“I Don’t Have 90 Minutes to Do an MPT” (Spoiler Alert: You Do)
Every bar exam season, I hear some version of the same line: “I just don’t have a spare 90 minutes during the week to complete a full MPT” or, as I'm beginning to hear from people taking the NextGen UBE: "I just don't have the time to do a 60-minute Performance Task." Let’s be honest. That’s rarely true. Photo by Maximalfocus on Unsplash Most of the time, it’s not that students don’t have the time. It’s that they don’t want to spend that time doing something they find overwhe
Tommy Sangchompuphen
2 hours ago5 min read
National Donut Day: A Dozen "Do-NOTs" of Bar Prep
Happy National Donut Day! Before anyone emails me: Yes, I realize that a "donut" and a "do not" are two completely different things. But if you've spent any amount of time reading ProfessorTommy.tips, you know there was no chance I was letting a perfectly good pun go to waste. Today, people across the country will celebrate with glazed donuts, chocolate donuts, powdered donuts, jelly-filled donuts, and perhaps even a dozen donuts. Since donuts are traditionally sold by the do
Tommy Sangchompuphen
2 days ago8 min read
Don't Just Practice the Law, Practice the Exam
One of the most overlooked aspects of bar preparation is learning how to take the exam in the format in which it will actually be administered. Many students spend hundreds of hours learning substantive law and completing practice questions, but very little time becoming comfortable with the testing environment itself. Yet familiarity with the testing platform and testing procedures can reduce anxiety, prevent avoidable mistakes, and improve efficiency on exam day. The specif
Tommy Sangchompuphen
6 days ago3 min read
SGA the "Free Throw Merchant" and the U.C.C. Merchant Trap
The NBA Western Conference Finals have delivered plenty of drama. After San Antonio's convincing Game 6 victory over Oklahoma City last night, the series is headed to a winner-take-all Game 7 on Saturday. One of the biggest storylines continues to be Oklahoma City star and two-time reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who has once again found himself at the center of the "free throw merchant" debate. If you've spent any time on NBA social media, you've probably heard the
Tommy Sangchompuphen
May 293 min read
What Spelling Bee Kids Can Teach Future Lawyers
I have always had an appreciation for spelling bees. Part of that comes from personal experience. Years ago, I competed in a spelling bee, and my run ended on the word pneumatography. I can still remember standing there on stage trying to work through the spelling and realizing that I had missed it as I was still saying the letters. And at that moment, my spelling bee journey ended. Picture of me during a middle school spelling bee competition in 1987 (The Dallas Morning News
Tommy Sangchompuphen
May 265 min read