Do you wish you could be more motivated about bar prep—showing up daily, doing practice questions, and seeing your scores improve? Instead, are you procrastinating, switching materials, skipping days, and constantly adjusting your schedule? These habits aren’t helping.
If you don’t break the cycle now, you’ll feel overwhelmed as the bar exam approaches. You might scramble to catch up, only to burn out before the finish line. Worst of all, you won’t retain much of what you’ve studied.
Now, if you’ve taken the bar before, you might think, “I’ve got this. I’ve done it already.” But here’s why that mindset isn’t enough.
You’re Not a Beginner—But You Still Need to Be Consistent
If you’re retaking the bar, you don’t have to start from scratch. You know the basics. But don’t confuse experience with consistency. You still need to be proactive and disciplined, especially if time management tripped you up last time.
Procrastination, switching schedules or materials are symptoms of a deep progeny. It’s not about bar prep itself. It’s about your bar exam mindset.
Confront Your Inner Saboteur
If you’re stuck in a loop of avoiding study sessions and hopping between materials, then, I hate to break it to you but, fear is at play. It’s usually fear of failing the bar or fear of what comes next if you pass. Most procrastinators are perfectionists, afraid of falling short.
This fear is common, but it’s not insurmountable. Recognizing it is the first step to overcoming it.
The Wisdom Personality Type Trap
One-quarter of my mentees fall into what I call the “wisdom personality” type. These are people who feel a need to know everything—and hold themselves to impossibly high standards. Passing isn’t enough; they want mastery, aiming to understand the law like a professor.
The problem? Bar prep isn’t about mastering every detail. It’s about learning enough to pass. Striving for perfection in every subject will overwhelm you. You need to know when “good enough” is truly enough.
How to Know When to Say “Enough”
The challenge for wisdom types is accepting that proficiency—not mastery—is the goal. You don’t need to ace every topic; you need to be competent. Knowing when to stop and move on is key to avoiding burnout.
Obsessing over perfection means you won’t leave enough time for practice questions—the real source of improvement.
Embrace Mistakes in Practice
Wisdom types dread making mistakes, so they over-study to avoid getting practice questions wrong. But here’s the truth: Practice is where you’re supposed to stumble. Every mistake is an opportunity to learn and refine your understanding. Without practice, you’ll never get comfortable with the material.
If you shy away from practice because you’re afraid of being wrong, you’ll never make the progress you need.
Break the Cycle
If you’ve been procrastinating, deep down, you know something isn’t working. But changing the way you’ve always approached studying isn’t easy. It takes time and effort to shift your mindset.
Understanding your personality type and how you respond to stress can be the key to unlocking a better approach to bar prep.
Click here to identify your study personality type
Bar prep doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right mindset, you can pass.