If you're taking the bar exam, you've come to the right place. I'm your girl. I teach law students cutting-edge strategies to prepare for, leverage, and optimize bar exam prep. In short,
I help people pass the bar exam.
Passing the bar exam with me looks very, very different than doing it any other way. It's better.
Like most other revolutionaries, I started on my path by looking at a problem differently, and with fresh eyes. In 2008 when I was graduating law school and facing the California bar exam, I decided to self-study for the bar exam. I had no pre-conceptions about what that should look like. I brought a few skills with me: my unparalleled ability to overthink everything, some common sense, my intuition, and lessons I'd learned in other areas of life.
I started with my goal in mind: pass the bar exam. Then I began to work backwards from that goal, reverse engineering and deconstructing everything down to its component parts until I came to a strategic plan of attack.
The result?
The Klein Method™
The Klein Method™ is just one of the powerful strategies I developed to study smarter, not harder.
It is the core strategy for achieving as many points as possible on the essay portion of the bar exam. There are other strategies, too. The Speed Sheet™ for the performance test, The Shit List™ for the MBE, The Error Log™ for memorization, and more.
For every aspect of the bar exam, I have developed the little hinges that swing big doors.
In order to unlock those powerful techniques, what I did first was reject the traditional bar prep model which is - quite frankly - antiquated, unimaginative, and inefficient.
Next, I began to lay a firm foundation based on a few
Core Principles:
First, the bar exam is a performance. This is markedly different than the academic model you're used to in law school and undergrad, and the academic model that all other bar prep programs utilize.
You must demonstrate certain narrowly-tailored skills on the bar exam to garner sufficient points from the bar graders in order to pass the exam and obtain your law license.
Much like obtaining your driver's license, in which you must perform the act of driving during your road test to demonstrate sufficient skill, the bar exam is your opportunity to perform for the bar grader.
Just as you wouldn't dare take your road test having only studied the driver booklet, it is foolish to take the bar exam having only studied the black letter law in outlines and lectures. You must sit in the driver's seat and practice driving to build driving skills, if you hope to proficiently perform the act of driving during your test. Likewise, you must practice the bar exam to build bar exam skills.
You cannot simply regurgitate the black letter law and pass the bar exam. Your skill in performing legal analysis (how you think) is going to be tested. You must perfect that skill (in the way the bar graders wish to see it) to earn points. It's not about what you KNOW, it's about what you SHOW.
Second, you don't need to watch lectures or read outlines. In fact, you're better off if you don't.
Knowing the law is necessary, but not sufficient, if you wish to pass the bar exam.
You've spent $100k+ and 3 years of your life learning the black letter law from subject-matter experts, yet you're not ready to take the bar exam the day after graduation. Trying to re-create those 3 years in a fraction of the time won't give you a different result.
Not only do lectures and outlines not help you, they harm you. Every hour you spend with lectures or outlines is an hour down the drain. It's like rocking in a rocking chair - it keeps you busy and makes you feel like you're doing something, but you're actually getting nowhere.
What I said above holds true: it doesn't matter what you know, it matters what you show.
Third, the best way to earn points on the bar exam is to train yourself to do precisely what the bar graders will award points for.
I'm going to let you in on a secret: the bar graders have given you the answer key ahead of time. The smart way to approach bar prep is by utilizing and leveraging that valuable information. I train my students to do precisely that.
I methodically "re-code" my students' brains to know how to write passing essay answers that look exactly how the bar graders want to see them, teaches them all the bar exam law they need to know, and improves their performance skills so that they can easily scoop up those coveted points. It's The Klein Method™ I mentioned above.
P.S. It's the easiest way to study that exists. Bonus.
Fourth, the only things that should be done are the things that actually matter.
Peter F. Drucker said, "There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." I couldn't agree more.
The effectiveness of your bar prep is magnified when you skip anything and everything that doesn't move the needle. This is classic Pareto efficiency and simple common sense. But you would be shocked by the sheer volume of time wasters that traditional bar prep involves. I believe in skipping all of them.
There are only three ways in which you earn those coveted points on the bar exam (MBEs, performance tests, essays). If something doesn't improve your performance on one of the three areas of the bar exam, it should not be done.
But I take that principle one step further.
Some activities are of higher value than others. Only the most powerful and leveraged strategies are worth your precious time.
Find and exploit every bar exam hack there is.
That's exactly what I did, and that's how I passed the California and Virginia bar exams on my own.
Since then, I've helped many others throughout the U.S. pass their own bar exam. Some chose to join my bar prep program so they could utilize my personal guidance and attention every step of the way. Others found success implementing on their own the strategies I share in my book.
The results have been astounding.
I am grateful for each and every person I have been privileged enough to aid on their journey. To obtain your law license is a significant achievement and a major life goal. Like the others who come before you, nothing would make me happier than to be a part of your success story, too.