SQE1 Exam Preparation

You must apply to the regulator, the SRA, if you wish to be granted an exemption from either SQE1 or SQE2. However, there are very few situations where exemptions will be granted. And there are no partial exemptions.

The main exemptions are:

If you have passed the Legal Practice Course (LPC), you will be exempt from SQE1; and

If you are qualified lawyer overseas looking to dual-qualify in England & Wales via the SQE, you need to check the SRA’s website (details below) to see whether the qualification you hold in your home jurisdiction provides you with any exemptions. If it does, it is most likely that you would be exempt from SQE2, but you would still need to pass SQE1. You may also be exempt from qualifying work experience, depending on the extent of on-the-job training you have received in your home jurisdiction.

For details on exemptions, whether you qualify, as well as how to apply for these, please check the SRA website.

There is no fee to register with the SRA as a student. However, you should be aware that as well as the fees for our course materials, there are separate assessment fees payable to the SRA’s assessment provider, Kaplan, each time you register to sit SQE1, and later when you register to sit SQE2. Resit fees are the same again, unless you have passed one of the two SQE1 papers, in which case the resit fee is half the overall SQE1 assessment fee.

For details on SQE assessment fees see the SRA website.

A training contract is traditionally associated with the SQE's predecessor, the LPC. Students qualifying via the SQE need to complete two years’ qualifying work experience (QWE), but this can be completed at between one and four employers, and, generally, is subject to less regulation than a training contract was. However, employers and the profession still commonly refer to two years’ QWE at a single employer as a ‘training contract’.

The SQE1 consists of 360 multiple-choice questions set in two papers of 180 questions each, ‘FLK1’ and ‘FLK2’ which test your functioning legal knowledge. For FLK1, you sit 90 questions in the morning, have an hour’s break and then sit 90 questions in the afternoon. You do the same a week later for FLK2. Candidates must apply their knowledge of the law and legal practice across multiple topics on each paper.

The pass mark for each sitting of the SQE will be set by the Assessment Board in accordance with the SQE Marking and Standard Setting Policy.

There is not one fixed pass mark for the assessment and there are no quotas for the allocation of grades. The pass mark for both SQE1 and SQE2 can vary to make sure that the passing standard of the assessment remains consistently at the correct level from one sitting to the next. The pass mark will be published after each Assessment Board and will also be included with the candidate's results.

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SQE is the Solicitors Qualifying Examination.

Due to the need to protect intellectual property, it is not possible to download the majority of course materials. An active internet connection is required to authenticate your account and access your learning content. Some video materials are available to download for later viewing.