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Please help me decide on a course! I'm not a good test taker, so I want to be sure I have all bases covered. This is the information I know:

Barbri
- bad MBEs
- potentially better at giving exam strategy
- in depth course review
- better lectures
- lack of breadth in topics covered
- won't publish pass rates, so...but also, I know more people who have passed with Barbri?

I'm worried about MBEs because I've been told those are weighed a bit more heavily, and I'm not typically good at MC. That said, I want to make sure I have a good understanding of the law and it seems that Barbri will provide that. I'm also told Barbri has had full turnover.

Barbri also claims 100% pass rates at 75% completion, but apparently those numbers were manipulated to include a handful of people (did optional pre course materials, etc). That said, CA bar takers have consistently and strongly recommended this course.

Themis
- breadth but lectures and substantive review sucks
- good MBEs
- essay outlines aren't good

I've heard rave reviews about Themis...from non-CA bar takers. Nothing regarding Barbri.

I know that a lot of people are saying it doesn't matter which one I take, but please, any real feedback would be great.

I'm one of those people who has taken both Themis and BarBri. I took Themis in July, did everything they asked me as best as I could, and failed by 80 points. I decided not to risk doing the same thing all over again in hopes of a different result, and took BarBri. I have yet to find whether I passed, but I liked BarBri MUCH better than Themis

BarBri does not have bad MBEs, it has less MBEs and they add layers to their MBEs making them harder and longer than real questions. Getting used to BarBri MBEs made taking the real thing that much easier, I had time to spare to go back and review a lot of my answers. Themis on the other hand seemed to be throwing a ridiculous amounts of questions at you and have you sort it out on your own.

I definitely thought that BarBri was better at exam strategy. Themis kind of throws the book at you and the lecture is basically them reading a mini outline. BarBri lectures told you what to watch out for, and would tell you how often something has or hasn't been tested. Some things were simply skipped, they would tell you to look it over but not bother memorizing because it's something that has never been tested. I remember during Civ Pro lecture, BarBri lecturer also would tell you what is not going to be on the MBEs and it was helpful (he basically highlighted all of the things that would make certain subjects nearly impossible to test in a way where there's only one right answer.

BarBri doesn't post their pass rates for whatever reason, but it does show you a map of law schools where all the students who finished 75% of BarBri passed, and there were a LOT of those (including my school)

Also BarBri's 75% and Themis's 75% are not equal. I actually did the work assigned by BarBri and got to 75%, while I still had time to review other things. For Themis, I felt like that 75% was virtually impossible to do honestly, while paying full attention to the assignments.

I also hated how Themis would simply not let you skip certain assignments to get back to them later. If you miss a day, all of the assignments are spread around for the rest of the course, eventually your daily list keeps getting longer and longer unless you mark something you didn't do as "completed," and once you mark it that way, it's a pain in the ass to find later on. BarBri has separate lists: one list for what's due THAT day, and another one for what's due in total- so you can go back and do it whenever.