Test Prep Insight is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more
BarMax vs Themis Bar Review
An in-depth comparison of the bar review courses from Themis and BarMax
When bar review courses cost as much as used cars, it can be hard trying to choose one. It is a lot of money, and it’s a decision you don’t want to screw up. If you’ve narrowed your research down to BarMax and Themis, we’ve got you covered. We’ve purchased, used and reviewed both bar prep courses in detail. In this guide, we break down how they stack up side-by-side so you can make a final decision on which is best for you.
As this is a lengthy comparison, we’ve included jump-to links above for your convenience.
Video Review: Should You Choose Themis or BarMax?
In the video above, Test Prep Insight team member John (a California attorney) discusses the pros and cons of each bar review course. Please keep reading for more information.
To keep this video narrowly focused on directly comparing these two bar review courses, my plan is simply to cover the major differences between them and where I see each being better than the other. Let’s begin with BarMax.
More Streamlined Curriculum & Content
The first advantage for BarMax is that they have a more efficient curriculum. In short, BarMax offers less coursework and practice material than Themis overall, and your assignments everyday are much leaner. Yet, I actually like this.
BarMax flashcards
If I’m just being honest, it felt to me like Themis loaded on too much work. While your daily assignments with Themis might take you 8 or 9 hours to finish, you can generally get the BarMax daily assignments done in about 6 or so hours.
It’s a much more streamlined course, and personally, I really this approach as you still have a little mental bandwidth left at the end of each day to do some extra practice problems or flip through your outlines a few times. I appreciated the leanness of the BarMax curriculum.
Better Black Letter Law Outlines
I love the BarMax black letter law outlines. Rather than using on demand video lectures as the foundation of your instruction like Themis, BarMax actually makes their outlines the basis of your coursework.
Everything revolves around the outlines: the synced audio lectures, drills, flashcards, and practice problems. It’s all designed around the structure of the black letter law outlines.
Sample BarMax black letter law outline
All of these materials are grouped into learning modules based on the sections in your outlines, and I really like this. As exam day gets closer, your outlines become the basis of your studying in those final couple weeks, and the fact that everything distills down into them really helps you memorize the material.
Insightful Problem Explanations
Another advantage for BarMax is their problem explanations. I am a huge fan of the BarMax problem explanations. All of the solutions that come with their MBE problems are really strong.
They provide detailed analysis of why the correct answer choice is correct, as well as why the incorrect answer choices are incorrect. That way, you can get a better understanding of where you are wrong, or confirm why you are right. I love the detail in these explanations and think they’re really valuable.
Typical BarMax problem explanation
To be fair, I would like to see BarMax add more MBE practice problems directly into each learning module as assessments, as a lot of times the handful of problems they give you to reinforce the lessons just didn’t feel like enough, but the quality of the explanations is very good.
More Affordable
The last win for BarMax is cost. This is a pretty simple point: the BarMax course is a lot more affordable than Themis’ course.
BarMax’s standard bar review course prices out at around $1,900, while the comparable course from Themis costs around $2,700. Thus, right out of the gate you’re looking at saving around $800 by going with BarMax over Themis.
Not to mention, even with that price disparity, BarMax is still really aggressive with their sales and special promotions, while Themis isn’t as active, kind of widening that pricing gap a little further.
Having covered BarMax’s advantages, let’s change gears and discuss Themis. I have them winning in three categories.
Effective Prep Books
The clearest highlight of the Themis course is the set of prep books they provide. In short, the Themis books are extremely good. They give you six books for your prep, including lecture handouts, outlines and books of practice problems.
Not to get off topic, but the thing with bar study is that you need to learn and retain information in a way that makes recall really easy. When you’re trying to remember things on test day, you don’t have time to rack your brain for an answer.
Themis Bar Review prep books
You need to mentally index key principles and rules, so that you can boost your recall speed and power. And for me, the way everything in the Themis books distills down really helps with that.
They’re well-organized, contain smart points, use effective acronyms, and provide a strong medium for reinforcing the content you’re learning. All in all, these are some of the best bar review books I’ve used.
Live Workshops Are Great
The second advantage for Themis is their workshop series. This is one of the best features of the Themis course.
While much of the Themis content revolves around content review, they also offer a number of live workshops that focus on test taking strategy.
You get a workshop for each subject tested on the MBE, as well as MEE and MPT specific workshops. For me, the MEE workshop is actually really useful, as it teaches you how to approach essay outlining and structuring your responses.
These live workshops aren’t nearly the same as full-on live classes, but they are definitely a nice benefit.
Structure of Daily Assignments
The final noteworthy highlight of the Themis course is assignment structure. I actually really like Themis’ structure of Prime → Present → Practice. It’s a pretty classic framework that works well and adds value.
Themis Bar Review practice problem
To be clear, I do like BarMax’s structure as well, which is based on learning modules around their outlines, but the Themis daily assignments are very effectively designed. Each study day has a nice flow to it, and I thought it was a smart way of boosting material retention, even if the days are a little long.
When you look at the different factors that truly matter when grading out bar courses, I do think BarMax gets an edge over Themis. I understand that Themis is the bigger name in bar prep, and they do have some strong features like live workshops and detailed prep books, but at the end of the day, I would use BarMax.
I think their black letter law outlines are much better; they have a more streamlined and lean course curriculum; and their review sessions are more effective with better problem explanations. Additionally, I like that BarMax costs almost a grand less. Therefore, at the end of the day, I would go with BarMax.
FAQ
Is BarMax or Themis better for bar review?
After using and reviewing the bar review courses from both Themis and BarMax, we believe that BarMax offers a better course. Though Themis does have some nice features (like workshops and solid books), BarMax has the better overall course.
Is Themis Bar Review good?
Themis is not my favorite bar review course. I’ve used and reviewed several bar prep packages at this point, and Themis is pretty far down the list. Though they market themselves as the smart alternative to Barbri, I found their curriculum and teaching methodology to be rather lacking.
How many practice problems does Themis give you?
Themis provides 4,000+ MBE practice problems, as well as over 100 practice essays and MPT prompts. It is a very respectable amount of practice material.
