Summary of bar reviews/ programs/ tutors

I have invested a great deal of time and money into taking the California Bar Exam so I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the materials, programs, and people that I came across in the event that it assists someone else. Hopefully this will help people preparing for the July 2008 California Bar Exam or other future bar exams. This is the first part of the series, focusing on bar review programs. The second post will focus on books and materials.

The most helpful piece of advice that I could give someone is to figure out what style of learning works best for you and find a program that uses that style. If you are a visual learner, use a program that bases its style in flow charts or other similar methods. If you are an auditory learner, invest in the PMBR cds. Each program uses a different method, ie flash cards, mini outlines, flow charts, etc; you can’t do it all, so use the method that worked for you in law school.

This list of bar prep programs is a compilation of personal experience, comments from friends, and accumulated knowledge from others. I did not personally take all of these programs so please take the comments with a grain of salt.

Bar/Bri: This is the class for the masses. Most students are encouraged to take Bar/Bri. The program has the monopoly on CA bar prep and it has been around for a long time. This class is available just about everywhere in CA. There is also an ipod home study option for those that prefer it.
Pros: The lectures are the best lectures you will ever hear. The lecturers are the top professors in the field. Not only do they have the ability to convey the material in a way that you will understand, but the material is also presented in ways that are designed to make you remember the material. This includes rhymes, songs, jokes, and any other tricks that a presenter could use. The materials are correct and comprehensive. The Conviser gives pretty much all law that you need to know. You can save money by signing up for Bar/Bri as a 1L.
Cons: The class is taped so it is sometimes difficult to stay focused. There is also no real motivation by the prof. If other students are screwing around and talking or walking in and out, there is no one to yell at them. The paced program is totally ridiculous. I don’t know anyone who completely followed the program. The exams don’t have very helpful comments. If you take it at your law school, you are stuck talking to all your fellow students on a regular basis, which usually ends up freaking someone out. There is just too much drama when everyone is stressed out.
http://www.barbri.com/

LECC - Legal Education Conference Center: Professor Schmitt teaches this course.
He is not very PC. If you are sensitive, you will not like his brash personality. He makes comments about “fat people” or “retarded people” but it seems as if he does it to get a reaction and make sure people are awake and paying attention.
Pros: Fantastic flash card system, he uses the flash cards to teach the course and you are expected to memorize the flash cards as the tool to learn the law. There are weekly mock exams that are taken very seriously, under timed conditions, not using any books, and graded with many comments. He discourages questions so you are not stuck listening to the same 5 people struggle over and over again. Logistically the location is good, by the beach but there is plenty of free parking. His class starts on time and ends on time. He sets up a bank of printers so you can print your mock exams each week right on site. This ensures there is no fudging on the time you are allotted to take an exam since you have to print it out and turn it in on the spot. You pick up your graded exam promptly each following week from a box with files, each student has a file with their name on it. The comments by the graders are very helpful.
Cons: The PT workshops were not very helpful. He does offer many PT sessions in the year leading up to the bar so that you can take mock PT exams every weekend as a 3L and become accustom to what the PT is all about. However, he doesn’t really provide much of a system to work through the PTs. The timing of the classes earns another negative strike. The classes are in the middle of the day from 11:00 to 3:00 so logistically you can’t eat lunch. He provides 10- 15 minute breaks around every hour but it is not really even enough time to eat a sandwich. The substantive lectures are not at all helpful. He reads the flash cards out loud to the class and occasionally expands on the content with a quick blurb. It is nothing you can’t get on your own. His gruff demeanor is a turn-off.
http://www.barexamvideos.com/

Flemings Fundamentals of Law: Jeff Fleming teaches this course.
Pros: Terrific system of approaches. He uses a checklist system to help you memorize issues. He is very energetic so it was easy to stay focused during the lectures. He really seems to care about the students. He also sort of calls on people, not like a Socratic method, but just enough to keep people from drifting off. He would call people out on falling asleep or looking out the window, which forced everyone to be totally present.
Cons: Logistics were very messy. The parking is about 2 blocks from the classroom so it is ridiculous to lug all of the material he requires to class every day. For substantive lectures, he requires that you bring 3 books: a substantive law book, a book with past bar questions, and a book with his approaches. Then on some days he also does an MBE session after the substantive lecture. On those day you have to bring 3 separate MBE books plus the regular books, for a total of 6 books for 1 session. This is not practical. The books are very large and bound by plastic rings, which broke after about 2 weeks. Most people either hole punched each book and put it in three ring binders or rigged a new binding with plastic wire tires. This was quite annoying and time consuming. The order of the subjects in the books was odd. For example, many people study evidence and civ pro on the same day but they were in two separate books so it was not practical to drag so many extra materials to the library every day. He didn't really force students to take the mock exams seriously. Once a week he would have a mock essay exam session. First, there would be a substantive lecture, then an hour off for lunch, then a 3-hour mock essay session. However, he allowed people to skip the lunch break and start writing right away, so they could leave early. He didn't time the session and he didn't even stick around during the session as he had a courier come pick up the exams at the conclusion of the session. This meant that no one took it seriously. People would come and go, slamming doors and talking. Everyone used their books for the mock exams so it wasn't that helpful. Typists were supposed to email in the mock exam by 9 am the following morning, which meant that people were spending 2 hours on each exam. Each essay was graded and returned the next week with a cassette tape that had oral comments. I don't own a cassette player. This is totally out of touch with reality. You pick up your graded exams from off of the ground outside where they are laid out in a messy pile. Some graders were very nice while some were not helpful at all; they were actually rude and sounded pissed off. If I didn't analyze the essay in the exact same order that Flemings required, using the same head notes, the grader would just cross it off and refer me back to the proper format template, regardless of whether what I wrote was the same thing.
http://lawprepare.com/

Barwinners: Shari Karney teaches this course.
Pros: She uses a good system of templates for essays. She provides a lot of feedback. Her approach book is helpful for seeing how an essay should be written and which issues to raise together. She gives lots of feedback on the essays.
Cons: The class is mostly repeaters, even for the July bar. It’s a night class so it tends to be better timing for repeaters who are working. It starts later then most classes, by almost 2 weeks. She makes you bring your own printer to print out the mock exams. She doesn't always seem to know what she is talking about and her materials frequently clash with what other materials say. Some of the stuff is just flat out wrong. She is not that helpful when you ask questions. She was actually rude at one point when she felt that certain questions were too detailed and claims that you just need to focus on the big picture. The classes are in different locations, mostly expensive hotels in Santa Monica. The hotels are all difficult to get to because of the traffic of Santa Monica. Parking is expensive and a pain. There are no good places to eat around there. She provides her own materials but told everyone that they would also want to purchase Barbri books too. That is just way too expensive. She offers different levels or packages that include individual tutoring that can be very expensive, the Platinum Package is over $12,000. She has a "dog whisperer" on staff. He claims to be psychic and can predict how well you will do.
http://www.barwinners.com/

Bar Secrets: Dennis Saccuzzo and Nancy Johnson teach this course.
Pros: The program applies psychology to memorizing the law. They focus on their schematic program, which is a series of flow charts. The flow charts are separated into levels so there are several flow charts per subject. The idea is that you will start will the high level flow charts and memorize the main issues, then you can move on to memorizing the second level outlines and so on. The rules are very short and easy to memorize. It helps to visualize the outline and see where everything fits together. They are very nice and seem to take a different approach to studying than many other programs.
Cons: They are a little quirky as they finish each other’s sentences and bounce back and forth during lectures. They spend a lot of time on the big picture. They think you must visualize holding your bar card or some other thing that will make you really want to pass. The time spent in meditation could be better spent on memorization.
http://www.barsecrets.com/

Cal Bar Tutorial: Paul Pfau teaches this course.
Pros: This is an individualized tutorial review service. He is good at giving you the formulaic method that you need to use on the CA bar with headings and issue clusters. There is a heavy emphasis on essay practice and preparation. You get helpful comments back on the graded essays right away. He is very nice and personable. He really tries to motivate his students and seems to care if you pass.
Cons: He does not provide much for substantive lectures and does not provide a structured substantive law review. Most of the students are repeaters. He's expensive for what he provides. This class doesn't provide much help in the MBE area.
http://www.cbtronline.com/

Tina Post: She used to teach and grade for Barbri.
Pros: She focuses on memorization right away. The outlines and written materials are really helpful. Her PT method is very good. Anyone can attend her 4 day PT workshop for $600. She makes you go through dozens of PTs during the workshop. You spend about an hour and 15 minutes on each PT. The techniques taught in the class saved a lot of time on the bar. She provides a method for each type of PT and the PTs seem very do-able after taking the class.
Cons: This course is extremely expensive. The full Tutorial Course costs $10,000. She has an abrasive personality, many people dislike her personally, complain about her teaching style and even her voice.
http://www.tinapost.com/

MicroMash: This is an online bar review program.
Pros: I used the MBE program and got the books for the MBE subjects. I would recommend the MBE portion to everyone. You can either download the software to your computer or use the internet based version. You can use the program on a maximum of 2 computers. On my home laptop I installed the program so that I didn't have to worry about slow internet and I used my second license to sign up for the internet version so that I could do MBEs on my lunch break at work. The two versions did not really "talk" to each other so if I got a question wrong at home it didn't know that at the work version. This resulted in a few repeat questions. The software begins with easy questions for a particular subject and as you get the questions right, it starts to provide more difficult questions. I would get 80% on a subject and then the very next time I would score a 52% since the difficulty level increased. The software tracks how many questions you get right for each subject and also tracks sub-categories so you can see that not only do you need to improve say torts, but also focus on negligence. The books are a helpful reference if you don't understand something. I didn't study from the books but the MBE answers cited to sections in the book so I could look up areas that I was having trouble with.
Cons: See my earlier rant regarding the software flaws. It uses silly made-up names for people that are just plain old distracting. It also tries to be cutesy and meshes two states together to make a fake state name such as Taxachusetts, Illini, and Connmont. This is distracting and when you are trying to visualize the problem, you are hung up on remember these meshed state names. The actual bar exam does not do this. The NCBX MBE questions use colors such as State Red or the State of Blue or letters such as State X or State Y.
http://www.micromash.net/

Adaptibar: Internet based MBE software
Pros: Much less expensive than Micromash. Adaptibar licenses the questions from the NCBE and uses NCBE answers. The software times your questions so you can mimic the real bar. You can tell what areas you are strong in and identify your weaknesses. The program has 200 questions for each subject. There is no limit as to how many times you can take each set of questions.
Cons: Since it only uses released questions, those questions will not appear on the bar exam. This program has less questions than other programs.
http://www.adaptibar.com/

PMBR: This is an MBE review.
Most people take it because everyone else does. It used to provide an advantage since the owners would get the real questions and provide very similar questions to the students. The Bar Committee has caught on to this and sued PMBR, leaving no advantage for the students. The materials have not been updated in years as far as I can tell. Order yourself a used copy of the books and cds on the web and you’ll be fine.
Pros: This is a good chance to build up your stamina and see what it is going to be like to take the bar. You sit for a real mock exam for 200 MBEs with a break for lunch, just how it is on the bar. I didn’t finish on both sessions (I had about 5 questions left) so it was good to help me adjust my timing. Although, since it was just a mock bar I was probably less focused. You also receive cds of lectures that are very good (except the Evidence lecture, which was terrible.) I listened to the cds on my ipod when I would exercise. I found that after I heard them a couple of times I would even say a rule in my head using the same tone of voice as the lecturers so it was easier to remember.
Cons: The 3 day session was only offered about 2 weeks before the bar so I didn’t want to waste such a large chunk of time during the final valuable review. I also registered early and they changed my dates without notifying me. This was a pain for me last minute. I didn’t think it was that helpful to spend so much time on the questions at the last minute. Receiving a poor score also freaked out many of my friends.
http://www.pmbr.com/

PT Advantage: John Holtz teaches this course.
Pros: The best system of teaching PTs that I have come across. I strongly recommend this 3 day class to everyone taking the bar, regardless of what kind of PT preparation you have had in the past. I wish he taught a full service bar review class, I would take him over everyone else. He makes everything seem very simple. He gives breaks about every hour so it is easy to spend the whole day on PTs without getting frustrated or overwhelmed. You will go over many PTs during the class and he gives you more to review on your own. He is very interactive with the students. He learned every one's name (amazing for such a short class) and called on people by their name all day long. He didn't put you on the spot but did ensure that everyone was following along.
Cons: He runs over time every day. The last day ran over by 2 hours. I don’t mind staying late but I would have like to know ahead of time so I could have prepared. Plus, he was telling unrelated stories, which is fine if we have time but he was still telling stories even when the class should have ended already. The method is sort of cumbersome so you really have to pay attention to understand it. He won't provide sample or model answers and doesn't really answer questions about what he thought about recent exams. He doesn't update his website with new dates very often and he also doesn't always respond to emails but he was very nice on the phone. He emails a summary/short version of points to remember to his students the day before the exam so you have a good document to review during lunch before the PT. Due to the confidentiality agreement that he has everyone sign, I won't go into the specifics of the method or class.
http://www.performancetest.net/

Updated 10/22/09: I have no independent knowledge of Jason Tolerico, owner/founder of One-Timers bar review course. Someone anonymously posted a negative comment regarding Mr. Tolerico. Mr. Tolerico's attorney requested that I remove the 'defamatory' comment. If someone has something constructive to say regarding this course, whether positive or negative, please post it in a useful manner, including any examples that describe or back up your statements.