Studying

Which Bar Exam Prep Course Is the Best?

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UPDATE: Based on reader feedback, we’ve added information for Pieper Bar Review.

Congratulations 3Ls! The grind of law school exams is over, or soon will be. Now you get to study for the bar exam — which, for some reason, law school didn’t really prepare you for.

Most newly minted J.D.s will be heading straight from law school classes into bar exam prep classes. We assume you all have been pitched all year by bar prep companies touting their costs, features, and success rates. With everyone claiming to have the secret to passing the bar exam, how to choose?

Since the last time we visited this question, bar exam prep courses have proliferated, offering a range of prices, technological formats, and philosophies.

As we here at ATL are all about service journalism, we’ve distilled the information about the major bar prep providers into a handy guide. For those of you mulling over which course best fits your needs, the crucial analyzing variables are cost, format, guarantees, discounts, and pass rate. Nobody want to have to take the bar exam more than once, so this is a serious investment decision. After the jump, check out an “apples to apples” look at the major prep companies…

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Mr. Bar Exam: Can You Trust Someone Who’s Failed the Bar Exam?

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Staci here. A scene like this must have played out in the past few weeks at the law library while everyone was studying for the upcoming bar exam. Someone who is a repeat bar taker tries to explain a legal concept that you’re having trouble with, and everyone around you is looking at you like you’re insane for listening to him. Come on, that guy failed the bar exam. He obviously doesn’t have a clue…. or does he?

Should you give credence to a repeat bar examinee’s advice, or take it with a grain of salt? Can you really trust someone who’s failed the bar exam?

Mr. Bar Exam will give you his thoughts, and he may be sharing the screen with an attractive study partner….

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Finals Give Students the Chance to Occupy Their Law Schools

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Law students, we know that finals time is rough, because we’ve all been there. Sometimes getting together with a study group is a great way to take the edge off (not to mention a great way to “suceed” with friends). Amid the excitement of the fall 2011 bonus season, these kids are buckling down and studying their tails off, in the hopes of some day getting a dime of what Biglaw associates are currently complaining about.

And like good little scouts, these law students are prepared. Okay, maybe some of them are a little bit too prepared. When your classmates email us to let us know that they hate studying at the law school because of you, maybe you need to give it a rest….

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You Know What Makes Studying for the Bar Exam Easier? LOUD BANGING IN THE LIBRARY.

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The first day of the bar exam is about 13 days away. THIRTEEN DAYS. The number thirteen is just evil (especially for those with triskaidekaphobia), but pairing that number with the term “bar exam” makes it that much worse. You’re probably on edge. Your Facebook statuses are bordering on homicidal. You’re so pissed off at the pen-clicking guy in the library that you’re contemplating slicing his throat with the worst notecard paper-cut ever.

I know that we’re not supposed to panic, but some people are panicking, and rightly so. The powers that be at the University of Minnesota Law School are not making it pleasant for recent graduates to study for the bar exam at the school’s law library. Apparently, there’s a lot of banging going on between the stacks, and not of the variety you’d brag to your friends about….

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