I'm looking for something fairly specific in a bar course and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on what would be the best fit (i'm guessing nothing will fit the criteria exactly). I know the general pros and cons of each and have done a fair bit of research but all of the courses are fairly opaque (they just suggest they will give you everything you need without really saying what they give you). Firm is paying directly so the money is irrelevant.
What i'm looking for in a course:
State: Texas
(1) Content that is available when I want it, not on a schedule (specifically thinking of BarBri and their lectures here). My bar study will have somewhat unique circumstances so I would like to get started on studying via audio lectures as soon as I'm done with finals rather than waiting for the classes to start up to be able to see lectures
(2) Audio lectures that can be downloaded/played on a phone, not streamed, that are useful and I can just listen to without needing to fill out handouts (can I just do Barbri lectures without filling out handouts or are the handouts essential information I will need later and can only get from there?)
(3) Thorough long and short outlines that are sufficient study material to do reasonably well/pass without needing to go through a bunch of other-style material
(4) Lots of good practice questions and practice essays
I know BarBri sort of fits this mold but I was wondering if any of the other courses seem to fit better. Having downloadable audio lectures is essential, given my circumstances. Outlines is just a preference as I know that's how I study best.
Thoughts on bar courses? Forum
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numbertwo88
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Re: Thoughts on bar courses?
I'd take what I'm saying with a grain of salt because I just took the bar & have no clue whether my ass passed or failed and won't know until freaking November.
Used Themis because at my school everyone who took Themis from the class of 2013 passed the MA bar; none of the other bar programs were trying to tell me their pass rates when I asked and I wasn't down with that given my level of paranoia.
1. The content is available once the course opens which is like mid-May; I don't recall the exact date. I graduated towards the end of May so I didn't start early.
2. I'd download lectures on my iPad to watch on occasion but the downside is you couldn't speed up the lectures and some of them were a bit too long to listen on anything below 1.5 x speed. I used the handouts for the lectures which I found to be helpful & I'd go by the handouts to make my mini-outlines for each essay topic. For the MBE lectures the handouts were helpful but some nuances of the law were not elaborated in the handouts such as mortgages from the depths of hell so the long outline was better for the weaker areas/areas that are important but not elaborated.
3. The long and short outlines were good in my opinion. For MA, the attorney adviser mailed the short outlines for the MBE subjects at the start of the course; can't say if that's a universal practice.
4. 2,000 MBE questions but the downside is they're all online pending how you feel about the internet + two 50 question milestone exams and one simulated MBE. Sometimes I hated that. There were tons of practice essays. I swear maybe 50+ for MA in addition to a practice essay exam and 8 graded essays which are roughly due once a week from about the first week of June. At first the graded essays annoyed me but it was good practice to actually write several out instead of just outlining all of them.
Overall I think I liked Themis - I'll really know if I liked it if I pass come November.
Used Themis because at my school everyone who took Themis from the class of 2013 passed the MA bar; none of the other bar programs were trying to tell me their pass rates when I asked and I wasn't down with that given my level of paranoia.
1. The content is available once the course opens which is like mid-May; I don't recall the exact date. I graduated towards the end of May so I didn't start early.
2. I'd download lectures on my iPad to watch on occasion but the downside is you couldn't speed up the lectures and some of them were a bit too long to listen on anything below 1.5 x speed. I used the handouts for the lectures which I found to be helpful & I'd go by the handouts to make my mini-outlines for each essay topic. For the MBE lectures the handouts were helpful but some nuances of the law were not elaborated in the handouts such as mortgages from the depths of hell so the long outline was better for the weaker areas/areas that are important but not elaborated.
3. The long and short outlines were good in my opinion. For MA, the attorney adviser mailed the short outlines for the MBE subjects at the start of the course; can't say if that's a universal practice.
4. 2,000 MBE questions but the downside is they're all online pending how you feel about the internet + two 50 question milestone exams and one simulated MBE. Sometimes I hated that. There were tons of practice essays. I swear maybe 50+ for MA in addition to a practice essay exam and 8 graded essays which are roughly due once a week from about the first week of June. At first the graded essays annoyed me but it was good practice to actually write several out instead of just outlining all of them.
Overall I think I liked Themis - I'll really know if I liked it if I pass come November.
