A Necessary Evil
Written: Oct 21 '00 (Updated May 19 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Helps you prepare for the bar exam
Cons: Too expensive for the program
The Bottom Line: I don't see how anyone could pass the bar exam without a study program, and BarBri is the best.
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| SHeineman's Full Review: BAR/BRI Bar Review |
I hate BarBri, I hate BarBri, I hate BarBri. There, I said it. I feel better now! As much as I hated the BarBri program, I'm very glad I took it because I am now a practicing attorney. I never could have done all the work required to pass the bar on my own. In fact, I don't see how anyone could pass the bar exam without the BarBri bar review classes and materials.
The Bar Exam
It's the exam that every law student dreads. It was the worst two days of my life. If anyone tells you that it wasn't *that* bad, they are lying. And this is coming from someone who enjoyed law school and never got too stressed over any tests.
The format of the bar is the same in most states, with only a few exceptions, one part essay, one part multiple choice. The test is two days at the end of July. On the first day of testing, you have the essay portion of the exam. In the morning session of the first day, we had the Kentucky state essays. In the afternoon session, we had the multistate essays. The state essays are specific to that state, and the subjects tested vary depending on which bar you are taking. The multistate essays are the same in each state that uses the multistate essay testing. We had 22 different subjects covered in our essay portion of the exam.
You have 6 essays in the morning session, and 6 essays in the afternoon, for a total of 3 hours each session. You've got 30 minutes per question, which isn't a lot of time for rambling types like me.
The second day is the MBE, the multiple choice portion. It consists of 200 multiple choice questions, 100 in the morning and 100 in the afternooon. You have 3 hours for each 100. There are only 6 subjects tested on the multiple choice; Contracts, Con Law, Criminal Law, Evidence, Property, and Torts, but these subjects are tested in much greater detail than the subjects on the essays.
Does having to know 22 subjects, most of which you don't remember a thing about from law school, some of which you never even took in law school, scare you to death? It did me too. This is where BarBri comes in...
BarBri Classes
Classes begin for the July exam near the end of May. We had two weeks off in between our graduation and our first day of bar review class. Our class met at the law school for 3-4 hours each day, 6 days a week. We had a morning as well as an evening class, so if you missed your morning class, you would always go to the evening one, without missing a thing.
Classes were taught by videotape. Yay, no Socratic method!!! No getting called on!!! Barbri had noted professors come in to review only the important parts of each subject. Some lecturers were wonderful. They were as entertaining as a law lecture could be and gave out great tips and mnemonics to help you remember the materials. They seem really corny at the time (especially the Property lady! What was she on?), but they do end up helping. I don't remember any of it now, 3 months after the exam, but some of it stuck in my mind for as long as I needed it to! I just remember something about Frank Sinatra not liking Orville Redenbacher popcorn. I have no clue what this means now but it was relevant at the time anyway!
The Criminal Law lectures were the best. Professor Whitebread, the lecturer, was outstanding. He did a great job of teaching the material and was entertaining as well. We laughed the whole way through.
Other professors weren't so great. They would really put you to sleep. I left early on a few days since I could have learned just as well reading the outline myself.
The classes last until about 2 weeks before the bar exam. That gives you time to start cramming!
BarBri Materials
They give you a frighteningly large pile of books! Some of them are:
Essay Outlines: These are the subject outlines that you use during the classes. They break down the subjects into the law that you need to know, not that horrible theoretical junk you were had to figure out during law school. I would have LOVED to have these while studying for these law school exams!
Practice Essay Questions: A sampling of practice questions, including some that have actually appeared on the exam in recent years, along with suggested answers.
Practice Multiple Choice Questions: This is a huge book full of multiple choice practice questions, broken down by subject and further broken down into Easy, Medium, and Difficult questions. You are also able to download this from the BarBri website, which I recommend. You can check your answers with just the click of a button and if you need to further look up the law, you can click onto an outline that reviews that portion. It also keeps track of your score and tells you what areas of a subject you need to work on.
Mini-Outlines: The essay outlines broken down into even smaller outlines. I loved these books. They were perfect for reviewing the essay subjects in the days before the exam because they have the basics you need to remember most.
Study and Exam Taking Tips
Throughout your Barbri lectures, the speakers toss in little tips on how to write your essays to get more points as well as things to never ever choose for a multiple choice answer. Our one live speaker that came in gave us an excellent workshop on writing answers to essays. Supposedly, the average time a grader spends reading your essay is around 1 minute. His tips helped map out a strategy and an outline for writing each essay for maximum effect. Having that also helps out with your time management in taking the exam.
A huge benefit about Barbri that I know I overlooked is how it affected my personal study time. I am notorious among friends at school for studying at the very last minute. Needless to say, my study habits are grossly lacking. You can do that for one subject. Forget it for 22. Barbri scared me into studying earlier.
It also organized my studying for me. Having to learn 22 subjects is a little overwhelming (now there's an understatement if I've ever heard one!). Barbri not only organizes your materials by subjects, but it also breaks each subject down for you into little graphs. These little graphs tell you the statistics on how often a subject has appeared on the bar exam and further tells you how often individual areas have been on the exam. Don't take this TOO seriously...we had a Rule Against Perpetuities essay
I'll pause a minute to allow you lawyer or law student types time to recover from the horror of that statement
as well as a Personal Property question, something that the state told us hadn't been on the test in years and years...but, it CAN help you prioritize what you focus on.
The Cost
Wow, it is expensive! I paid $1200 and got $100 of that back when I returned my books. They tell you that you can forfeit your deposit and keep your books, but guess what? Of all those materials they hand out, even if you forfeit, they only allow you to keep a select few.
Why do they charge this amount? Is it because they offer such wonderful materials and stimulating lectures that it costs them a fortune to compile. Nope, not even close. They charge it because they can. More than likely, you aren't going to do too well on the bar without taking this course, and they know they've got you between a rock and a hard place.
I don't think our state's program was even THAT good. The national lectures and materials were excellent. However, our state specific lecturers were for the most part, well, HORRIBLE. The worst was corporations guy. He read straight from the corporations outline in the book, not adding a single additional comment whatsoever. Our state materials were also not very good. The outlines seemed lacking in areas.
And, a couple of times, the state program didn't even send us the lecture tapes when we were supposed to get them. It's a little annoying to show up bright and early only to go back home because there was nothing to do for that day since your videotapes didn't arrive.
A Necessary Evil
As much as I have whined through this review, if I had it to go back and do over again, I would still sign that check to Barbri for $1200. I know for a fact that I wouldn't have passed the bar without it. I found it to be excellent preparation for both the essay and multiple choice portions of the exam. I also took the PMBR class for the multiple choice and found it to be excellent as well. I'd recommend doing both if you are able.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
SHeineman
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Member: Stacy
Location: Kentucky
Reviews written: 208
Trusted by: 165 members
About Me:
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