screwtapeletters wrote:I know this thread comes up often, but wanted to know what TLS thinks with relatively less data available under the UBE context.
General consensus seems to be Barbri > Themis > Kaplan, but essays = Barbri and MBE = Themis. Don't really know much about Kaplan....
Thoughts?
So here are my thoughts and experiences. I have had friends take barbri or Themis for July and fail. Likewise, I have friends take either course and pass. I took Themis and passed. I felt as prepared as I could have been to take the test. Themis was about 8 hours of work a day, everyday, including weekends for me. I know the February bar is different schedule-wise, so I can't exactly speak to that, but I'd recommend Themis to anyone who asked.
Both prep courses will provide you with all of the material you will need to pass the Bar, and then some. It depends largely on what you need from the course. Temper your needs with the fact that Barbri costs something like $2,000 more. I paid $1195 for my Themis course, I have friends that paid more than $3,000 for Barbri. What did they get? Certainly a similar prep course. I'm willing to bet BarBri has more material, but there's a mental limit to what you can do in a day. I spent 8 hours a day for 2 months straight and still had a couple hundred MBE questions and some essays leftover.
I also considered the pass rates. With 75% or more completed, first time pass rate is 92% for Themis. Not sure what it is for BarBri because they don't post their pass rates. That means one of three things:
1) BarBri's pass rate is lower than Themis'. No sense posting a lower pass rate, right?
2) BarBri's pass rate is the same. Posting the same pass rate wouldn't justify the $2,000 cost differential.
3) BarBri's pass rate is marginally higher. Likely not though. If it were, by even just a percent or two, why wouldn't you post that you have better pass rates than your competition?
In any event, I couldn't justify spending the extra money in that situation.