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Taking the FL Bar Exam in July 2012. Themis will end up being exactly $1,000 cheaper than BarBri, after applicable BarBri tuition assistance discount.

Barbri has been around forever and they know what they're doing. I don't know that I would want to gamble passing the bar on a new company that had gaping holes in their outlines last year. Not worth it if you ask me.

BarBri is by far the better choice. You get what you pay for, and will not be left disappointed. Bar Prep is the ONLY thing BarBri does, and they do it VERY WELL.

Themis' MPRE prep materials were just awful. The quality difference between theirs and BarBri's was staggering.

I can't say that I know anything about Themis, but I can tell you that there is a reason why Barbri is in all 50 states and is the one most used by law students. They have been doing it longer. All they do is Bar prep. They take the best professors in the country in each of the areas and use them to teach the topics (versus picking professors from each school for that school's students). If you ask most practicing attorney, they'll also tell you that they used Barbri as well. There is a reason why it is a little more expensive than other vendors.

BarBri all the way! I just took BarBri's MPRE course and the lecture was amazing. The BarBri MPRE outline book was also amazing and their practice questions were very similar to the ones on the actual test. I personally wouldn't trust a new company, BarBri on the other hand has been doing this longer than anyone. Good luck.

BarBri all the way. It's tempting to go cheap, but this is the bar exam. You don't want to fail with the less-experienced prep company and have to take it over again.

OK so to give an opposing view to all the pro-BarBri people, I'm doing Themis. I do very well on tests, I take tests seriously, I won't attend in-person lectures, and the Illinois pass rate and my school's pass rate are both ridiculously high. I used Themis for the MPRE to test it out and scored 130+ using just the little book and the online question bank. My firm won't reimburse me until after my clerkship, and I think the reimbursement is taxable (I really should know this given my clerkship is Tax Court, but I don't), so I'd rather save some cash. If you actually do what the company tells you to do and you're reasonably intelligent, it seems like you'll pass. I see no reason to spend more than necessary. It IS a little scary to depart from the herd.

This is the bar exam. I'd advise you to spare no expense.

holdencaulfield wrote:This is the bar exam. I'd advise you to spare no expense.

Why? If you're paying for the prep course, you should go with the best value. Barbri costs twice as much as Themis. I have yet to see any reason why I should pay twice as much for my bar prep course.

I'm signed up for Barbri. You just can't beat the professional resources, student support and online resources. I'd rather take the right course, pay a bit more and pass the first time. The bar application is so expensive itself that I don't want to have to pay that amount more than once, and then have to later sign up for Barbri. Thats a mistake I can't afford to make. -fla law student

3 first posts in this thread? Something's up

Br3v wrote:3 first posts in this thread? Something's up

BarBri doesn't bother astroturfing, though that's odd.

Most of the good reasons have been listed. Another: Unlimited graded essays.

vamedic03 wrote:

holdencaulfield wrote:This is the bar exam. I'd advise you to spare no expense.

Why? If you're paying for the prep course, you should go with the best value. Barbri costs twice as much as Themis. I have yet to see any reason why I should pay twice as much for my bar prep course.

I disagree. I'd spend the money for the best course with the best materials. To me, the exam is too important to pick a course based on value instead of quality. This is not to say Themis isn't a quality course.

Your last two sentences contradict each other. Also, there is some blatant astroturfing going on here-- which SEEMS to indicate BarBri at the very least feels threatened by Themis.

gmail wrote:Your last two sentences contradict each other. Also, there is some blatant astroturfing going on here-- which SEEMS to indicate BarBri at the very least feels threatened by Themis.

They don't. They spend way more money than makes sense on advertising, though. 90% market share is pretty dominant.

90% market share is expected when you collude with your only potential competitor for 10 years.

Lawman115 wrote:BarBri all the way! I just took BarBri's MPRE course and the lecture was amazing. The BarBri MPRE outline book was also amazing and their practice questions were very similar to the ones on the actual test. I personally wouldn't trust a new company, BarBri on the other hand has been doing this longer than anyone. Good luck.

This is some supershady astroturf first-post-ever from Lawman115 bullshit right here. Especially because I also just did the BarBri MPRE prep as did several others that I know, and we were unanimously underwhelmed. The lecture was terrible and useless, and the practice tests were way, way, way easier than the actual exam. It's actually kind of shocking that BarBri sends people to post on these forums like this. Wow, you are not winning any converts with these tactics. Grow up.

gmail wrote:Your last two sentences contradict each other. Also, there is some blatant astroturfing going on here-- which SEEMS to indicate BarBri at the very least feels threatened by Themis.

No.

Friend of mine got Themis for like $200 (he won some kind of one-off super deal) and absolutely blew the Bar away (think up in the realm of the top score in the state). I paid more than 10 times that for BarBri and got almost an identical score as he did.

Even with the knowledge that I probably could've done every bit as well as my friend did if I had taken Themis too, if given the choice again (even assuming the same $200 deal for Themis) I'd still choose BarBri. On top of the wild over-preparing that all of us did, my friend fell into in the trap of thinking "oh shit, the shittiness of my simple-ass bar prep course is going to fuck me compared to everyone else" and over-prepared even more. I'd like to think that I would be above that, but having lived through the shitshow that is the two weeks before the bar exam, I probably would've done the exact same thing (and I'm that guy who had zero stress leading into 1L finals and every other test I've ever taken; the fucking bar exam is every bit as bad as everyone says it is).

Reduce the potential for stress as much as possible. Pay the bazillion dollars for BarBri, do a half-assed job, panic and cram the shit out of it during the last two weeks, then pass like everyone else who was doing the exact same thing.

-Pufer

Barbri! Barbri is in all 50 states and focuses solely on Bar preparation. Also, when you sign up, should you transfer schools or choose to take the bar in another state, your Barbri account remains locked in; there's no need to sign up again or pay more than you were told you'd have to pay when you originally signed up for the course. The Barbri reps around the nation are constantly accessible on campuses as well as by phone and email. The lectures online are amazing, utilizing the knowledge of the best professors per subject. And you can access the videos on a variety of electronic devices, which allows you to study wherever you go without being chained to a computer. When is comes to price, Barbri also offers scholarships to help minimize the amount that students have to pay, and while it may not cover the entirety of the course, almost every student who applies received something, whether small or large, to help ease the financial burden that preparing for the bar inevitably brings.

Why are there so many generic "first post" comments in favor of BarBri???

I took BarBri for NY and passed on my first try but in all honesty I thought it was a total ripoff. Could have bought the materials off ebay and still passed. Not to mention that dealing with BarBri customer service is like pulling teeth. They don't really give a shit about individual customers as they are THE bar prep giant. I feel like a lot of the BarBri love is just self-fullfiling prophecy based on a never-ending cycle of 3L fear. For what it's worth, I had a handful of friends who took Themis for NY and all of them passed with plenty of room to spare. Several of these friends took and passed multiple jurisdictions.

Don't get me wrong, BarBri definitely will do the trick but Themis (at least for NY and MA) seems just as adequate for a fraction of the price. So much of Bar Exam success depends on your own discipline and work ethic over the summer and less to do with what company you use. If you put in the time and effort, odds are you will pass.

Arbiter213 wrote:

Br3v wrote:3 first posts in this thread? Something's up

BarBri doesn't bother astroturfing, though that's odd.

Most of the good reasons have been listed. Another: Unlimited graded essays.

I haven't heard of the unlimited graded essays. Is this new? For NY we had only two official "graded" essays, and if we wanted more feedback, we had to "upgrade" for some ridiculous amount (like $500 for 3 more graded essays).

I have to say that I thought the graded essays were the absolute worst feature in the BarBri program. There was absolutely no uniformity in grading (got an 8 on the first one and 2 on the second one even though I had spotted all the issues). It seemed pretty clear that the BarBri graders don't read the essays you turn in, as they would leave feedback regarding issues I addressed and discussed fully. The story amongst our group this summer was that students have turned in, word for word, model essay answers and have still received failing grades back. They definitely give you enough practice essays to work with, but the feedback is pretty much non-existent. You could just do the practice essays on your own and then check the model answers to see if you spotted all the issues.

petsoundspop wrote:

Arbiter213 wrote:

Br3v wrote:3 first posts in this thread? Something's up

BarBri doesn't bother astroturfing, though that's odd.

Most of the good reasons have been listed. Another: Unlimited graded essays.

I haven't heard of the unlimited graded essays. Is this new? For NY we had only two official "graded" essays, and if we wanted more feedback, we had to "upgrade" for some ridiculous amount (like $500 for 3 more graded essays).

I have to say that I thought the graded essays were the absolute worst feature in the BarBri program. There was absolutely no uniformity in grading (got an 8 on the first one and 2 on the second one even though I had spotted all the issues). It seemed pretty clear that the BarBri graders don't read the essays you turn in, as they would leave feedback regarding issues I addressed and discussed fully. The story amongst our group this summer was that students have turned in, word for word, model essay answers and have still received failing grades back. They definitely give you enough practice essays to work with, but the feedback is pretty much non-existent. You could just do the practice essays on your own and then check the model answers to see if you spotted all the issues.

I can't comment if it's "new" but there are most assuredly unlimited graded essays.