BARBRI Launches iPhone Application Update: Full-Service Bar Review on Your Mobile Device

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Not long after the BARBRI Challenge launch, a free iPhone and iPod Touch application, BARBRI has enhanced the application to include a full-service bar review course that allows enrolled students to access video and audio lectures on an iPhone or iPod touch mobile device.

OVERVIEW
The BARBRI Mobile application gives students with an iPhone or iPod touch the ability to answer thousands of StudySmart MBE questions as well as study BARBRI’s Conviser Mini-Review. The BARBRI app closely tracks progress, compares performance to thousands of bar exam takers nationwide and provides individual feedback throughout the study process.

The application also helps law students prepare for final exams. Enrolled students can watch exam review lectures, work multiple choice questions or review outlines. The application also includes professional responsibility materials for students who are taking the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). These materials include an MPRE lecture, StudySmart questions and mini-review content.

To help make the BARBRI app accessible to more law students, BARBRI is offering a tuition credit to enrolled students who purchase an iPhone or iPod touch and download the BARBRI app. According to the BARBRI Moble website, students who don't have an iPhone or an iPod Touch have the option to lease an iPod touch. Also, if you're not enrolled in BARBRI, you're out of luck. This application is only available to currently enrolled students. It cannot be purhcased seperately.

THE DIRT
BARBRI has packed a number of very interesting features throughout this application. There are four main areas of the application and a home area as well. The four areas are Lectures, Mini Reviews, Tests and Results.

In the Lectures area, users can download and review lectures on all topics and have the choice between dowloading audio or video lectures. You'll need to be on a WiFi network to dowload video lectures. Audio is available on 3G. This is a great option if you're trying to conserve resources on your device or if watching a talking head doesn't interest you.

In the Tests feature, answer choices are timed and a classic MBE question format is used. Here, you can select your subject, complete a test and get general analytics on your performance. This will be handy for students who are interested in knowing which subjects need more work and review. The explanations in the Tests are are brief but well stated. Users can review the explanations to wrong answers immediately after answering the question.

The Results feature just might be one of my favorites. Maybe that's because it adds a dynamic to bar exam review that is missing from non-electronic bar exam study methods. The Results feature includes three sub-areas: Proficiency, Rank and Time. The Proficiency area lets you track your performance and figure out which areas are your strongest and which are your weakest. Here, users can also view an average time per question stat. The Rank feature lets you compare your performance with other application users and seems to be much like the class raking system, only here you're class ranking pool includes all other application users. Nothing like a little competition to motivate the highest percentile ranking for yourself. The Time area covers the same average time per question (by area) information as the Proficiency area, but also includes tracking of questions marked for review and lets you review specific wrong and right answers.

The Mini Reviews area is, essentially, the Conviser Mini-Review. The added convenience here is after selecting a general subject, say Torts, you can then select topics within that subject (Negligence). Just an enhanced way of studying the Conviser.

CONCLUSION
After using this application on and off for a few days, I can see that the full-service BARBRI application will be a great supplemental tool for some students. One area where the application is lacking is the process of answering questions using paper. Nothing beats practice that emulates the real MBE format of paper and and a pencil. If you mark your question facts up to organize your approach, answering MBE questions electronically will be a downside. On the other hand, the application makes up for this issue by making the access to explanations so convenient. Another deficiency is real estate on a mobil device. You'll have to scroll through questions, answers and explanations, which is a slight distraction. However, the fact that all of this content and these features are now available on a mobile device outshines the inherent issue of real estate on a small screen. Also, a valuable tool with all of the content you'll need can be a great motivator to study more if you need a break from grinding it out at a desk and some good motivational features and analytics.

The BARBRI app is available from the App Store on iPhone and iPod touch.

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