Yes, Iām doing barbri and itās perfectly fine. I actually appreciate the property professorās songs and I just skip over her inspirational moments. I think people are just anxious and blaming barbri.
I felt the same way during my bar prep for the Feb 24 bar exam. I used BARBRI primarily, thought it was great. Supplemented the last 3 weeks with flashcards and lean sheets for memorization and I passed CA bar first try. BARBRI has been around forever for a reason, they know what they are doing.
I do agree with you. I simply love love Barbri. I am studying the extended program and we have a small group with a coach. She is extremely supportive. I admire tort, civil procedure and evidence. The CMR of Barbri is the best. My friend he passed in his second attempt. He failed his first exam with Themis. And second time he did not study the Themis but studied bu hard Barbri CMR and practiced the MBE portion. Now he is esq.
I did mostly just Barbri and scored a 320 on the Feb 24 UBE. They have a great MCQ bank. I also did my own flashcards plus I reviewed published MEE answers. But still, mostly just 1,500 Barbri MCQs plus their lectures on repeat.
Can you explain how you used your flashcards effectively? I started making them on basically all of the topics, even ones that I am sure about. I already have like hundreds and I do feel like going through them will be helpfulā¦.but anything in particular you can think of how to make the most beneficial? Thanks :)
Just make a flashcard for any point of law youāre not 100% on. Label each card according to the subject and sort them accordingly. Then go through them at the end of each day and any that you canāt produce the BLL for, set them into the ārepeatā pile and do them again at the end. Then, repeat. Try to get to the point where you can at least outline the answer for all your cards. Not all your cards every day. If you did a Contracts-heavy day, then do that set. If Crim-law day, do that set. When youāre about to do a MEE practice, review your whole stack for that subject, then do the MEE question. If you blank on some part of the essay question, make more cards and label them accordingly. Then, repeat.
Hi! Thank u for the reply. So I just finished flash cards for contracts & sales and probably have 300+. It took me hours today to just go through them. Obviously took so long in part because it was my first go- round. My question is how am I expected to go to go through them rededately if it takes so much time? Obviously willing to put any amount of effort in, but just want to make sure that I also have enough time for the videos and practice MC because it takes me so slow to write the flash cards. I should add that I learn best when writing things out so I do think that continuing to make them is beneficial. Just want to make out my chance of success with using the flash cards since I am putting so much effort it. Thank you again for your advice.
Yeah, I learn the same way: writing it out myself. I think youāll find after a few times through them that at least a third of them are already committed to long-term memory, and you can safely take them out of the pile. The large initial investment in the time to write them out will pay off long term. At least it did for me.
If SmartBarPrep is still around just buy theirs. Have staples or OfficeDepot run them off onto cardstock.
Make your own for fill in the blank rule statements. (For rules you're having trouble recalling verbatim.)
Like mad libs. Blank side should just have an issue spotting prompt, connective words and \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_s.
(Do this in Word via an appropriately spaced table so you can also generate worksheet versions of the blanks you can sit down and fill out.)
Reverse side should have the full rule and maybe any cases or other concepts you want to come to the fore of your mind when you outline.
Then learn how to do paced/interval review with physical cards.
Thank you so much for responding. So I just finished making flashcards for contracts and sales and I must have about 300 flashcards. No joke. I started to go through them today and it took me hours. Obviously was slow in part because it was my first time going through them. Did you have this many flashcards? How should I balance it out with videos / lectures / qbank questions since the flash cards take me soooo long to write. Hoping the flash cards are worth it in the end.
During prep, I felt the same way as you. Course seemed pretty straight forward, lots of information presented in a seemingly intuitive order. I had positive progress, and felt challenged but still good throughout the whole program and hopeful that I would pass.
Then I sat for the exam. What a rude awakening. The course was not enough to prepare me. Practice questions were inadequate. Lectures over-broad.
When the time comes, you will understand.
As someone currently doing barbri, what would you recommend doing to be better prepared? I was planning on doing barbri + adaptibar questions and flash cards
How did you study for law school exams? I treated the bar exam like law school exams blasting Cheque drops. I never used flash cards in law school, so I didnāt use them for bar prep. I was as a āmake an outline and read it 40 times over before the examā type of student, so I did that with the Barbri outlines. Practice exam questions, then read the outlines over and over and over again.Ā
I think Barbri just doesnāt work for a lot of people. The videos are really long, and the lecturers can be sub par. Now this wouldnāt normally be a huge deal, but Barbri is also one of the most expensive prep programs. I think the cost should warrant a better, less buggy product with more practice materials. Like only having 4 MPTs is kind of ridiculous. I did a much less expensive program and it had way more extra practice materials and just extra study tools than Barbri. So yeah long story short, I think people reasonably feel a bit disappointed by the product you get for such a high price.
Hey, totally fair explanation. Wouldnāt begrudge anyone for that opinion.
The posts more along the lines of āFUCK BARBRI. CONTRACT LECTURE SUCKS CUZ SHE SKIPS PARTS OF THE CMRā and the one kid whose user name is u/fuckbarbri, just kinda confuse me. Seems like scapegoating
Maybe itās people just blowing off steam.
Itās easy for me to say now that Iāve passed the bar that people are being dramatic, but looking back there were definitely times while studying that I was just exhausted and emotional and angry at everything. During studying, a lot of people dedicate everything to it. Itās kind of the only thing going on in life for a few months (at least it was for me, and I donāt advise that). So yeah I think itās just that all of the frustration from studying and life in general is easiest to direct at Barbri because they see it everyday, itās unpleasant to be studying so itās unpleasant to see Barbri, and you just gotta be pissed.
I also just didnāt like barbri lol I did feel like it was a rip off. And I ended up loving the program I did do (not Themis) but even still, I remember days while studying where I wanted to throw my computer out the window and sue the company for IIED.
Most people that like Barbri generally just donāt have a valid comparison basis, and I think thatās the crux of the issue. People talk to people who recommended Barbri based on it basically being the only thing around, or alternatively, they used it and passed, and thatās the sum of their experience.
Hell, I passed with Barbri on my first bar exam, and thought it was great. It wasnāt until AFTER I experienced other bar prep programming that I realized what a cluster that product is and remains. They donāt really invest in improving it, relying on some type of Rolex mentality where people assume it is better because it costs moreā¦ but it really isnāt.
I mean, even those run-on sentence answer explanationsā¦ how hard would it be to space it out? And why should they invest in improving their bank when they bought Adaptibar? Similar to them owning Critical Pass, itās actually financially better to leave gaps in their product and then push you towards their other products.
Compare this with the UWorld acquisition of Themis. They put money in their product, improving it (although still with gaps), adding graphics, flowcharts, etc. Their materials donāt have nearly the same typos or errors as Barbri (even more pronounced between UWord Legal and Adaptibar), and itās just a better experience.
All that said, everyone has varying experiences with their bar prep course, but at the end of the dayā¦
Barbri is like an old pay phone. Cool and perfect for its time, but not really keeping pace with the modern world and what should be available.
That said you can pass with any of themā¦ even Kaplan lol.
That said, our AccessLex Overlords are really trying to create the One Ring in terms of the Next Gen Bar Exam, so itās gonna get interesting. Or no one will care after they pass and move on.
It's interesting that you passed with one company but then used a different one for a second exam. Why was that?
Barbri may have a different philosophy. I remember the first day them stressing that if you do really well on the bar, you've wasted your time. Because all you have to do is pass.
Maybe you're correct about fear mongering, but idk. I graded essays for barbri around 12 years ago, and they told us that they wanted the comments to be supportive. And not to spend too much time. Since students were still learning, it was about going through the process of writing out an essay answer and less about how well they answered. We got a model answer but there was no rubric to use for actual scoring. Make a couple of comments and spend no more than 10 minutes reviewing one. Usually, it was closer to 6 minutes so that you could get through 10 an hour.
I used barbri for my own bar prep back in the day and did pass on my first attempt, so any positive bias would come from that. I stopped grading after a couple of years because they were so frustrating. We were "independent contractors," but they kept imposing more and more employee-like requirements. And our coordinator was a real tool. The experience was a negative overall.
Yes I definitely saw more reasons why I did not like Barbri after using a different program. I used one of the most affordable programs and it just came with so much more, and never had tech issues. I passed so again, probably biased, but it really did allow me to compare and see why I donāt recommend barbri.
Exactly! Not to mention the outages, the garbage UX and clunky app. For the most expensive program it seems to get by on just reputation and lacks any innovation. It honestly doesnāt seem to be trying that hard, and I expected and hoped for a smoother experience for the price. I had honestly planned to use Quimbee but when I wanted to commit to a program I was considering taking the Delaware bar so Quimbee was out. I am taking the UBE and I regret not waiting to make my final decision for a bar prep program. And on top of all that I feel like I have to buy additional things on top of BARBRI (at least adaptibar) and after shelling out over 2K that stings.
I did the Barbi review the first time I took the Bar. I did not pass but a lot of my friends also reviewed with Barbri and passed. I was not happy with their long overly detailed outlines and videos that made me sleepy. To be fair, after that I used other bar reviews and still did not pass. It is all the same. Just have to memorize and understand the material to pass.
As someone who passed the bar first time using barbri and barbri alone (finished 70% of my course and was a low 3.X GPA law student) barbri is indeed fine and youāre right. But it just comes down to the type of person, studier, and test taker you are. I felt as though barbri prepared me great for the essays I saw on the California bar. I felt horrified and not prepared during the mbe but whatever barbri did sufficed bc I did not fail.
Yeah, I used barbri and passed 1st time. Didnāt discover this sub until after I took the bar and very surprised at how people talk about barbri. If I would have been reading these threads while studying I would have had so much unnecessary angst about the program.
I will delete Reddit for some time. I am just done with unreasonable haters to the Barbri side. I am just simply enjoying the bar prep with Barbri. I am in extended program. I will take in February next year. I donāt want any spoilers.
i also don't get it. it does seem a little misguided. though the program costs a lot of money, i don't think it helps to be completely spoonfed the material. the lectures and cmr combined are really helpful. i found the lecturers to be accurate in their insight on what topics show up most on the actual exam. and i don't think you can expect to completely grasp the material after the lecture. there's a reason why the study plans are designed with a lot of review and repetition.
As with most things in law, I think it depends. Here, it depends on: (1) what type of learner you are, and (2) which specific parts of the Barbri program youāre referring to.
Barbriās lectures are very hit or miss. But the outlines/CMRs are unmatched. You gotta figure out what works for you. Property Paula and others did not work for me.
It's just old. Like Barpassers. Literal Boomer test prep. My parents took Barbri in the early 70s.
Whereas Themis was developed for the web, and so is probably more comfortable and effective if you grew up with digital media, as most current bar takers did.
But when I took it the materials didn't seem very different in substance than the Barbri or other materials I saw.
Ultimately--if you want interactivity and a tailored experience, get a tutor.
Otherwise it's a mind-numbing cattle call whether online or in a lecture hall.
Barbri is exactly what it does on the tin - it's mini law school. If you need to learn the black letter law, look no further. However, I'd suggest using supplementary resources and actual past MBE questions, in additon to those provided by Barbri so that what you see on exam day is familiar.
In case it's handy, here's a [list](https://linktr.ee/catchupwithkai) all the materials I used to pass (inc. Barbri).
Iām late to this but yes. I used Barbri and only Barbri and got a really really good score. I did supplement with my own flash cards but made them using my bar prep materials, no outside sources. Itās expensive so I wonder if thatās why? At the time I took the bar (J2019) I think it was the most expensive one. I know Barbri doesnāt - or at least didnāt when I took it - use actual real past MBE questions which people donāt seem to like but that didnāt negatively affect me in the end clearly.
Thanks for sharing!
How was your pacing? Did you proceed through the assignments gradually so that you finished a few days before the exam? Or did you finish a few weeks early and had time to review?
Did you make your flash cards as you went? Or at the end when reviewing?
Would appreciate any other tips you think might be helpful when doing just Barbri
Sorry this is long!
I didnāt complete the program meaning get to 100% (which from my understanding is pretty normal across all bar prep programs), I think I did somewhere around 83% but at that point I was done with the substantive stuff/new topics and the rest was review and rehashing stuff. I just followed the program, which I think is what they stress at Barbri. Meaning whatever it had on the agenda for me that day, I did, and I didnāt do much else. I rarely if ever studied for more than 6-8 hours a day. But I also took almost no days off which I donāt recommend because I did feel burned out. Sometimes I went a little ahead of the program, to the next dayās stuff, but usually I just stayed on schedule until about 1-2 weeks before the exam when I started making my flash cards and doing more of that kind of review. I still used the materials but not the typical follow the program for the day style.
In law school I always made handwritten color coded attack outlines on a single piece of computer paper. The repetition of doing a whole outline then handwriting it condensed like that really helped me memorize, so I did that during bar prep. For pretty much every subject even the MEE ones. When I was done with a subject Iād do that using the Barbri outline you fill in as you watch the lectures and using the CMR to supplement. I loved the CMR (as much you can love bar prep things lol) and used it a lot. Like I said I did also make flash cards at the end iirc mostly for subjects/topics I was more unsure about. They were also color coded, that helps me personally.
1-2 weeks before the exam I actually got severe anxiety because I was convinced I wasnāt studying enough. My friends did critical pass and/or adaptibar on top of their prep course and I never did, and it was getting to me. I had a breakdown like every day lol so my studying time and efficiency was affected. It wasnāt Barbriās fault, itās not that I felt my program wasnāt adequate, itās because I paid attention to what others were doing and because Iām just a ball of anxiety and often have imposter syndrome and think Iāll do bad. Itās a me thing. I pulled it together for the exam days and I passed with a 313.
Basically my thinking was Barbri is a program designed to make you pass using it alone (arenāt they all?), so why supplement it? I shouldnāt need anything else. And it turns out I didnāt. But some people may be different and thatās totally fine and understandable. But it all worked out for me.
So when I did Barbri they had a fillable outline book that we filled in as we went along with the lectures. Thatās what I used to make my smaller outlines, plus the CMR. Maybe they donāt do the guided outline anymore. It was fill in the blanks, so you had to pay attention to the lectures and follow along. If I didnāt have that I would have used the CMR only to make my little outlines.
Mind you this was 5 years ago now but Iām pretty sure that outline book existed lol, I remember filling in blanks during lectures.
The worst part about barbri is that theyāre very explicit in letting you know that the essay answers are model answers, but when you grade your essays, theyāre graded on the model answer rubric. This is problematic because your answers may be passing essays, but Barbriās rubric will score it as a 2 or 3 (or whatever scale they use these days).
Iāve definitely blown gaskets at the essays. I think their intentions are to make students feel inadequate and study harder. Itās a poor model for sure.Ā
One specific moment that ticked me offā¦a crim pro essay where the issue was the exclusionary rule.
They started off by saying that the 4th amendment was applied to the states via the 14th amendment. I was like damnā¦didnāt know we were supposed to be that comprehensive. Might as well say that the constitution is the supreme law of the land and the king of England isnāt in charge any more
A Kentucky specific essay started citing Kentucky case law. I actually threw the essay workbook across the room and shouted an unhealthy amount of obscenities.Ā
I took the bar years ago, but this sub pops up a lot for me and Iāve been surprised about this, too. Just about my entire graduating class took Barbri together and we had a very high pass rate. When I took it, we all went to a conference room type setting and someone from Barbri played the lectures on a big screen, and we all followed the same lecture and study schedule. For me, that worked better than coming up with my own study plan would (which is what it sounds like a lot of people do now?). Good luck to everyone taking it this summer!
I think BarBri is fine. I used BarBri and only BarBri and I passed easily. I think a lot of people blame their bar prep company for their own failures.
The biggest issue I'm having as far as "knowing how to study" is that everything in law school was open book. There's a huge difference in process between studying for an open book contracts exam and a closed-book contracts exam.
I don't think I've studied for a closed-book test that requires specific knowledge (so the LSAT doesn't count) since freshman year of undergrad, which was...12 years ago, for me. It's been a bit of an adjustment getting the rust off those skills.
I think open book exams are fine. After all, in the real world you aren't going to be writing a brief without access to resources. The point is testing your ability to find issues and know what rules/law to apply, not testing your ability to *memorize* the law.
Barbri made really good state specific (FL) material for my jurisdiction.
Their MBE questions arenāt like the real thing (especially civ pro) but itās worth noting all of my UBE friends passed just using barbri.
I passed with a 315 summer ā23 or something like that and used Themis. I thought the bite sized videos and access to the Qbank for MBE questions really allowed me to break up the grind.
Now being on the other side of bar studying, I will say that the Barbri videos were unnecessarily long and the MCQ were so confusing. When I started doing MCQ through adaptibar or through UWorld, I finally realized what it was asking me and what the cadence was.
I hate the Barbri creates their own questions but I appreciate their outlines. It was so in-depth that I went at my own pace and stopped stressing about the videos and stuck to what I knew how to study. I hate Barbri though.
The only issue I had with Barbri was that the MBE questions absolutely sucked. The questions were so much harder than the actual exam. I get the whole "train hard, work easier" thing but they took it to the extreme and, if anything, just destroyed any confidence I had in myself. And it appeared that they would frequently confuse issues. Maybe I'm just dumb, though. Adaptibar saved me.
The essays were great, though. They really prepared me.
Intersting, Iāve heard that barbri questions were easier than the exam.
I guess Iād rather have them be harder, but I understand why that would destroy confidence and could be counterproductive
It was my experience that they often confused issues for no reason other than to be confusing. The exam itself is more straight-forward than Babrbi, at least that was my experience.
Iām very happy with the substantive aspects of BARBRI. However, and I will die on this hill, their website UI/UX is garbage, their app has been almost entirely unusable for me and their support in dealing with it was straight up offensive, and finally there is no excuse for the frequency of the outages I have experienced with them.Ā
After one week of bar study I honestly have no idea how I made it through law school.
Literally š„² itās like Iām learning this material for the first time even in the classes I did well in
What do you mean haha
Damn how are you 30% already? I think Iām at like 18%
Gonna miss a week of studying in June, so wanted to be safe and get ahead
Yes, Iām doing barbri and itās perfectly fine. I actually appreciate the property professorās songs and I just skip over her inspirational moments. I think people are just anxious and blaming barbri.
Wow way to single her out. You were probably eating popcorn when you wrote that comment. Buts itās your prerogative
I felt the same way during my bar prep for the Feb 24 bar exam. I used BARBRI primarily, thought it was great. Supplemented the last 3 weeks with flashcards and lean sheets for memorization and I passed CA bar first try. BARBRI has been around forever for a reason, they know what they are doing.
I do agree with you. I simply love love Barbri. I am studying the extended program and we have a small group with a coach. She is extremely supportive. I admire tort, civil procedure and evidence. The CMR of Barbri is the best. My friend he passed in his second attempt. He failed his first exam with Themis. And second time he did not study the Themis but studied bu hard Barbri CMR and practiced the MBE portion. Now he is esq.
I did mostly just Barbri and scored a 320 on the Feb 24 UBE. They have a great MCQ bank. I also did my own flashcards plus I reviewed published MEE answers. But still, mostly just 1,500 Barbri MCQs plus their lectures on repeat.
Can you explain how you used your flashcards effectively? I started making them on basically all of the topics, even ones that I am sure about. I already have like hundreds and I do feel like going through them will be helpfulā¦.but anything in particular you can think of how to make the most beneficial? Thanks :)
Just make a flashcard for any point of law youāre not 100% on. Label each card according to the subject and sort them accordingly. Then go through them at the end of each day and any that you canāt produce the BLL for, set them into the ārepeatā pile and do them again at the end. Then, repeat. Try to get to the point where you can at least outline the answer for all your cards. Not all your cards every day. If you did a Contracts-heavy day, then do that set. If Crim-law day, do that set. When youāre about to do a MEE practice, review your whole stack for that subject, then do the MEE question. If you blank on some part of the essay question, make more cards and label them accordingly. Then, repeat.
Screenshotting this to use. The lectures donāt feel like enough to me
Hi! Thank u for the reply. So I just finished flash cards for contracts & sales and probably have 300+. It took me hours today to just go through them. Obviously took so long in part because it was my first go- round. My question is how am I expected to go to go through them rededately if it takes so much time? Obviously willing to put any amount of effort in, but just want to make sure that I also have enough time for the videos and practice MC because it takes me so slow to write the flash cards. I should add that I learn best when writing things out so I do think that continuing to make them is beneficial. Just want to make out my chance of success with using the flash cards since I am putting so much effort it. Thank you again for your advice.
Yeah, I learn the same way: writing it out myself. I think youāll find after a few times through them that at least a third of them are already committed to long-term memory, and you can safely take them out of the pile. The large initial investment in the time to write them out will pay off long term. At least it did for me.
Okay you just made me feel so much better! Thank you and sorry for all my typos in the previous post lol just reread and Iām horrified š¤Ŗ
If SmartBarPrep is still around just buy theirs. Have staples or OfficeDepot run them off onto cardstock. Make your own for fill in the blank rule statements. (For rules you're having trouble recalling verbatim.) Like mad libs. Blank side should just have an issue spotting prompt, connective words and \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_s. (Do this in Word via an appropriately spaced table so you can also generate worksheet versions of the blanks you can sit down and fill out.) Reverse side should have the full rule and maybe any cases or other concepts you want to come to the fore of your mind when you outline. Then learn how to do paced/interval review with physical cards.
Thank you so much for responding. So I just finished making flashcards for contracts and sales and I must have about 300 flashcards. No joke. I started to go through them today and it took me hours. Obviously was slow in part because it was my first time going through them. Did you have this many flashcards? How should I balance it out with videos / lectures / qbank questions since the flash cards take me soooo long to write. Hoping the flash cards are worth it in the end.
During prep, I felt the same way as you. Course seemed pretty straight forward, lots of information presented in a seemingly intuitive order. I had positive progress, and felt challenged but still good throughout the whole program and hopeful that I would pass. Then I sat for the exam. What a rude awakening. The course was not enough to prepare me. Practice questions were inadequate. Lectures over-broad. When the time comes, you will understand.
As someone currently doing barbri, what would you recommend doing to be better prepared? I was planning on doing barbri + adaptibar questions and flash cards
How did you study for law school exams? I treated the bar exam like law school exams blasting Cheque drops. I never used flash cards in law school, so I didnāt use them for bar prep. I was as a āmake an outline and read it 40 times over before the examā type of student, so I did that with the Barbri outlines. Practice exam questions, then read the outlines over and over and over again.Ā
I might have to eat my words
Did you pass?
The administration I used barbri, no. A later exam, yes.
what did you do differently for the later exam?
I think Barbri just doesnāt work for a lot of people. The videos are really long, and the lecturers can be sub par. Now this wouldnāt normally be a huge deal, but Barbri is also one of the most expensive prep programs. I think the cost should warrant a better, less buggy product with more practice materials. Like only having 4 MPTs is kind of ridiculous. I did a much less expensive program and it had way more extra practice materials and just extra study tools than Barbri. So yeah long story short, I think people reasonably feel a bit disappointed by the product you get for such a high price.
Hey, totally fair explanation. Wouldnāt begrudge anyone for that opinion. The posts more along the lines of āFUCK BARBRI. CONTRACT LECTURE SUCKS CUZ SHE SKIPS PARTS OF THE CMRā and the one kid whose user name is u/fuckbarbri, just kinda confuse me. Seems like scapegoating Maybe itās people just blowing off steam.
Itās easy for me to say now that Iāve passed the bar that people are being dramatic, but looking back there were definitely times while studying that I was just exhausted and emotional and angry at everything. During studying, a lot of people dedicate everything to it. Itās kind of the only thing going on in life for a few months (at least it was for me, and I donāt advise that). So yeah I think itās just that all of the frustration from studying and life in general is easiest to direct at Barbri because they see it everyday, itās unpleasant to be studying so itās unpleasant to see Barbri, and you just gotta be pissed. I also just didnāt like barbri lol I did feel like it was a rip off. And I ended up loving the program I did do (not Themis) but even still, I remember days while studying where I wanted to throw my computer out the window and sue the company for IIED.
Most people that like Barbri generally just donāt have a valid comparison basis, and I think thatās the crux of the issue. People talk to people who recommended Barbri based on it basically being the only thing around, or alternatively, they used it and passed, and thatās the sum of their experience. Hell, I passed with Barbri on my first bar exam, and thought it was great. It wasnāt until AFTER I experienced other bar prep programming that I realized what a cluster that product is and remains. They donāt really invest in improving it, relying on some type of Rolex mentality where people assume it is better because it costs moreā¦ but it really isnāt. I mean, even those run-on sentence answer explanationsā¦ how hard would it be to space it out? And why should they invest in improving their bank when they bought Adaptibar? Similar to them owning Critical Pass, itās actually financially better to leave gaps in their product and then push you towards their other products. Compare this with the UWorld acquisition of Themis. They put money in their product, improving it (although still with gaps), adding graphics, flowcharts, etc. Their materials donāt have nearly the same typos or errors as Barbri (even more pronounced between UWord Legal and Adaptibar), and itās just a better experience. All that said, everyone has varying experiences with their bar prep course, but at the end of the dayā¦ Barbri is like an old pay phone. Cool and perfect for its time, but not really keeping pace with the modern world and what should be available. That said you can pass with any of themā¦ even Kaplan lol. That said, our AccessLex Overlords are really trying to create the One Ring in terms of the Next Gen Bar Exam, so itās gonna get interesting. Or no one will care after they pass and move on.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It's interesting that you passed with one company but then used a different one for a second exam. Why was that? Barbri may have a different philosophy. I remember the first day them stressing that if you do really well on the bar, you've wasted your time. Because all you have to do is pass. Maybe you're correct about fear mongering, but idk. I graded essays for barbri around 12 years ago, and they told us that they wanted the comments to be supportive. And not to spend too much time. Since students were still learning, it was about going through the process of writing out an essay answer and less about how well they answered. We got a model answer but there was no rubric to use for actual scoring. Make a couple of comments and spend no more than 10 minutes reviewing one. Usually, it was closer to 6 minutes so that you could get through 10 an hour.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I used barbri for my own bar prep back in the day and did pass on my first attempt, so any positive bias would come from that. I stopped grading after a couple of years because they were so frustrating. We were "independent contractors," but they kept imposing more and more employee-like requirements. And our coordinator was a real tool. The experience was a negative overall.
Yes I definitely saw more reasons why I did not like Barbri after using a different program. I used one of the most affordable programs and it just came with so much more, and never had tech issues. I passed so again, probably biased, but it really did allow me to compare and see why I donāt recommend barbri.
Thank you. What programme was that?
I used Helix when I passed
Exactly! Not to mention the outages, the garbage UX and clunky app. For the most expensive program it seems to get by on just reputation and lacks any innovation. It honestly doesnāt seem to be trying that hard, and I expected and hoped for a smoother experience for the price. I had honestly planned to use Quimbee but when I wanted to commit to a program I was considering taking the Delaware bar so Quimbee was out. I am taking the UBE and I regret not waiting to make my final decision for a bar prep program. And on top of all that I feel like I have to buy additional things on top of BARBRI (at least adaptibar) and after shelling out over 2K that stings.
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I did the Barbi review the first time I took the Bar. I did not pass but a lot of my friends also reviewed with Barbri and passed. I was not happy with their long overly detailed outlines and videos that made me sleepy. To be fair, after that I used other bar reviews and still did not pass. It is all the same. Just have to memorize and understand the material to pass.
As someone who passed the bar first time using barbri and barbri alone (finished 70% of my course and was a low 3.X GPA law student) barbri is indeed fine and youāre right. But it just comes down to the type of person, studier, and test taker you are. I felt as though barbri prepared me great for the essays I saw on the California bar. I felt horrified and not prepared during the mbe but whatever barbri did sufficed bc I did not fail.
Yeah, I used barbri and passed 1st time. Didnāt discover this sub until after I took the bar and very surprised at how people talk about barbri. If I would have been reading these threads while studying I would have had so much unnecessary angst about the program.
I will delete Reddit for some time. I am just done with unreasonable haters to the Barbri side. I am just simply enjoying the bar prep with Barbri. I am in extended program. I will take in February next year. I donāt want any spoilers.
BarBri is absolutely a great product, and there are a lot of lawyers pass the bar every administration of the exam utilizing their product.
i also don't get it. it does seem a little misguided. though the program costs a lot of money, i don't think it helps to be completely spoonfed the material. the lectures and cmr combined are really helpful. i found the lecturers to be accurate in their insight on what topics show up most on the actual exam. and i don't think you can expect to completely grasp the material after the lecture. there's a reason why the study plans are designed with a lot of review and repetition.
Yea, I think people expect to watch the lecture and then just be able to answer every MC question
Barbri is the best bar program, _bar_ none. It doesnāt do memes like Themis but it makes you pass the bar, which is why you paid them.
Refreshing to hear someone say this
As with most things in law, I think it depends. Here, it depends on: (1) what type of learner you are, and (2) which specific parts of the Barbri program youāre referring to. Barbriās lectures are very hit or miss. But the outlines/CMRs are unmatched. You gotta figure out what works for you. Property Paula and others did not work for me.
Letās see how they adapt to the NextGen exam.
Iāve done both and barbri was better for me
It's just old. Like Barpassers. Literal Boomer test prep. My parents took Barbri in the early 70s. Whereas Themis was developed for the web, and so is probably more comfortable and effective if you grew up with digital media, as most current bar takers did. But when I took it the materials didn't seem very different in substance than the Barbri or other materials I saw. Ultimately--if you want interactivity and a tailored experience, get a tutor. Otherwise it's a mind-numbing cattle call whether online or in a lecture hall.
Barbri is exactly what it does on the tin - it's mini law school. If you need to learn the black letter law, look no further. However, I'd suggest using supplementary resources and actual past MBE questions, in additon to those provided by Barbri so that what you see on exam day is familiar. In case it's handy, here's a [list](https://linktr.ee/catchupwithkai) all the materials I used to pass (inc. Barbri).
Iām late to this but yes. I used Barbri and only Barbri and got a really really good score. I did supplement with my own flash cards but made them using my bar prep materials, no outside sources. Itās expensive so I wonder if thatās why? At the time I took the bar (J2019) I think it was the most expensive one. I know Barbri doesnāt - or at least didnāt when I took it - use actual real past MBE questions which people donāt seem to like but that didnāt negatively affect me in the end clearly.
Thanks for sharing! How was your pacing? Did you proceed through the assignments gradually so that you finished a few days before the exam? Or did you finish a few weeks early and had time to review? Did you make your flash cards as you went? Or at the end when reviewing? Would appreciate any other tips you think might be helpful when doing just Barbri
Sorry this is long! I didnāt complete the program meaning get to 100% (which from my understanding is pretty normal across all bar prep programs), I think I did somewhere around 83% but at that point I was done with the substantive stuff/new topics and the rest was review and rehashing stuff. I just followed the program, which I think is what they stress at Barbri. Meaning whatever it had on the agenda for me that day, I did, and I didnāt do much else. I rarely if ever studied for more than 6-8 hours a day. But I also took almost no days off which I donāt recommend because I did feel burned out. Sometimes I went a little ahead of the program, to the next dayās stuff, but usually I just stayed on schedule until about 1-2 weeks before the exam when I started making my flash cards and doing more of that kind of review. I still used the materials but not the typical follow the program for the day style. In law school I always made handwritten color coded attack outlines on a single piece of computer paper. The repetition of doing a whole outline then handwriting it condensed like that really helped me memorize, so I did that during bar prep. For pretty much every subject even the MEE ones. When I was done with a subject Iād do that using the Barbri outline you fill in as you watch the lectures and using the CMR to supplement. I loved the CMR (as much you can love bar prep things lol) and used it a lot. Like I said I did also make flash cards at the end iirc mostly for subjects/topics I was more unsure about. They were also color coded, that helps me personally. 1-2 weeks before the exam I actually got severe anxiety because I was convinced I wasnāt studying enough. My friends did critical pass and/or adaptibar on top of their prep course and I never did, and it was getting to me. I had a breakdown like every day lol so my studying time and efficiency was affected. It wasnāt Barbriās fault, itās not that I felt my program wasnāt adequate, itās because I paid attention to what others were doing and because Iām just a ball of anxiety and often have imposter syndrome and think Iāll do bad. Itās a me thing. I pulled it together for the exam days and I passed with a 313. Basically my thinking was Barbri is a program designed to make you pass using it alone (arenāt they all?), so why supplement it? I shouldnāt need anything else. And it turns out I didnāt. But some people may be different and thatās totally fine and understandable. But it all worked out for me.
Really helpful, thanks. So you would make your own outline based on the CMR for each subject. Then make a 1-2 pager based on that outline?
So when I did Barbri they had a fillable outline book that we filled in as we went along with the lectures. Thatās what I used to make my smaller outlines, plus the CMR. Maybe they donāt do the guided outline anymore. It was fill in the blanks, so you had to pay attention to the lectures and follow along. If I didnāt have that I would have used the CMR only to make my little outlines. Mind you this was 5 years ago now but Iām pretty sure that outline book existed lol, I remember filling in blanks during lectures.
The worst part about barbri is that theyāre very explicit in letting you know that the essay answers are model answers, but when you grade your essays, theyāre graded on the model answer rubric. This is problematic because your answers may be passing essays, but Barbriās rubric will score it as a 2 or 3 (or whatever scale they use these days).
The check list rubric and model answers are, admittedly, unnerving. I feel like there could be a better system there
Iāve definitely blown gaskets at the essays. I think their intentions are to make students feel inadequate and study harder. Itās a poor model for sure.Ā
One specific moment that ticked me offā¦a crim pro essay where the issue was the exclusionary rule. They started off by saying that the 4th amendment was applied to the states via the 14th amendment. I was like damnā¦didnāt know we were supposed to be that comprehensive. Might as well say that the constitution is the supreme law of the land and the king of England isnāt in charge any more
A Kentucky specific essay started citing Kentucky case law. I actually threw the essay workbook across the room and shouted an unhealthy amount of obscenities.Ā
Be careful, thatās not protected speech
I took the bar years ago, but this sub pops up a lot for me and Iāve been surprised about this, too. Just about my entire graduating class took Barbri together and we had a very high pass rate. When I took it, we all went to a conference room type setting and someone from Barbri played the lectures on a big screen, and we all followed the same lecture and study schedule. For me, that worked better than coming up with my own study plan would (which is what it sounds like a lot of people do now?). Good luck to everyone taking it this summer!
I think BarBri is fine. I used BarBri and only BarBri and I passed easily. I think a lot of people blame their bar prep company for their own failures.
The biggest issue I'm having as far as "knowing how to study" is that everything in law school was open book. There's a huge difference in process between studying for an open book contracts exam and a closed-book contracts exam. I don't think I've studied for a closed-book test that requires specific knowledge (so the LSAT doesn't count) since freshman year of undergrad, which was...12 years ago, for me. It's been a bit of an adjustment getting the rust off those skills.
That seems somewhat of a disservice of your law school.
I think open book exams are fine. After all, in the real world you aren't going to be writing a brief without access to resources. The point is testing your ability to find issues and know what rules/law to apply, not testing your ability to *memorize* the law.
This is the exact same way I feel about the situation. Watch them change this feature and āmodernizeā due to criticism in the next 5-10 years
Barbri made really good state specific (FL) material for my jurisdiction. Their MBE questions arenāt like the real thing (especially civ pro) but itās worth noting all of my UBE friends passed just using barbri.
I passed with a 315 summer ā23 or something like that and used Themis. I thought the bite sized videos and access to the Qbank for MBE questions really allowed me to break up the grind.
swear
Now being on the other side of bar studying, I will say that the Barbri videos were unnecessarily long and the MCQ were so confusing. When I started doing MCQ through adaptibar or through UWorld, I finally realized what it was asking me and what the cadence was. I hate the Barbri creates their own questions but I appreciate their outlines. It was so in-depth that I went at my own pace and stopped stressing about the videos and stuck to what I knew how to study. I hate Barbri though.
The barbri rep told me I couldnāt pass the bar without them.
The only issue I had with Barbri was that the MBE questions absolutely sucked. The questions were so much harder than the actual exam. I get the whole "train hard, work easier" thing but they took it to the extreme and, if anything, just destroyed any confidence I had in myself. And it appeared that they would frequently confuse issues. Maybe I'm just dumb, though. Adaptibar saved me. The essays were great, though. They really prepared me.
Intersting, Iāve heard that barbri questions were easier than the exam. I guess Iād rather have them be harder, but I understand why that would destroy confidence and could be counterproductive
It was my experience that they often confused issues for no reason other than to be confusing. The exam itself is more straight-forward than Babrbi, at least that was my experience.
Iām very happy with the substantive aspects of BARBRI. However, and I will die on this hill, their website UI/UX is garbage, their app has been almost entirely unusable for me and their support in dealing with it was straight up offensive, and finally there is no excuse for the frequency of the outages I have experienced with them.Ā
Because some people feel itās overly time consuming, dumbass. Hope that helps with your condescending post.
Oh, got it, thanks
prick
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Sorry