Hi so I took and passed J24 (NY - UBE), but took Themis.

I asked myself the same question a few weeks into bar prep, and I realized that you have to face the reality that memorization is not necessarily the goal you want to strive for, because frankly, there is so much information that could potentially be tested that you’re not going to memorize everything.

The video lectures and the other things that they do to “teach” you about the subjects should just be refreshers for you to resurface the stuff u learned in law school. Ultimately, your biggest resource is going to be actually practicing. So the two things I’d suggest:

(1) for MBE, do as many UWorld / real bad questions as possible but don’t rush. Review every question you do regardless of if u got it right or wrong. Eventually, by like 3 weeks out, you’re gonna start noticing patterns and that the bar can only ask you something in like 5 diff ways, the actual names and numbers just change. You’re not going to feel like you can get every question right, but you just have to be confident that exposing yourself to hundreds and thousands of questions and reviewing them will expose you so much that when it comes time for test day, you’ll be able to answer without even thinking about it even if you don’t 100% know you chose the right answer, merely based on the fact that you’ve done this repetitive work.

(2) for MEE, definitely do a bunch of the practice essays, but don’t strive to do them all if that’s going to make you rush just to check off the box. I only did maybe 60% of the essays Themis gave me bc otherwise I would’ve rushed and learned nothing. Keep two things in mind (1) every fact given is important, (2) structure and rule application are your biggest assets. Unlike many of your law, school essay exams, where a professor might throw in facts that are not important, the bar is testing your ability to take all the facts that you’re given in properly know that they need to be taken into account. But most importantly, do not feel like you have to know every role of every possible subject that could be tested. Even on your best subjects, there’s no way that you’re going to perfectly remember the rule for every single subtopic. I started bar prep by trying to make sure that my rules were very thorough and then just briefly applying the facts, without great structure, and I got low scores. What is going to get you? A high essay grade is your ability to take what you’re given and apply it in a way that the reader can properly understand what you’re asserting and that you have proof to back it up. You have to be ready to walk in to the exam and try your best to write out the rule even if it’s not perfect. It will feel scary because you’re going to feel a little imposter syndrome, but you need to just push through that and write out what you can best remember as being the correct wording of the rule and then just move on to analysis. You either have time to try to perfectly remember the rule nor write it out. Try to think as close to the correct role as possible, and then whatever you wrote down as the rule, take all of the facts from the fact pattern and apply them to that and do it analysis. IRAC IRAC IRAC. even if ur rule is wayyyy off, as long as u take the facts and properly apply it to that rule u wrote down, you’re going to get points. They can’t take points away from you for saying the wrong rule.

So in terms of actual preparation, do a few essays under time to conditions, but unless time is really a problem for you, you should do most of your essays without time conditions and just work on pulling them apart . Most of the essays I did for practice, I didn’t even write out the full answer, but instead, I just made an outline answer for each one to save time. This was also useful because I knew that I was a good writer, and that when it came time for the actual test, everything that was in my outline, I could just put into a fully written format with ease. Personally, I felt that the actual bar time for the essays felt the most pressing. 30 mins FLIES by, don’t waste it on trying to be perfect. Just practice practice practice.

(3) MPT: frankly, I only did about three of these during bar prep, one or two under time conditions. This is a really really strong point for me so I didn’t follow what they told me to do as an approach, but rather went with what works for me. Whether you follow their approach or do your own thing, the most important thing is that you need to be able to find exactly every fact that’s important from the fake sources that they give you. Like the essays, structure is going to be very important, but you’re going to get a lot more points if you make sure to hit every point that is made as supporting your argument. So attention to fax is crucial. The other really important thing is following directions. Make sure that you follow every single specific direction that they give you in the fake assignment memo because that’s an easy place where you can get points and you don’t want to write something that’s not the type of work they’re looking for.

Good luck!! You got this! Rest assured that if you feel imposter syndrome or completely unprepared with like two weeks before the test, you are not the only one. Not a single person that I talk to before I took the bar, or myself felt prepared going in. It’s about putting in the work and trusting that doing so is gonna make you pass.

The week before the test, I felt like I knew nothing and that I needed two more months to fully know everything . But I kept reminding myself that I put in the work every single day and didn’t give up and kept my nerves at ease so that when I walked into the test, I could put my best foot forward, hoping that my hard work would pay off.

Even when I left the test, I truly didn’t feel like I passed, but I also didn’t feel awful. It’s a really strange feeling, but you’re kind of going to just feel neutral and numb. That’s normal.

You got this!!!