Partnership Lawve AI × Anthropic
RM
Robb Miller /

california-bar-complete

>A Claude skill for end-to-end California Bar Exam prep — the five essays (13 subjects), the 90-minute Performance Test, and the 200-question MBE (7 subjects). Built by a practicing attorney who used it to compress four months of prep into a week and a half.

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California Bar Complete

A Claude skill for end-to-end California Bar Exam prep — the five essays (13 subjects), the 90-minute Performance Test, and the 200-question MBE (7 subjects).

Built by a practicing attorney who used it to compress four months of prep into a week and a half. The story: Hacking the CalBar with AI.

Philosophy

You don't learn to write bar essays under time pressure — you memorize a bank of issue paragraphs in advance, then on exam day you spot the issue and transcribe the paragraph, dropping the facts in front of you into the application sentence. For the MBE, you drill original NCBE-style questions until the rules and their traps are automatic.

The highest-yield layer throughout: California divergences. 🔴 flags mark everywhere California departs from the majority/MBE rule (CEC vs FRE, community property, CA RPC, pure comparative negligence, and more). On the essays the CA rule usually controls; on the MBE the majority/federal rule controls — the skill keeps the two answers separate so you don't cross them up.

What's inside

SKILL.md                        — the skill's instructions and modes
references/
  essays/                       — 13 subjects: attack outlines + full IRAC rule blocks
  standard-paragraphs/          — 13 subjects: memorize-and-transcribe paragraphs
  mbe/                          — MBE method + 7 subject files (rules, traps, CA splits)
  pt/performance-test.md        — Performance Test approach
  exam/exam-day.md              — timing, IRAC discipline, issue-spotting, triage

Five modes

  1. Retrieve — "Give me the rule for the parol evidence rule."
  2. Drill / Teach — "Drill me on Community Property." Active recall: it prompts, you recite, it diffs your rule against the bank and re-tests your misses.
  3. MBE Quiz / Timed Drill — "Give me a timed set of 10 Evidence questions." Original questions, full explanations, every distractor accounted for.
  4. Grade — "Grade my essay" / "mark my outline." Issue map, IRAC integrity, missed CA divergences, an estimated 40–100 band, and the 2–3 highest-leverage fixes. Works on outlines when you don't have an hour to write.
  5. Generate / Plan — "Write me a practice essay question" / "build me a 10-day study plan."

And the underrated sixth use: argue with it. Push back on a grade, defend your version of a rule, and find out why your argument fails — including in voice mode, hands-free.

Install

Claude Code / Claude Agent SDK:

git clone GITHUB-REPO-URL
cp -r california-bar-complete ~/.claude/skills/

Claude.ai / Claude desktop (Cowork): upload california-bar-complete.skill (or this folder zipped) where your plan accepts skills, or grab the ready-to-run version on Lawve.

Then just start studying: "quiz me on hearsay", "grade this essay", "drill me on wills in the car".

Practice against real released questions

This repo contains only original material. The State Bar of California publicly releases past essay questions, Performance Tests, and selected answers — download them free at calbar.ca.gov and bring them into a session; the skill will build issue maps and grade you against them on the fly.

Heads up: the exam is changing

Beginning with the July 2028 administration, California moves to the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam (with a California component expected to follow). This skill targets the current California Bar Exam format — good through the February 2028 administration. Verify the current exam scope at calbar.ca.gov before relying on it.

Disclaimers

  • Study aid only. Not legal advice. Verify every rule against current California authority — items flagged ⚠️ VERIFY involve recently amended or unsettled law.
  • All rules and practice questions are stated in original wording. No CalBar, NCBE, or commercial-vendor text is reproduced. No affiliation with the State Bar of California or the NCBE.
  • No guarantee of any exam outcome. The bar is, famously, not a fair fight — prepare accordingly.

Author

Built by Robb — Canadian lawyer since 1996, New York attorney since 2017, California bar taker (July 2026). Find me on X at @LegalHacks.

License

MIT — free for bar takers, tutors, and builders. If it helps you pass, tell someone.