Im selling the material listed below, used for F26.
Mary Basick PT book - gently used, never accessed the ebook the access code is available, unopened.
Mary Basick essay book
Themis outlines
$100 for all OBO. Pick up from Santa Clara. can arrange shipping too.
I graduated law school in 2012, English is my second language. I have not practiced law since 2018, although I worked as a paralegal in the US for five years before taking the Bar. This was also my first time typing an exam, I have only taken handwritten exams before. When I started Bar prep my kids were 1 and 3. I lost my work authorization due to a change of visa type so I was on a forced career break and decided to use this time to take the bar exam. This is how I pulled myself from the rock bottom to a pass in my first attempt.
Resources - I selected Themis after some research mainly on this sub. I wanted a one stop shop with lectures notes, short notes graders etc.. since I have been out of it for so long. During the time I worked as a paralegal I saved money to buy a prep course. I used all the features of Themis other than flashcards and the fill in the blank notes which we were supposed to work on while listening to lectures. In my experience in the U world, essay workshops (and accompanying notes), graded essays with feedback and the coaches you can talk to are the best features they have. I also liked the short notes with the U world charts on them which I used a lot in the last month of revision. I completed 77% of the program prior to the exam.
Mary Basick, essay and PT books- Irrespective of the prep course you follow, this is a gem. It is like holding a personal tutor in your hand who would guide you step by step on how to methodically approach an essay question. In the essay book you will find a variety of essays for each subjects with an answer grid written in IRAC format and also the full answer which you can also use as a guide to mark your essays. The outlines in the essay books are concise and have a good flow. I used these for rule statements in essays. The essay book also contains a issues tested matrix which provides which issues have been tested in the past.
baressays.com - I bought this but didn't use it much. I only used it to compare what a failing and passing grade looks like when I was in doubt about an answer I wrote. In my honest opinion this was a nice to have but not an essential resource in my practice.
Magic Sheets - Last few weeks leading to the exam most people panic thinking they can't remember any rule statements. I was one of them and following some threads here, I purchased these notes. They are clear and concise. I used some of the notes and comparison charts i.e. for Civ Pro but reverted back to Themis and Mary Basick since its exhausting to study several different notes and I have been using Themis and Mary Basick for a long time. I found something far more valuable with this purchase. Brian's blog “Make it your last time” and the essay cooking method!. I reads stories on the blog when I needed motivation and also the essay cooking got me through the final mile of Bar Prep.
Keybr.com for typing. I was a hunt and peck typist and it was dragging me down when writing essays. I started touch typing in the last three months leading to the exam and this was the main resource I used to practice typing. I dedicated 15 minutes a day to practicing typing.
My prep journey - I used the Themis schedule over the course of 10 months. The Themis advisor recommended that I start the course in August -2025, but I started in May given how unpredictable kids are, especially during the winter they get sick all the time. Initially I studied during my youngest napped and the eldest was at daycare (until 12 p.m.) every weekday. So I studied for about 2 hours during nap time and squeezed in another hour in the morning or evening. During this time the task felt very daunting given the little time I had. But I only planned for the next day and kept going. If I got to do my two hours of study, I was content. This was my schedule until the last two months. Then the kids went to day care full time and I started practicing essays and MBEs full time for two months.
After listening to contract lectures, taking notes and reading the outline I attempted my first set of Themis MBEs. I was shocked by the length of a single q and all the analyzing we were supposed to do in under two minutes. I froze, kept pushing and ended up with 18%. I paused the program and started practicing a lot of questions and writing down explanations. Until I could reach 70%. Next, I started real property, since it's one of the lengthiest subjects. I listened and re-listened to the lectures, while in the playground, while pushing the stroller. I spent hours just doing u world questions. Again, until I hit 60%s consistently. In the U world you can select specific areas of a subject and do directed MBEs, this was my main method of revision for all the MBE subjects and Uworld was my only source to practice MBEs.
Towards September I started going to the library in the evenings for about two days a week, once my husband returned from work. Subjects like Evidence, Con Law and Civ Pro I studied at the library with no interruptions. Con Law and Civ Pro were the most challenging subjects for me; I fully reviewed these subjects about three times over the course of the 10 months I studied. MBEs, making my own flashcards and memorizing was my method for initial review after listening to lectures.
Essays - CA writing style is not like anything I have encountered before. I had to start by googling what is IRAC and professor Ide Don did a good job explaining this. But it took a ton of practice to master my writing. I did the Mary Basick book and listened to the essay workshops on Themis. A Themis grader (after giving me a 50 for a disastrous PR essay) suggested that I dissect an essay. Basically you write (or outline) an essay, then look at the model answer and copy all the issues and rules and then read the question and bring in the facts on your own. I remember spending an entire day dissecting one criminal procedure essay. After a couple of these I started to see the patterns and do better IRACs. Towards the end of it my grader specifically commented saying my essays are getting better by the day although they have never graded me above 65%. (Don't get disheartened themis graders are supposedly good at making you feel bad about your work.)
Active learning v Passive learning - This was my main takeaway from the “Make it your last time” blog. I initially collected so many resources to study, got distracted whenever someone suggested a new note, new resource. The best note is the one you study ! Just do some decent research. Narrow down your resources and start practicing. I may have written/outlined over 120+ essays. At the beginning it was writing and reviewing one essay per day, towards the end of it I did at least 5 essays a day. Check the Essay Cooking method on Make it your last time blog. I did this and had about 40 handwritten essays marked with a red pen and notes made for the day before the exam, with me in the hotel room the night before the exam. All the Themis essays were typed (I did 15 graded essays out of 20) but these hand written ones hit different. One day before the exam, I was feeling like I don't remember any rules but looking at my answers gave me so much confidence to face the essays the next day.
Couple of things I wish I knew or did differently or earlier before the exam - Don't re-read full outlines (especially lengthy Themis outlines). The exam happens in a close universe. The sooner you start your essay/MBE practice you will see the big picture and things will start to sink in.
You don't need to memorize all the rules before writing essays. Start open book and then slowly get away from the books. My first closed book essay was two weeks before the exam. I put off writing essays for so long thinking I don't know the law yet, It was a waste of time. I looked at every PR essay I could get my hands on. You can find the past essays here for free Past Bar Exam Essays and Performance Tests (MPTs) (thanks Brian for compiling this). I have opened each paper, read all the PR questions and outlined some. I did the same thing for most of the subjects but not as extensively as for PR.
Its normal to get MBEs wrong due to overthinking when you get really close to the exam. Two weeks leading to the exam I stopped doing MBEs for this reason.
Do a full simulated exam before the actual one. When I did this for a themis MBE I ran out of time and had to just mark the last 20 questions without thinking. I still scored 67% for that portion and above 75% for the next portion. This is the day I felt really confident about passing. At the actual exam, again I ran out of time and had to finish the last 15 qs in a hurry. But it didn't affect my confidence since Ive had the same experience before.
Its easy to build from a 55% than to build from a 40%. So if you have a question you dont know much about, make your best effort to write something from your knowledge and imagination to show the grader that you made a good faith effort. I neglected Community Property and only studied for it through the Mary Basick Book about three weeks before the exam. It was tested and for the first two parts I confidently answered. The final part I wasn't quite sure. I remembered the logic of the formula, wrote down the formula as I remembered, explained it and applied numbers (which I was sure was wrong).
Goodluck with prep! Give it your all and its doable.
I recommend reading the book "Grit" by "Angela Duckworth". For context, I am a 37 yo foreign attorney, who didn't practice law since 2018. I am also a toddler mom; my kids were 1 and 3 when I begin my studies. I passed F26, which was also my first attempt.
I did SO BAD in the beginning of my prep. I scored 18% for my first Themis MBE set on contracts and 12% for Civ Pro. I will write a comprehensive post later with what worked for me but, this book helped me go on until the end without internalizing the results. This book gives so many examples of people who are now considered experts in certain fields who failed an unbelievable number of times but kept going until the task they had to perform became second nature. I resonate so much with the theory of this book. Thought it might help some of you. Good luck. !