BARBRIReviews of barbri.com

I have just completed the 20-week SQE2 prep course having successfully passed SQE1 in January using Barbri's SQE1 40-week prep course. Pros: 1. All tasks relate back to the exam specifications from day 1. 2. The mock exams are good preparation for the actual exams. 3. A good community built with others doing the course through a centralised WhatsApp group - great for me, but might not be for everyone. 4. Some of the tutors are really knowledgeable and helpful, with a great understanding of the exams and the law behind them. Cons: 1. Not enough contact time with tutors, especially when coming from SQE1 40-week course when you can book an appointment anytime in your tutor's calendar. There was only one 1-1 tutor session, which was not enough especially as the group sessions were quite forced. 2. No revision of the law at all and this is expected to be done in your own time, which seems a bit mad given the price of the course you would hope some law would be included. 3. After completing the mock exams, you are just told to revise but with very little guidance or input from the tutors. I felt quite lost in the first week of revision. 4. The feedback across different assignments was very variable, and therefore a bit confusing at times. When I tried to raise this with one of the course organisers, I did not feel heard or listened to. 5. If you want a hard copy the updated version of the FLK revision book (referred to throughout the course), you need to pay for a new one rather than it being included in the course price. 6. The interface of the online course is quite clunky and dated when compared to the SQE1 course, which I found to be really intuitive and user-friendly. Overall, I was not impressed with the SQE2 course especially when compared to the SQE1 course. Fingers crossed I have done enough to pass. If not, sadly I do not think I will be using my Barbri guarantee for the resits.

The structure of the SQE 2 prep course PSP could be better. The PSP for SQE 1 was intuitive and easy to navigate.However the SQE 2 PSP is really frustrating to use. It also flexed across each person’s study plans to arrange the hours one needed to do per day to complete the course. I would suggest that adjustments are made to make the learning process more enjoyable.

The material seems good. There are some inconsistencies and contradictions between the books and the questions asked. Also they are not helpful at all with payments. You are not allowed to set up payment for any day except the 1st of each month and if you are late you immediately lose access until payment is made. The 1st is not convenient for everyone. This just seems like poor customer service and lack of caring for their customers.

Super disappointed. I work full time and wanted to start early so I prepaid for the entire course and only then did they tell me they would not mail the materials for almost two months. When i did receive the materials they are so riddled with errors, five sections have digital notes because the printed versions were not updated prior to printing. There are even typos in the chapter headings. The printing quality sucks you can hardly read the graphs and charts. And the answers for the essays that you use for self grading actually misquote the facts from the fact pattern. The time log is constantly inaccurate, requiring me to go back and once again mark as complete assignments I have already completed. I am unbelievably frustrated. I am so sorry I went with Barbri. It is way too expensive to have all of these errors and distractions.

While I appreciate that the laws change, the books should be updated more regularly. I started the course Aug 2023, while my book was published in 2022 (No month published). There were 11 pages of supplementary notes with 25 days of updates and more than 50 amendments across different subjects. I am aware of at least one law change (9 months ago) that is not present in the supplementary information. While tests were helpful, some of the questions and answers were incorrect due to the above information. Questions and answers need to be updated in real-time. Response time to questions was good. The system did not always work. Sometimes, being locked out of course entirely and constant errors in loading tests. Lectures were sometimes very difficult to hear; the volume was too low. I will be looking elsewhere for SQE2 which is disappointing as BARBRI is supposed to be a 'Global leader in legal education'.

I have chosen to study for the SQE1 using Barbri's 40 week prep course. After 3 months of studying with Barbri, I am starting to see the limitations of their SQE1 course. I will list my impressions below. Pros: - The SQE1 course has a good structure which is relatively easy to follow and keeps you on track on your studying journey. - The learning method Barbri is proposing through the Personal Study Plan is pretty good and research-based which provides a bit of comfort - The repetition of materials helps memorising the information - The Study Guides are pretty good and easy to follow and contain lots of examples throughout. Cons: - The timeline that Barbri provides for studying is unrealistic; every task on the personal study plan takes a lot longer than Barbri says it will take, so you will always be behind. They say that your study commitment will be 10-12 hours per week, but that is not true. For example, my personal study plan for this week involves 18+ hours of studying which are difficult to fit around my full time job. - The online personal study plan is glitchy for most students. Mine says that I haven't completed any assignments, even though I'm 3 months into the course. I emailed Barbri and they said they would try fixing it but nothing happened. If you manually amend your schedule, it also changes the study days oddly whereby some study weeks are longer than others. - Some of the lecturers in the video lectures are terrible, they are like robots reading from a screen so the lectures are not engaging at all (to add insult to injury, they also force the lecturers to make cringe comments or jokes throughout the lectures which I found unnecessary) - The Barbri materials provided to me for the exam year 2023/2024 seem to be produced and printed around 2021 so some rules and legislation are out of date. I found myself having to Google every section of the study guide to see if the law is still like it says in the book or whether it has changed. This is time consuming! - The Barbri materials are NOT enough to study or prep for the SQE1 exam. I've had to buy additional books and subscriptions from other providers to ensure all the material is covered for the exam and for me to feel ready for my exam. I would not feel comfortable to rely solely on the Barbri study guides. - The personal study plan is designed in a way which does not factor in you writing notes. Every study task is either reading, watching a lecture or doing quizzes/questions. Nowhere in the personal study plan allows time for writing down notes. Even the learning coaches are encouraging students to NOT make notes until revision time which I find outrageous. - Revision time on my study plan for each topic is set to1 hour. Barbri thinks that you can revise a 300-page long subject in 1 hour - again, laughable. - Barbri will charge you over £300+ if you cannot get an exam slot because of SRA, not because of your own fault. When you select your SQE1 prep course, you also must choose an exam month and year. If you try booking that specific exam and the SRA no longer have spaces, Barbri will ask you for money - this should be illegal!

Enjoyed the BARBRI SQE 1 course but have struggled to get through their SQE 2 course. Their customer service is also absolute garbage.

Barbri had solid outlines and video content but the videos were extremely long. Additionally, although I did pass the bar exam, I did not feel confident going into the exam. I feel the idea of “pressing on” and you’ll learn it later made me extremely anxious prior to the bar.