Why do you hate me, BarBri?
I made you that pie!!!
I'd like to take a moment to thank Danielle and Josh, the BarBri Student Reps in our class, for actually getting shit done the way it's supposed to. As I've read Girl Walks Into A Bar, and all the other CA bar blogs, I've just assumed that BarBri only sucks out west... but that for whatever reason, they're much better back here.
Well they're not. Apparantly Danielle and Josh are just a blissful exception to an incompetent norm. And I don't throw accusations like that around very often - I have tremendous respect for anyone who works in any kind of service related industry, where personal interaction with your clientelle is required. That being said, If Bill Bucker was in the afternoon BarBri class today, he would have been the first to say "How the fuck can you fuck up something so simple?"
I'm just lucky to have reps with their shit together in the morning class that I usually go to. But today I had to go to the afternoon class because I had an orientation for my clerkship that starts in September. As an aside, I'd like to know who the f'n genious is that decided 7/12 and 7/22 were acceptable dates to ask all of your hires - who are all studying for the bar - to take a morning off to swing by and fill out some paper work for a few hours. Anyway, so I had to go to the afternoon BarBri class so I could tell my county that yes I would like health insurance, but no, I do not know which plan I want or which plans my doctor accepts. This wouldn't be such a terrible burden if it didn't involve sprinting to the train station, and then hustling to Brooklyn to make the afternoon class - an hour and a half commute each way.
And it wouldn't have that bad if when I got there, the BarBri reps had the fucking Agency video!!! I got all the way to Brooklyn, just to find out they didn't have the fucking video. "But don't worry," they suggested, "we're just gonna play tomorrow's Domestic Relations video."
Dear BarBri reps in the afternoon section,
What kind of stupid ass solution is that? You know the hand out we were supposed to use today for Agency? If I fill in the blanks to my Agency outline with the lecture notes from tomorrow's Domestic Relations lecture, will I understand a damn thing about either of them?
Seriously now, I understand that you guys are students just like us, but what the fuck good does this solution do anyone. There isn't even a fill-in-the-blank outline for Domestic Relations, which means that everyone needs 1) Blank paper, or 2) a laptop, with which to take notes, or 3) as I suggested earlier, to just fill in the blanks on the Agency outline.
Nobody needs this aggravation right now, and if the video is missing, it's the fault of a BarBri rep that is either in the building now, or was this morning and will be again tomorrow. So get on the goddam phone! Many of us commute to get here... many more were studying before they left, and faced with the option of hacking away with a pen and unlined printer paper at a lecture that we wanted to use our laptops for, or just taking an afternoon off from class to study our own material, probably would have chosen the latter.
So what the fuck are you thinking?
Jerk wrote this instead of exercising @ 3:38 PM
11 Comments:
Hey Jay, I have my NY agency notes from last summer on my laptop. I cannot imagine they have changed that much. I also have pretty decent notes for DOM REL. I can email them to you if you want. TSCGirl AT comcast DOT net
Wow, that's crazy! Everyone moans and complains about our reps, because they ALWAYS check our IDs, like ALWAYS, but other than that, they've been on the ball. No missing videos. Yeesh!
First off...damn you (and congrats) for having a job, while us lowly people scrounge around praying that someone will employ us. In the meantime we are forced to be barbri reps to eat and survive...
But yes...Danielle and I rock!! Be sure to tell that to Barbri so they can give us some extra cash...or more free cookies...
Sorry to hear about your terrible experience today...I bet tomorrow you will be back in the greatest Barbri room ever...and Danielle and I will be sure to lose the tapes just for you...
I'm a BAR/BRI rep for my course.
Imagine having to go to every SINGLE class, every SINGLE day, and having to be on time to every SINGLE BAR/BRI class this summer. There's no option, there's no getting up late, there's no excuses.
We're trying to study too, mind you. We aren't BAR/BRI employees first, we're students first. Yet, you all miss class left and right and bug the SHIT out of us for videotapes on e-mail and via phone, bug us for information from BAR/BRI that they don't give us (they're just as shitty with us as they are with you), and cut us no slack because we are your outlets for your BAR/BRI anger.
For instance, on the day of the simulated MBE, I had to carry two large boxes from my car with the MBE test books. Did anyone help me? No. Did I get all hot and sweaty and frazzled because it's summer in the Midwest? Yes. And someone had the nerve to write on one of their reviews "our rep was late like, 3-4 times, at least, and class started late." I have very VERY legitimate reasons as to why I was late 2 times (yes, two, I'm positive), and one of them included carrying boxes from my car at 8:50 am on less than 4 hours of sleep without help...and my car was parked down the street, there was nothing closer. But I was accessible as fuck to the people in my BAR/BRI class - did anyone say anything about that? Just one of them. Makes me wish I hadn't gone to great lengths for anyone as a rep - for that mere comment that I was "late 3-4 times."
So the fact that a video tape was "lost" (and it seems, later found) seems quite normal when most of you can't keep your own heads on straight and barely stumble into class by 9:00. Imagine having to be responsible for running that class when we feel just as shitty as you do.
Maybe that'll clear things up a bit.
Wow, we had a real full-time BarBri employee who came to our class every day and took our abuse. I assumed it was like that for everyone but since we had the live lectures, I guess the video-only locations are totally run by the students?
That just seems totally unfair to them, to have to be fielding student complaints and that kind of shit. While they're studying for the Bar. Lame.
Ack! My head hurts! This sounds way too complicated.
Thank you, Roonie, well said! We are all student-run here, too, and trust me - we get about as much information as the rest of you do, which is not much. We get no training, either, or access to any storage facility full of great problem-solving tools for situations like the one you mentioned ... you know how you are really frazzled right now, and the smallest problems can seem like insurmountable mountains? And the solutions you come up with are usually not the best ones because your mind is not really working at optimum levels? Well, your reps are going through the same thing. Chances are it is not their fault the freaking tape was not in the place it is supposed to be, and chances are they did "get on the GD phone" which is why the tape was "found" shortly after you left ... which, incidently, the post about how they "found" the tape (in quotes, like you think they are lying) shows the damned if you do, damned if you don't position of the reps. Perhaps bar applicants are going to be angry and derisive no matter what, but that does not make them any easier to deal with or make it any easier when people who you had previously considered friends are screaming at you over something that you had nothing to do with and almost no resources to fix. We don't make the schedule, we don't pick the lecturers, we don't book the rooms, we don't make the rules, and we don't pick what days we check tags ... we are just trying to get through this too, and doing the best we can with the very few tools and the very little information they give us.
Wow...I can't believe you reps are venting so much...the poor guy is just complaining that trained monkeys can do the job of an administrator. I too am an administrator, and although the stupid tape was missing today (I blame Jay for this all by the way...) it still is someone's screw-up. Although I know it wasn't my screw-up, the administrator in charge should have seen there was no tape when she is supposed to get there (at 8:30) and should have called the office at 8:30, and a new tape should have been here within 45 minutes...
Roonie and anonymous need to chill. Jay is totally right that it is someone's screw-up for not having the tape...that is someone's job...be it the adminstrator of Barbri.
If Roonie and anonymous have such a hassle from the people in their room, they should do what I do...bitch and moan louder than anyone else in the room...then everyone knows that I am more pissed then they are
I think the problem is that people are blaming the reps when the issue is that BarBri is failing the students by not administering the classes properly.
For people paying $3K a head, it's just not excusable for BarBri to rely on people who are also studying for the Bar to be finding the tapes, dealing with problems that come up, etc.
There should be a regular BarBri employee (not a Bar-taker) *every* day at *every* location to get everything set up and make sure things are running smoothly, with the power to fix it when things go wrong.
There's just really no excuse for failing to do this.
Agreed, GG. I had no idea people were going to give me such a hard time just to push play on the f*cking videotape. But they do. And I tried to quit the position, but they wouldn't let me. By "let me," I'm sure they could've revoked my tuition waiver and made me pay for the course or something. There would've been repercussions. I tried to stay as low-key as possible, but didn't always work. I've never once whined and complained about it until right here, earlier on. I completely disagree with their system, wouldn't have done it again, hate BAR/BRI to death.
Thanks GG, and I had the exact same experience, Roonie (this is anonymous from above - the other rep). I had no clue it was going to be like this because I had run other things for BarBri, seminars and things, and it was not a big deal ... so I never would have done it, money be damned Jay, if I would have had a clue beforehand. And we could all go on about how most places don't have administrators, Josh, or even BarBri offices in their state which means you are usually doing things on your own without support or anyone else to blame it on other than the absent night rep ... but Jay is right in that it is all pointless at this point. Just be nice to your reps, and good luck on the bar.
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