BarMax Bar Review Course for the California Bar

I apologize in advance for the somewhat stream of consciousness blog post below. In an effort to be different from some other blogs out there, I want to talk about my actual experience vs just giving a list of BarMax’s features. 

I’ve been somewhat anxious to write a post about BarMax since writing the one about Themis below. Why? Because I think BarMax could be an excellent alternative to Themis for someone who is independent, on a budget, likes iPads and Apps, and wants no more content than necessary when studying for the bar. Keep in mind, you have to be cool with being lectured by someone without a video, because unlike every other review course out there, BarMax does their lectures without a video (you read the outline or fill out a blank one while listening).

Something I want to clarify before writing any further, I am in no way affiliated with BarMax or Themis and haven’t been paid to say anything positive or negative about either course. These are my unbiased opinions based on my own personal experience, and hopefully they can help you decide what review course is best for you!

Anyway… here are my thoughts:

It’s not a scam, it’s an actual review course

If you are anything like me, you might be wary of BarMax at first. They are the the course tabling at your law school with the least amount of visitors (sorry BarMax, but it’s true). If you’re on their mailing list, they send you kind of suspicious emails about special promotions (actually this is kind of cool, and real!) where you can get an iPad mini included in the cost of the course. They are the most expensive app on the iTunes store. They also haven’t been around for very long.

Well, BarMax isn’t a scam. Nor is it just some wannabe app masquerading as a review course. It’s an actual real review course that you can take and be adequately prepared for the exam. And perhaps some aspects of the course might actual prepare you better for the exam than Barbri, Kaplan, or Themis. In fact, BarMax is endorsed by the Barbri’s former president.

It’s an app for the iPad/iPhone– unlike the other review courses, all of their content is app-based

BarMax is basically an iPad/iPhone app that provides you with what I’d say are all the basic tools necessary to study for the bar. You get the app, then they email you additional files which you download to your computer (which include outlines you can fill in and past essays) and that’s it! Unlike Themis, they do not mail you books that correspond with the course, or send you skinny outlines as the course progresses. Also unlike Themis, all of the content, (save for the emailed stuff) including Practice MBEs, essay lectures, lectures, and outlines, is available right there on the app. Themis’ bar review app for iPad/iPhone only provides you access to the the video lectures and nothing more. That means, if you want to do, for example, practice MBE’s using Themis’ course you’re going to have to do them online through their website NOT through the app. Which means you’re going to have to have wi-fi access or 3G/4G. BarMax, on the other hand, has all of their content on the app available to download so that you do NOT need to be on wi-fi or 3G/4G to access the content. I really like this feature.

No additional books

Ok, one major difference I need to point out again… BarMax is NOT going to send you any additional books. You know those huge books you see for Barbri, Kaplan, and Themis for sale on ebay… yeah, BarMax doesn’t have those. It doesn’t necessarily mean the course isn’t as good. If you are the kind of person who doesn’t like or need 3 different outlines on a subject and just wants one concise outline, then trust me, not having all those extra books is probably going to work better for you in the long run. A criticism is that BarMax doesn’t provide you with skinny outlines to study from, which does seem a little lazy on their part. But, the one outline they do provide you with seems pretty damn good and pretty concise all things considered.

Real MBEs/Real Essays graded by former CA bar exam graders

The other thing that makes me respect BarMax is that they’ve made it a point to obtain licensing for real MBEs. This is great. If you see my post below on MBE study resources, you’ll see that I explain why practicing real MBEs is valuable. The one problem I have with BarMax in this area is that they only provide detailed answer explanations for the first 300 questions you do. They say they do this because they believe it is beneficial after that point to then self-regulate by going and finding the reason you got the answer wrong on your own. Like I said before, I understand the logic and potential benefit, but I don’t really think anyone studying for the bar has the time to do this.

I also respect BarMax because they provide essay grading by real former CA bar exam graders. The other review courses do not. See my post here explaining more about this in the context of the Themis review course. Former graders, I believe, are going to be the only way you get truly trustworthy feedback on your practice essays (this is my belief, I’m sure plenty of people disagree). You get two free graded essays included in the cost of the course, then will need to pay $20 for any additional essays you need graded (a VERY good price compared to the cost of a tutor). The $20 is no more than BarMax pays their essay graders, so BarMax does not make any more money off of you in this instance.

Important Note: I have never submitted an essay for grading with BarMax, so I can’t speak to the quality of feedback or turn around time. BarMax does send you a sample if you ask for it… but, of course there is the danger that it may not be of the same quality. I want to believe if it fell below quality they’d remedy it for you.

Cost

BarMax is affordable. My understanding is that it’s going to be less than $999 and there’s a good chance you can get a free iPad mini thrown in, or pay a bit more and get an iPad 2 or iPad air. If you are a public interest student, they can offer you a pretty heavy discount (iPad not included). I’m not sure if they offer you a deal if you already own an iPad and only need the course, but it’s worth inquiring about because BarMax seems pretty flexible for students serious about taking their course.

Shortcomings

As discussed above they don’t provide you with a skinny outline to study from in the last two weeks of studying. They also only provide feedback for 300 MBE questions.

Do I recommend BarMax? 

Yes. In fact, BarMax gives you life-time access which can’t be said of the other courses. I think BarMax is a good option in conjunction with other resources out there (Bar Breaker book, Strategies and Tactics, Tutors, etc) and because of its affordable price you can still afford to use those other resources. But, keep in mind, BarMax is really for the independent learner and thinker. There isn’t handholding in this course, and you are really going to have to be self-motivated. The outline content is much smaller than the other courses, so you are also going to have to feel comfortable with that notion. But, if you buy BarMax and find the outlines insufficient, there is the option to purchase Barbri, Kaplan, or Themis books on ebay.

California Bar Exam Performance Test Preparation

Now that I’ve wrote the two posts below about how to prepare for the MBE and Essay portions of the bar, I’m writing my next post about preparing for the ever-challenging California Bar Performance Test.

What is a the Performance Test in California? 

Brief rundown for those who don’t know: the PT in California is a three hour portion of the the exam given on the first and third afternoon of the test.  You will be required to draft some type of legal document (typically a memorandum, but can be a closing argument, letter to opposing counsel, etc) based on a given set of facts (found in the “file”) and a given set of law (found in the “library”). For the purposes of the performance test, you do not need to have law memorized since they give you all the law necessary for your answer. However, your knowledge of legal application does come into play. It’s a pretty challenging aspect of the test since it requires a lot of sound organization, analysis and law to fact application. In my opinion, the best thing you can do is think of the performance test as a competence exam where you are showing the examiner your badass writing skills without the burden of worrying whether or not you memorized the law correctly.

While the PT does not require substantive knowledge, this doesn’t meant the PT should be ignored in studying. The PT is sometimes overlooked, and that’s a shame! Stating the obvious: scoring well on the PT can make the difference between passing and failing. Plus, one theory I have is that the PT curve can be slightly more lenient than the essay curve. Therefore, if you are a strong PT taker, you may be able to make up more ground on points vs someone who is a decent essay taker. But, that being said, all six essays count do more than the two PTs.

(I may give a breakdown of how much the PT is worth in a later post). Moving on…

How do I start preparing? 

When preparing for the performance test, I think the first thing to do is to give yourself a diagnostic exam. You can find the past performance tests here with selected answers. Print one out, and give it to yourself. Obviously, PTs can range in difficulty from easy to medium to hard. I think starting out with an easier one is probably a good idea, and the PT I would recommend starting out with is PTA- Pannine v. Dreslin from the February 2009 bar exam. I’d rank this PT as easy to medium difficulty.

If you’re looking for a difficult PT, check out PTA- In re Clef from the July 2012 bar exam.   And for an even more challenging PT (in my opinion), check out In re Clef’s evil twin PTA- In re Sia from the July 2013 bar exam.

On initial diagnostics, stay within the 3 hour time limit. Generally on a PT, you want to give yourself 1.5 for reading the file and library and outlining an answer and 1.5 hours for actual writing.

Once you’re done with the PT, compare your answer to the model answer checking off whether you issue spotted correctly and stated the rules correctly. Don’t worry if you draw differing conclusions since this doesn’t really matter too much. If the PT went really well– then good for you! You can probably feel good about your baseline PT-taking abilities. If it was difficult– then you know you need to focus on the PT portion more. Remember, PTs range in level of difficulty, so it’s best to take a few in order to get a good feel for the PT.

Then what? How do I improve?

After you’ve gotten a good idea of where you stand in performance test-taking ability, I think the next step is to start refining your approach. Decide whether it’s worth your time to maybe brief every case? Or perhaps you think it would be a better strategy to read the library first, then the file. You may want to try giving yourself more than 3 hours to see where you would stack up if the PT was 5 hours long. If you write an amazing PT in 5 hours that hits all the issues, then you know you’re doing something right, you just need to work on better time management. If it’s more of an understanding/comprehension issue, then perhaps your time is best focused there.

What if I’m not improving?

Honestly, I think the best thing to do if the PT seems like an unsurmountable challenge is to hire a tutor to provide further assistance (or perhaps find a kind, patient faculty member at your university that you feel you can trust with this challenge). Tutors can provide a specific approach to the PT, which can be very helpful. I think too many examinees are tempted to just sweep the PT under the rug and pretend like it doesn’t exist, but that’s really not going to benefit you at all on the exam. Trust me, a poor PT performance on day one is going to haunt you through the rest of the exam, even if you feel like you killed all three day one essays. Trust me. You want to feel good about your performance going out of day one.

My general PT tips

First and foremost, identify the call of the question. Seems simple, but sometimes it’s actually not that simple. I tend to speed through the file and take my time in the library. But, I stop and spend as much time as I need identifying and fully understanding the call before moving forward. It’s that important.

Make sure you are organizing your PT answer based strictly on the call. If the call is asking you to talk about three things, organize your PT in three parts in the exact order they give you. If the call is asking you to talk about 9 things, make sure you talk about all 9.

Be aware of any embedded specific requests. The PT will tell you if it wants you to write a statement of facts. It’ll tell you whether it’s objective or argumentative. It’ll let you know if it’s looking for a specific style of headings (long and argumentative, or short and to the point). Be on the look out for this stuff, and following the instructions can be a very easy way to pick up points, and not following them tells the grader you don’t know how to follow instructions.

Play around will approaches. Maybe on one practice PT, try and see if you are more comfortable reading the library first. Try and see if briefing cases help.

My specific PT tips — take these with a grain of salt since I do NOT profess do be an expert 

Ok, I don’t want to get into too many specifics since I think the PT can be different for everyone, but one thing that worked well for me (I think) is inputting the law and some of the facts directly into the organized structure I put on my screen right away after reading the call, instead of taking notes on paper or highlighting in the file, etc. When I took notes on paper or highlighted in the file, I tended to lose track of the law and facts once I reached the end of the both the file and library because of the sheer amount of information. The more PTs I took, the more obvious it became what certain facts and certain cases were triggering which issues in the call. So, to stay on top of all the information better, I started inputting more directly in order to keep the massive amount of information better organized. This worked for me. Keep in mind, it may not be what works for you.

Final thoughts

I wish I could write a blog post telling you exactly how to take a PT and be successful each and every time, but I don’t feel capable of that since I don’t have experience as a grader or tutor. However, I do feel that if you a struggling, a tutor may be able to provide you with their approach to taking a PT, which could result in being successful each and every time.

All in all, the PT is really about practice and it’s one part of the exam I think you can start practicing well-before the exam without the danger of forgetting information as time passes.

Introduction

Welcome! The purpose of this blog is to discuss study options for the California State Bar Exam. Here, you will learn about my experience with different review courses, books, and tutors. My goal isn’t to discuss how to pass the bar (sure, that’s the net effect of successful studying), my goal is to discuss how to study for the bar. This is advice from a recent examinee. Not from a professor who took the bar back in 1975, or from a biased commercial bar prep representative.