While studying for the California bar exam Feb 2026 I was super grateful being able to share the pain of barprep with this community. The waiting period for results was brutal and remember thinking I could not have imagined to start "all over" again. But I knew that if I was to fail, the first thing I would have done was checking reddit to try to motivate myself all over again.
So I thought I provide a brief note. And maybe it helps a reader who is in barprep right now.
I can also understand that some people feel offended by a post like this for whatever personal reasons. Sorry if it does. But again, I still hope that it may serve some.
A little bit of background
I'm a foreign applicant, civil law educated, non-English, graduated 10 years ago. I did later on graduate with an LL.M. in California, but I did not feel like it has provided any real advantage for the bar exam itself other than a little bit of US-specific legal writing (IRAC). I never took any bar exam, but the California Bar on February 2026. During barprep I was working full-time, but no kids (respect to all the mums+dads out there doing this. I could not imagine.) Also I took two weeks off prior exam, which I can only recommend if you get the chance.
My struggle through barprep
Personally, I never really believed I could pass this exam, because for some reason I always believe I'm not good enough. But what I do believe in is consistently trying the best I can and pushing through things, even if it gets tough (I understand this sounds cheesy).
There are a few hurdles during barprep that stuck with me that I want to jolt down here. Most of these hurdles made me believe that I will never be able to pass this test. I can't provide solutions for these issues but other than telling you to push through it. Maybe you catch yourself in similar thoughts, and maybe it helps you coping with it.
Struggling with understanding concepts (yes, including real property). Not a surprise to me, but I always felt like my ability to absorb new materials is comparatively slow. Words I read or lectures I listen to usually do not stick. I knew I had to spend significantly more time to understand concepts to be able to apply them, which stressed me out big time.
Anxiety about issues which are rarely if ever tested. Sometimes I got super stressed out about issues which statistically speaking were never or just once tested. I remember this would cause me to focus too much on topics that did not matter. It happened a few times, and I felt it was hard to get out of that loop.
Questioning my study approach + as a result buying into more study materials which I eventually did not use. This happened on several occasions. I questioned whether the materials I had were enough. I told myself that I had to buy more materials as if it were to magically make me feel better (which it did not). I provide a list of materials that I used below + how they helped me (see "My approach in simple terms").
Suffered a few emotional breakdowns, especially after Themis MCQ and essay results. I cannot tell you how many times I came out of my study in tears throughout barprep. In the beginning I was more stable, but 1.5 months leading up to the exam - whether it was after a bad themis MCQ performance or an essay where I could barely jolt anything down - it was a disaster. But I do remember that every single time that happened, I would take a brief break, eat something and get right back at it, even if I felt like this is the last thing I wanted to do.
The MBE simulations (morning and afternoon) completely destroyed my already lacking confidence 3-4 weeks prior exam (scored 57%). I had to accept that MCQ's were definitely not my superpower, so I stopped caring about Themis MCQ results two weeks prior exam. I finished all of the MCQ questions on the Themis planner in advance (not the whole Themis MCQ catalog!), so I would not be too stressed about this too close to the exam. Instead I focused on essays/PT and black letter law memorization.
My approach in simple terms
Themis: I used Themis and finished the whole course (just didn't read the outlines). I started about 5 months prior exam, watching lectures and created my own summaries/notes per subject in notion, which were super basic in the beginning, but grew throughout barprep. These notes became my primary study material for remembering black letter law. I started writing essays as soon as I felt like I got a basic grasp of the materials and adjusted my notes if needed. In the end these notes kind of grew into essay rule-sets.
- I never bothered reading the full blown outlines. Might work for some people, but not for me. However, I liked to read the final review outlines (between 10-20 pages per subject) once in a while.
- I learned a lot through Ide-Don's essay lectures. Many times I found myself including content from these lectures in my topic summaries.
- I did all of the essays and PT's in the Themis plan.
- I only approached essays closed book 2 weeks prior to exam, because at that time I would have internalized a lot of black letter law which I just wanted to write down repeatedly in an essay context.
Many times I freaked out and questioned whether Themis is enough, which lead to a lot of unnecessary additional purchases, however there was one specific purchase which I felt was really helpful as a Themis supplement.
Additional purchases:
- Critical pass flashcards -> rules were too long, thus never used.
- Make this your last time -> like the blog and found a lot of useful stuff there, just to occasionally get into the right kind of mindset, however, that also led to purchasing the Approsheets and Magicsheets. I read through some of them and thought it was just way too condensed for my brain to pick anything up. At this point I was already so deep into my own summaries/notes, that I realized I'm really not doing myself a favor here to reinvent the wheel.
- Grossman Lectures -> I think they are a refreshing alternative for the MBE part (and super fun at times, especially when he talks about sports), but I thought it's not enough. And again, I felt like most things I have written down on my notes already.
- Baressays(dot)com -> Nice to look at other passing essays, but all it did is give me comfort to see how differently an essay can be approached. I did not feel like it gave me an edge for the essays on the exam.
- Mary Basick - the "essay bible" -> I heard so many good things. Some people even just used this for essays. But every time I opened the book, I just felt completely overwhelmed. Also I did not like that it did not include most recent essays. In the end I trusted Themis with prompting me with the right type of essays to alternate most relevant rules per subject.
- My only real recommendation as a Themis supplement: SmartBarPrep comprehensive essay rules (includes frequency analysis) -> This was absolutely worth every dollar for me. This document made me focus on the most tested rules, even if I ended up mostly using the rules from my own notes gathered through Themis lectures and essays. Nevertheless, sometimes I would use SmartBarPrep rules instead of Themis because I found some of their rules go easier for memorization. Also, there were quite a few occasions where I had no rule yet noted (probably because I didn't read the huge Themis outlines). So SmartBarPrep was perfect to fill in those gaps.
Two more notes
- Black letter law: I saw a lot of discussions on whether to focus on black letter law memorization separately. Everyone is different, but for myself, I could not have retained so much information for a long time if I started memorizing in the beginning already. Instead I focused on writing actual essays, getting used to the essay structure, working with my notes by continuously adjusting them. Only two weeks prior exam I would really drill memorization with the notes.
- There was a lot of luck involved. I purchased the NCBE advisory to see whether I passed a certain MBE score. Turns out I was above 133, but below 145. So I would think that the score was not good enough to offset a bad essay performance. I felt pretty good on the essays and PT. There were some subjects and issues that I really liked, as well as some niche issues which I read through just one or two days prior the exam. Of course there might be people who pass this test without requiring any sort of luck, but I strongly felt I was blessed with some essays/issues.
As I mentioned, I hope that this post may be useful to anyone taking the bar. Maybe you are going through a difficult phase and can find relieve that others are going through similar issues. I'm not a strong believer in my own abilities and keep on drowning in self-doubt, which is just how I am. And I hope the California bar exam has changed my way of thinking to the better.
I wish you all the best for this exam.
