Future lawyers preparing for the California bar frequently spend thousands of dollars to take a preparation course such as BarBri. Now there is an iPhone alternative called BarMax CA. The BarMax app costs less than BarBri, but at $999.99, it is now the most expensive app in the App Store. MG Siegler writes an extensive and interesting article on the app in TechCrunch. It seems like a great idea for an app for any iPhone-using lawyer-to-be in The Golden State.
The app was the brainchild of Mike Ghaffary, a 2006 Harvard Law/MBA graduate who was just admitted to the California bar himself in December of 2009. Yesterday, the Above the Law website named Ghaffary its Lawyer of the Day for all of the publicity he has received for this app.
The app is quite large, a full gigabyte. Right now, the largest app on my iPhone is Dragon's Lair, which weighs in at 215 MB thanks to all of the high quality video. Black's Law Dictionary is also large at 152 MB. I believe that the game Myst is over 500 MB and some of the GPS navigation apps with built-in apps are even larger than BarMax. Suffice it to say that you won't be downloading BarMax over a 3G connection.
The large size seems to be worth it, though. You get thousands of pages of materials, hundreds of hours of audio lectures, over a thousand flashcards, 1,371 MBE questions from previous exams categorized by subject, and California practice examples with sample answers. The app also includes exam taking tips and a calendar to plan your exam preparation. And apparently you can make use of the app outside of the app because the website says that you also get a "Welcome packet with all the materials in MS Word format and hard copy printout option."
According to Gizmodo, "there are plans to roll out versions for New York and five other popular states by the end of the year." That site also notes that the developers are working on a $500 version that features only the multiple choice questions.
Not being a California lawyer and not wanting to relive the experience of studying for the bar exam, I decided not to ask for a review copy of this app. However, if you want to try before you buy, the description page on iTunes says that you can send an e-mail to [email protected] to get a free trial version. I would love to hear from anyone who uses this app to prepare for the bar.
Click here for BarMax ($999.99): 
