SQE prep: I’ve not been a student in years

[LS12]

Hi guys,

I’m fortunate enough to be starting my SQE in September sponsored by a firm. I’m pretty stressed in advance because I can see that a lot of the course is self study. It’s been years since I did my law degree and I honestly couldn’t really recite much from what I studied. This coupled with being out of education and worrying that I don’t know how to study anymore means I’m becoming increasingly concerned about starting. Since I’ve got a month before I start can anyone provide some advice?

 

[Law1099]

I can’t offer any advice but I’m in the same position and have been feeling pretty bummed out by it all. I feel like everyone just talks about how intense and scary these exams are, and the fact we have to commit 3 years of undergraduate law to memory which a large intake of us haven’t actually done because of covid - on top of learning new stuff - it’s really daunting. I’ve also been working for almost three years now.

Hoping someone else has some advice.

 

[anxiouslawyer]

Heya. I'm currently doing the SQE with BPP (also firm sponsored), I passed SQE 1 in first quintile on the first sit and currently doing SQE 2. I was also out of uni for about 5 years before I started the SQE so I believe I can offer some advice

I honestly didn't actually start studying for the SQE until about a week before the course actually started, mainly because they didn't give us access to the materials any earlier. I'm not sure which law schools you're with but you may find that to be the case too. That being said I did believe the 4 months I had to prepare for SQE 1 whilst studying full time was sufficient. I started in mid-Sept and by the time mocks rolled around in mid December I had covered basically 90% of the course content, which left me with roughly over a month for revision before the exams in late January.

My undergrad law knowledge was extremely rusty so needless to say I did have to re-learn everything, but I was surprised by how quickly things came back to me once I started. But the SQE does not examine it in the same way, so like with contract and tort for example, you would have had a full year to learn this as an undergraduate but on the SQE you can learn it in a matter of days because you don't delve into any case law or academic debate, you are only learning the bare principles.

I didn't find it too much of a struggle to get back into studying, the main thing is to treat it like a full time job and be consistent - I was working consistently 5 days a week, several hours a day from the day I started the course, and by the time it was exam season I was studying basically every day. I made sure I prepped for every class and kept up with the workload - because there is so much content to cover, if you slack it is very easy to fall behind, and if you fall behind too much you will struggle to catch up.

Everybody has different study methods, some of my friends favoured flashcards, me personally I didn't use many flashcards and I personally find the volume of information was too unwieldy for flashcards - I favoured mindmaps, writing up notes (both on the computer and by hand) and doing plenty of practice tests to consolidate the knowledge.

The key thing is to make sure you cover everything that is listed on the SQE specification. This is ultimately an exam that favours breadth over depth, don't neglect your undergrad law subjects as they are tested equally to the practical subjects. And do plenty of practice tests to get your technique down. Ultimately the majority of my cohort passed for SQE 1, so it is hard, but doable!

 

[Seabird15]

@anxiouslawyer thanks so much for your reply. I just had a quick q regarding what you said about no academic debate and case law. I'm currently studying the "constitutional and administrative law and eu law" section for SQE 1 mostly using University of Law books before my formal studies at BPP begin as I had some free time anyways... And within that module there is a significant amount of academic debate it seems about almost every principle. Do you suggest that I should devote as little time to these as possible, as it seems they are not really examinable within SQE 1?

For example, the 'manner and form theory' in constitutional law is basically an entire debate from different academics. How in-depth do I need to go with things like this?

 

[anxiouslawyer]

@anxiouslawyer thanks so much for your reply. I just had a quick q regarding what you said about no academic debate and case law. I'm currently studying the "constitutional and administrative law and eu law" section for SQE 1 mostly using University of Law books before my formal studies at BPP begin as I had some free time anyways... And within that module there is a significant amount of academic debate it seems about almost every principle. Do you suggest that I should devote as little time to these as possible, as it seems they are not really examinable within SQE 1?

For example, the 'manner and form theory' in constitutional law is basically an entire debate from different academics. How in-depth do I need to go with things like this?

I don't recall much about this part but I don't recall the questions ever asking about academic debates. It will be things like, what is parliamentary sovereignty (in the most boiled down way possible), how does a constitutional convention work or what human rights are in issue etc. Remember for SQE 1 the questions are between one line to a couple of paragraphs long for the more fact-heavy questions and then you get 5 options to pick from (remember it's "single best answer" MCQs so the 5 options will be written in such a way that you may find it tricky to pick what the "most correct" answer is even if you think you know the topic), there's no room for debate.

 

[SophiaAman]

Heya. I'm currently doing the SQE with BPP (also firm sponsored), I passed SQE 1 in first quintile on the first sit and currently doing SQE 2. I was also out of uni for about 5 years before I started the SQE so I believe I can offer some advice

I honestly didn't actually start studying for the SQE until about a week before the course actually started, mainly because they didn't give us access to the materials any earlier. I'm not sure which law schools you're with but you may find that to be the case too. That being said I did believe the 4 months I had to prepare for SQE 1 whilst studying full time was sufficient. I started in mid-Sept and by the time mocks rolled around in mid December I had covered basically 90% of the course content, which left me with roughly over a month for revision before the exams in late January.

My undergrad law knowledge was extremely rusty so needless to say I did have to re-learn everything, but I was surprised by how quickly things came back to me once I started. But the SQE does not examine it in the same way, so like with contract and tort for example, you would have had a full year to learn this as an undergraduate but on the SQE you can learn it in a matter of days because you don't delve into any case law or academic debate, you are only learning the bare principles.

I didn't find it too much of a struggle to get back into studying, the main thing is to treat it like a full time job and be consistent - I was working consistently 5 days a week, several hours a day from the day I started the course, and by the time it was exam season I was studying basically every day. I made sure I prepped for every class and kept up with the workload - because there is so much content to cover, if you slack it is very easy to fall behind, and if you fall behind too much you will struggle to catch up.

Everybody has different study methods, some of my friends favoured flashcards, me personally I didn't use many flashcards and I personally find the volume of information was too unwieldy for flashcards - I favoured mindmaps, writing up notes (both on the computer and by hand) and doing plenty of practice tests to consolidate the knowledge.

The key thing is to make sure you cover everything that is listed on the SQE specification. This is ultimately an exam that favours breadth over depth, don't neglect your undergrad law subjects as they are tested equally to the practical subjects. And do plenty of practice tests to get your technique down. Ultimately the majority of my cohort passed for SQE 1, so it is hard, but doable!

This is really reassuring - Thank you! I studied the LLB 12 years ago and do not remember anything. I start the SQE1 in Sept with BPP, which is sponsored by my firm. Can I ask how you studied the core modules (i.e. contract, tort, criminal, land, trust etc)? Were the resources i.e. videos provided by BPP enough? I've been told they do not provide hard copies of books covering the core modules. Did you use/purchase any other resources?

Any tips on managing BPP workload whilst re-learning the core modules? how long do you roughly need to prepare for BPP classes? Thank you.

 

[anxiouslawyer]

Were the resources i.e. videos provided by BPP enough? I've been told they do not provide hard copies of books covering the core modules. Did you use/purchase any other resources?

I would say the resources are enough, they improve the course over time. As I was in the very first batch for the City Consortium SQE I was not so lucky - when I did it it was completely self-study for the core modules but now they have proper revision lectures going over the topics.

They don't provide hard copies because everything you need is on their online learning platforms. Those are your "textbooks" so to speak and you can cut / paste make notes from them as you please. The only additional resources I purchased were a couple of textbooks from ULaw in subjects that I was weaker in, as well as some revision guides from Revise SQE. You should also have access to some materials and MCQs from OUP as part of your course and I used that as well.

Any tips on managing BPP workload whilst re-learning the core modules? how long do you roughly need to prepare for BPP classes? Thank you.

Tbh there is no real shortcut - the key thing is to start early and don't leave it until close to the exam to re-learn the core modules because they are a lot in themselves (particularly if it has been a while for you) and they are tested just as much in SQE 1 as the practice subjects like property practice and business law. I think quite a few of my peers left it until later and it became an additional source of stress. I would say class prep is a solid few hours each day just to get through the reading, make your notes and do the pre-class homework.