First things first, I’m sorry you failed the bar. I really am. I know it’s horrible and frustrating, it really is. But if you’re serious about passing this time around, you’re going to have to let that go completely or risk getting hung up on it and wasting time. Take your time to feel bad, grieve, stay in your pjs all day, maybe even listen to our podcast about what to do if you failed the bar, but then get over it because you’ve got a lot of work to do. I mean that with love, but seriously, get past this so you can move on productively.
I try to be as optimistic as possible with my bar students, but there are some hard truths that you’re just going to have to face if you want to conquer this exam once and for all. I’ve seen it all, and I can tell you that there is no comfortable, easy way to study for this exam as a re-taker. It’s going to be difficult. You will be exhausted sometimes. You’re going to have to do things you don’t want to do and you can’t cut corners. The students I’ve seen who embrace this idea perform better. What do I mean about cutting corners? How exactly should you attack this test? Here are my top tips:
Quite a few students have come to me with concern over the 
Sometimes bar students hear suggestions like, “just make your essay look like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t” or “come across as polished, your rules don’t need to be perfect.” This is actually good advice. The problem is that sometimes bar students take this too far and try to pull a fast one on the grader. You can’t turn in an essay of gibberish with nice headers and expect to pass. The 
I’ve heard every student complaint imaginable about studying for the bar exam: there aren’t enough hours in the day! It’s exhausting! There’s just too much black letter law! I get it. Studying for the bar exam can be an all-consuming and incredibly draining process. 
