Thread: Looking for a good New York Bar Exam Tutor - is Joseph Marino good?

His name popped up in my Google ads. I was wondering if anyone has used him and can give me some insight into whether to hire him as my tutor or not.

thanks
Category: NY - New York Bar Exam

Professor Joseph Marino is the Director of Marino Bar Tutors. He personaly trains and supervises all Tutors. Kind of like Whitney Roberts you know, they tutor tutors, but I don't think they really tutor bar exam takers personally anymore ;)

Hi
I was doing a Google search and saw your post. My availability as a tutor is limited. I have been preparing people for the bar exam for 34 years. I have gained the reputation as the go to person when you need to pass. Most bar tutors supplement their income and are high end amateurs. Students do not know who the tutor is. There is no standard; anyone can decide to earn a few extra bucks by tutoring. Marino Bar Tutors are professionals. They have been trained and are supervised by me. When you come to me I or my wife (in the business nearly 30 years) we will evaluate your needs (personally interview you) and set you up with the right tutor and the right course of study. Check me out at Marinobartutors.com, http://nyls.edu/pages/2683.asp, Barbri.com go to NY faculty, MICLE.net.
Good luck,
JLM

Just wanted to let you know that, if Mr Mariono's tutoring is limited, LawTutors just opened offices in New York. We do not yet have seminars in NY, but we do offer one on one tutors.

www.lawtutors.net

Hi
The reply from lawtutors posted to my email. I am confident they have good intentions. But this is the illustration of what I said in my email. I am a premier legal educator. A Marino tutor must pass my standards and be trained by me in proprietary approaches that have work for thousands of students. Some of my tutors have 20 plus years experience. It is my reputation you are relying on. We are not a referral site. When you come to Marino you deal with a Marino. When you are assigned a tutor they will be a professional educator that has a track record of success.
Again I wish the best on passing the bar.
JLM

Sounds like the Marino method displeased some people

I did the BarBri Essay program in NY (Marino) and thought it was a waste
of time. They give you extra essays and while there is a good benefit
to having 2 or 3 extra essays graded, I thought the time would have
been better spent on other tasks (for the record, my essay scores
went down trying Marino's method).

I... Yeah these bar courses are doing great job of financially
raping us and what sucks is that the Bar Review Course market is
BOOMING right now. I checked out BarBri's web site and they now offer
personal tutoring services for $150 per hour (last year there was no
such page on the NYBarBri web site). No longer will free web sites
like these...Next year, one will probably have to PAY a nominal fee to access
information like what is on that web site or get basic info that all
of us are throwing around here for free (like MBE percentages, etc).
Apparently its not enough that some states like FL, CA and NJ charge
a whopping $ 500 or more to sit for their stupid exam that ends up in
a 50% pass rate. They sure know how to squeeze us dry, don't they....

That's not fair... he is good at something.. like predictions

I have to respectfully disagree with you about the value of
predictions. For example, BarBri in New York provides a supplemental course
called NY Essay Advantage. A man named Professor Marino teaches it.
Directly off of NYBarBri's website they advertise this course with:

1 Learn Professor Marino's four step essay writing method

*2 Learn how to write an essay on the issues and rules most frequently
tested

3 Learn how to write an essay answer even when you do not recall the
applicable law being tested

*4 Find out which issues Professor Marino believes will appear on the next
New York Bar Exam



Most people I know, including my self, really only take this course for the
predictions.



The year I took the course, 2001, he predicted one essay topic,
domestic relations, right on the nose, and he also predicted several
sub-issues elsewhere. In fairness, he also made a number of false
predictions. My understanding is that he bases his predictions on what are
the hot topics in law during the few months when the bar exam is being
written and a complicated analysis of what was topics have been tested over
the years. The extra time I spent studying his predictions, I think, paid
off. On that one domestic relations essay, I felt like I had already
written it beforehand.



I agree that spending your time studying only things that
"someone" predicts will be on the bar exam is way too dangerous and foolish,
but a well reasoned and thought out prediction can be beneficial. As study
time runs out, if one needs to choose what areas of difficulty to spend the
remaining time on, a prediction can be a useful tool.

Seth G.

Joseph Marino is a terrible professor. Do not take him for tutoring or essay advantage. His "predictions" stunk. I passed the New York Bar but his predictions for the July 2007 Exam were completely off (don't allow him to engage in spin). A friend took his February 2008 retaker course and told me it was awful. Marino, apparently runs out of time when he takes a MBE. He said this on the first day of class and repeated it. He got the course because of his father's name. His predictions on February were even worse. He predicted no professional responsibility and predicted that their would be property instead of domestic relations. He claimed contracts would likely involve anticipatory repudiation and that wills would involve a trusts essay. Look on the NY Bole website and see how close his predictions were.

He does not care about his students and the one time I tried to e-mail him I never received a response. Given that his tutors are trained by him, it is unlikely that they are any good.

I was searching for Marino Bar Tutors and found this link. I have to disagree with the criticism. My and my friends experience with Prof Marino has been nothing but terrific. He is an excellent teacher and cares about his students.

He tells students up front not to take the writing class for the predictions. It is a gratuitous element that sometimes he hits and sometimes does not. He spends less than an hour of the entire course and if he does hit it is great. His class is about teaching how to maximize points when we know the law and how to get points when you don’t. He even teaches you how to make up rules the bar examiners will accept when you do not know the law. He has approaches and tricks that my friends said worked on the bar. I have not yet taken the exam however I want to be tutored by one of his trained tutors.

He was the guy that got John Kennedy, Jr. to pass the exam after failing with BarBri, Pieper and PMBR (now Kaplan).

In 1999 NYLS where Marino teaches had a 58% NY bar pass rate. The school asked him to do something about it. Last year the pass rate was 95%. NYLS was fifth in the state outperforming Brooklyn, St. John’s and all but the ivy’s.

The reason I want to be tutored by his tutors is he created a class at NYLS that students are assigned a Marino Bar Tutor and get 5 or 10 hours of one on one tutoring. My friends told me they are professionals and know what they are doing.

I have to also respectfully disagree with some of the comments. I think Joe Marino is great.

Hi

For me and my friends his Essays Advantage things SUCKS!!! We took at Bar Bri NY and most of the students QUITTED for the 2nd class...
Nevertheless I have to be honest the best of his Essay thing was the time managment for the exam but the rest was a waste of time and money two things that you won't have

Unfortunately I didn't pass the Bar Exam so I'm trying to get a retaker course to do a review. And with Bar Bri his retaker is the only avaialable I took one class and the true I rather re take the 32+ classes -which I hate!!- than his program...

HUGE waste of time and money!!! Please won't do that

Good luck