Don't succumb to Barbri's efforts at free research!

One of my friends who is taking the Texas bar told me that he has already had the Barbri 3-day. As you Barbri takers are probably aware, the test is in the book marked "Simulated MBE" and the answers are in the back as they are in all of the PMBR and Barbri books. What surprised me, though, is that he said that you have to turn in your answer sheet so Barbri can grade it. No, you don't.

Much like the SAT, LSAT, and now the MBE do with their test takers is create bogus sections so they can determine the testability of various things (these are also known as the "experimental" sections, which don't count for anything). While that is all well and good for the test takers, it is a perfect example of companies trying to get something for nothing. Here, they are using people who have paid them to take their test (and the various schools/services that the test takers have to pay to get the results) to get free research. As anybody who has taken Economics 101 knows, "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch." Yet, that is exactly what Barbri is trying to do and is largely accomplishing.

My marketing research experience does not compare to that of a professor I had who worked for some big econometric firm that processed clients like Ford, Bic, and the like. He told us once that the amounts of money that these companies pay firms like his to better understand their market share is staggering. And for good reason. Customer retention is big business. So is developing a product that sells.

So when I hear Barbri wants to capitalize on us poor unknowing law students by "grading" our scantron sheets for us, it is infuriating. It's no wonder they are being broken up as a monopoly and for good reason. At least the lawyers against them have shown that their piddly offer at settlement is not fair and rejected it. I would have jumped on this bandwagon also, but I'm just one year too late. Other bloggers have commented more intelligently on the Barbri lawsuit saga than me.

Bottom line, don't let Barbri grade your test. It accomplishes nothing. Except save them some money, the savings of which they certainly aren't passing on to their customers.

Tags: barbri 3-day, barbri lawsuit, barbri settlement rejected, barbri scantron