Seeing your name missing from the pass list is painful and disappointing.
Many students will immediately re-enroll in a commercial bar prep course, open a fresh set of highlighters, and start re-watching the exact same lecture videos from the beginning. If your goal is to pass on your next attempt, this is not the best approach.
What works for a first-time test taker is rarely the right strategy for a retaker. You do not need to study everything from scratch; you need to identify and fix the specific flaws in your exam execution. To get a different result, you need to adopt a different approach.
Here is a list of Dos and Don’ts for bar exam retakers looking to study efficiently and effectively for their next attempt.
The Don’ts: Study Habits You Must Abandon
- Don’t passively re-watch lecture videos: Sitting in front of a screen for 40 hours while a lecturer reads a commercial outline is neither efficient, nor very effective. Passive learning creates a false sense of security. You might recognize the law when you hear it, but recognizing the law is not the same as being able to recall and apply it under extreme time pressure.
- Don’t ignore your past score report: Many retakers are so bummed out by their results that they shove the score sheet in a drawer and never look at it. That document can give you valuable information and can help you build a more targeted study plan.
- Don’t rely on generic, cookie-cutter feedback: Commercial bar courses are designed for the masses. When you submit a practice essay to a commercial grader, you often receive generic comments like “needs better analysis” or a standardized rubric checkmark. This does not tell you how to fix your writing. If you struggled with the written portion, repeating the same generic feedback loop will keep you stuck at the same score.
- Don’t leave the Performance Test (PT) for the final weeks: The PT is worth two essays, yet students often under-prepare for it because it feels like an “open book” test. PTs are largely about following the instructions, getting through the library and file more efficiently, and organizing the law and the facts. Those skills take time to learn and to improve upon. Give yourself the time to improve your PT score.
The Dos: Building Your “Second Attempt” Strategy
- Do become a data-driven student: Analyze your previous score report. Did you struggle in the morning MBE session but recover in the afternoon? Were your essay scores consistently in the 55-60 range, indicating a failure to adequately apply the facts to the rules? Pinpoint where you missed points so you can allocate your study hours to your actual weaknesses, rather than your comfort zones.
- Do shift immediately to active practice: Your schedule should be heavily weighted toward output, not input. Instead of simply reading outlines or issue spotting an essay, practice full essays under timed conditions, and focus on how to better apply the law.
- Do adopt a mechanical writing style: The bar exam does not reward eloquent legal treatises; it rewards structural competence. Focus on blunt, clear headings. Stick rigidly to IRAC (Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion). You want to make the grader’s job as easy as possible. Make it ‘easy on the eyes’.
- Do invest in line-by-line, customized feedback: To break through a scoring plateau, consider hiring an expert to help you understand where you struggled and how to do better. A personalized tutor can help you understand where you missed a nuanced fact application or where your rule statement was too broad. Finding an experienced coach who provides individualized, 1-on-1 attention ensures you are actively correcting your mistakes rather than ingraining them.
Passing the bar exam on your second or third attempt is not about working harder; it is about working smarter on the areas where you struggled previously. With targeted practice and 1-on-1 personalized feedback, you can close the point gap and slay the beast!