Bar Prep as a Balancing Act: The Process, Pitfalls, and Payoffs of Juggling Multiple Commercial Bar Review Resources

AccessLex Institute^® undertook a study to understand how Spring 2025 law graduates leveraged commercial bar review resources to prepare for the July 2025 bar exam. Across three surveys administered in April 2025, August 2025, and January 2026, we explored the graduates’ intended and actual use of commercial bar review resources, their approaches to allocating time among bar review resources, and whether those approaches resulted in bar exam success. The data yield a few key observations:

• Nearly all respondents used a commercial bar review course in combination with one to three supplemental resources, ramping up the number of hours they spent studying as they approached the bar exam.
   
• Graduates most often reported choosing supplemental resources to fill a perceived gap in their commercial bar review course or preparation experience. MBE question banks were the most popular and valued supplemental resource among survey respondents.
   
• While most graduates reported they would use the same commercial bar prep course if they could do it all over again, many did not report the same for certain supplemental resources. MBE question banks, study aids, and paper outlines/one-pagers were more likely to be reused than flashcards and tutors.
   
• Using more than one commercial bar review course has a negative relationship with first-time bar passage, while using a comprehensive course in combination with at least one supplemental resource has a slightly positive relationship with bar passage. Neither relationship is statistically significant when controlling for other factors. On the other hand, the percentage of course completion has a positive, statistically significant relationship with bar passage.
   
• Most graduates who used more than one commercial bar review course would not recommend the same strategy to others. Overall, most respondents advise using one commercial bar review course in combination with one or two supplemental resources.

These findings are based on a subset of law graduates who registered for online education services available from AccessLex Institute and are not representative of the full population of Spring 2025 law graduates. However, these respondents’ perspectives offer valuable insight into how recent law graduates select and use commercial bar review resources. Overall, our findings suggest that a focused approach to bar prep could be more advantageous to first-time bar passage than one that deviates too far from the study plan of a single commercial bar review course.