How does TAPRE compare to other courses?

Last Updated (Tuesday, 28 October 2008 10:33)

1. The approach

Most patent bar courses, including PLI and PATBAR, present the exam material in MPEP-chapter order. Unfortunately, the MPEP was designed to be a reference and is not organized to help you get ready for the patent bar! If you want to learn to speak French, picking up a French dictionary and starting to memorize A-words and then B-words and on through Z-words, is going to be a very confusing and inefficient way to learn. It might even make you feel like giving up before you've even had a chance. Some people think other courses are deliberately trying to be confusing. Why do other courses take the A-Z approach? That's a very good question. Tradition?

TAPRE Course provides a simple and complete overall strategy to get you ready for the exam. A 30-day study schedule geared to patent novices provides structure that can be customized depending on your experience level. To get you up to speed on patent prosecution and vocabulary, TAPRE Course starts with a Patent Prosecution Overview. TAPRE Course builds on the basic foundation with the most important areas of the law and MPEP skills. With the prosecution keys in place, it is then far easier to learn the many additional details needed for the exam.

2. MPEP skills

While they may not be as cool as "nunchuk skills, bow hunting skills, [or] computer hacking skills," MPEP skills are vital for patent bar success. In patent prosecution practice you won't memorize everything you'll need to know, but, you'll know the key areas and be able to quickly look up the rest. Similarly, for the exam, you'll need to know the keys areas very well and how to quickly look up everything else. Given the shear size of the MPEP (over 3,000 pages) and its unintuitive structure, you simply cannot afford to take MPEP skills for granted. With PLI and PATBAR, strangely, you're on your own to learn MPEP skills. TAPRE Course, on the other hand, provides MPEP Drills and specialized familiarization exercises that enable you to master the mysteries of MPEP navigation. The skills will serve you well on the exam and later in patent practice.

3. Bulk

Other courses apparently want you to feel like you've gotten your money's worth by sending you a small-forest's worth of paper. Unfortunately, much of the material isn't even helpful for the exam. For example, the MPEP is 3,140 pages long. PLI and PATBAR send you a complete paper copy even though 95% of the material tested comes from less than half of the pages. It is true you'll impress your friends and people at the library with the size of your MPEP, but, your back will be much less impressed.

4. Efficiency

The "bulk" of your TAPRE Course preparation is Most Wanted, MPEP Abridged, practice exams and flash cards. Most Wanted focuses on the top ten key laws and rules. You focus on each law or rule one at a time and then take actual exam questions covering the area so you can see how the concepts are tested.

MPEP Abridged is a highly condensed version of the most often tested sections of the MPEP. Exam questions sometimes quote directly from the MPEP. If you’re familiar with the text, you’ll be able to answer those questions a lot more quickly. In your preparation with PLI, you read 1,680 pages on your own (outside the hours on its schedule), covering roughly 75% of exam material. In your TAPRE Course preparation, on the other hand, you read the MPEP Abridged twice, which for both readings is a mere 224 pages, and you get about 60% of the exam material. With PLI, you're getting 0.04% of the material per page read: a huge waste of time. With TAPRE Course your time is more efficiently spent as you get over 6 times more testable material per page read. (Of course, those things not covered in MPEP Abridged are covered in Most Wanted, the flash cards, practice exams or can be quickly looked up using your MPEP skills.)

We are confident, regardless of your patent knowledge, that you will need less time to prepare for the patent bar with TAPRE Course than with any other course.

5. Applying your knowledge

The other courses provide you with practice exams that you take during a "post course" phase. With TAPRE Course, practice exams are incorporated directly into the preparation schedule enabling you to practice sooner and assess your progress. You may even decide to move your test date up to be done sooner and will confident doing so.

Each practice exam includes thorough explanations so you can learn from your mistakes. TAPRE Course also includes blank flash cards so you can create your own for problems you miss on the practice exams. The schedule provides generous blocks of time so you can review the explanatory answers.

Finally, flash cards help you memorize the most important concepts you will need for the exam. PLI doesn't include flash cards and PATBAR's flash cards don't focus on just the key concepts you need for the exam. TAPRE Course also includes blank cards so you can create your own cards for practice questions you miss.

TAPRE Course emphasizes active learning and applying from the beginning so you don't waste time passively listening.

6. Price

Don't make the mistake of thinking that because preparing for the patent bar is really important, or your firm is paying for the course, you'll just buy the best course, i.e., the most expensive course. TAPRE Course is the highest quality, least confusing and most efficient way to prepare for the patent bar. It just costs less.