Barbri Not Accepting Donations
So, I finally got around to signing up for a Barbri course. Yeah, I'm lazy. I got SF Saint Mary's Live, so apparently that's not yet filled up for those of you even lazier than I.
Upon surfing to the "Make a Payment" page, I saw this priceless caveat: "NOTE: The payment amount cannot exceed the Balance Due."
Seriously Barbri?!? You're already draining me of well over $3,000 and you feel like you have to warn me of overpaying?!? Well, I guess it's your loss. I was totally going to make a donation to your practical monopoly.
Anyway, where's everyone else taking the courses? Anybody hear any news about where the vaguely titled "Berkeley/East Bay" course will be held?
And alums, what are your opinions? What locations are good or bad? Pros and cons of the live vs. taped courses? Should I actually study for the bar or just drop out now, brush up on my Spanish, and head South of the border to avoid student loans debt?
Upon surfing to the "Make a Payment" page, I saw this priceless caveat: "NOTE: The payment amount cannot exceed the Balance Due."
Seriously Barbri?!? You're already draining me of well over $3,000 and you feel like you have to warn me of overpaying?!? Well, I guess it's your loss. I was totally going to make a donation to your practical monopoly.
Anyway, where's everyone else taking the courses? Anybody hear any news about where the vaguely titled "Berkeley/East Bay" course will be held?
And alums, what are your opinions? What locations are good or bad? Pros and cons of the live vs. taped courses? Should I actually study for the bar or just drop out now, brush up on my Spanish, and head South of the border to avoid student loans debt?
Labels: Bar Exams
posted by caley at 12:35 AM
16 Comments:
Study for the bar. Pass it. Live are better than taped. If you decide to travel south of the border, skip Mexico - currently a kill zone worse than Detroit or Oakland.
When I was there (2004), BARBRI courses were held at Boalt Hall, in the auditorium.
And it started WAYYYY too soon after graduation. I recall distinctly feeling like I'd never actually finished law school.
Does anyone know what the parking situation is at St Mary's? I know there's a lot that is supposedly "available for use by Barbri particiapnts," but that doesn't tell me if it's free/affordable/another opportunity for the good folks at Barbri to squeeze me until I whimper.
SF is great because you can be anonymous and you don't have to watch your law school classmates behaving like crazy people. get a couple of friends you trust to sit next to and then enjoy the other-law-schools-freak-show. great people watching. the only downside is the sight of that church on the city's horizon will forever make you shudder.
re:parking, when i was there (2006) you could park for free in the church's lot, and there was always parking if you got there early, like 30 min early at the most if i remember correctly.
barbri better hold it on the berkeley campus, construction be damned. they're making 200 x $4,000 = $800,000 off of playing us some video tapes. hell if they're going to make me go to alameda.
Speaking of East Bay location, does anyone know what B*rring was talking about when he said, in a February 10 email, that "[s]ome students seem to be getting mixed messages from BAR//BRI" as to the location of their East Bay review location. I haven't heard anything from Barbri, let alone "mixed messages." That's why I just said f*ck it and picked a location in San Fran. But then again, I also haven't been asking barbri anything either.
I asked one of their lunchtime reps and they were very blase and unclear about a Berkeley course. She blamed the school for not giving them an answer one way or the other. BUt she also didn't think it was anything to be concerned about. Like adding a commute to a hellish schedule is no biggie! But they're very "Let's just wait and see what happens!" about a lot of things. I asked them the dates of the class. "Ohhhh...we have a tentative start date and once that's set, the classes last about eight weeks or so! We should have the schedule in the next couple of months. At the latest, during the first session." Obviously a real well-run operation. But when you have the monopoly, I guess you don't have to worry about your customers defecting to a more helpful service.
12:17, at least with the dates, a lot depends on the respective professors and their summer schedules. Of course, getting law professors to do anything in a timely manner is an exercise in futility. Yeah, I said it!!!
$800,000? the school could easily do a review for us for $300,000 and let us keep the extra half million. or hold it here, charge the full $800,000 and spend $500,000 on things that would improve our time here.
yeah, its such a racket - it seems their only competitor is barpassers, which is much smaller. they're able to charge so much because the firms pay for it, which sucks for those who don't have such an arrangement. suprising the firms don't push for more competitors.
Isn't the Berkeley/East Bay one taped anyway, so why does it matter about professor's schedules?
Berkeley is a big school-- can't they find a way to accommodate us elsewhere on this campus?
As I understand it, the live show is taped in the LA office, which starts a week prior to the taped ones in Berkeley, etc. So maybe finalizing that schedule finalizes the schedule for the other locations?
I took the evening taped session at Berkeley and it was totally chill - no one acting stress-crazy (or getting in girl-fights, as happened in the morning session). There were lots of people there from other schools - people who work and had to take the night session. Looking back on it I don't even feel like it was taped, it felt like the lecturer was actually there. The only down side is that there was a group of "cool kids" from Boalt who sat in the back and generally made a nuisance of themselves by talking during the whole thing.
Has anyone talked to anyone who used the ipod option? I'm thinking about doing that because I like the idea of getting to replay lectures and listen when I'm most focused. What are the benefits of doing the taped class lectures instead?
As for St. Mary's, parking is available in the church lot -- at least for the evening session. The class was not crowded, so everyone got a spot. I lived in SF, so I biked to the Hastings library in the morning, and then to St. Mary's in the evening. It was a great way to get exercise without thinking about it.
As for live v. video, I didn't see a difference. As for day v. evening, I preferred evening because I study better during the day. That way, I would study from 10-5, go to class from 6-10, and then relax for the rest of the evening. Knowing me, if I had a morning class, I wouldn't start studying until 3 or 4 pm.
The added bonus of St. Mary's evenings is that there are few in the class, and few from Boalt. If you prefer to do this venture independently, then it's perfect.
For those who are in SF, the Hastings library is perfect to study. It's only open during the day, it's close to food, and you have no wireless access. Plus, it's close to St. Mary's so if you have a night class, you don't have to travel much.
Hope this advice helps. For all those 3Ls, please keep in mind that none of us who took the bar and passed on the first round know why we passed. We can only speak in retrospect what worked for us. So, if something is not right for you, don't worry--do what feels right for you. Some who passed the bar have the tendency to speak as if they are the authority on the exam and how to study for it -- but keep in mind the only difference between you and them is that they received a letter indicating they passed. For example, they could give you endless advice on how to practice essays, but for all they know, they could have passed because of a super-high multiple-choice score. I'm emphasizing this because one source of stress throughout the summer for me was hearing how alums studied, which would result in my kicking myself for not doing exactly what another alum had done.
Good luck!
I took the day course at Boalt. I liked the video because the volume could be adjusted and it could be cut up into separate days even though the lecture may have taken place over one day.
That said, study hard and be familiar with the material. Not all of it is tested, but preparation makes you feel a lot more relaxed when you take the test.
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