Thread: California bar exam tutor: Whitney Roberts vs Vivian Dempsey

I would like to hear any feedback from former students of Whitney Roberts and Vivian Dempsey. They both sound very good and I need you to break it down for me. Thank you.
Category: CA - California Bar Exam

They are both pretty good and not inexpensive. Dempsey has really good strategy and tactic that are helpful to many, yet not detailed enough for those who need more help with substantive law.

Whitney Roberts holds seminars and is training a group of tutors. Her tutors are pretty good, but Roberts does not privately tutor anymore. You can get her book (Cheat Sheet in Action) or attend her weekend seminar. As a former bar grader, she does offer some good tips.

I think either one of them will be fine:)

if your issues are primarily substantive, i would suggest making your own flashcards based on the answers to MBEs in the PMBR books. this was extremely useful in my own preparation for two recent bars.
also just doing MBE's (50 or so a day) really helps solidify the black letter law.


(p.s. we offer one-on-one tutoring packages at more competitive rates than the companies you mentioned. ----www.lawtutors.net--- now in California)

Go with Vivian.

Your opinion would carry a bit more weight if it was not posted Anonymous and across multiple posts. Seems a bit spammy.

For LA students, I heard Vivian will sometimes show video recorded lectures instead of actually appearing. Not sure if she's worth all that $$$ for a video lecture.

If you walked down a hallway and fell in a hole and broke your leg, after you got out of the hole would you warn others about the hole? Maybe put a sign up a couple feet from the hole warning others about the hole?

Vivian's class is a hole. I fell hard and lost $5K from her most unhelpful class. You've been warned!

Originally Posted by Anonymous

Go with Vivian.

Don't go with Vivian.

Dunno about WR. Took VD last year. She is too old to teach. She used to be a bar grader (only for PT's) but that was over 20 years ago. She teaches from really outdated materials.

Did a con law essay for homework for VD and I thought her model answer about a topic was wrong. When I asked VD to explain her answer she said, "I don't have time for this." I then asked Chemerinsky b/c I wanted to understand her model answer. Chemerinsky said she was wrong and explained why. When I told VD about the error, she got really upset with me.

Took Vivian in the fall of 2009. Great, Great class and instructor. She is the only class I have ever taken. I raised my "raw written" score by 80 pts after taking her class, and I anticipate another jump of at least 5pts per essay and PT this time around. The procedure she teaches for taking the essays and PT is like cheating. At one point during her class I actually told her that her class was like cheating. Of course there is no way to actually cheat the California Bar Exam, but when you know her technique for writing the PT's, you'll understand what I mean.
Too old? Why would you say that? Vivian is not a track athlete, she is a thinker, analyzer, reasoner. How could she be too old? Don't take cheap shots at her, makes you look like a bitter bonnie.
Outdated info? When you take her class she will show you all of the actual issues tested by the Ca.Bar exam over the past 30yrs....PEOPLE, the issues are repeated over and over again. I mean it is a standardized test, meaning everybody must have the same answers, so they cannot test surprise issues.
Money issue? I'm a poor boy from the bad part of town, and so coming up with the 5K was hard for me too. But, watching my dumber class-mates make hundreds of thousands of dollars while I study is harder. OK, the deal with the money is that you can pay half down and half in 5-6 weeks latter. I actually had a problem with my second payment and she did not kick me out of the class and worked with me...so the talk about Vivian being more interested in the money is totally incorrect
Advice to make class better. 1-take class as soon as possible. try to take class while in law school, heck before law school. 2-know the black letter law before her class. 3-Ask her for extra "sample test and model answers", she has them. 4-have her grade as many tests as you can possibly do in the class time frame. 5-believe...- - probably the biggest thing. Many of these people complaining have taken so many other classes, they are totally scatter brain. I talked to some of these types in her class and it is sad because they don't believe any of their former instructors either.
REFERRAL - If you want to pass the California Bar Exam, you must take Vivian. In fact when I pass in November, I would like to pay for a scholorship so that another person in my spot can take her class....that is how strongly I feel about her class.
Charles.