirement and Proposition 8 as well to ensure that you are not missing any nuances.
As the spreadsheet illustrates, there are many topics that fall just below the 30% threshold. You should absolutely know these subjects and be able to recite the most salient points about each of them. You should know how to spot them in a fact pattern and apply them. But you shouldn’t get too bogged down in the gritty details. As you do practice problems, you’ll begin to identify what particular facets of these sorts of topics are most frequently tested. Once you get a feel for where you are likely to get tripped up, you can adjust your preparations accordingly. Just don’t get down on yourself if you get yourself mixed up between the various types of easements and equitable servitudes.
Lastly, don’t waste time mastering topics that are tested less than 10% of the time. Sure, it’s good to be able to identify when the cy pres doctrine may arise in a trusts essay or know how to distinguish between different leaseholds in the odd chance there’s a multiple choice question on that specific topic. But the chances that you’re actually going to need to know every last detail about these rarely tested subjects to answer a question confidently are pretty slim. You were able to get through law school without knowing the rule against perpetuities — you can pass the California Bar Exam without knowing it too.
How to Memorize Efficiently
As I mentioned earlier, there are some concepts for which you will need to know the black letter law verbatim. I would recommend creating a Word document, organized by subject (as I’ve done and shared here), full of what I call “one-liners” of the most important concepts. You are free to use mine as a template but it is probably more worthwhile for you to create your own. The process of preparing this will, in itself, force you to really drill down on the black letter law. This sort of intense learning is exactly what will help cement these materials into your long-term memory.
Another technique that I found to be very helpful was to take some scrap paper and copy out your one-liners by hand, over and over again. Start by copying a one-liner five times over. Then try reciting it verbatim without looking at your master document. Continue this for each one-liner in a given subject. At some point, you will be able to pick a topic (e.g. personal jurisdiction) and rhyme off the law without referring to your one-liner master document. When you reach that plateau, try spending your memorization sessions jumping between subjects instead of running through an entire subject in one sitting. During the Exam, there will be no natural order to the questions you’re asked, so it makes sense to prepare for the chaos! If you spend at least one hour per study session focusing on memorization, you will be well on your way to mastering the content in time for the Exam.
As you continue immersing yourself with the Exam materials, you will be able to whittle down your one-liner master document into a shorter lengthed document that features the subjects that give you the most trouble. As you get closer to test day, you can devote more of your time to addressing any gaps in your knowledge.
How to Write a Solid Essay Response
If you want to get a passing score on your essays (and MPT for that matter), incorporate the IRAC method into your answers. Plain and simple. There is no need to get creative.
IRAC is the recommended approach for tackling essays because it most clearly demonstrates to an objective reader that the writer not only understand the law at issue but can also recite the rule and apply it succinctly. To really hammer this all home, I literally used headings and subheadings for each topic as shown below for every essay response I wrote.
Even before I started reading the prompt, I went immediately to typing in these ghost IRAC outlines. As I read through the prompt, I then jotted in information in point form as I went along. This allowed me to keep my thoughts organized and ensured that I didn’t miss anything. Once I had all my thoughts to paper, it became a matter of writing sentences and connecting the dots.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Given that you’re likely going to be writing this Exam remotely from a laptop, you should simulate the practice test conditions as best as possible. That means getting used to writing essays on your laptop, which shouldn’t take much getting used to! It also means doing multiple choice questions online, which may be more an adjustment. The NCBE offers a BarNow online platform that has a bunch of NCBE-prepared practice tests (including MBE, MEE, MPT, and even MPRE) with actual past exam questions for a decent price. This is a great place to start practising under simulated conditions, with in-depth answers to find out where you’re going wrong and course-correct early.
When you feel as though you need to do some more targetted practice for a given subject, I would recommend cracking open either the Emanuel or Basick books and taking a stab at their practice questions. Hammer out 10 multiple choice questions and then spend a half hour going over your answers. Write a practice essay and spend a half hour comparing your response with the model answers.
MPT — Don’t Sweat It
Full disclosure: I winged this part of the Exam. I think you can too but you may want to familiarize yourself with the types of questions that can be asked in the MPT section. For that, I would recommend looking at past exams.
The trick with the MPT is time management. You must read quickly, asborb key facts, organize your thoughts, and write a cogent response in under an hour and a half. If you’ve ever summered at a law firm or at a large organization where you were responsible for preparing briefs or drafting demand letters, the MPT will be second-nature to you. If you haven’t, I am assuming you’ve probably done some variation of this task for a law school assignment. As someone who did most of his law school assignments last-minute and who worked in commercial litigation and M&A, the MPT seemed very straightforward.
You Don’t Need to Get 100% You Just Need to Pass
The California Bar Exam is not the kind of test where you can get a perfect score. In fact, when you pass, you’re not even told what your score was. I would venture to suggest that no one has ever achieved a perfect score on this Exam. (I could be wrong and I welcome someone to fact-check me on this. But, at the same time, who gives a shit if someone did answer 100%. That person will be in the same shoes as someone who passed by a single point). Don’t fret about not getting 100% — or, for that matter, 85% or more — of the response correct. You don’t need to score that high to pass.
Yes, you should absolutely aim to score high. But you shouldn’t let that consume you. You may do better on some parts of the test than others and, given the way that scores are tallied, you don’t need to ace every essay or answer 90% of the multiple choice questions correctly to pass.
My advice is pretty simple: (1) figure out what score you need to pass; (2) aim to consistently score above that in your last few practice tests; and, (3) be proud of yourself when you get to scoring in that range consistently. Take solace in the fact that you got this and that, come test day, you’ll be able to replicate that performance.
Work Hard & Don’t Worry: You Got This!
Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent perspiration — Thomas Edison
You can read all the blogs you want about how to pass the California Bar Exam but the sooner you get started the better off you’ll be. Remember, you and you alone are the master of your own destiny. You have everything it takes to go out and pass this Exam. You just need to plan the road ahead, prepare to work hard, and believe in yourself.
I hope you found this post helpful and look forward to your comments. I will be posting more subject and topic specific articles in the coming weeks. Best of luck with the Exam and looking forward to seeing your name on the pass list in the coming months!
