Why enroll in the Marino Retaker Course? See our frequently asked questions below:
You failed the bar exam and now have to take it again. Maybe you even failed the bar exam more than once. What can you do this time to make sure you pass?
You could just take the same course you took the last time and in fact may be eligible for a tuition discount to redo the same course. Or you could try another bar review’s first time course.
However, neither of these options is the prescription for success on the next bar exam.
Why not? Aren’t bar review courses designed to help me pass?
Yes, bar review courses are designed to help recent law graduates to pass the exam. Their purpose, to provide a review of the substantive topics tested, did not get you a passing result.
Hearing the same review lectures again is not an efficient use of your time nor is it effective.
Think about the quote famously attributed to Albert Einstein, “the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting to get different results.” Using the same bar preparation is not going to help you pass the exam on your next try. You need to take a course designed for students who have previously failed the bar exam.
What about just trying a different first time course?
First time bar review courses, such as Barbri, Kaplan, Themis, etc., are all good courses to “review” the law. They are all similarly designed for students who are fresh out of law school. Using a different “review” company is highly unlikely to produce a different outcome and contributes to the lower pass rate for retakers.
What makes The Marino Retaker Course different than a first time bar review course?
The Marino Retaker Course is the only bar review course designed specifically for the person who has to retake the bar exam. It was created by Professor Joseph Marino, the most well-known educator for unsuccessful bar candidates. He helped thousands of students dramatically increase their scores to pass the bar, including JFK, Jr., who failed twice with two other first time bar review companies before taking Marino.
Unlike a first time bar review course, the Retaker Course does not overwhelm you with hundreds of pages of outlines and 6 hour substantive video lectures for each subject. Your time is spent studying, memorizing and practicing. Drawing from over four decades of experience, Marino has tailored the outlines to specifically identify the rules in each subject that actually get tested on the bar exam. These rules are the rules you need to know to pass the bar exam. Your time will be spent applying the rules to the different components of the bar exam.
But I studied hard last time. Can’t I just study harder this time?
If simply knowing the law was enough to pass, then you would expect retaker pass rates to be higher than first time takers. However, the opposite is true. The fact is the reason most people fail the bar exam is not a lack of substantive knowledge, but rather a fundamental misunderstanding of what to do with all the law they learned and memorized.
This is why we don’t simply provide substantive law, but also train you in specific test taking methodologies that are proven to increase your score. Along with our Marino Memory Booster outlines and condensed MBE lectures, the Marino Retaker Course includes our video workshops that focus on each section of the bar exam as well as one-on-one tutoring. You will learn the Marino MBE Method for approaching each MBE question so that you do not fall into the bar examiners’ traps (such as narrowing down the answer choices to two options, but still picking the wrong one), the Marino Essay Writing Method (Professor Marino famously founded the IRAC essay writing method you likely learned in law school), and the Marino MPT Method for sifting through the clutter to pull out the pertinent facts to quickly and efficiently complete a passing MPT essay.
Moreover, you will receive three sessions with a Marino Certified Bar Exam Tutor who will work with you to create a custom study schedule, ensure that you are learning the law and methodologies, and answer any questions that may come up along the way.
Why is tutoring included in the Marino Retaker Course?
The Marino Retaker Course includes 3 hours of one-on-one tutoring with a Marino-certified tutor. Emily Marino, the director of Marino Tutoring, will select the best tutor for you. Tutoring is an important component of the Retaker Course. The tutor will keep you on schedule, making sure you understand Marino’s test-taking strategies and are correctly applying them to the practice questions and essays in the course. Working with our tutor will make a significant difference in your bar exam performance.
How do our financing plans work?
Some students who are unable to pay in full for the $1,695 price of the Marino Retaker Course find it easier to split up the payment over a few months. An initial payment of $700 is required to activate a student’s Retaker Course. The remaining balance can be split up into monthly installments leading up to the bar exam. The entire balance must be remitted by the time the student sits for the bar exam. If you are interested in financing your retaker course, please call us at 212-249-3779 to make arrangements to do so.