Commercial Bar Courses
Bar prep is a growing and energized market with new courses and services being developed and offered to students all the time. A recent issue of The National Jurist listed 19 different companies providing bar review services and products! Not all such companies purport to do the same thing. Some companies provide all-encompassing preparation intended to be a student's major/only resource for studying. Other companies offer specific products (like outlines or flashcards or question banks) designed to supplement a bar course, or assist with particular needs.
Comprehensive Bar Review
Almost all bar takers prepare for the exam by enrolling in a comprehensive bar review course. Such courses prepare you for all aspects of the test - with lectures, written materials, study plans, and practice tests.
Helix Bar Review
To assist our students with the costs of bar prep, we are excited to announce a new partnership between the College of Law and Helix Bar Review, by Access Lex Institute - a company with years of providing innovative research, services and products in the education space and now offering students a premiere comprehensive bar review course with exceptional bar pass rates.
Helix Bar Review courses are now available to all Arizona Law students for free or at a deeply discounted price. More information is available through the Bar and Academic Success office on campus. To preview the Helix course, check out this link for a sneak peek.
Commercial bar prep can be very expensive, and this is why we are so pleased to be able to offer bar review to our students through Helix Bar Review.
Why use Helix Bar Review?
Helix Bar Review provides all the necessary resources for success. Helix helps identify your areas of knowledge strength and weakness; replaces long lectures with concise, topic-focused videos and interactive outlines; enhances your experience with modern, diverse, and engaging ways to learn; and utilizes the latest, proven learning science for increased understanding and long-term retention and ready recall — all while providing the most exceptional customer support available.
Every student learns differently, and Helix provides you with every effective tool to help you succeed. The courses allow you to engage with and internalize the substantive law you need to succeed on the bar, while also focusing your studies on practicing exam-like questions to maximize the effectiveness of your study time. In addition to NCBE-licensed questions, Helix-developed additional NCBE-like questions, black letter law knowledge-based questions, and outlines. You'll find checklists, Helix Core Concepts, Helix Issue Highlights, Core Bar Inquiries, substantive law videos, skills-based videos for essays and performance tests, skills-based workshops, intensive workshops called "Pass Classes" that cover each component of the bar exam, flashcards, the Helix Game Center, and more. The Helix Book Bundle is also included with your course enrollment.
Substantively, Helix does more to connect the dots between knowledge of the law (what the law is) and application of the law to bar exam fact patterns. It doesn’t just give users massive outlines on the law and a pile of practice questions — leaving them on their own to link the two. Instead, Helix organizes its substantive materials to walk students through the common ways that the bar exam frames questions, to help students form disciplined approaches to tackling the most challenging legal analyses. And Helix integrates example fact patterns throughout the materials to help students contextualize the legal rules—and what kinds of facts trigger those rules.
In addition, Helix Bar Review outlines cover everything in the NCBE's subject-matter outlines, with greater emphasis on those areas that are more frequently tested and, in the experience of our experts, are more challenging for students. If there's a simple rule to remember in order to answer a bar exam question on a topic, the Helix outline will just state the rule. But where there's a complex set of rules that must all be addressed in a particular sequence to answer a bar exam question on a topic, the materials magnify the analysis step by step, often including checklists of elements or factors at each step.
Not all legal topics are equally tested on the bar exam, and not all legal topics are equally complex. Helix highlights the differences through the structures of the outlines — operationalizing the law for the bar exam.
Lastly, Helix is mobile-responsive so you can use it on any device. It also has its own app, which is available for Apple and Android users.
Other Comprehensive Bar Review Options
If you don't choose to study with Helix, you have many other options available to you. While bar review can run into the thousands of dollars you want to make sure you are comfortable with the program you choose. This expense is an investment in your future and the money you spend on bar study will ultimately be a drop in the bucket compared to your being able to have flexibility with your career choices and enjoy engaging in the enriching practice of law.
Some other major providers of comprehensive bar study include:
Our office does not specifically endorse any given program or particular method of study but would be happy to brainstorm with you, with your individual needs in mind, as to which program of study might best suit your needs.
As you review the options, check out this document for some factors you might want to consider before making a choice: Selecting a bar review company.
Supplemental Materials
Many excellent products and services are available as more of a supplement to your main program of study. These materials are often still expensive, runniong in the hundreds of dollars. These include question banks, flashcards, outlines and study guides. Check out sites such as UWorld Legal, Adaptibar, Smartbarprep, Critical Pass, Bar Prep Hero. Reach out to our staff for more suggestion for how (or if) you need to supplement your main course of study.
Low Cost and Free Resources
Full service bar prep is almost certainly the best route for most students. Please reach out to the Academic and Bar Success office for a free Helix comprehensive bar review course. Even if we are not in a position to offer you a free course, we will be able to offer you a deep discount on Helix Bar Review. In addition, we may be aware of other programs with discounts or specials that may be an option for you.
Before purchasing any bar review or bar study products, you will do well to exercise caution, ask around -- check in with other students and recent graduates for their experiences and use your judgment. Make sure your study path is a trusted and trustworthy one. Please come by for a chat and we can help you design a low-cost approach that can work!
One of the best places to get inexpensive and no-cost test materials is straight from the source: the test-maker. Go to the NCBE website for packets of released sample questions, a free "Bar Now" demo pack and the ability to purchase practice exams al a cart.
You can also find an array of bar prep books in the Bar and Academic Success offices. Other free resources can be helpful -- including podcasts and Youtube channels. Such materials can be beneficial for additional perspectives, study tips and test basics.
Further, the Law Library has a variety of resources and subscriptions to assist you. Notable are resources provided by the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) for bar study materials. Please contact the Law Library for log in credentials. Also see the West Academic Study Aids. Look under "quick links" in the left nav bar on the library's website.
In addition, there may be scholarships and grants available to some students to help defray costs. For instance, the Promising Practice Grant program: Promising Practice Grant | GPSC (arizona.edu)