If you’ve just started law school, chances are you’ve heard the word “Quimbee” get thrown around a bit. And if you haven’t (I’m sure it’s only a matter of time), here’s the short version: Quimbee is just a platform with a ton of study aids that can be super helpful for law students. The kicker is the cost, which varies by plan, and it can be a deterrent for many.
What Quimbee Offers
Quimbee’s study aids include outlines, case briefs, essay questions, multiple choice questions, etc. Any law student with Quimbee, myself included, will tell you that the variety of study materials it offers is more than you will find on any other platform.
Personally, during my 1L, I used Quimbee’s case briefs all the time to supplement my reading. It’s not always as detailed as your professor may want you to be, but if you read the case yourself and briefed it too, then Quimbee might just help you make sure you got the key facts and pulled out the right rule. Sometimes, when I’m super sick of reading, I’ll watch the case brief videos instead, which have fun little graphics that tell the story of the case. Depending on your learning style, this might be useful!
When it comes to outlining, which I again think you should make your own first, Quimbee can be a great aid. It has outlines for a huge variety of classes, not just 1L classes, and if you’re struggling with a concept in your own, it can be super nice to peek at Quimbee’s for clarification. Quimbee’s outlines are all over 200 pages, so I wouldn’t recommend relying on them completely as it’s wayyy too much information, but it’s nice to have access.
Depending on your professor, your exams will vary. You might have multiple choice questions or essay questions or both. Quimbee is an awesome tool for exam prep because it offers questions, solutions, and explanations for both multiple choice and essay questions for any class you might have. When I didn’t feel like doing a super in depth study session, I would just open Quimbee and move through a few multiple choice questions for extra practice. The essay questions are much more thought-provoking, and can be really nice for nailing down fact patterns and how to work through them in your classes.
Especially during 1l, when you really have no clue what you’re doing, Quimbee can provide structure and more meaning to your classes. It’s definitely not necessary, but depending on what type of learner you are/how self-motivated you are, Quimbee is an awesome site.
Cost
Quimbee doesn’t only cater to law students, but also legal professionals and bar examinees. I don’t know anything about the plans for the latter two, so I’m just focusing on law student plans, labeled “Study Aids” in the photo above.
As you can see, there are 3 plans: Gold, Silver, and Bronze, all with different prices. I’m pretty sure I bought the Gold plan so I could have full access everything offered, and I’m glad I did because I use every type of aid Quimbee has.
The cost is daunting, but I honestly just budgeted it into my student loans and think of it as part of my tuition. However, I know that not everyone thinks like me in terms of money, so I completely understand when law students say they refuse to pay for something like Quimbee. If you study, brief your cases, and outline regularly, you really don’t need Quimbee. Some of the most successful law students in my class did not have Quimbee, and I’m sure it forced them to do very deep reading and analysis on their own which helped them perform better on exams. But I know that I’ll perform the same deep analysis on my own and won’t get tempted to use Quimbee to do it for me, plus I like knowing I have the security of being able to pull up a case brief for extra clarity before a potential cold call, so it’s worth it to me.
Alternatives
The way one law student studies will never be an exact replica of how another law student studies. I’ve said it before & I’ll say it a million times – find what works for you. If you want to wait to pull the trigger on Quimbee until you really think you need it, that’s perfectly okay! My law school and I think most others give us free access to Westlaw, Lexis, and CALI, all of which have great study materials.
Even if you think you want Quimbee, I would still say it’s smart to look around the sites you get free access to first, just to make sure before spending so much. Being a law student is a long 3 years of unsteady income and crazy purchases, so really evaluate pros and cons before swiping your credit card on things others tell you are a “need.”
Law Student Balance 