Skol, Vikings (or “It Ain’t Over Till It’s Over 2.0”)
I grew in up Dallas, and I currently live in Dayton, which is sometimes referred to as a suburb of Cincinnati (Dayton’nati is what you might hear it at times). When it comes to professional sports, I follow my childhood teams of the Cowboys, Mavericks, and Rangers as well as my current hometown teams of the Bengals, Reds, and Buckeyes.
But my 10 years of living in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-Saint Paul make me a diehard Minnesota sports fan as well—despite years and years of professional sports disappointment.
Given Minnesota sports history, yesterday’s most recent rendition of the “Minnesota Miracle” might just be raising Minnesota sports fans’ optimism to record highs before finding yet another unique way to disappoint them in the end.
But before that potentially happens, let’s recap how history was made during yesterday’s NFL game between the Vikings and the Indianapolis Colts.
The Vikings overcame a 33-point deficient at halftime—the largest comeback in NFL history—to win the game 39-36 in overtime, locking down its first NFC North division title since 2017 and also its first playoff berth since 2019.
The Vikings, in the first half of the game, looked terrible, and I ended up switching networks to watch golf on television. That’s how bad things were!
According to ESPN Analytics, the Colts had a 99.0% win probability as early as 1 minute 43 seconds remaining in the second quarter. The team still maintained a 98.1% win probability with 2 minutes and 45 minutes remaining in the fourth and final quarter.
But as I wrote in a previous post, it “ain’t over till it’s over.”
I’m not going to rehash what I wrote in that previous post, when I discussed the Utah Utes’ come-from-behind win over the USC Trojans to knock the Trojans out of the College Football Playoffs.
There are so many more lessons from yesterday’s Vikings’ win that you can learn as you’re preparing for the bar exam.
1. Have confidence in your preparation.
The Vikings, going into yesterday’s game, had the second-best record in its conference at 10-3. But their victories hadn’t been pretty. After yesterday’s win, the Vikings became just the third team in NFL history to win 10 games in a season by eight points or fewer. But they’ve won, nonetheless.
"It all comes back to our preparation and what we do to prepare for Saturday in a way where we'll go out with confidence that we can play up to our standard and try to get a victory this week against a tough team with a lot of talented players on both sides," Vikings head Coach Kevin O'Connell said after the win. "We've got to have a great plan, be really detailed in our preparation, work the fundamentals, techniques, do the little things right that I think will contribute to us having an opportunity to win the football game."
When it comes to your bar preparation, prepare with a purpose. Diligently work your way through your bar review course’s study plan. Don’t mindlessly complete practice multiple-choice questions or essay questions. Rather, make sure you work on the technique as you’re answering multiple-choice questions, whether it’s the systematic problem-solving or another methodical strategy.
Also, don’t just always complete random sets of mixed subject questions. Rather, identify the areas where you might be weaker, like Negligence, and complete a set of Torts questions focused on Negligence rather than completing a set of random Torts questions where you might see just one or two Negligence questions. Again, prepare with a purpose.
2. Don’t let early setbacks defeat you.
The Vikings dug themselves a big hole almost as soon as the opening kickoff. The early problems included a blocked punt for a touchdown that made it 10-0 in the first quarter, a fumble by a Vikings running back, and then an interception that the Colts ran back for a touchdown. By the end of the first half, the Colts had their first game in franchise history in which they scored a touchdown on offense, defense, and special team.
At that point, the Vikings could have thrown in the towel. The team had a large lead in its division standings already, and it was likely they would eventually make the playoffs even with a loss yesterday. No one could really criticize them if they were to bench their starters in the second half, thereby preventing potential injuries and thinking about the long-term health of the team going into the remaining games of the regular season and ultimately the playoffs.
But they didn’t. They didn’t give up the hope or the fight after that early setback—yes, even a 33-point setback!
When it comes to your bar preparation, don’t let setbacks—like getting multiple-choice questions wrong during your practice—make you lose confidence. Rather, use those missed questions as a learning opportunity. Science suggests that incorrectly answering questions is a great way to learn. Learning comes from struggling with the questions and then reviewing the explanatory answers or comparing your essay answers to the sample responses.
3. Take time to assess your performance.
The Vikings have found themselves trailing at halftime before. They are no strangers of rallying from a deficit. But this time they were down by 33 points, which was a margin that no team in NFL history had ever come back from.
The coaches and players knew they had to regroup for the next 30 minutes of play. The defense needed to make stops. The offense needed to score. And the special team needed to be, well, special.
The defense had the confidence to prevent the Colts’ 33-lead from ballooning even more. So, it was up to the offense.
“You just need five touchdowns,” said Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson told his offensive players. “That's nothing."
“You just need five touchdowns. That's nothing." - Vikings cornerback Patrick Peterson
Five touchdowns and their extra points total 35 points. It might have appeared to be “nothing.” But the Vikings had never scored more than 34 points in a game this season.
When it comes to your bar preparation, take the time to assess your performance and make the appropriate changes based on your performance. Passing the bar exam is all about getting as many points as you can. On the MBE, an easy “consideration” question is worth the same number of points as a half-page and more difficult “third-party beneficiary” question. And an easy Constitutional Law question is worth the same number of points as a complex Real Property question. It doesn’t matter where you earn your points as long as you earn the points.
Also, as you think about improving your overall MBE performance, if you answer just two to three more questions correctly in each of the seven MBE subjects, then you will improve your overall performance by 14 to 21 raw points. That’s a huge overall increase—and it’s less daunting to think about that huge increase if you break it down into smaller parts.
4. Focus on all aspects.
During the first half of the Vikings game, nothing went well. The defense allowed 33 points. The offense didn’t score. And the special team was, well, not special.
To win the game, the Vikings needed to improve in all areas. And they did. The defense held the Colts to just a field goal the rest of the game. The offense scored those five touchdowns that Peterson urged his offensive teammates to score. And the special team made the extra points, pinned the Colts deep into their territory on punts, and scored the winning field goal in overtime.
When it comes to your bar preparation, focus on all parts of the bar exam—the multiple-choice questions, the essay questions, and the performance tests. Don’t make the mistake that many unsuccessful examinees make by focusing only on the MBE.
In Uniform Bar Exam jurisdictions and other non-UBE jurisdictions, the MBE makes up just one-half of your total. In the UBE states, the MEE makes up 30% of your overall score, and the MPT score makes up 20% of your overall score. Most non-UBE jurisdictions have similar breakdowns. Focusing only on the MBE is like trying to win a game by offense alone. Even if the Vikings scored five touchdowns, they still would have lost if the Colts scored six.
5. Take advantage of your opportunities.
One of the biggest disparities in yesterday’s game stats was red zone efficiency. Red zone efficiency is the percentage in which a team scores a touchdown while in the red zone, which is the area from the 20-yard line to the nearest goal line. Teams want a high red zone efficiency because it’s better to score a touchdown and extra point (seven points) than to walk away with a field goal (three points) or, worse, nothing at all when you’re that close to the end zone.
The Colts’ red zone efficiency was 25% (1 out of 4). The Colts had four possessions reach the red zone in the first 30 minutes of the game and managed only one touchdown—which was their lone offensive touchdown of the game. On the other hand, the Vikings’ red zone efficiency was a perfect 100% (4 out of 4). That’s a difference of 21 points based on red zone efficiency alone.
When it comes to your bar preparation, take advantage of your opportunities. One of my favorite quotes is “You don’t have to, you get to.” You don’t have to take the bar exam. You get to take the bar exam. Make the most of that opportunity by taking advantage of all the assignments and assistance provided to you through your bar review course and your law school.
6. Use information to make data-driven decisions.
Most NFL teams heavily use analytics now, using data to make team decisions, whether who to draft, who to trade, or what plays to run.
The Colts were faced with major decision with 2 minutes and 19 seconds remaining in the game. With the ball on the Minnesota’s 36-yard line, the Colts had to decide what to do on fourth-and-one. The options?
Go for the first down. If they were to move the ball just one yard and make a first down, then that would basically end game as the Colts would be able to run the clock out with continued possession of the ball.
Kick a field goal. A successful field goal by the Colts would force the Vikings to make two scores in the remaining time. However, an unsuccessful field goal would give the Vikings possession of the ball on its own 36-yard line. A field goal would be no gimme from that length.
Punt. This would give the ball back to the Vikings, but it could possibly have pinned the Vikings deep into their own territory, making it more difficult to go the length of the field to score a touchdown and the subsequent two-point conversion to tie the game.
Based on analytics, Colts interim coach Jeff Saturday decided to go for the first down with a quarterback sneak. It ultimately didn’t work out, but in the long run, data will play itself out the way the data says it will play itself out. You can’t ignore the data.
When it comes to your bar preparation, pay attention to your data. During your bar preparation, your bar review course will provide data to help you understand your strengths and weaknesses—not just on a macro level (e.g., Torts, Constitutional Law, Evidence, etc.), but on a micro level as well (e.g., Causation in Negligence in Torts, Speech in First Amendment in Constitutional Law, or Character Evidence in Relevancy in Evidence). Use that data to help you focus your studying.
Also, use the distribution of questions to help you prioritize your studying. For example, you know one-half of the Torts MBE questions will fall in the area of Negligence. That means that you’ll see 12 to 13 questions out of the 25 on the MBE in Negligence. On the other hand, you might see only one Invasion of Privacy question—if at all. You’ll want to make sure you have an excellent handle on Negligence (where you can potentially improve your MBE raw score by 12 to 13 points) before you move to reviewing Invasion of Privacy (where you may only be able to improve your MBE raw score by one point).
