$1000 iPhone law exam review app sends traditional publisher running for cover

I think with the iPad the caca is about to hit the rotary oscillator, I know a low end iPad at $499, will go far to start. I know there were many a quarter that I spent that on books, though smart money didnt buy books because half the time one never touched them so it was just a way for the college to make money.

You've never studied for a bar exam, apparently.

Barbri's response isn't to this iPhone app, it's to Kaplan/PMBR offering a full bar prep course for roughly $1200 less than barbri. In addition they offer unlimited online lectures and they're big hook was they offer a money back guarantee which they compared directly to barbri, who charged students an additonal $1000 to retake the course if they failed. Not that I'm advocating for either program but Barbri could care less about a no-name iphone app bar prep, they're worried about another major testing provider getting into they're space.

Actually, BarBri introduced a trial version of their Bar software last fall for some of us law students to demo. Their software release had nothing to do with BarMAX.

Can't for the new pricing structure to confront the groves of academe. A $10,000 accredited BA? Why not?

It's not as wide of a game changer as you claim.

Micromash has offered book and software based br prep for about $1000 for years. If you complete their software and do the assignments as required, they guarantee you'll pass.

What's game changing, if anything about this is that Barbri responded to BarMax, on the iPhone.

BarBri is not the entire business, nor is BarMax anything other than the first group to put a full blown bar prep course on the iPhone.

Using software, and the $1000 price point has been available for a long, long, long, time. Michigan, New York, and several other large scale jurisdictions have long had $500-$1000 local bar prep options, as well.

BarBri has always been the price point you state when you take the lecture classes. You've always had a lower price option if you just self-studied the books.

So, there's really nothing changing in the industry other than BarBri realized it needed an iPhone app, too. Much of the decision is more likely predicated on the iPad coming.

Not to mention that they won't have to collect the books as they always have with the lecture option.

No, the only thing that changed is that BarBri can now use DRM to wipe out your books instead of refunding the $50 deposit fee and they can give video lectures instead of paying an instructor in every major city to conduct the classes.

Too bad PMBR got shafted years back. Feingold would have made the best iPhone app for bar prep, hands down. He could entertain.

BarBri used to give you no more than 6 sessions online, after that you had to pay for them.
There's no reason for them not to have done this years ago. The classes are all taped and sent around via DVD except for one live location per state.

Why not let students watch it on their computer at their leisure instead of having a set time in an auditorium...stupid stupid stupid.

I hope BarBri bites it hard on this

As someone who has used BarBri to prepare for two (separate) state bar exams, and who worked for BarBri as a student rep, this is significant. BarBri was a great prep for the exams, but the cost is certainly something that deters users from the add ons. Over the years they have become the largest if not only prep course in some states and may have gotten to the point that some competition of this type (technological and pricing) was the only thing that would push them to change their offering and pricing.