Its that time again, Barbri or Kaplan Forum

[UndecidedMN]

Trying to decide. Barbri is twice the cost of Kaplan and two and a half times the cost of Themis. Any advice and can you share any experience you may have had using one?

[JazzOne]

Trying to decide. Barbri is twice the cost of Kaplan and two and a half times the cost of Themis. Any advice and can you share any experience you may have had using one?

State?

[Bikeflip]

One of these "choose a bar course" threads needs to be sticked. Passed CO with Themis. Happy I didn't drop all that money on BarBri.

[JazzOne]

One of these "choose a bar course" threads needs to be sticked. Passed CO with Themis. Happy I didn't drop all that money on BarBri.

I passed Texas with Kaplan. I never attended a course. I just needed the books to study on my own. That was an expensive set of books, and I didn't even get to keep them.

[Bikeflip]

That was an expensive set of books, and I didn't even get to keep them.

That sucks. If you have to pay for UBE states, I'd go with whatever course was cheapest. If the firm pays, might as well go with Barbri (unless they cut you a check. Then maybe go with what's cheapest and pocket the rest, if you're allowed to do so). If you're gonna be a student rep and get a free class, go with the least amount of commitment.

[UndecidedMN]

Minnesota and possible PA/NY

[Glock]

Firm pays ---> BarBri

You pay ---> Cheapest available

Super hard state ---> highest pass rate company

You pay in UBE state ---> buy books from someone who took it in the administration before yours. You can also obtain the videos that way. UBE is hyper-generic and easy to study.

[brotherdarkness]

.

[Bronx Bum]

If the firm pays and we haven't signed up yet, do we just sign up our 3L year and have them bill the firm directly?

Hhahahaha. How about this? How about you BILL ME. I will take it over to the firm anad make sure it's all taken care of HAHHAHAHAHHAH

[BeautifulSW]

If you believe the stats and research data that are out there, if you graduated in the top 2/3 of your class at an ABA approved law school, it doesn't matter which course you pick. You will almost certainly pass on your first attempt. If you are in the top quarter or so, you would probably pass with nothing but self-study (but I wouldn't recommend it). California and a couple of other notorious states might shift the dividing lines up a bit; For California as a J.D. from a non-national law school, say top half instead of top 2/3.

So anyway, if you are paying, go cheap. Unless you're in that bottom third. Then think about a personal tutor and expect to shell out several thousand for the service.

[dezlawyer]

Save your money by not purchasing either... the best way to past the CalBar is to get your rule statements down COLD - then do as many practice essays as you can stand, emphasizing crossover questions. Next, do LOTS of practice MBEs ( I did ~ 2000+) , you'll want to make sure you've got your timing down because you'll only have 1 minute and 48 seconds per question. The RP and Contracts questions are the longest, but the evidence and criminal law questions are much shorter so this helps. Finally, make sure you understand each and every "task" that can be asked of you regarding the PT... make sure and do all practice under strict timed conditions... feel free to PM if you want to talk more about this exam.... I didn't take a bar review course and passed on my 1st attempt.

[brotherdarkness]

.

[mr. wednesday]

Minnesota and possible PA/NY

MN is a UBE state, or will be by the next bar administration. For that, I'd pay for a MBE question bank and get the Barbri multistate CMR + some MEE outlines from 2013 from a classmate. If you feel uncomfortable with self-study just do Themis.

[rad lulz]

Unless you are doing a really hard state I'd probably just cop dat themis

[TTRansfer]

Since my firm is cutting me a check, and Kaplan is like $1500 cheaper, I guess that's the decision? State is a midwestern MBE state.

[thesealocust]

None of the above. Baroutlines.com -> $99 bar course -> pass the bar.

[NotMyRealName09]

barbri works. thats all i know.

[dfsad]

I went with Kaplan because it was significantly cheaper than Barbri, and I passed in a UBE state.

Whichever one you pick, don't be afraid to negotiate price. After I signed up with Kaplan, Barbri offered to go cheaper than Kaplan to get me to switch. Unfortunately, I had already paid and couldn't get a refund. If I could do it again, I would have played the two of them against each other to get the lowest price possible.

If you do choose Kaplan, be careful if you are promised a rebate. They advertised it as being automatic, and then didn't tell us there was actually a deadline associated with it.

[fundamentallybroken]

If the firm pays and we haven't signed up yet, do we just sign up our 3L year and have them bill the firm directly?

Depends on your firm, but typically yes. Your student reps can help you sign up with corporate billing, or your firm may just offer to sign you up for you - either way, super easy.

[JuTMSY4]

If you believe the stats and research data that are out there, if you graduated in the top 2/3 of your class at an ABA approved law school, it doesn't matter which course you pick. You will almost certainly pass on your first attempt. If you are in the top quarter or so, you would probably pass with nothing but self-study (but I wouldn't recommend it). California and a couple of other notorious states might shift the dividing lines up a bit; For California as a J.D. from a non-national law school, say top half instead of top 2/3.

So anyway, if you are paying, go cheap. Unless you're in that bottom third. Then think about a personal tutor and expect to shell out several thousand for the service.

I'd say this is the most credited, IMHO. I did Themis with PA/NJ and I passed PA with NJ pending. I worked a few days a week during bar study making themis my ideal choice.

Positives:
Self-study
Decent materials (no PA state specific mini-outlines, so I had to make my own, that sucked)
Very receptive staff
Their threshold cost was about $1,200 (you can talk them down as the deadline gets closer). It'll probably go up to $1,300 next year.

Negatives
Essay graders sucked. I "failed" 8/9 essays they gave me and absolutely crushed 2 essays on the PA bar (passed 2 others and did sub-par on 2 others). Seems, based on my anecodtal evidence, that it's just a crapshoot in terms of their quality
MBE questions seemed subpar as I was studying, but I outperformed most of my results from the last several MBE sets. Apparently, they recycle harder questions as you go deeper into the mixed MBE sets. I ended up getting worse on my strongest subjects (Con Law, Evidence) and ended up doing really well in my weakest subjects (Real Prop, Ks).

Overall though, it doesn't seem to matter, so I'd go cheapest. If Barbri reps are scaring you into "why would you risk it," that's 100% false. The Bar is a brute force test - if you're competent and study hard, you'll pass

[thesealocust]

baroutlines.com - $99 - seriously Kaplan and BarBRI and the lot are all huge fucking scams.

[Bikeflip]

baroutlines.com - $99 - seriously Kaplan and BarBRI and the lot are all huge fucking scams.

If I took a second exam, I'd do this. For the first time, I was happy to have an online class to hold me accountable (Themis).

[TTRansfer]

With the rebate, Kaplan's On-Demand program is going to cost me about $1500. Not bad. Half the fucking price of BarBri.

[thesealocust]

With the rebate, Kaplan's On-Demand program is going to cost me about $1500. Not bad. Half the fucking price of BarBri.

15x more expensive than baroutlines.com which has everything you need to pass.

[Scotusnerd]

Okay I'm interested in the baroutline.com thing. The website looks a bit homespun, though. Thesealocust, would you reccommend them for a smaller state?