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Bar Prep

California Bar preparation begins before law school, with the Week One orientation program, where we introduce students to the basic skills necessary for successful comprehension of law school subject matter. Students continue to build the foundation of their legal knowledge and skills throughout all their law school classes.

During the final year of law school, TJSL continues to provide academic counseling, mentoring, and support as students prepare to graduate and take the California Bar Exam. This extends the runway of bar prep into students’ final year of law school instead of it being exclusive to post-graduation. To learn more about Bar Prep and bar-related courses. ASP is vertically aligned to ensure a seamless introduction to bar preparation near the end of students’ law school experience.

At Thomas Jefferson School of Law, we take preparation for the California Bar Exam very seriously. California has an extremely difficult bar exam and we strive to provide our students with the support they need to succeed.

We offer several pre-graduation, for-credit bar preparation courses, including MBE Mastery, Mastering the Performance Test, and Bar Exam Fundamentals. MBE Mastery, taken in the penultimate semester of law school, focuses on the skills necessary to succeed on the multiple choice portion of the bar exam. Bar Exam Fundamentals, taken in the last semester of law school, provides students with an intensive review of critical topics in the subject areas tested on the California Bar Exam. Mastering the Performance Test, an elective, teaches students how to navigate the closed-universe, practical portion of the California Bar Exam.

After graduation, students have the option of participating in any bar program of their choosing. Throughout the bar cycle, we offer support. Our talented bar faculty routinely meet with first-time test takers, coordinate with bar study programs, host a mock bar exam, and review and comment on practice exams to help our graduates succeed on the bar exam.

At TJSL, we will do everything we can to support students and graduates in passing the California Bar Exam on the first attempt.

Partnership with BARBRI®

Thomas Jefferson School of Law has a partnership agreement with BARBRI®. Throughout the student’s enrollment at TJSL in the JD program, students will have access to the following resources:

Access to 1L study aids, including hard copy and digital materials
Access to 2L/3L study aids, including hard copy and digital materials
Access to MPRE study aids, including hard copy and digital materials
Early access to certain BARBRI® study aids that are typically only provided during the bar prep period
Materials and grading during students’ enrollment in Bar Exam Fundamentals
The ability to take the MBE Diagnostic to learn more about their test taking skills
Access to the Bar Review Baseline assessment to understand strengths and weaknesses before starting bar preparation
Access to BARBRI® AMP, an online learning and memorization tool
Seven multiple choice workshops offered across the Fall and Spring semesters, keyed to required courses students are enrolled in

Upon graduation, students will be provided access to a custom BARBRI® Bar Preparation course to guide their studies during the bar preparation period. Students who are enrolled at Thomas Jefferson School of Law for six (6) semesters will not have to pay any tuition fees out-of-pocket for their BARBRI® course. The course is customized to TJSL students’ needs and incorporates features beyond what the average student could receive upon enrolling in a BARBRI® Course including additional graded essays and live, in-person MBE workshops with an MBE expert.

Commercial Bar Support Program

Regardless of which post-graduation bar preparation program alumni choose, TJSL continues to support alumni and supplement the bar review experience. Our bar prep support program supplements the content students receive in BarBri® or any other commercial program. Often alumni receive substantive lectures in a commercial bar preparation program. However, the key to success for any bar taker is practice. As such, we offer the following resources to all of our first-time test takers:

Essay feedback: The ability to submit essays included in a Supplemental Essay Packet, which contains essays for every topic of the bar exam, crossover essays, and a performance test,AND to receive written feedback from our faculty and trained bar graders that will help applicants to not only identify their weak areas but also provide tips for how to improve.
Supplemental workshops: Access to biweekly workshops that will supplement the substantive review received in their commercial bar course. These workshops will focus on both memorization of frequently tested rules and essay writing for each topic. Workshops will also be provided that cover skills necessary to succeed on the bar exam, including how to write a strong answer on the performance test, essay analysis skills, and how to deal with anxiety and stress during a high-stakes exam.
Mentoring: All first-time test takers will be paired with a faculty mentor from the ASP/Bar Prep department. Their mentor will schedule a weekly, 30-minute meeting to support the bar applicant on their path to success by providing advice and guidance on a variety of topics ranging from scheduling, accountability, essay writing, and areas of substantive law.
Mock bar exam:A full-length, graded, mock bar exam will be offered a few weeks prior to the actual exam. The exam will use previous California Bar Exam essay questions and a performance test as well as a simulated 200-question MBE exam across two days. All essays and the performance test will be graded and will be returned to applicants will feedback for how to improve in their final few weeks of study.
Study aids: Access to certain study aids will be provided for free to test takers to supplement the study materials provided by their commercial bar preparation course. Discounts for additional products will be provided as well.

We are committed to helping alumni succeed, regardless of the commercial bar program selected. At TJSL, we simply want our alumni to achieve their goals!

Continuing Support

The Continuing Bar Candidate (CBC) program offered by Thomas Jefferson School of Law demonstrates the school’s commitment to its graduates and their dreams of becoming licensed attorneys. The program is aimed at alumni who were unsuccessful at their first attempt at the California Bar Exam. The program comes at no cost to our graduates.

The CBC program has four components:

Review of candidate Bar letters and Bar graded materials;
Substantive and skill-based lectures and workshops;
The opportunity to submit essays and performance tests for personalized and graded feedback; and
A graded mock bar exam to test the readiness of candidates as they march towards the testing date.

The program is designed so that alumni can participate regardless of whether they are still in San Diego or have moved elsewhere after graduation. Workshops are typically held twice per week via Zoom and are recorded and posted to an online platform that registered participants can access at their convenience.

All alumni of the JD program are welcome to participate in the CBC program. An orientation session starts the program shortly after the previous cycle’s results are released and content is made available to participants at that same time.

For further information, please contact one of our bar prep team.