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From J.O 2020 UBE
“Hi Debbie,
Just wrapped up the exam a few moments ago & I just wanted to take a moment to express my utmost gratitude. First & foremost, I am a firm believer in not judging an individual on their worst day(s) & in giving second chances. Unfortunately, we live in a world where the vast majority of people do not share that belief/sentiment. However, I found solace during what was a very difficult, and emotionally conflicting & vulnerable time (post-release of Feb 2020 scores) when you were willing to give me the benefit of the doubt/a second chance.
I don’t know what I would have done without you, your expertise & guidance, holding me accountable, etc. But I certainly have an idea on what I wouldn’t have done .... Most importantly, you always reminded me that this exam is no indication or reflection on my ability to practice law, which helped me regain most of the confidence I lost upon receiving my February results (though I’m sure you’re well aware by now that my confidence is generally unwavering, despite the fact that it’s mostly unfounded/unwarranted).
Aside from your rigorous & flawless bar prep services, regimen & methods, I’ve learned several life lessons- like the fact that being humble & being confident are not mutually exclusive- which I will always remember & apply to all aspects of life in addition to in practice. You also taught me how to push my limits & strive for greatness, which is something I thought I had already known & lived by, but I was clearly wrong.
I could write an essay about how grateful I am for you, as well as the amount of love, respect & appreciation I have for you. However, I am completely burned out & I know you probably have a massive influx of texts from your students.
So to sum it all up, thank you. Thank you for guiding me through these past 3.5 months, for the life lessons & advice I will forever hold close, implement & strive towards, and for restoring my faith in humanity by giving me another chance + not judging me based on a stretch of time last year in which my actions were a significant departure from my character, integrity, and the respect & morals I was raised on.
With gratitude,
J.O
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Arin 2021 PA
“In December, I graduated from law school and began studying for the bar. From December 22, 2020 through February 21, 2021, I put in about 6-12 hours every day, taking off for Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Years Eve, and New Years Day. I had to make this happen, the bar is expensive, prep courses are more expensive, and a JD without a law license is beyond expensive. Law schools spend 3-4 years scaring you into believing that you won’t pass the bar unless you spend thousands on a commercial prep course. I’m a single parent without excess funds lying around so when the time came, I refinanced my house and bought the prep course. Several weeks in, I was overwhelmed and crying in front of the computer on a daily basis. I wasn’t retaining information and I was spending hours every day trying to listen to lectures and realizing I wasn’t even hearing the words. A friend of mine suggested that I reach out to her cousin who was in the business of bar prep so in a desperate, crying moment, I messaged Debbie, not even sure what I was looking for. I certainly didn’t have any money left but I was a mess that day and I think I was hoping for some kind of magic pointer or tip, anything to just talk me off the ledge I felt like I was standing on. What I got was a no-nonsense pep talk from a stranger who ended up offering not a pointer or tip, but a scholarship. I am not big on handouts, there’s a certain amount of pride and stubbornness that come along with single parenting but in about a minute and a half, I decided this wasn’t the time for pride.
Debbie kept saying things about getting in a car and letting someone else drive….this is ridiculously hard for someone who’s always been the driver. She immediately got me started on a method that was entirely different than what I had been doing which, on one hand, was an immense relief and on the other, sent my anxiety through the roof. Studying for the bar is unlike anything I have ever done before. One day, I would get things right and something would make sense and I knew I could do this, the next, I would get almost everything wrong and I knew this was a waste of my time and hers and I would never pass. I spent weeks doing what Debbie said to do and pushing down the urges to study like the commercial course had told me to. I know my anxiety and resistance were frustrating for her on more than one occasion, it was frustrating for me as well. I wasn’t sleeping, I was hardly eating and when I did, it was straight garbage. My skin was a mess, it was a rare day that I took a shower before 7 pm, and crying and panic attacks became a routine part of my life. I lost count of how many times I took a break to ugly cry and then got back to work because I would be damned if I was going to meet with Debbie and not have done what she told me to do. My stress level was higher through this process than I can ever remember but once I started working with Debbie, it at least felt like stress with a purpose. She might think I was a resistant pain in the butt sometimes but I hung on to this lady’s words and advice like my life depended on it until the day I took the bar.
I don’t know if it’s possible to take the bar exam and come out of it feeling confident but I at least finished it feeling like there was a good chance my name was going to show up on that list in a few months. As the weeks went on, that feeling started going away. I worried pretty consistently that I hadn’t passed and one of the things I dreaded was letting Debbie down after being her first scholarshipped student. Last Friday the results came out and my name was on that list and I knew with 100% certainty that it was because I had said to hell with the commercial course and worked with Debbie. To a lot of people out of the legal field, the bar exam is just some test and in fact people will tell you that repeatedly to try and make you feel better or calm down while you’re killing yourself studying or waiting for results. If you’ve gone through law school, it’s not just a test. It’s the thing that stands between you and the payoff for everything you’ve been working towards for years. Hearing it referred to as just as test can be really frustrating and even a little insulting. Seeing my name on that list was one of the coolest, most mind blowing things I’ve gotten to experience so far in my 42 years and the gratitude I feel to Debbie for scholarshipping me through this process isn’t something I can even appropriately express.
Debbie told me that she had a professor once who did this for her and that it was something that changed her life. This was an incredible and invaluable gift and I hope someday I have the opportunity to pay it forward and impact someone else’s journey this much. I know many people who have taken this exam multiple times and having passed on my first attempt, I am convinced that it’s not because I’m so highly intelligent but because I was gifted with the proper guidance.” |
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"As the potential bar exam student well knows, there are many options available for bar study- from the big bar prep companies to all variations of private tutoring.
While the big bar companies have the monopoly in terms of number of students that end up enrolling, what is really required is the ability to dismantle the bar exam prep process into do-able portions.
Most bar tutors will focus on essays alone, Debbie also has a great strategy for the MBE whereby you end up becoming very familiar and much more comfortable with the questions.
Debbie does this brilliantly. She conveys the exact recipe required- a combination of bar and emotional prep that allows you to get out of your own way, do the work and get the result. I had many self doubts- I am an older student and standardized tests do not come easily for me. Using Debbie’s methods, I was successful with the July 2016 NJ bar. She really is the best—— bar none!"
-Diane
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Richard M. Buck, Jr., Esq. says:
I could not afford a commercial bar prep course. Instead, I took Deb Sanders' bar prep course and passed the New Jersey Bar the first time. Her no-nonsense, coach-like approach assesses your strengths, your weaknesses and thoroughly hammers the fundamentals of successful bar-taking so that no matter how tense it gets reading through the exam questions, her training kicks in and you find yourself applying her method despite yourself.
Deb's focused instruction does not waste time (does not demand endless hours) and her feedback on your practice answers is personal, effective and prompt. Her program is both structured and flexible. Structured in the she makes sure you know all the law you need to know and the mechanics of crafting the type of exam answer the graders crave: concise, thorough and easy to follow. The course is flexible in the sense that her approach allows for individual differences in learning style and knowledge of the law. I cannot recommend her course highly enough. |
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Gerald Burke, M.D., Esq. says:
I wanted to let you know that I did pass both the PA and NJ Bar Exams in February. I am already sworn into the Bar in PA and I am in the process of submitting my materials for New Jersey.
I also wanted to let you know how valuable I found your course, your instruction, and your approach to preparing for and taking the exams. By gleaning the issues out of the previous 6 years of exams, then preparing outlines emphasizing those issues to focus my study efforts, it really maximized my study time. This helped to reduce what initially appeared to be an overwhelming volume of material to a semi-manageable quantity.
Your emphasis on spending 45 minutes and no more on each question was also invaluable to me. I often found myself running well beyond this time when I was working on the February back exams writing my own essay answers to those questions. I made sure that I modified my techniques for reading the questions and then outlining and writing the answers to fit within these strict 45 minute parameters.
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Zanada Joyner, Esq. says:
When I arrived for my first meeting with Debbie, I was a defeated woman. I had unsuccessfully taken the NJ Bar Exam in July 2007 and July 2008. After the second time I almost convinced myself that I didn’t want to be a lawyer. The bar was pointless and worse I was ticked off that I couldn’t pass the stupid thing. I was in deep debt, job prospects were bleak and I’d already taken a prep course. I was out of money but worse, I was out of motivation.
From our first conversation, Debbie assured me that she knew what she was doing and that I needed to trust her expertise. I fought against her. Like many other law students, I knew all the answers. I surveyed my classmates who had passed, I analyzed the pass rates, and I knew that I could do this on my own. Debbie evaluated my past results. We talked about everything (my mischievous pet, money woes, my deep fear of practice) and she understood. She shared her own story and then explained her method to me. Debbie assured me that I was not simply a paying client to her; she was invested in my success. That alone was the difference between working with her and other bar preparation programs.
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