Hi all, is there anyone know when should those interested to take the NY Bar exam to enroll in bar review courses such as BARBRI? And how and where to enroll? Anyone has BARBRI time schedule please?

Most law students enroll with Barbri while in school and lock in the price for the exam, so even if it(the price of Barbri) goes up, your price doesn't. You may choose to enroll directly at www.barbri.com or contact one of the Barbri representatives at the law school nearest to you. You can't miss them.

Barbri will cost you about $2867.13. However you can and will always get their materials on Ebay for a fraction of that price & Barbri will not produce new books for the winter 2006 Examination. Getting the books early will give you a head start & by the time Barbri lectures starts, you wouldn't have to struggle so much with the amount of material there is to learn. I have the Barbri paced schedule PM me with your email address and I'd send it over to you. It's in adobe acrobat format.

Anyway did you hear that Barbri was recently sued? A second class-action antitrust lawsuit was filed against them. http://www.lawschool.com/brewercomplaint.pdf

Hey bardiva,
You seem to be up-to-speed on the NY bar. I'm sitting it in Feb 2006 and I'm having a bit of a meltdown. I live in Ireland and am studying from home using The Study Group materials (a lesser-known alternative to Barbri - I believe their materials are similar to Micromash). I'm happy with the quality of the lectures I've listened to so far. However, I'm wondering if the Barbri & PMBR materials would be better to work from. I've spent countless hours trying to research this on the web. My questions are:
Are you happy with the Barbri outlines?
Any idea how much I should pay to buy the Barbri stuff on ebay?
Does the content of the Barbri stuff change from year to year? The 2004 materials are cheaper than 2005 on eBay.
Any help you - or anyone - can give would be much appreciated. My e-mail address is mushforbrains2000@yahoo.co.uk
Thanks

To avoid surprises you have to be on top of your game. I hear that MM & TSG are owned by the same parent company, so it's not surprising that the materials are basically the same. I believe you when you say you've spent countless hours on the web. I'd actually read this post on another site prior to reading it here! Anyway the amount of bar related material out there is simply unbelievable & its extremely easy to become a bar review whore.

I'm one!

You asked. 'I'm wondering if the Barbri & PMBR materials would be better to work from' ~ As Travis points out 'Be a sheep' the goal is to blend in & get the same black letter law as everyone else. I believe you're getting this from TSG material. However, what you most likely need from Barbri is the NY Conviser Mini Review. People are divided as per PMBR esp. with the recent shocker on the MBE because of the lawsuit. Most people still recommend the Red Book Vol 1. I have an extra copy if you're interested. I'm not using the Barbri outlines per se. However I do have the NY Pieper outlines( And I'm not even taking NY!)

Barbri is simply a monopoly. The contents of the Barbri stuff HASN'T change for years. I recently bought the Drills & Released audio tape. The copyright date? 1998/99. It's the same audiotape that follows the 2005/2006 Drills & Released book! See where I'm coming from? If you buy the complete set of NY books from Ebay. You're NOT going to have the time to use them all, especially since you have to meet the 25 hr per week requirement (?) of TSG. Btwn $150-$200 on a good day should be all you need to pay for the 2003-2004 books. The kill would be the cost of S & H over to Ireland.

Don't forget to print out the model Q & A's provided on the NY site.

Bardiva,
Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much! I feel like I've been wandering round in circles in cyber space hell. Funny how I can while away hours surfing, but when it comes to studying I can't pay attention.
It would be great if I could buy your PMBR red book. Maybe you could mail me at mushforbrains2000@yahoo.co.uk to discuss a price. I will try to get hold of a Barbri NY Conviser. It seems it good be easy to get bogged down in materials. Once I get the materials issue out of the way, I can actually start to focus on studying. I'm off to listen to my TSG Evidence lecture now.
Hope your studies are going well.
Mush

Hi everyone!!!!!

I am getting ready to experience the ordeal of preparing to NY Bar. Your advise, tips, strategies would be highly appreciated.

As well, in case someone is selling 2005 NY Bar materials I would be happy to buy them from you.

Take care!!!!!

Welcome to the Club. Are you taking NY in Feb. or July?

Hi,I'm also going to take the NY bar exam, in July 2006. Do you think the materials will change before July? And how exactly the barbri course works? You don't have any lectures, you've just got the study materials and you study by yourself? Thanks for any clarification

I don't want to give you (or anyone) a false sense of security in saying that the books will remain the same for the July 2006. For the Feb 2006, Barbri will not release new books. They will use the Summer 2005 books. However one way of finding out if the books have changed is hopefully to compare & contrast. You can easily get this info from any of the law forums out there. Barbri updates with supplements from time to time because of the real changes in the law (recent Supreme Court rulings). These Supreme Court rulings are available online.

How does Barbri work? Basically, if you decide you want to go with Barbri. You can either opt for the self-study or join other students in a [crowded] classroom. Some of the lectures are live. Some are videotaped. Basically you listen to lectures & fill in the lecture handout, answer practice questions, take simulated MBE exam, have essays papers turned in and graded etc. You however dont get to ask the lecturer questions, except during the 10-15? minute break.

I did not register with Barbri. I do not intend to register with Barbri. I did get all their material though, and at this point Im doing a self-study program. I follow the paced program. It tells me what to read, how many questions I need to answer on a particular day etc. Once in a while I listen to their audio lectures. Some are long, about 8 hours, while others are much shorter, about 3 hours. Some of the lectures are damn right boring, others are fun to hear!

Most people recommend not studying early because of long term v. short-term memory. Know what works for you and take it from there. I think it's a good idea to get the materials early just to have a sense of what's coming. Personally, it would be foolish of me to wait until official bar review classes start before I start studying. By the time my bar review classes start, I expect it to be of more of a refresher course.

Do a google blog search and stuff will pop up. I hope this helps. Let me know if you need anymore info. Best of Luck!

Hello--
Could I have a couple of questions for you... 1. Could you please send me the paced program for NY Bar Exam. I plan to take it this July, and I have 2005 summer materials. 2. Could you tell me in your opinion, if I also have all the Pieper materials, which course materials do you reccomend I study-- just one or the otehr, or both?

Hi,
anybody took other courses than BarBri, to prepare for the NY bar? Any tips on how to find a good review course but pay cheaper than $3000?
Thanks a lot

great posts bardiva. its always a terrific help when people share their knowledge in such a precise and informative way. best of luck with ur exam!

[deleted]

HELP!!

Glad I stumbled upon this discussion forum, quite useful. I'm planning to sit the July 07 bar exam. So BarBri seems like a good bet re a review course. My only real worry at this stage (I'm trying to do all research well in advance) is that I have a degree from Northern Ireland. It fulfills all requisite requirements etc, but does anyone know if I'll be at a severe disadvantage sitting the exam with practically no basic knowledge of US law. Does the bar revision course provide enough knowledge to overcome this or would it be advisable to take another course? I'm currently living and working in Manhattan if anyone knows of anything. Sorry for the stupid questions but I'm pretty clueless. Any help would be greatly appreciated :).

I am sitting for the July bar exam in NY and my barbri materials are about three years old. Do yall know where can I get the update on supreme court cases? Also, would i be Okay with three years old material?

Thanks
Vesta

Hello,

I was wondering whether anyone had any suggestions for an alternative to the Bar/Bri course. I spoke with someone from Bar/Bri yesterday who was rude to say the least. I figure the must be another course out there I could take so that I don't have to give four grand to a company which basically hung up on me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

ps. has anyone heard anything about celebration bar review? The course seems good for my needs but I have read a couple of bad reviews on the net.

There are quite a few alternatives out there. There's Pieper bar review, Micromash bar review & The Study Group Bar Review. I don't know anyone who has used Celebration for the NY bar.

It would probably help than hurt if you still make reference to some of Barbri's materials, especially the Essay testing book, The Conviser Mini-review as well as the In-Class lecture notebook.

Hope this helps.

Hello,

I was wondering whether anyone had any suggestions for an alternative to the Bar/Bri course. I spoke with someone from Bar/Bri yesterday who was rude to say the least. I figure the must be another course out there I could take so that I don't have to give four grand to a company which basically hung up on me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

ps. has anyone heard anything about celebration bar review? The course seems good for my needs but I have read a couple of bad reviews on the net.

I've used BAR/BRI before and passed, so I don't plan on risking a different course.

I found the BAR/BRI materials to be very comprehensive, and I got a great score on the MBE using nothing but the BAR/BRI books.

Yes, at $3000 it's incredibly overpriced. Maybe the REAL reason they still have the bar exam is because BAR/BRI is bribing the people who run the state bars.

BAR/BRI is bribing the people who run the state bars.

Barbri is indeed overpriced. Do you intend to self-study or are you just sourcing for information at this point?