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[patentagentstudent]

Hello folks
I have a lmited budget of $1000 for patent bar course (if pushed, I may take longacre for $1500). I got burned by omniprep which does not have much info. So am back in the market with reduced budget. I was inclined to take Patbar but I am told that omniprep and patbar are similar.
What I am looking for the course is
a) simplified explanation of the various concepts including highlighting the various scenarios possible in a given situation
b) some mnemonics and tips on what to remember and what not
c) guidelines on what is often tested and what is not (it should be much more deeper than sayign that 700 is tested a lot - need to know what is tested within 700)

Omniprep is a rehash of MPEP without explanation. If Patbar is same, then I will perhaps explore longacre .
Can someone please provide feedback.
I am a novice in patent bar with no experience working in law firm. I therefore cannot fall back on anyone to explain if I get confused on some topic.
Thanks

[patentagentstudent]

I just wanted to add that I purchased omniprep based on the discussion on this forum. However, it turns out that the course may be better suited to people who already have experience in patent industry / law. I could not understand the terms that they used without providing any explanation. So please consider providing your input assuming that the student has had no prior experience in patent and needs explanation of what may be considered as basic terms in the industry

[Interen]

As someone just passed the patent bar and had no prior patent experience at all, I recommend you to buy and read this book before starting any course.

http://www.amazon.com/Patent-Law-Third-Aspen-Treatise/dp/0735578311/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_1

As to which course is the best, there won't be a single answer. Check out this website:

mypatentbar.com

The consensus is that PLI is used by most people.

PM me if you have further questions.

[Master_Blaster]

Hello folks
I have a lmited budget of $1000 for patent bar course (if pushed, I may take longacre for $1500). I got burned by omniprep which does not have much info. So am back in the market with reduced budget. I was inclined to take Patbar but I am told that omniprep and patbar are similar.
What I am looking for the course is
a) simplified explanation of the various concepts including highlighting the various scenarios possible in a given situation
b) some mnemonics and tips on what to remember and what not
c) guidelines on what is often tested and what is not (it should be much more deeper than sayign that 700 is tested a lot - need to know what is tested within 700)

Omniprep is a rehash of MPEP without explanation. If Patbar is same, then I will perhaps explore longacre .
Can someone please provide feedback.
I am a novice in patent bar with no experience working in law firm. I therefore cannot fall back on anyone to explain if I get confused on some topic.
Thanks

(a) It makes very little sense to pursue patent law as a vocation.

(b) If you choose to ignore (a), John White is the man.  Just about any set of used PLI disks, regardless of vintage, will see you through the exam.  And a used set of PLI disks can be had for much less than $1K. 

[Interen]

(a) It makes very little sense to pursue patent law as a vocation.

Can you elaborate a bit more on this?

[xray]

The PLI course is the defacto standard. Even though it seems like overkill as you are doing the course, it all fits together nicely once you have done the DVDs/CDs several times.

Where other courses just seem like an outline with a ton of dry information, PLI is much better explained, if not arranged. Nothing beats doing the exams, but the course makes the information seem familiar. There is also alot of info for prosecution in general, that you don't need for the exam, but it's nice to know anyway. If you already did IP in Law school, I'd still get PLI just for the completeness.

[OMG IP]

selection of review course is largely irrelvant.  Stats show if you study ~175-200 hours, unless you're a poor exam taker, you're going to pass.

There's no shortcuts.  you MUST study.  You can learn a great deal and/or reinforce knowledge by taking practice exams, freely available on the net.

[smgsmc]

selection of review course is largely irrelvant.  Stats show if you study ~175-200 hours, unless you're a poor exam taker, you're going to pass.There's no shortcuts.  you MUST study.  You can learn a great deal and/or reinforce knowledge by taking practice exams, freely available on the net.

What is the source of these stats?  If true, there are a lot of applicants who either study less than 175 hrs or who are poor exam takers.

[af]

This was a number of years ago,  but I used an old PRG course I bought on eBay and a combination of material from the internet. I passed on the first try but I probably put 300+ hours into studying; I have a tendency to over study so maybe for you 175-200 hours as suggested OMG_IP may be a good goal.

I found the PRG videos hard to sit through but the combination of outline, reading material and practice questions gave me an excellent foundation. I have heard nothing but good things about PLI. My understanding is that PLI is completely test focused while PRG has additional material that will help prepare you for your practice. I did find the PRG material very useful for my practice. With the changes to the test, if you buy a second hand course, you need to be aware of the differences in the law and the MPEP and adjust accordingly.

I also found the free internet sources very valuable. One site that comes to mind is http://mypatentbar.com as suggested by Iteren.
I also made electronic flash cards. I think just the act of making the flash cards (i.e. distilling down key concepts into a few lines of text) was very helpful.

The other thing that was extremely helpful is using a test simulator with old practice test so you can eliminated surprises. Again, I caution you that since most of the simulators use actual test questions from test from 2001-2003, you need to be aware of changes in the MPEP and the law. Some of the old answers are wrong (for example, questions dealing with 35 USC 102(e).
 gives a nice outline and overview.  I think both PRG and PLI update the questions so that may be an advantage to using their courses.

I hope you find this helpful. Good luck with the test and with your career!

Alan

[OMG IP]

What is the source of these stats?  If true, there are a lot of applicants who either study less than 175 hrs or who are poor exam takers.

they talk about it during PLI, or at least they used to.

There's no doubt in my mind the pass rate for this exam is skewed b/c people who are of high degree (i.e., Phd's, JD's, etc.), intelligence, etc. typically underestimate the content of the test.  Moroever, since the test is an "objective" test, it really doesn't test real-world application of patent law.  Thus, even people working within patent prosecution (e.g., patent engineer, patent examiner, etc.) will struggle with this test without studying.

If a person diligently studies, and is not a nervous test taker, I would be 99% certain of their ability to pass.  In the end, it's not rocket science.  It's just a lot of material.

[SoCalProductDev]

Which course : Patbar versus PRG versus PLI versus longacre

A whole lot of years back, I took Kayton's PRG course... home study AND live lecture.  I failed the exam by two questions, and I studied my tail off.  I was ready (I thought).  This was back in a day and time when you went to a gigantic auditorium with all of the reference materials you wanted to bring and you took the test on paper, with a paper MPEP, and whatever notes you wanted to bring (except prior-exam questions).  I learned about the moral character of many taking the exam when I discovered that it was common for people to bring copies of old exams in with them, and they didn't mind sharing that information with people they didn't even know.  My company covered the cost.  I then changed jobs.  Round two... I paid my own way for PRG.  Yes, again.  This time the American Inventor's Protection Act and a new MPEP was tested and I didn't really have the time to study quite as much as the first time.  I bombed the exam.  So, that is my testament to the effectiveness of PRG. 

I now have the PLI materials.  I'm not sure if they are any better or worse yet.  It seems like they are all the same really.  PRG actually seems better, but the judgement really lies on passing the registration exam and not the initial opinion I can form after only a few days with the PLI materials.  I'll let you know.

[plex]

The materials will only get you so far.  I would say knowing the bar study material will get you 1/3 of the way to being ready for the exam, but also will take up 80%+ of your prep time.  The other 2/3's come from practicing looking up questions you don't know in the MPEP, in the exact same format you will have to on the exam, collecting most of the old exam questions and knowing them cold.

I bought the PRG study course, studied it slowly in my spare time for a couple months, while also doing the other two things I mentioned above.  On the day of the test, things unfolded exactly as I expected.  About 1/3 of the questions, I had to draw on knowledge I picked up from PRG, another 1/3, i just looked it up in the MPEP, and often verbatim, I found the reference, then the last 1/3, the questions were or almost were verbatim old questions, and I spent literally 5-10 seconds on each of those types of problems. 

While you can't see your score if you pass, my gut feeling after tests is generally pretty accurate, and I was pretty sure I aced the test, I may have gotten one or two wrong.  I do not normally do that well on tests, this just happened to be one I prepared for exactly the right way.

[SoCalProductDev]

While you can't see your score if you pass, my gut feeling after tests is generally pretty accurate, and I was pretty sure I aced the test, I may have gotten one or two wrong.  I do not normally do that well on tests, this just happened to be one I prepared for exactly the right way.

I thought that the testing facility gave you a preliminary pass report after you completed the exam if you were successful.
One would think that with computer testing, a pass/fail indication could and should be easy to give to the applicant.

[smgsmc]

While you can't see your score if you pass, my gut feeling after tests is generally pretty accurate, and I was pretty sure I aced the test, I may have gotten one or two wrong.  I do not normally do that well on tests, this just happened to be one I prepared for exactly the right way.

I thought that the testing facility gave you a preliminary pass report after you completed the exam if you were successful.
One would think that with computer testing, a pass/fail indication could and should be easy to give to the applicant.

If you pass, you just get an indication that you passed.  You don't get a score so you don't know for sure whether you aced it or whether you just squeaked by.  If you fail, you get your actual score so you know whether  you just missed or whether you blew it real bad.

[kjt]

Just took (and failed) for the first time, and I'll say that what was said above about the breakdown of what to know/how to take it is pretty accurate. I took Omniprep, and they said 90% of the questions you will see when you take it are from the previous exams and question bank they have posted in their study materials. That's crap. It was 40% at most. I spent most of my time, atleast 80-90% of my study time, learning all those questions inside and out. If I'd actually learned how to search the MPEP they have posted, I'm sure I would have done better. My fault. My stupidity. It's not that Omniprep doesn't suggest this, but when you see "learn these questions and you'll pass" it becomes sort of secondary. But you absolutely need to be able to look questions up quickly, or you won't pass. At least, I didn't.

I was unprepared this time. Hopefully this will help someone else not to have to take the patent bar more than once.