Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Bar Prep Courses
In her post about the February 2009 bar exam questions, Lisa mentioned her post from last summer about bar review courses, in which she compared her Barbri experience to what she'd heard about the Rigos experience. I found that post (and the comments) to be very helpful -- before reading it, I was set on taking Barbri, but now I'm not so sure. I need to decide soon. Does anyone have advice for me about bar prep courses, or for other 3Ls (and even 2Ls)? Any Barbri defenders out there?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
We wrote that post and comments before the bar results came out. I would be interested in comparing the Washington pass rate for last summer for Barbri v. Rigos. See if you can get the reps to cough up the info. Not that it necessarily means something (the sample group is really small) but it'd be another factor to think about.
Full disclosure, I was a rep for Rigos, and got free bar-prep. Now I'm doing some grading for their practice exams. That said, here's the concise pitch:
WHY RIGOS IS THE BEST BAR PREP:
The best pass rate in WA. Numbers vary, depending on how you calculate ‘em. But Rigos stands by this assertion.
They GUARANTEE you’ll pass. If you don’t, you can repeat the course again for free. Cool.
Every lecture is LIVE and also available online. Live as in a living person, not a video.
One-on-one mentoring- Rigos graders are graduates/ bar-passers. They will meet with you, talk on the phone, etc. And they've done it, so they know how you feel.
Graders are paid by the hour, not the paper, so they have incentive to really work with you. Jim Rigos pays twice what the other company does for grading, per student.
When you submit a practice exam, they get it back to you right away, generally within 24 hours, sometimes as quick as 30-minutes! You’ll remember what you wrote & the feedback will be useful. The other company’s turnaround is (to the best of my knowledge)3 WEEKS. What?!?
Rigos helps you design your own personalized study outline. Worked for me.
Their “Early Bird Program” starts WEEKS before the BarBri. Speaking of the other brand, type their name into Lexus and see what class-action lawsuits from former students come up. Just saying.
That guy in the suit who sits at the table once a week? That’s Jim Rigos. Genuinely salt-of-the-earth good person. Great at what he does. Stop by and say hi —tell him Laura sent you.
Best to all PALS,
Laura
Also, mention to prospective PALS that Jim "hires" 2-3 student reps every fall quarter.
Reps sit at the Rigos table for 50 minutes once a week (not before/during finals), and at the end of school they get FREE BAR PREP. Books and everything.
I was off-campus externing for a quarter, so by my calculations, I "earned" at least $35 an hour. Not bad.
When there was a super-important lunch-time event, I would trade my shift with another rep, no sweat. As a 2L, I sat at the table with my new baby, every week.
I'd love for PALS to get the rep jobs. It's like a $2,500 scholarship.
Disclaimer: I'm a freakishly good test taker. I'd prefer a more useful talent like underwater basket-weaving, but there you go.
I'll defend barbri by saying that I think you can have a good experience with either one, depending on your own study style.
I followed barbri's study schedule exactly, and felt like it worked for me (although I was doing the compressed course, and I'm not sure I could have kept up that intensity for even more time). Aside from the normal test anxiety, I felt pretty confident going into the bar exam and while waiting for my results that I would pass.
Personally, I spent very little time on outlining the subjects (actually, I made flashcards) because I found that I learned far more from writing LOTS of practice answers.
I also really didn't find that feedback on my practice answers was particularly necessary or helpful because I had no troubles with issue spotting or coming up with a rule statement, I just needed to write lots of answers to memorize the info and so that I had a feel for the time and length limitations.
Barbri also will let you repeat the course for free, but only if you show that you've completed every.single.bit of homework assigned. I did this option solely because it forced me not to slack.
Really, if you put in the time they suggest, I think either course will get you through fine.
I'd have to agree with Karen that Barbri did me well -- I passed. I was pretty stressed out and miserable, and the Rigos people seemed to be a little less miserable because of the way the course was structured... but it could be that I would have been miserable either way. Well, surely I would have been. Anyway, reading these posts and comments might give you a feel for what would work best for you.
Oops, I only deleted Laura's comment because it posted twice... I'm not censoring, I swear!
Thank you for using my Guide and if it work for you that makes me happy
Contact Us - Pals Solutions
Post a Comment