It may be useful to note - I scored in the top quintile in both FLK1 and FLK2 and achieved a score in the 80s.
When did you start and complete SQE1?
Started in September 2022 (ca 17 September) and completed it at the end of January 2023.
Who was your SQE provider?
BPP
Why did you choose the provider you did?
The provider was chosen by my firm.
What kind of support did your provider offer during the SQE?
They offered taught classes (workshops) for all the practice subjects, namely Business Law and Practice, Property Law and Practice, Criminal Law and Practice, Wills and Administration of Estates and Dispute Resolution. There was an induction week where parts of Legal Services were taught too. The rest of the subjects (Functioning Legal Knowledge, i.e. the GDL or LLB modules, such as tort/public/contract/criminal e.t.c and legal services) comprised of individual study only. Finally, there were drop-in sessions, approximately monthly, for each of the subjects (both the practice and the foundational knowledge subjects). The Learning Support team was especially helpful, making sure to devise a learning plan and put reasonable adjustments in place, tailored to individual circumstances.
Please explain the structure of the SQE programme in your own words
The structure of my particular SQE Programme:
As mentioned, the only taught subjects per se involved the 5 key practice subjects.
- Criminal Law and Practice
- Business Law and Practice
- Dispute Resolution
- Wills and Administration of Estates
- Property Law and Practice
Beyond this, there were live drop-in sessions approximately once a month for all subjects examined on the SQE1 (including non-taught subjects, such as tort, contract, criminal, public law, legal services, legal systems, solicitors accounts, ethics, trusts and land law). I will refer to the non-taught GDL/LLB subjects as “core legal subjects” in this article.
For the 5 taught subjects, we had one 2-hour long workshop per subject per week. As such, we had 10 hours of teaching per week in total for all 5 practice subjects. Given this was a full-time course (with the teaching running from mid-End September until December), most of our time actually entailed self-study, either refreshing the core law modules individuals completed on the GDL or during their LLB.
In my personal case, I found that this underlying legal knowledge should not be underestimated, given that it comprises a large part of the SQE1 assessment. Annex 4 of the SQE1 assessment specification on the SRA website breaks down the contents of each SQE1 FLK paper, listing the subjects examinable in each paper together with the percentage of questions for each subject in the respective paper. The SRA therefore, according to Annex 4, lists 12 subjects in total across both the FLK and FLK2 papers. Out of those 12 subjects, only 5 of them are fully taught subjects. When looked at in these terms, I believe it becomes apparent that core legal subjects are at least as equally important as the practice subjects. As such, candidates should factor this in and expect to devote sufficient time to these non-taught core legal subjects when considering the structure of their SQE programme. What BPP had which I appreciated was an AI- powered online platform, where all our learning materials could be found.
After every learning element, there were a couple of Multiple Choice Questions, which actually helped get me into the “MCQ” mindset early on. After every workshop, there were consolidation MCQs for the respective topic, which again really helped. There were also two formative assessments (one after the first five workshops for all taught subjects and another at the end of teaching), which again proved really useful in familiarising ourselves with the MCQ style of questioning and getting used to how quickly questions need to be answered.
The most helpful assessment throughout the course, in my opinion, was the BPP Summative Assessment, which tried to emulate the SQE1 structure, in terms of time given and all questions being asked in a randomised order and not according to subject. In advance of each workshop, there were also written tasks we had to complete for the practice subjects. These are designed with the SQE2 primarily in mind, aiming to apply different SQE2 skills when completing the tasks. However, given the volume of information for SQE1 and the lack of time, I found this overwhelming at the time and would have preferred to focus on MCQs only. It is also worth noting that there were no hard-copy learning materials provided; all content was on the learning platform. If learning online is something you are familiar with, this won’t be a problem for you (and it’ll be great for the environment!), but it is worth bearing in mind for those who are not used to this style of learning.
How did you study for SQE1?
This is more of a tough one, and I think I should start by setting expectations that whilst some people seem to manage (albeit a few) to have the perfect life-balance and routine during this course, I was not one of them. I was in the admittedly privileged situation to not be working alongside the course, given that I was being sponsored by my firm. However, I still found it difficult to get the balance right between studying and having a normal routine, given this was a full-time course. At the beginning, I largely ignored the core legal subjects and adopted the “out of sight out of mind” approach. I prepared for the practice subject workshops in advance and focused on computing all the new information I was learning. And I did find this challenging. All the practice subjects were packed with new information and mostly unknowns. Whilst they are not always conceptually hard, they are incredibly technical and practical and it does take time to firstly understand the concepts and secondly, really digest the information. I felt like there was simply not enough time to revise for the core subjects in the first month/month and a half of the course.
After I settled into more of a routine, I started studying longer hours and finished later into the evening (it was not a 9-5 gig as I was playing catch-up at that point). I focused on one core legal subject per week, whilst also studying for my practice subjects and attending the workshops. This helped me to not feel overwhelmed by spreading myself too thin and trying to juggle too many subjects at the same time. For example, I spent at least 2-3 hours per day studying land law for one whole week, before switching to another core subject the following week. This strategy certainly worked for me, but it may be equally helpful for others to switch between core subjects more often if they feel they are struggling to stay motivated.
All in all, I would certainly recommend to ease into the core subjects from the beginning of your SQE1 course, even if they are not taught, and make a slow start to avoid feeling behind and working longer towards the end. I did sacrifice weekends in the last month of preparation leading up to the exams, in January 2023, but before then, I always made sure to take Sundays off and not look at anything SQE1 related. Obviously, if you could manage your time better than I did and take a full weekend off, that would be ideal, but if things don’t go perfectly according to plan (they rarely do after all and that’s okay!), you can have peace in knowing you can still have one day of the week where you don’t have to look at SQE1.
The most helpful resource I found when studying for SQE1 Is - funnily enough – the SQE Assessment Specification. I know this may sound odd and I know once you look at it, you’ll need to spend some time with it -or months - before you fully appreciate it, but it helped give me structure. And I cannot emphasise this enough, but structure is the one big thing that is lacking in this whole SQE1 process. Regardless of which provider you choose, regardless of which course you take, the big elephant in the room which just cannot practically go away is the fact that all the providers are trying to prepare you for two papers and one super exam which they have no control over and limited insight into. They are doing their absolute best to give you as much information and help as possible to help you pass the exam, but that is their subjective best, in their subjective appraisal of the SQE specification and exam. So I think it is actually important to start looking at the SQE specification from the beginning of your course, so you can know what to focus on and how to filter information when you are going through your course.
However, my focus on the value of the SQE specification in no way seeks to undermine the value of the course provider’s materials. If anything, I think the two together are the best chance candidates have for passing this exam right now. My personal strategy was to use my course provider’s platform and materials to a) make notes and b) structure those notes around the SQE specification to see what I was learning, what gaps I could spot in the things that I thought we needed to know based on the SQE spec and follow-up on those and what things I personally thought were superfluous and I could devote less time to. So I literally firstly just copy pasted the long-form SQE Assessment Specification into a word document. And then I made my notes around the headings and the sub-headings of the specification, which gave them both structure and helped me keep track of what I knew and did not know. I found this an incredibly powerful way to create structure in what otherwise seemed as incredibly long and unstructured notes and gain the maximum value out of my provider’s materials. I will say, however, that this strategy proved more useful for the practice subjects which have more headings and sub-headings than the core legal subjects. If you find yourself pressed for time or think this is a cumbersome way to make notes, I would urge you to only do it for the practice subjects and learn for the core legal subjects in another way, either straight from your provider’s notes or adopt your own way of making notes.
Beyond this, I personally found the “Revise SQE, The Legal System and Services” revision book a good way of having more structured and limited notes for legal system and legal services, both of which were not necessarily fully taught. I especially found that the emphasis on legal services was lacking, so this was a good complement to my learning materials. Beyond your course provider’s longer materials, I think short revision books and guides for the subjects you struggle the most with may be helpful.
Overall, I would say that picking a good provider and materials is an important first step, but given the novelty of the exam and the lack of control the providers have over the assessments, it is important to make your own decisions (with the help of the specification!) as to which parts you will focus on the most for the exam. You will undoubtedly be exposed to a large volume of materials and so having concise and comprehensive notes will be imperative when it comes to memorising things for the exam and maximising your chances of success.
Now that you have completed SQE1, what advice would you have for passing the exam?
My top tips for passing the exam
1. Mindset – I’ll leave the pep talk for the end and focus on more practical tips here, but a good mindset and a determination to slay the beast that is SQE1 is absolutely key.
2. No such thing as too many MCQs – If you are someone like me who was not at all familiar with MCQs, you need to practise as much as you can and start doing so early. Even if MCQs were part of the way you were assessed at university, these MCQs really are a different kind of beast, being so-called “assessment level MCQs” – what that means is that each answer may look like it could be the right one to really test your knowledge. And that is not to be underestimated. It will not be a case of “guessing” the right answer if you don’t know which one it is. And getting practice early on will firstly help you a) identify the traps that these MCQs can make you fall into and avoid them and b) get used to the incredibly short minute and something you have to answer each question in the exams. However, I do think it’s important to use MCQs effectively. Whilst people learn differently, I believe MCQs should be used alongside the making and learning of notes, rather than being a replacement of them.
3. Start early – just how early you have to start will depend on your individual circumstances and phase in life. As someone who did the core legal subjects during my LLB and not more recently, for example during the GDL, I wish I knew how important the core legal subjects would be so that I could have started looking at them earlier. For example, if you are doing a full-time 4 month course, I would advise spending some time in the month before starting the course to just read through some of the notes for the core legal subjects, so that your knowledge can be refreshed and you can already be “ahead” – even if just in terms of mindset - when beginning the course. It’s also worth noting that having a better understanding of the core subjects early on can actually aid your understanding of the practice subjects, in the sense that being more familiar with land and trusts law can help you understand wills and property better e.t.c.
4. Keep the percentage of questions for each subject in mind – As mentioned, Annex 4 of the SRA Assessment Specification shows you the percentage in which each subject is assessed in each SQE1 paper. This will help you understand that on average, almost every subject makes up between 14-20% of each paper. Therefore, if you find yourself struggling with a couple of topics in each subject, these statistics suggest that you’re better off moving to the next subject to maximise your chances of passing the paper overall. Essentially, don’t focus on one subject too much, either because you like it or find it harder, at the expense of all the other subjects, because you cannot pass either FLK1 or FLK2 by mastering any individual subject alone. You need to do well in all the subjects examined in each paper to pass and devoting sufficient time to each one is the best way of doing that. Equally, from my experience, “legal services” in FLK1 tends to be an underestimated subject in the sense that candidates tend to not focus on it as much, but Annex 4 shows it makes up 12-16% of FLK1 and as such, it should not be disregarded.
5. Revise in a focused manner – this is a more personal point, that not everyone may relate to or agree with. I personally found the volume of information and the breadth of subjects a really big challenge in SQE1. Never before the SQE1 has there been a closed-book high-stakes assessment of this kind in the legal profession, where candidates have been expected to recall information across 12 main subjects in just over a minute. Whilst it’s not a case of who has the best memory, being able to understand as well as memorise information is key. You will not have access to your learning materials to help you in the exam, so you do need to remember the principles across all subjects well. Roughly remembering the answer will, in most cases, not be good enough as the detail you may not remember well could be the difference between choosing the right and wrong answer. I personally struggled to stay motivated, as I did not enjoy certain subjects at all (like Criminal Law or Public Law), but I still had to study and understand them to pass.
My strategy in terms of maximising my chances of memorising as much information as I could was to go through a very intense and focused learning period in the last month before the SQE1. I made concise but comprehensive notes for all subjects and focused on learning and practising recalling information for the entire month. I do think this paid off and worked in my favour, in the sense that I was so fed up with all the subjects by the end of it, that if it had lasted any longer I would have probably given up. This is not to undermine the importance of all the deep learning and note-making process that took place in the months before December. However, the fact that I wasn’t “learning” new bits of information but was rather consolidating and trying to recall them in the last month did help me do better in the exam. I think this may be a particularly important point for individuals taking the SQE1 alongside working. I think they would benefit from setting some time aside – either full weekends and/or taking days off from work - in the last month before the exam to really focus on consolidating and memorising information, after they go through the initial learning phase.
For those taking the course part-time, my own opinion is that it is a very intense process and exam and so I would advise them to leave enough time for preparation and not try to do it as quickly as possible, to maximise their chances of success. 4 months was certainly challenging as a full-time course, so perhaps around double the time for someone doing it part-time and juggling work commitments would be realistic.
Looking back, is there anything you would have done differently to study or revise for the exam?
See previous question - essentially I would have started earlier with the core legal subjects, focused more on MCQs and I wish the course was a little longer/not as intensive.
Were you employed alongside the SQE?
No, given I was sponsored by my firm. As mentioned in question 10, I think people doing it part-time should allow for enough preparation time and not rush through the process for the sake of qualifying earlier. Whilst understanding the temptation, it's a marathon not a sprint and you ideally want to pass the first time around. I don't think I can recommend to anyone to not do it alongside working, given that realistically a lot of people will be doing this alongside work, especially as an alternative route to qualification.I certainly think it's possible, it's just that the considerations are different. Given the choice, I would say that doing this without working was challenging enough, so that would personally be my preferred option.
Is there anything else you feel that future SQE students should know?
One final point in terms of mindset. I understand that some of you going through the SQE1 preparation process will inevitably be feeling lost, disheartened, tired and a lot of other negative emotions you’d rather not be experiencing. I was in the exact same boat and I would actually get angry at people telling me to be more positive. Having gone through the process now however (hindsight is 20/20), I see that the most scary part of it all is actually the uncertainty. Accepting that regardless of the provider and course you choose, your preparation will have flaws, because of the novelty of the SQE1 is key. Accepting that the exam will be hard and you will not enjoy every subject, but you are doing it because you ultimately want to qualify. That for the next few years, until the process and the exam hopefully improves, you will be guinea pigs going through an exam which is unlike anything else you have been through.
However, that being said, when you put the effort in, when you work methodically and luck being on your side on the day of the exam, you should pass. Hard work always pays off and I regret spending so much of my time being miserable while preparing for the exam and focusing on all the things that were not working. I, by no means, blame myself and have the greatest understanding and sympathy with those finding themselves in the same state of desperation. The only “regret” I have is that I would have “enjoyed” the process a little more and come through it a bit more unscathed if my mindset was more positive. I’m trying to practise exactly this as I prepare for the SQE2 right now – just so I hopefully do practise what I preach.
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