SQE1 studying methods/strategy - what worked & what didn't?

[SophiaAman]

Hi everyone

I thought I'd set up a thread that might be helpful for anyone studying the SQE1 soon. For anyone who has done the SQE1, I'd be grateful if you could provide insight as to your strategy for studying as there is a lot of information to cover.

General questions:
1. I know a lot of people have used flashcards, but this doesn't work for people who are visual learners. If you are a visual learner what did you use?
2. When did you make time to study the core black letter law modules (i.e. contract, tort, land law, etc), especially if you are on a prep course and need to spend time on the pre-reading and workshops?
3. How good are the ULaw books (they seem to be too in-depth)?
4. How did you stay motivated, especially trying to cover all 14 modules?
5. Any tips on creating a study planner (sadly, my prep course provider doesn't provide one)?
6. Specifically for anyone who has studied with BPP - i'm struggling with their slides, feel like some sub-topics are missing info and other sub-topics are going too in-depth. Please let me know your thoughts (maybe i'm just overthinking it).

Thank you in advance (anyone else who has any questions, please feel free to add yours) x

 

[laurenmurphy101]

Hi,

I have just completed the SQE Preparation Course with BPP and I am due to sit the SQE1 in January! I definitely felt overwhelmed when the course commenced and I too struggled with BPP's slides and the workshops more broadly. I ended up self-teaching for the most part! I felt as though some of the preparation on adapt could be very chunky and quite hard to break down. I actually turned to 'Brigitte's Notes' and I could not recommend them enough for getting me through the BPP exams (and also now the SQE1 in January). They were optimised for BPP students and helped me hugely in cutting down the BPP adapt notes, as I really struggled with this. This allowed me to take the time to understand the materials, rather than rushing to get the work done prior to workshops. I did adapt them and add/ remove info where necessary, but overall they were brilliant and far more beneficial than any revision books I had purchased (and also much cheaper)!

I used a study planner and it helped so much - I can try and dig mine out if this would be helpful? I did follow BPP's general study advice and this was quite useful.

In terms of studying the core black letter law modules, I sat the law foundations course with BPP prior to commencing the SQE Prep course so for the most part they were fresh in my mind. However, I allocated set times each week to go over them and also made a lot of time for them closer to the BPP exams.

Top tip for the BPP exams also - many of the practice MCQs available were used in the actual exams, they were just worded differently or included different examples!

I am now revising for the SQE1 in January and would appreciate any general revision advice which anyone has!

Hope this was somewhat useful, and good luck!

 

[golden99]

Hi,

I have just completed the SQE Preparation Course with BPP and I am due to sit the SQE1 in January! I definitely felt overwhelmed when the course commenced and I too struggled with BPP's slides and the workshops more broadly. I ended up self-teaching for the most part! I felt as though some of the preparation on adapt could be very chunky and quite hard to break down. I actually turned to 'Brigitte's Notes' and I could not recommend them enough for getting me through the BPP exams (and also now the SQE1 in January). They were optimised for BPP students and helped me hugely in cutting down the BPP adapt notes, as I really struggled with this. This allowed me to take the time to understand the materials, rather than rushing to get the work done prior to workshops. I did adapt them and add/ remove info where necessary, but overall they were brilliant and far more beneficial than any revision books I had purchased (and also much cheaper)!

I used a study planner and it helped so much - I can try and dig mine out if this would be helpful? I did follow BPP's general study advice and this was quite useful.

In terms of studying the core black letter law modules, I sat the law foundations course with BPP prior to commencing the SQE Prep course so for the most part they were fresh in my mind. However, I allocated set times each week to go over them and also made a lot of time for them closer to the BPP exams.

Top tip for the BPP exams also - many of the practice MCQs available were used in the actual exams, they were just worded differently or included different examples!

I am now revising for the SQE1 in January and would appreciate any general revision advice which anyone has!

Hope this was somewhat useful, and good luck!

Hey, thanks for this post. I’m just starting at BPP myself - I just checked out those brigitte’s notes. Where does it say that they are optimised for BPP students ?

Thanks!

 

[laurenmurphy101]

Hey, thanks for this post. I’m just starting at BPP myself - I just checked out those brigitte’s notes. Where does it say that they are optimised for BPP students ?

Thanks!

Hey! No problem. Best of luck! So, for the BPP exams I actually used the LPC notes which might sound confusing but these near enough mirrored the BPP adapt materials for the SQE 1 Preparation Course, all I had to do was add in some extra information here and there!

https://www.brigittesnotes.com/product-page/core-modules-bundle-2023 - If you scroll down you can find where it states that they are optimised for BPP students.

Since finishing with BPP I have purchased the SQE notes ahead of the SQE 1 in January and they are great, but are not as tailored to BPP. However, this is just my experience.

Hope this helps

 

[Rob93]

Can't speak to all of these but some thoughts below -


2. Any breaks in term are good to run throughout underlying law, but ultimately it is very challenging to be totally on top of that 'extra' work when you're trying to keep up with the new content. I think realistically if you can get through about half of the underlying law before revision period, you'll be in okay shape. Helps to take things topic-by-topic, as well, and change it up between subjects, especially when you're slogging through something you don't enjoy (would reward myself for ticking off a bit of public by going to substantive crim or contract, for example)

4. Ultimately, the pressure of the exam goes a long way to sparking motivation. Beyond that, making friends with coursemates and others doing the same sitting as you is very helpful as it's much more bearable when you don't feel you're dealing with it alone.

5. Refer to the SQE1 specification from the SRA and aim to tick off every item. It is frustratingly un-specific w/r/t a lot of underlying law and it can be difficult to know what is enough for some topics, but you can make some sensible judgment calls as to adequacy of preparation (see also under 6)

6. Very much so. I got the impression that much of BPP's content was retooled from the GDL/LPC where they set the questions and certain topics would make for nice self-contained long-form questions with a particular level of detail. That said, I think broadly BPP's content is tolerably correlated to what comes up on the exams. There will inevitably be details you've covered that don't feature on the exam, and some things on the exam that you haven't covered - this is unavoidable. However, you should get on alright if you focus on the BPP material; for bonus points, take the QLTS free mocks online and the OUP mocks provided by BPP to identify gaps (those both have some really left-field questions) - but don't get too much in your head about those, I failed QLTS FLK2 but scored very well in the live exam (although it did not feel like it at the time)

 

[tjkeane1999]

Can't speak to all of these but some thoughts below -


2. Any breaks in term are good to run throughout underlying law, but ultimately it is very challenging to be totally on top of that 'extra' work when you're trying to keep up with the new content. I think realistically if you can get through about half of the underlying law before revision period, you'll be in okay shape. Helps to take things topic-by-topic, as well, and change it up between subjects, especially when you're slogging through something you don't enjoy (would reward myself for ticking off a bit of public by going to substantive crim or contract, for example)

4. Ultimately, the pressure of the exam goes a long way to sparking motivation. Beyond that, making friends with coursemates and others doing the same sitting as you is very helpful as it's much more bearable when you don't feel you're dealing with it alone.

5. Refer to the SQE1 specification from the SRA and aim to tick off every item. It is frustratingly un-specific w/r/t a lot of underlying law and it can be difficult to know what is enough for some topics, but you can make some sensible judgment calls as to adequacy of preparation (see also under 6)

6. Very much so. I got the impression that much of BPP's content was retooled from the GDL/LPC where they set the questions and certain topics would make for nice self-contained long-form questions with a particular level of detail. That said, I think broadly BPP's content is tolerably correlated to what comes up on the exams. There will inevitably be details you've covered that don't feature on the exam, and some things on the exam that you haven't covered - this is unavoidable. However, you should get on alright if you focus on the BPP material; for bonus points, take the QLTS free mocks online and the OUP mocks provided by BPP to identify gaps (those both have some really left-field questions) - but don't get too much in your head about those, I failed QLTS FLK2 but scored very well in the live exam (although it did not feel like it at the time)

Sorry if this is late, but how did you get access to the QTLS mocks (it is just the 1 that they supply)? Did you find the OUP ones useful? Have just found BPPs general mocks / consolidation MCQs to be wayyy too easy compared to other question banks.