Case Study: The High Bar

Revolutionizing Bar Exam Prep with a Custom App

Passing the Uniform Bar Exam takes a lot of practice. But not every student has the same needs. Esquire and Bar Exam tutor Alisa Geller developed an application to make individualized, adaptive learning affordable and fun.

Real Bar Exam Questions

All essay questions in the application are licensed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. Students will get a firsthand feel for what it is like to sit for the real Bar Exam.

Adaptable Content

Geller and KDG developed a one-of-a-kind algorithm that suggests questions, essays, and flashcards that best match users' unique skillsets and study needs.

From Concept to Acquisition

Only a year after the application launched, it was acquired by West Academic, the country's leading legal publisher. KDG has remained on board to help the application through this exciting period of growth.

students studying

Raising the Bar

Alisa Geller has helped hundreds of students pass the Bar Exam through her in-person and online tutoring company, The High Bar. A lawyer herself, Geller brings a unique perspective to her tutoring style, understanding that every single student relies on a unique skill set to pass the exam. Having seen the difference her tutoring style made in the lives of her students, she wanted to make her study guides, tutor tips, and practice exams even more accessible through an online application.

Geller brought her idea to the custom software development team at KDG. Together, she and KDG spent over a year concepting the application, its features, and its specialized algorithm. Then, the team moved on to wireframing out what the application would look like, from its flashcard features to its visual Rule Funnel study method…features that set the application apart from other study tools on the market.

Geller wanted to help her students and countless others not only prep for the exam but pass it with flying colors. Having seen the difference her study method made in the lives of her students, she knew it was a game changer. This application would get them out into the world and into the hands of other future esquires.

The application launched in 2020 and was soon acquired by West Academic, the leading legal publisher in the country. KDG is still heavily involved with the maintenance and support of the application, ensuring that Geller’s vision is reflected in the software the way she intended.

  • Consulting & Strategy
  • Wireframes & Mockups
  • User Experience & Design
  • QA & Testing
  • Support
  • WordPress Web Development for Marketing Site
  • Content Creation

A True Partner

"KDG was integral in bringing my idea to life. We worked from concept to creation to acquisition, and they were with me every step of the way as a supportive partner."

Alisa Geller, Founder, Writing Guide & The High Bar

Solutions

Guided Tours

The guided tour is the application’s most unique feature, guiding students to success by providing them with the subjects and topics they need the most help with. Using dynamic and adaptive learning the app recognizes a student's pain points and pulls lessons based on those needs. Once the student excels at a subject, the application moves on to a topic that is a little more challenging. The Guided Tour is essentially like having a private tutor custom-building your curriculum.

The Rule Funnel™

The Rule Funnel™ is a custom method curated by The High Bar and one of Geller’s most successful study tips. The Rule Funnel™ teaches students to break down a Bar Exam question into a simple cheat sheet until they uncover the answer. The Rule Funnel becomes an outline for their essay response, allowing students to organize their thoughts and maximize their points. Each essay on the application has a Rule Funnel™ template that can be used as a training tool until the student becomes familiar enough to build their own Rule Funnel™.

Tutor Tips

Tutor Tips show students how an expert would read and annotate the essay questions. These tips are displayed directly on the essay prompt, allowing the students to make connections between the thoughts and the statements presented. These tips are available on every essay and can be toggled on and off based on the student's preference.

Spreading the Word

Geller’s application has the power to change the lives of future esquires across the country. Such an important tool needed to be shared! KDG helped develop a marketing site on WordPress to showcase the application and its features. Web designers, content editors, and SEO experts all came together to ensure a user-friendly and accessible online experience.

The Guided Tour

The application was built on the premise of spaced repetition. The Guided Tour switches students between the subjects based on their strengths and weaknesses.

The Help Center

A lot goes into studying for the bar exam! The app’s help center gives students all the tips, tricks, and insights they need to know about the MBE, MEE, and MPT.

Tutor Tips

Discover how professional lawyers would break down specific bar exam questions. Tutor Tips show you how every word choice, description, and detail lead you to the correct answer.

The Admin Panel

The admin panel gives the app’s administrators a clear overview of how subscribers are performing on their practice essays and which topics they’re excelling in.

The Rule Funnel™

The Rule Funnel provides a visual study method that helps students maximize their exam points by showing them how to outline and organize their essay responses.

Flash Cards

Refresh your knowledge of Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, and more! Flashcards appear before and after essays to help students recognize and recall what they’ve learned.

The User Dashboard

Consistency is key! The dashboard keeps subscribers engaged and motivated with quick snapshots of their progress and subject accuracy.

The quality of their work is exceptional. I’ve been so pleased with their deliverables; they make everything so easy. If we ever run into an issue, which is to be expected, KDG is incredibly responsive and makes fixing it seem like a breeze. The team is professional to work with; I’ve had such an overwhelmingly positive experience.

Alisa Geller,
Founder, Writing Guide & The High Bar

By Kalyn DeHaven | January 31, 2023

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