BarBri - Live Class or Online? Forum

[Charger]

I'm studying the CA bar out of state, so the live classes are really just streamed videos of an in-person class (I think). Any advantage to the live class over the online class in that situation?

[imacpa]

I'm studying the CA bar out of state, so the live classes are really just streamed videos of an in-person class (I think). Any advantage to the live class over the online class in that situation?

I didn't do Barbri but took Kaplan's online bar prep. I managed to do well where I passed the bar using the online program, but I knew a friend who took the Barbri live lecture. He tried to stick with it but he eventually decided to study on his own. He thought that the instructor pretty much read out of the book and ultimately he became bored.

I guess it depends on your disposition. If you're disciplined, then I think the online class would be the better option. Personally, there's no way I can do a live lecture for bar prep.

[k5220]

BARBRI's live stream video class for the MPRE was painful to sit through. I regretted not just watching the video at home so that I could stop, rewind, and pause it at my own pace. I'm nervous enough about self-discipline though that I just made sure to get a class with a live lecturer for bar study.

[dudders]

Neither is better than the other. It's all about personal preference and what you need out of it.

I studied an out-of-state bar, exclusively online, and knew no one else in my area taking the same bar. (Everyone I knew was taking a bajillion states because I was in DC, so I did have many friends taking OTHER bars to commiserate/study with.) I also had my own big bedroom/study space but lived with roommates. So I didn't take a live class, but here's how I see it:

1) Live Class/Taped Class
- forces you to stick to specific schedule ... but is therefore less flexible
- if you need a hardcore reason to get up in the am and it's an am class, there you go
- you will undoubtedly meet other people taking the same bar as you if you don't already know people
- depending on where you take the class, may give you access to an out-of-house study space
- may involve serious travel time. if I took a live/taped class in my area, I'd lose 90 mins to 2 hrs of back and forth commute. (Granted, I may have been better off with this decompression/iPod/people watching time.)
- lots of shit to carry around (at least as of 2013 ... maybe books have gone digital) if you're going to do any work at home
- may be a better idea if you're working ... i didn't work but I think a hard schedule would've helped if I had things on my plate other than the bar exam
- i always found a classroom environment inherently more engaging than a laptop in your bedroom. if you're prone to messing around/gchatting etc., you can bring the outline book only to class and eliminate certain distractions, whereas if you're watching online you have your computer no matter what.

2) Online
- super flexible. I tried my best to follow Barbri Paced, but was behind on some things, ahead on some things ... if your brain is rejecting a certain subject/type of study, you can move around without feeling as "behind" as you might in a class. Modifying the schedule didn't seem problematic at all. Trust me, you will hit a wall and modifications will become necessary. E.g. after the first few essays, I stopped writing anything out and just skipped straight to bullet-point outlining.
- I am a night owl, so this worked great for me. I usually got up around 8:30/9, worked all day/night from home, taking breaks when/where needed or for activities (I took gymnastics, tennis, and went to yoga just to break up the monotony, and did occasional social things but not a whole lot), literally until I went to bed. I usually cracked open the wine around 9 p.m. ... Starting serious study at 10:30 or 11 was NBD on the Paced program.
- I went stir crazy studying in my apartment all day every day. Even thought I was fortunate enough to have a roommate doing the exact same thing. If you went stir crazy during finals, imagine finals lasting for three months. It was lonely as fuck.
- If you are inclined to slack or not keep up, there is no accountability measure and you may end up being one of those mid-June panic people.
- If you do not have a study-conducive home environment, online is not for you. My law school apartment was GREAT for this ... but if you have children or live with an SO and don't have a private study space, I think it could be brutal. I love my SO to death but I can barely get anything done now when I bring work home at night, and I imagine bar study would've been super difficult if we lived together at the time. Plus I was a cranky bitch.
- I didn't know a soul taking the same bar exam as me. It would've been nice to have someone taking the same bar
- I enjoy studying in coffee shop/wine bar/diner-type environments. not for everyone, but I liked the flexibility of "I can't stand another day in my room, I'm gonna chill somewhere all day and watch my Secured Transactions lecture there." There are obviously people who need earplugs and a law library, but I wasn't one of them.
- I had multiple weddings to go to; online makes travel super easy.

[Charger]

How does the online program work? Do you get all of the videos for the entire course at the beginning or do they post daily? Is there any difference between the live and online programs in terms of when the videos are made available?

[dudders]

How does the online program work? Do you get all of the videos for the entire course at the beginning or do they post daily? Is there any difference between the live and online programs in terms of when the videos are made available?

If I remember correctly, the online program videos showed up as they were taped wherever that state's class was live. I think the live classes were a little bit ahead on the lectures to enable posting, etc. (Every state is on a different schedule, btw.)

[Charger]

How does the online program work? Do you get all of the videos for the entire course at the beginning or do they post daily? Is there any difference between the live and online programs in terms of when the videos are made available?

If I remember correctly, the online program videos showed up as they were taped wherever that state's class was live. I think the live classes were a little bit ahead on the lectures to enable posting, etc. (Every state is on a different schedule, btw.)

You've been very helpful. Thank you!

[forty-two]

If it's an actual live class, I'd do that because I liked being able to ask questions during breaks and after lecture. I also liked the structure of having to show up to class every day. But if the "live" class is just a recorded lecture on a tv and you have the discipline to keep yourself on track, online might be better. I think it really just depends on your learning style.

[northwood]

i agree with the above posts re: live vs. online. But i'll add this: If you study at home, you will not have to deal with anxiety-ridden bar exam preppers that can make you feel anxious or have to deal with those sharing about how they got a perfect score on a particular set of questions or crushed a MBE/ essay that covered a topic you didn't fully grasp/ or were just off that day (just like law school- people tend to talk about how they did, but trust me its waay worse).

I didn't take Barbri- but the Barbri "live" course where I went to school was just a room where a proctor turned on a video of a recorded lecture- that you could watch anywhere that had an internet connection. to be fair- my course had the same thing, and I had originally signed up for it- but realized it was much better to just study at home at my own pace after 2 weeks.

[Kounselor]

How does the online program work? Do you get all of the videos for the entire course at the beginning or do they post daily? Is there any difference between the live and online programs in terms of when the videos are made available?

If it's anything like Kaplan then all of the videos you will need for the entirety of the bar prep will already be on there. I did go to the live class for about a month, then stopped going. Found I had a lot more time to myself to actually get into the meat of the material. Worked out, I passed. And self-studied another jurisdiction this past Feb. and passed. If you're pretty disciplined and can get up every morning with the right attitude I say just do the online. You can get a lot more done and also at your own pace.

[underthirty]

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[abogadesq]

My entire bar review was online. Being able to rewind and pause is a definite, decisive plus.

[A. Nony Mouse]

I did a live class for the reasons listed above - mostly that it made me get up and go to class and therefore actually watch the videos. I wasn't working, and know that if I had been left to my own devices to make a schedule for watching the videos it would have been painful. As it was, I had to watch 2-3 at home for various reasons and a 3 hour video would take me 4-5, because I'd stop paying attention and realize I'd missed the last 5 minutes and have to rewind etc.

But many people are more disciplined than I am.

Also, where my state offered the live class, it was actually live - the lecturers were actually there at the front of the room (at least, one of the rooms - there were 3 lecture rooms for BarBri and so two were just live streams of the person lecturing in the 3rd). It's pretty much exactly the same experience as the videos because it's entirely scripted and they don't stop to answer questions or anything like that, but having a live person in front of me kept me from tuning out quite as much as when I know no one's watching me. I don't know that I'd have bothered going to class if I was just going to see someone hit "play" on the DVD player (although the structure of going to class would still have been helpful).

Seeing people at the class was good and bad - a bunch of my friends were taking the same course so it was good to get out and see people I knew every day. (We also made fun of the students from the other law school in my state. The bar doesn't do much for your maturity.) Of course, a bunch of them were tightly wound type A gunner types so the bar was maybe not their finest hour, but it was still good for getting me out of my own head.

[ALbartaker]

I did the Barbri online option for the Feb Alabama bar. All the videos were already online at the start of the course ... you did not have to wait for a daily upload. I worked a couple weeks ahead and it was great. Also, you can speed up the videos (which is a MUST because the lectures are extremely slow), pause at your leisure, or rewind if you miss something. Also saves you the drive time to and from the lectures, allows you to make your own schedule, and saves you from toting around a massive amount of books. I would HIGHLY recommend.

[Roger Podactor]

I did the Barbri online option for the Feb Alabama bar. All the videos were already online at the start of the course ... you did not have to wait for a daily upload. I worked a couple weeks ahead and it was great. Also, you can speed up the videos (which is a MUST because the lectures are extremely slow), pause at your leisure, or rewind if you miss something. Also saves you the drive time to and from the lectures, allows you to make your own schedule, and saves you from toting around a massive amount of books. I would HIGHLY recommend.

I got here form a Google search. I'm taking the BAR in July and have already paid for Barbri.

[abarrien]

Online is better. If you watch live, you cannot rewind, pause, or speed up the lectures. Some of the lecturers speak painfully slow, and if you do not speed up the lecture it might be hard to focused. On the other hand, some lecturers will speak really quickly and, from time to time, you might need to rewind to clear something up that you might have missed.

[BVest]

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