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Last
week, I did a Google search of "bar/bri settlement"
and found the following comments (see italicized text below).
Too bad some law students (see below) aren't privy to such
comments before they sign up for BAR/BRI. Maybe then, they'd
at least investigate another way to go about preparing for
the exam.
Sadly, though, there are too many law students
who do not truly investigate which course to take: they get
caught up in the hype, in the shiny books, in the herd mentality.
Which is too bad, especially when it comes to California's
bar exam. And especially if you're a challenged candidate
(see below) taking that particular exam.
[NOTE: Candidates in other
states are not the focus of this article. Other states, with
New York being the obvious exception, have high-enough pass
rates, and there is no state that has as many non-ABA and/or
unaccredited law schools and low-LSAT law students as California.]
If you are a challenged California bar exam
candidate with an LSAT-score of 155 or lower, or if you are
graduating from a non-ABA law school or from an ABA school
that typically performs poorly on the California bar exam
(e.g., Western State University), or if you are graduating
at the bottom third of your law school class, attending a
mass-produced, one-size-fits-all bar review is a poor decision.
But unfortunately, it isn't a decision at all. Many challenged
candidates take BAR/BRI for no reason other than everybody
takes BAR/BRI, which is a ludicrous reason.
To me, the math is simple. If everybody
at your law school takes BAR/BRI, and your law school has
a horrible pass rate, why would you want to jump off that
same cliff? It just makes no sense.
I do not think BAR/BRI is a course without
merit. In fact, ABA law schools, typically, have an overall
pass rate of 65-70% on the California bar exam, depending
on whether it is a February or July exam. BAR/BRI works just
fine with students who already possess the thought-process
and analytical-writing skills required to pass the California
bar exam on their first attempt. (I must admit that had I
taken BAR/BRI, I would have passed; it would have worked for
me.)
But Stanford, UCLA and USC law grads (and
formerly myself) are not the candidates I have in mind. These
students, all of whom probably take BAR/BRI, will be served
just fine by BAR/BRI. In fact, these students, with their
high-LSAT minds, could undoubtedly save themselves some money
and some drive time by signing up with a less-expensive online
course and still pass. The herd mentality that is rampant
among law students will likely keep them from doing so, but
these students could pass with any course that has decent-enough
materials and a schedule to follow.
But in California, there are plenty of law
schools with low pass rates (take Trinity Law School, for
example) and unskilled students (take American College of
Law, for example), and it does matter which course these students take. In fact, non-ABA law schools have
a combined first-timer pass rate of only 24%...
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...Yet, bar after
bar, these students undoubtedly flock to BAR/BRI. And these
are the students who, for some reason, just don't do the math.
And these are the students that I repeatedly chide and admonish
in the pages of this journal -The Challenged California Bar
Exam Candidate.
***
The graded essay portion of BAR/BRI is
the biggest joke in the world. When I began to suspect that
the graders were completely ineffective, I typed up and submitted
the example given in the book as a "90 point" essay.
It got a failing score from the BAR/BRI grader! I paid several
thousand dollars for THAT?
[NOTE: In defense of BAR/BRI,
it is not a remedial/tutorial course for the challenged
candidate. Ultimately, BAR/BRI is in the business of selling
seats in lecture halls - the more, the better. BAR/BRI is
primarily a law-based review course - its infrastructure is
simply not set up to thoroughly and properly grade each and
every submitted essay or PT. From a sheer number's standpoint
(40,000+ students per year!), this simply cannot be done -
there simply isn't enough time or manpower. And if you're
a challenged candidate, this is certainly something to think
about.]
Comment by Barbri is worthless - February 22, 2007
at 11:10 am
Why should there be only one review course that controls
the entrance to our proud and honorable profession? Law students
would be better served by more viable choices, lower prices,
and improved quality.
Comment by free-market fan - February 26, 2007
at 9:11 pm
I used XXXXXXX after failing with BAR/BRI.
With XXXXXX, I finally understood the California bar exam.
BAR/BRI is a mass-produced joke. I graduated law school with
problems that needed to be remedied, and BAR/BRI didn’t
do a damn thing for me.
Comment by Rahul - February 28, 2007 at 11:10 am
Just give me my $125. I passed the NY
Bar and thought BarBri rocked. The real scumbag is the "nonprofit"
Educational Testing Services (ETS), which charges outrageous
fees for even making a photocopy of a score and which pays
those at the top ridiculously high salaries.
Comment by BarBriFan - February 22, 2007 at 8:59 am
Steve Liosi, Esq., is the Program
Director of Barperfect (www.barperfect.com),
a course that specializes in helping law students and bar
candidates who struggle with the process. Mr. Liosi can be
reached by calling (714) 376-9825
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Law
school student loan debt can seriously impact your life-style.
In many instances, some of you will graduate will monthly
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Some of my lawyer colleagues pay in the neighborhood of $1,600
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