Whitney M.
5 years out of law school , and I PASSED
I passed, so of course it's 5 stars! I'm a retaker, 5 years out of law school, and I passed the California Bar with BarMax. This course is great for self-motivated test takers. They provide a study schedule for you to follow without the Damocletian progress trackers that ramp up your anxiety. They offer guidance with enough flexibility to adapt your study plan to your own needs (like working part-time in the morning and studying in the afternoon). The best part is you can purchase the course at any time and get immediate access to the materials. Since it had been 5 years since I'd studied any law, I knew I wanted to start early. My BarMax rep gave me the great idea of going through the course once just listening to all the lectures as a refresher. Then, when the traditional start time came around, I went through the course a second time following their study schedule with essays and everything else. That flexibility is a game changer! HIGHLIGHTS: The essay graders are top notch. The turn around is quick and the feedback is truly helpful. Even if you're comfortable with your essay writing, I'd suggest submitting a few practice essays for the feedback. The MBE questions are ALL from previous bars. This is another game changer. As my practice scores got better and better I was confident that that success would transfer to the exam because I was using actual bar questions to practice. The staff are great! I didn't opt for the one on one tutoring, but I was still able to ask the occasional question via the chat feature on the website/app. I usually got an answer in a day or two and the response was always helpful and friendly. I really felt like everyone at BarMax was invested in me passing the bar. CAVEAT: There is a feature to the program that allows you to ask a question related to a specific MBE question. The response time for requests using this feature is too slow to be relied on. When you consider the sheer number of questions they receive across the 1000+ MBE questions they have, it makes sense. However, on most occasions, the question I had, had already been asked and answered by previous exam takers so the feature is still helpful. On the rare occasion my question had not already been asked, I asked it with the understanding that the answer will likely be for future test takers. And again, when I needed an answer sooner I just used the chat feature. All in all, I would recommend this course for anyone who has the motivation to pass, but has no idea where to start. They'll get you started and, if you need it, help you along the way.