Failed Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE1 and SQE2)? Here's Your Recovery Plan

Pro tip: A candidate who uses an attempt but does not sit, without accepted mitigating circumstances, is recorded as having used that attempt. A formal withdrawal made under the assessment regulations does not count towards the three attempts. Candidates cannot resit an assessment they have already passed, and there are no exemptions from only part of FLK1, FLK2 or SQE2.

• Revising from a Legal Practice Course textbook or an older syllabus instead of the SRA specification.
  The SQE1 specification lists the examinable topics explicitly, and it excludes areas the LPC covered. Revise against the specification and its annexes, and check the SQE2 annex 1 separately because it is a sub-set of the SQE1 knowledge.
• Practising single best answer questions untimed and then losing control of the clock in the real session.
  Ninety questions in 153 minutes gives 1 minute 42 seconds each. Practise in blocks of 90 against that clock from week 2, because reading speed on long factual stems is what fails most candidates rather than missing knowledge.
• Treating ethics as a separate subject to revise at the end.
  Ethics is pervasive across both FLK papers and every SQE2 station, and in SQE2 the ethical issue is never flagged. Build the SRA Principles and Code of Conduct into every practice scenario from the first week instead of studying them alone.
• Studying the law as it stands on the day rather than as it stood at the SRA cut-off date.
  The examinable law is fixed four calendar months before the first assessment in your window. Check that date when you book and note any change in the law that falls after it, because that change is not examinable.
• Booking only one FLK because the other one feels weaker.
  The SRA requires both FLK1 and FLK2 to be booked and paid for in the same sitting unless an exemption applies or you have already passed one and are resitting the other. Plan the full two-day sitting from the start.
• Assuming SQE2 is a lighter version of SQE1 because the pass rate is higher.
  SQE2 tests six skills across 16 stations with tight time limits, including a 25-minute handwritten attendance note and a 15-minute advocacy submission. The higher pass rate reflects a filtered population that already passed SQE1, not an easier assessment.
• Typing all SQE2 written practice and never handwriting the attendance note.
  The attendance note and legal analysis after the client interview is handwritten in 25 minutes. Practise it by hand under time so that handwriting speed and legibility do not cost marks on the day.
• Arriving at the SQE2 oral centre expecting to leave once the two hours of assessment are done.
  Candidates are at the centre for between 4.5 and 7 hours and cannot be released early, and those given a 12:40 report time wait about three hours before starting. Plan travel and food around a day that can end near 19:30.
• Bringing water or notes into the assessment room.
  Pearson VUE rules bar water, phones, watches, books and notes from the SQE1 and SQE2 written rooms, and personal items must go into lockers. Leaving the room for water counts as an unscheduled break and the assessment timer keeps running.
• Missing a sitting without formally withdrawing and losing an attempt.
  A candidate who uses an attempt but does not sit, with no mitigating circumstances, is recorded as having used it. A formal withdrawal made in line with the assessment regulations does not count towards the three attempts.

• Book FLK1 and FLK2 in the same sitting
• Drill single best answer questions to 1 minute 42 seconds each, the real pace of 90 questions in 153 minutes
• Treat ethics as pervasive; it is examined across both FLK papers and every SQE2 station without being flagged
• Learn the law as it stood four calendar months before the first assessment in your window, the SRA cut-off date
• Practise the SQE2 attendance note by hand, because that station is handwritten while the other written stations are typed
• Work the SRA sample questions and statistical reports before buying any commercial prep course