FAQs

Very simply, no-profit means what it says. Helix Bar Review sets its product pricing so that its expected program-year revenues do not exceed its expenses. 

In fact, as a new offering, Helix Bar Review pricing will result in expenses substantially higher than our expected revenues for the foreseeable future. But as more aspiring lawyers choose Helix and revenues grow to meet the expense of the program, we will be diligent in adjusting our pricing levels down to maintain our no-profit commitment.

Only a nonprofit bar review provider can make such a commitment without any hidden agenda.

Helix UBE and Helix California are comprehensive bar review programs. These courses provide you with all the review materials and practice opportunities you will need to prepare for every component of the Uniform Bar Exam or the California Bar Exam. Helix MBE is a supplement focusing on the Multistate Bar Exam only. Use it for year-long study and practice in preparation for the MBE component of the bar exam.

Every student learns differently, and we want to provide you with every effective tool to help you succeed. Helix UBE and Helix California offer assigned and unassigned opportunities for you to engage with substantive law. In addition to NCBE-licensed questions, Helix-developed NCBE-like questions, black letter law knowledge-based questions, and outlines, you'll find checklists, Helix Core Concepts, Helix Issue Highlights, Core Bar Inquiries, substantive law videos, skills-based videos for essays and performance tests, skills-based workshops, intensive half-day workshops called "Pass Classes," flashcards, the Helix Game Center and more. The Helix UBE Book Bundle or the Helix California Book Bundle are also included with your course enrollment. 

Helix MBE gives you a jump on your MBE prep, allowing you the time to set your study plan and schedule. In fact, you can start supplementing your bar prep with Helix MBE up to a year before the exam! In addition to 1650 multiple-choice questions, including NCBE-licensed questions and Helix panel-developed NCBE-like questions, you'll find practice quizzes and exams, 50+ subject-specific substantive law videos, 850 flashcards, the Helix Game Center and our trademarked intensive, half-day workshop — The MBE Pass Class^SM.

Both Helix UBE and Helix California begin with a 100-question diagnostic exam on MBE subject areas to help you understand your current baseline of black letter law knowledge and identify your strengths and weaknesses. The Helix Baseline Assessment uses NCBE-released questions appropriately weighted per subject and topic areas as expressly provided by the NCBE subject matter outline. That means you get a realistic snapshot of your exam day experience — question format, subjects and topics tested and timing — starting from the first day of the course.

The questions and video content included in Helix MBE are all part of the Helix UBE and Helix California courses. However, if you would like to get a jump on MBE study before your comprehensive course opens, the $279 cost could be well worth it.

Let us count the ways!

• You choose your start date. While we provide sample schedules for 10, 12, 16 and 20-week study periods, your study period begins on the day you are ready – and will adjust automatically from the moment you access the program.

• You rate your confidence levels as you engage with the materials – outlines, checklists, Flashcards and videos. Assessing how you feel about content allows you to quickly sort and revisit topics that might need a little more attention.

• You choose live webinars to supplement your studies. From "Goal Setting and Mind Setting" to study strategies to subject-specific interactive webinars with live experts to intensive Pass Class^SM workshops — Helix has it all covered. 

• You choose how to navigate the course. You can easily follow a Study Plan carefully curated by experts who know the bar exam to expose you to content and practice in an order that maximizes learning. Or, if you’d rather follow your own path, you can access all the same course content via the main navigation panel. 

Each subject area of the Helix comprehensive courses is broken into modules containing lessons. Each lesson assigns reading from a section of the outlines and knowledge-based Building Block Quizzes to help test your recall of the material. Most lessons include videos that illuminate the concepts in different (but complementary) ways. MBE unit tests and MBE subject tests provide you with opportunities to apply the rules you’ve learned in an exam-like format.

As you review each MEE subject, you'll engage with relevant MEE practice essays. Periodically throughout the program, you will also receive instruction and practice for the Performance Test component of the bar exam, as well as mixed subject multiple-choice practice tests that are comparable to the actual bar exam.

Helix outlines are organized to focus on the core topics within each subject. They contain stepped analyses and checklists to help you learn the material and recognize the most common ways bar examiners frame questions. Checklists provide you with lists of key elements, factors, defenses and related concepts of a given rule or point of law to help you visualize the components of the rule to ensure you are capturing each element completely and accurately.

Helix also includes examples throughout to help you understand the legal rules in the context of fact patterns which will improve your issue-spotting skills. In addition, Helix offers short mini-outlines for each subject called Helix Core Concepts that are tied to testing frequency, so you can focus on the main topics likely to be tested in each subject on the bar exam.

Helix outlines are available in print form in your Helix Book Bundle and as interactive course content in each online learning module. Helix Core Concepts outlines are included in your course as downloadable, fillable PDFs and are also part of the Book Bundle. 

In short, Helix provides you substantive content in a variety of formats so that you can engage with the rules in a manner that is clear, concise and manageable.

With nearly 300 targeted videos in Helix UBE and Helix California — all around five to seven-minutes in length and presented in various formats and voices to keep your attention and ensure you are seeing and hearing the rules in ways that aid memory retention — Helix videos are available as an integrated part of the Study Plan and also on-demand.

Helix UBE and Helix California contain the following video types: (1) substantive law explanations broken down by key concept, facilitated by law faculty that know their subject and know the bar exam; (2) short illustrated videos that provide visual explanations and examples of different hypotheticals; (3) skill-based videos for the MBE, MEE and MPT that provide guidance for each component of the exam, as well as approaches, strategies, goals, tips, techniques and walk-through demonstrations for each component. The substantive law videos and illustrated videos are embedded in each lesson as a part of our integrated learning method.

And of course, don't forget our webinar series and Helix Pass Class live instruction opportunities!

Helix UBE, Helix California and our MBE-supplement, Helix MBE, contain online flashcards which can be used on your computer or mobile device. In addition, Helix UBE and Helix MBE printed flashcard sets are available for purchase at our cost to produce them.

Helix comprehensive bar review courses offer live webinars and workshops throughout the program — you choose what works for you. These provide supplemental skills-based instruction at critical and appropriate points within the course, tackle commonly asked questions and provide insight into information most frequently requested by bar students.

Additionally, Helix offers a Pass Class on all three components of the UBE and the California Bar Exam. Helix Pass Classes, offered several times per year and available to anyone enrolled in a Helix comprehensive course, are the perfect kickstart to bar review.

Note: In-person instruction is not a component of Helix Bar Review.

Helix Bar Review's Pass Class series is a unique offering exclusive to students who enroll in Helix UBE or Helix California. Developed to give you a comprehensive and practical overview of the three components of the bar exam — essays, performance tests and the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) — these intensive instructional and interactive experiences are designed to give you a jump on the information you need and strategies you can use to help make the most of your bar prep study time.

Offered several times a year leading up to the February and July exams, these intensive instructional and interactive experiences are delivered live in a virtual format so you can join from anywhere and easily engage with our Helix instructors.

And, yes, Pass Classes are just another part of what you get with Helix at no additional charge.

Gamification takes learning from a passive state to an active state by transforming study materials into game-like activities. With six games to choose from, plus leaderboards, tracking streaks, the ability to earn badges, and more, the Helix Game Center drives real practice in an engaging way — the perfect complement to our active learning approach. 

Note: Games will not appear as assigned tasks or earn you knowledge points in your course, but they are helpful tools to support your learning and have a little fun, too.

Helix comprehensive courses include knowledge-based Building Block Quizzes at the end of each lesson, Unit Tests at the end of each unit and Subject Tests when you complete an entire subject. Additionally, practice exams enable you to simulate each segment of the bar exam experience, including timed attempts for MBE multiple-choice questions and written responses for MEE and MPT questions.

Yes. You will take a full-length simulated bar exam (MBE, essay, and performance test components) about three weeks before the bar. You will also take partial practice MBE exams and access many practice essays and performance tests to complete under timed conditions.

About Pass Rates

As with everything we do at nonprofit AccessLex Institute, when we took on the role of “bar prep provider,” we took it on with one goal — to benefit law students and aspiring lawyers for the long term.

But despite our efforts to put the focus on manageable content, methodology, and price, the most asked question we receive is “What are your pass rates.” While that seems like a solid question on the surface, there’s so much more to it.

For any bar review course, the pool of students directly influences the pass rate, making analysis and comparison on an individual level fraught with error. For example, a bar review pool of students with an oversupply of students in the top 25% of their law class is very likely to have a higher pass rate than one that is overrepresented by the bottom 25%, even if they all take the same course. And there are myriad other distinctions in the pool’s demographics that exert influence as well, most of which are unknown to bar prep providers and potential purchasers.

Also, consider this. Assume there are two law schools, each with 100 students, in a state with an overall 80% first-time pass rate. If students from Law School ‘A’ consistently pass at 90%, and students from Law School ‘B’ consistently pass at 70%, a bar review company could implement a strategic pricing strategy or marketing push to ensure they could publish pass rates as “proof” that it has some sort of pixie dust that helps their users exceed the state average.

So, although Helix outcomes are excellent, and we would love you to choose us, we don’t believe in the sole reliance on pass rates. Be sure to do your research. Think about your own learning style. Ask about sample study plans and the order that material is covered. Ask what your daily schedule would look like. When do you get course access? Ask if you can speak to a licensed attorney throughout your course. And, of course, ask how much it will all cost.

Most importantly, research shows that the amount of time you dedicate to your bar studies, plus the quality and type of work you’re doing during your study time, equals success on the bar exam. So, no shortcuts! Be prepared to complete 85% or more of any course you choose.

Learn more about Helix pass rates.

Helix UBE and Helix California offer full outlines for all MBE-tested subjects. These outlines include core bar inquiries, checklists, and stepped analyses, plus Helix Core Concepts that specifically focus your study on highly tested areas of the MBE. Building Block Quizzes and flashcards help you test and reinforce your knowledge of black letter law in the MBE subjects and sets of practice MBE questions are assigned throughout to bolster your multiple-choice test-taking skills. Additionally, the course incorporates a variety of skill-based videos and live webinars that provide both general and specific strategies for attacking MBE questions. 

Yes. Helix Bar Review uses both NCBE licensed questions and additional NCBE-like questions crafted by our expert panels of law professors. Helix MBE-style question development efforts were led by the former Director of the MBE program at the NCBE and created under the same conditions and in the same design established by the NCBE. No other bar prep company can say the same. So you can be confident that every question you'll see in Helix is test day worthy.

Note: Helix also provides Building Block Quizzes — black letter law knowledge questions with detailed explanations — that help you distinguish whether you are having an issue learning the law or applying it.

Helix UBE offers full MEE outlines with core bar inquiries, checklists, and stepped analyses, plus Helix Core Concepts that specifically focus your study on highly tested areas of the MEE. Helix California’s outlines are organized the same but contain California-specific distinctions, where relevant, to prepare you for the essay questions on the California Bar Exam. Building Block Quizzes and flashcards help you test and reinforce your knowledge of black letter law in the essay subjects.

Additionally, the course incorporates a variety of skill-based videos that provide both general and specific writing guidance for the essays on the MEE and the California Bar Exam. These videos walk you through essay writing structure, expected format, techniques, tips, practice goals and overall direction before writing essays within the course. Other videos provide strategic guidance for approaching frequently tested essay subjects and topics. Self-graded practice essays are strategically placed throughout the course to reinforce learning and encourage early and consistent practice with essays throughout your study. Model answers, Helix Issue Highlights and grading grids are also provided to help you effectively self-assess your practice essays, along with opportunities for submitting selected essays for grading and feedback. (Don’t forget to take advantage of the MEE and California Essay Pass Classes, too!)

The comprehensive Helix Bar Review courses include an MPT (or California Performance Test) Overview, Approach, and Strategies Guide and a series of videos that provide an overview of the performance test, tested skills and practice goals. Skills-based videos teach you a practical step-by-step approach for addressing performance tests, covering everything from reading and organizing your materials to formatting and writing your response. Explanatory videos guide you through the Helix step-by-step approach using past MPTs and California performance tests and cover the most common tasks assigned on the performance test — so you'll be prepared to handle the most frequently tested tasks.

Performance test materials, model answers, grading rubrics, and Helix Issue Highlights are also provided, with opportunities for grading feedback.

Yes. You will utilize timers throughout the course to help you perfect your timing skills, which are critical for bar exam success. Whether you are doing a set of practice multiple choice questions, a self-graded essay or MPT, or a full-length practice exam, a timer will be present to help you monitor your time allocation. You'll even see stats related to your timing, which will improve with practice during your study period.

There are five grading opportunities assigned within each comprehensive Helix Bar Review course. The UBE course includes three graded MEEs and two graded MPTs, and Helix California includes four graded essays and one graded performance test. But one of the best ways to truly improve your essay and performance test writing is through practice and self-assessment.

And Helix has created the most effective way to hone this skill. As you practice writing responses, you will use a triad of model answers, grading grids and Helix Issue Highlights to help you with self-review and evaluation. Grading grids provide a detailed breakdown of all the legally and factually relevant components of an answer that examiners seek. Issue Highlights provide a quick overview of the issues, rules and pertinent facts that should be included in your essay. (We even give you tips on modifying your writing and assessment practices as you go through the course.)

Your essays and performance tests are graded by licensed attorneys trained to provide holistic, growth-oriented feedback to help you identify your strengths and target your weak areas, so you can be ready to write passing essays and performance tests on exam day!

You will have opportunities for grading feedback throughout the course by typing and submitting essays and performance tests directly within the Helix Bar Review platform. You will receive an email when feedback is available and viewable directly within the Helix platform. Graded work will be returned within two business days of the essay due date.

Measuring Progress: Helix provides two metrics for gauging progress. As you complete lessons, you will earn Knowledge Points, and you will have a Knowledge Point goal for each day. Your Study Plan Progress will tell you, overall, how much of your course study plan you've completed to date.

Measuring Performance: Your performance is tracked both subjectively and objectively. First, as you complete each component in a lesson, you will rate your confidence for those components on a high to low scale. There are also two objective measures: your average score on Building Block Quizzes, which help tell you whether you know the law, and your average score on multiple-choice questions, which tell you whether you can apply the law. Using this information in conjunction with the strengths and weaknesses scale in each subject and topic area will help inform your ongoing study strategy. In addition, your graded MEEs and MPTs provide an external analysis of your writing efforts to supplement your self-evaluation of your MEE and MPT progress.

Helix tracks your percentile rank, so you will always know how your combined scores on Building Block Quizzes and multiple-choice question sets compare to others in the Helix Bar Review community. While this may or may not be a motivator for you, we encourage you to focus on your own progress.

The course schedules provide a breakdown of, and recommended order for, completing each Study Task available in the course. The 10, 12, 16 and 20-week fixed course schedules contain the same Study Tasks, but they show how your daily and weekly Study Tasks would vary depending on when you begin your studies.

On the other hand, your study plan tailors to your individual progress in the course. So, if you work ahead or fall behind, your study plan will automatically adjust to let you know which study task you should complete next to stay on track!

10-week bar review study plans are typical for many who are studying for a bar exam. However, Helix Bar Review opens 20 weeks before your bar exam date to give you additional study time and flexibility. We will provide you with sample study plans for 10, 12, 16 and 20-week schedules. And our Helix Directors are available to help you create a study plan that works for you. 

Yes! If you want to work ahead to give yourself some extra breathing room another day or to plan for a known event, your schedule will automatically readjust for you. And, if you don't make it through all of your tasks for a given day, Helix will modify your schedule to keep you on track and moving forward.

We know life happens. And we're here for you when it does. We will continuously message you throughout the course to help you stay on track. Some of these messages will include tips for how to structure your study time if you are behind. You can also reach out to your Helix Bar Review team and schedule a call to discuss your course progress and develop an action plan to get back on track.

You can access content both online and off. For the best user experience, get online for any daily updates before disconnecting. When you go back online, your progress will update.

Yes! When you log in to any device, it will update any prior progress you've made on another device.

Helix Bar Review is mobile responsive, so you can use it on any device. Helix also has its very own app, which is available for Apple and Android users.

To use Helix on a mobile device, you will need iOS 14 or above or Android 11 and above. The Helix app is compatible with the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and all Android phones and tablets.

No. Our no-profit commitment leads us to set pricing that reflects our expenses to deliver our best-in-class bar preparation product set. Therefore, the price is the same for every student who enrolls.

Artificially inflating the price and then offering a ‘20% off coupon’ or ‘X discount if you enroll by X date’, are just psychological tricks designed by marketers to make you think you are getting a deal or lock you into a decision well in advance. (If you don’t believe us, just Google “psychology of discounts.”)

As a nonprofit whose sole purpose is supporting and furthering the empowerment of the next generation of lawyers, we believe you have more important things to worry about than how to run the gauntlet of variable and conditional pricing schemes. And again, with Helix, the cost IS the price. (See – What do you mean by no-profit pricing?)

So, while airlines, car dealers, appliance stores and even some for-profit bar prep companies may offer promotions and discounts, Helix Bar Review does not. 

All products ship via FedEx Ground at nonprofit shipping rates. Rates are applied by region. All products ship from our West Chester, PA fulfillment center, so you can expect shipments throughout the east to cost a little less while shipments to the West cost a little more.

Shipping the Helix UBE Book Bundle (included with Helix UBE), or either of our Flashcard Sets, will cost between $19 - $30 within the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia; $74 - $86 to Alaska and Hawaii and more to Puerto Rico and US territories.

The amount of sales tax charged on your order may depend on various factors, like the product or service purchased and the delivery address. In any event, you can be sure that any sales tax applied to your order will never exceed the amount due under the applicable tax law.

Yes! Complete our online form, and we'll reach out to confirm the details with you.

Helix Bar Review has partnered with Affirm if you wish to spread out the cost of your course over time. Payment plan options with Affirm depend on several factors such as credit score, purchase amount and state of purchase. Interest rates can range anywhere from 0%-36% APR, depending on your selected payment plan. Helix Bar Review by AccessLex has opted to pay Affirm an additional fee for each transaction to reduce the interest rate for our students.
If you still have time before the bar exam, we recommend that you start your own savings plan, so you can have the money to purchase Helix when you need it. Because our products are offered at cost, the price will never increase. So, there is no need to “lock in” your purchase price before you begin using the course. 

If you need to change from one UBE jurisdiction to another, there is no need to transfer your course. Because the UBE is not a jurisdiction-specific exam, you can simply continue your studies in the same Helix UBE course. The MBE is also the same across any jurisdiction using the MBE component, so the same applies to Helix MBE. If your plans change and you need to switch from a UBE jurisdiction to Helix California (or vice versa), email our Customer Care team at Support@HelixBarReview.org.

We expect you to be successful and pass the bar exam. We also know you need to put in the work to give yourself the best odds of doing so. You are entitled to a free repeat of Helix UBE or Helix California, if you meet all of the following:

• You are a first-time user of Helix UBE or Helix California and purchased your course six weeks or more prior to the associated bar exam date;
• You have completed 75% of the overall course content. The 75% must include completion of the following benchmark coursework:
  • Three (out of four) MBE Practice Exams 
  • The MBE portion of the Simulated Exam 
  • Submission of three (out of five) Graded Essays/Performance Tests
• You failed the Bar Exam or provide evidence of registration for the Bar Exam and valid reason(s) for failure to sit for the exam; and
• You use the free repeat for the next administration of the same jurisdiction's exam.

To claim the free course, complete our support form and include with the submission an attachment of your official bar exam results within 30 days of the date on the notice of failure as notification outside the 30 days waives your right to claim this guarantee.

Note: Helix MBE is a supplemental program so this guarantee does not apply.

Books and other non-electronic Program components purchased from the Company, such as Flashcard sets , are non-refundable for any reason, at any time.

Prior to the start of the online access period, you may cancel your Helix Bar Review enrollment for any reason and receive a full refund, minus a $100 cancellation fee. No refunds will be issued after the start of the online access period.

If a third party (Bill My Employer, etc.) made payment for your course, that third party is entitled to any refund issued.

Cancellation requests must be made in writing to Support@helixbarreview.org.

Additionally, please see the terms of The Helix UBE^SM Guarantee above.

In addition to Helix MBE and Helix MPRE, development is underway for a Florida course. Helix Florida is scheduled to open in October 2023 for the February 2024 bar exam.

When you enroll in Helix Bar Review, you will receive an activation email with a link to the course you selected. You will then be able to log in using your Username and the Password at Success.Helixbarreview.org. If you cannot find the activation email or it’s no longer active, click “Reset Password” on the login page and you can use the reset link that’s emailed to you to access the course. 

For your best experience, you'll need a stable internet connection on a device with the ability to run modern browsers easily. Google Chrome is our recommended browser, but Edge is compatible as well. Safari is not recommended.

You sure can! One of the things that is so unique about Helix is that it provides you with the ability to study at home, on the bus, in your favorite coffee shop and while you’re waiting in line at the grocery store. You can use Helix online and offline and seamlessly move between multiple devices. Just be sure, before you shut Helix down on the device you’re using, that you check that your work has synced! You know you’re good to go if the cloud icon in the top right corner of your screen has a check mark inside of it.

At Helix Bar Review, your success is our success — so we are with you every step of the way. In addition to a course platform that guides you through a successful study plan, you can expect to receive timely emails and texts prompting you with tips, guidance and reminders. And, of course, our Customer Care team is your one-stop shop for the answers and support you need most. You can submit your questions via our website or use our online scheduler to set up a free, one-on-one coaching call with your Helix Director. (Don't worry. Your Helix Bar Review team will check in on you, too. But we don't want you to wait when you need help!)

Simply follow the prompts for “Reset Password” on the login screen, and you’re back in business!

If you will receive accommodations on the bar exam, we want you to practice under the same conditions! Fill out this ADA Accommodations Form and we will be in touch. 

If you are looking for more information about Helix programming, institutional partnerships or the 2022 2L Drawing winners list, please contact us at Connect@Helixbarreview.org.