Law Schools

5 Signs You Are Going To Fail The Bar Exam

And how you can try to fix your situation.

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So you want to pass the bar exam? Good. It is time for a little bit of tough love about the things that really cause students to fail. We are about to dive deep into five signs that you are going to fail the bar exam. But don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging in the scary part. For each warning sign, I also hook you up with a sure-fire fix. Warning: in order for this article to actually help you, it requires you to be self-aware and brutally honest. If you want to pass the bar exam, you’ve got to check your pride at the door and be willing to do whatever it takes to cross the finish line. Alright, let’s do this.

1. You don’t know enough about the test

I need to get real for a second. I definitely judge people who sit down to prepare for a test and have absolutely no clue what is going to be on the test or how they will be tested. I have encountered a shocking number of students who sit down to “get serious” about bar prep and ask me, “Okay, so what is on the test?” There is no good reason for this to happen any later than April for the July bar exam or November for the February bar exam. If you wait any later than that, you are robbing yourself of valuable time you could actually be, you know, studying.

Fix it:  Go to the website of the organization that creates the bar exam in your jurisdiction. Do not pass go. Do not collect 200 dollars. (Please tell me you get the Monopoly reference.) If you are in a UBE jurisdiction, the organization is the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Do not navigate away from said website until you understand exactly what subjects are tested, all the different components of the exam, how much time you get for each section, and how the exam is scored.  

2. Receiving feedback is difficult for you

Do you get really upset when you receive critical feedback? Is your initial reaction to think that the person giving you the feedback is wrong? The bar exam is a humbling experience. You would think that three years of law school has prepared you pretty well to take the bar exam. Not so. Even if your school has excellent bar prep programs and workshops in law school, like mine did, there still seems to be a relatively steep learning curve. It is possible, nay probable, that you will receive some kind of critical feedback during bar prep. If you are unable to receive and process this feedback, you are hurting your chances of passing.

Fix it: Remember, it isn’t personal. The people giving you feedback are just doing their job, which is to help you improve your skills so that you can pass. Their words aren’t an attack on or even a reflection of your intelligence. Try to view any criticism you receive as an opportunity for you to improve your skills and increase your chances of passing the bar exam.

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3. You care waaaaay too much about what other people are doing

Are you that person who always has to know what others are doing to prepare for final exams? Is this how you gauge your own efforts and success? This can be an absolutely lethal habit when it comes to bar exam success. Everyone learns differently and at different paces. If you are constantly measuring your bar prep success against what other students are doing, you are cheating yourself of the ability to learn about and meet your personal learning needs.

Fix it: Put barriers in place. Get off social media, stay off campus, don’t talk to people who are in different bar review courses.  If you avoid paying attention to what other people are doing every day, it will be easier not to be swayed by it. Also, get personalized advice from a mentor, professor, academic support person, and bar exam company. The more confidence that you have in your plan the less you will care what everyone else is doing.

4. Your stress interferes with your ability to study

Have you ever sat down to study and became so overwhelmed that you had to stop or ended up getting nothing accomplished? Do you have a lot of self-doubt about your ability to be successful? Did stress impact your grades or hold you back in the past? From my observations, stress and anxiety have sabotaged more students’ chances of passing the bar exam than any other factor. Maybe more than all the other factors combined. If this is a problem for you, you absolutely have to get a handle on it or it will steal all of your energy during bar prep.

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Fix it: Get professional help, download an app, or, gasp, buy a book. A great place to start looking for resources is the office that provides mental health services to students at your school. Not sure where to find it? Ask your Student Services or Academic Success department for the contact information.

5. You’re a people pleaser

Do you often find yourself putting your needs on the back burner to make others happy? Have you ever been in the position where you handed in less-than-your-best work because you made someone else a priority? Listen, this is not going to cut it during bar prep. In case you didn’t know, bar prep requires your full attention 8-12 hours a day, every day, for about 10 weeks. You legitimately don’t have time to care about other people. If you regularly find yourself tabling your needs for the needs of others, then you run the risk of failing the bar exam.

Fix it: Don’t worry, the fix here isn’t turning into a cold-hearted, giant a-hole. Rather, you’ve got to get comfortable with being at least a little bit selfish. In the grand scheme of life, bar prep is a relatively short period of time during which you must put yourself first. In order to get through bar prep with your relationships intact, it is important that you engage in proactive communication and boundary setting. Let those closest to you know what you will be going through and set their expectations considering your limited availability.

If this article has you a little bit shook, good. That means you really care about passing the bar exam, and one or more of these signs resonated with you. Don’t let fear paralyze you. Make sure you implement the tips in the “fix it” sections. They may feel difficult and uncomfortable, but I assure you that your future bar exam passing self will thank you for doing the hard work now.

Kerriann Stout is a millennial law school professor and founder of Vinco (a bar exam coaching company) who is generationally trapped between her students and colleagues. Kerriann has helped hundreds of students survive law school and the bar exam with less stress and more confidence. She lives, works, and writes in the northeast. You can reach her by email at info@vincoprep.com.

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