ProfessorTommy.Tips

The first full week of the NFL season is nearly in the books, and there are already plenty of storylines. There were surprising performances, surprising results, and the usual reminder that everything we thought we knew in August can change once teams actually start playing games. But perhaps no team's outlook changed more dramatically than that of the Los Angeles Rams. The Rams entered the season as the betting favorite to win the Super Bowl. After an offseason in which they

Bar examinees spend months learning how to think like lawyers. They memorize legal rules, practice hundreds of multiple-choice questions, write essays under timed conditions, and refine their analytical skills. Yet there is one part of exam preparation that almost no one discusses because it seems too ordinary to matter. Posture. It is easy to dismiss posture as something your parents or elementary school teachers reminded you about. But modern research in ergonomics, physiol

If you've been watching the FIFA World Cup over the past couple of weeks, you've probably noticed something unusual: Mandatory hydration breaks. Traditionally, soccer (or football, depending on where you are) is a sport with very few interruptions. The clock keeps running, and players are expected to continue competing through long stretches of play. Yet FIFA recently decided that player health and performance justify stopping even the world's biggest sporting event so athlet

One of the more common frustrations I hear from bar examinees is this: "I know the law, but when I sit down to write an essay, I can't remember the rule statement." If that sounds familiar, you're not alone. Many students believe that success on the essay portion of the bar exam requires memorizing hundreds of rule statements word-for-word. They spend hours rereading outlines, highlighting commercial course materials, and reviewing flashcards, only to discover that when they

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

The Lunar New Year begins today, and it ushers in the Year of the Horse (specifically the Fire Horse). If you’re taking the bar exam next week, that timing feels almost too perfect. Horses don’t win by darting all over the track. They win by staying controlled, conserving energy, and moving forward with purpose. That’s exactly what the bar exam rewards too, especially at this stage. Here’s the theme for the remaining few days of your bar preparation: Stay in your lane . And

I recently broke my pinky toe. It’s the kind of injury that feels almost comical to even say out loud. A pinky toe? That’s barely a toe. It’s the bar prep equivalent of thinking, “It’s just one small issue. Surely it won’t matter.” So I did what a lot of smart, capable people do with small problems: I ignored it. I broke it on Dec. 21, 2025. At first, it didn’t seem like a big deal. I could still walk. I could still function. I told myself it would “work itself out.” I didn't

Mike Tomlin is the longtime head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers , and he’s famous for delivering short, memorable one-liners in press conferences. (Steelers fans call them “ Tomlinisms .”) After the Steelers and Ravens played a chaotic, down-to-the-wire game that ended on a missed last-second field goal that sent the Steelers into the playoffs and ended the Ravens' season, a reporter asked Tomlin to put into words how razor-thin the margin was between season over and kee

I was scrolling today and saw a CNN Underscored headline about down jackets. It was clearly supposed to say something like, "We tested 13 down jackets to find the warmest winners." But the headline said "warmest winers." Source: www.cnn.com Yes, I know what they meant. Winner . Not winer . Still, that one missing letter changed how I read the entire piece. Because here’s what immediately happened in my brain: If something as simple as a headline wasn’t proofread, what else in

As we say farewell to 2025, let's take a look at the Top 10 most visited blog posts over the past year: 1. Early Signals from July 2025 Bar Exam Results (Sept. 9, 2025) Excerpt: “The National Conference of Bar Examiners has begun releasing first-time bar passage rates for jurisdictions that have reported July 2025 results, and the early numbers provide an interesting—if incomplete—snapshot. We now have data from seven jurisdictions, and the picture is ... mixed .” 2. Moonw