Hi
I sat SQE1 in Tobacco Dock and SQE2 in a small test centre in Limehouse.
As far as I can recall I think you are right in that from my experience tobacco dock only had SQE1 candidates. For the most part it was well organised but just bear in mind because you are there with like 100+ people i think they do end up shuffling you into the room for session 1 and prior to session 2 earlier than small test centres, simply because they need to leave enough time for everybody to sit and settle down at the right desk. Toilets were also tricky as there were only a few cubicles and there were long queues, so you need to bear all this in mind and remember little things like don't leave toilet to the last minute. I remember even the men had to queue for toilets. It wasn't massively stressful though — if you queue up with plenty of time to go then you will definitely be fine, but just smth to bear in mind. i think there have been people who have complained on Reddit as well re at big test centres you don't actually get the full time that you should have for your break between session 1 and session 2, as they need to ask you to put away your stuff and get you into the room probably 10 mins earlier than a small centre just to make sure everyone is sat down and ready to go (note this is anecdotal and idk how true it is - i personally wasn't keeping time during the break when i sat SQE1).
Getting shuffled into the room early wasn't an issue for me personally, as I felt having an extra 10 mins to flick through my notes at that point wouldn't make the difference between a pass or fail. But if this is smth that would cause you anxiety, then it's just smth to bear in mind. But imo you also can't deep it because they may very well do the same anyway even if it's a small test centre. I remember for SQE2 I did have to sit at my desk for a good amount of time as well (it did feel shorter than my wait for SQE1 but not not that much shorter tbh). I just used that waiting time sat in front of my computer to calm myself down and breathe.
Whether it's a big or small test centre you are at, if you know that being around large crowds will trigger your anxiety, then you can maybe consider asking for reasonable adjustments and see if they can provide you with e.g. a separate waiting space. For SQE2 I was at a small test centre with say 15 to 20 other people in the same room (not 100 like SQE1) but because the space was so small and there was no natural light + all the nerves it still felt horrible and anxiety-inducing. I guess you could also say it was particularly bad especially when you can hear people chatting to each other about life / about the exam etc. I didn't ask for reasonable adjustments though, so I don't know if that is smth they can accommodate at tobacco dock or any of the smaller test centres. You might need to do more research on how accommodating Kaplan is to requests like these, sorry I can't provide any more useful advice from my experience.
Re non-SQE candidates at the test centre, I'm pretty sure this was the case when I sat SQE2 writtens at the small test centre in Limehouse. But in my test centre at least the number of people who were sitting SQE2 far outweighed the number of people coming in to do their other tests. I remember on one of my SQE2 written days when we all had our ID checked and were ushered into the room it was only SQE candidates. But at some point during our session they must have let someone else into the same test room, because when I left the test room for the break I saw someone at one of the desks doing a CSCS test but all of us SQE2 candidates just walked straight past him with no issue. I didn't even notice him come in because each desk was partitioned off so I only really saw my own screen and nothing else. And they also gave us disposable foam earplugs which I used. Idk about other test centres though. But again, I feel if you know that this is smth that will seriously affect you, it might just be worth flagging with Kaplan and checking what type of reasonable adjustment they can offer.
Oh and the toilet situation at this small test centre at Limehouse was also abysmal. There were only two or three cubicles for like at least 40 people across all floors at the centre. The queues for the toilet were stupidly long. I think everyone got through by the end but still you would expect them not to induce additional stress by at least making sure that there are enough toilets for everybody. Hot take - but I think these Pearson Vue test centres may be ok for a few people walking in for a computer test every other hour, but are simply inadequate to host huge groups of SQE candidates all at the same time. This is just a Kaplan / Pearson Vue issue you can't do anything about, but you can definitely try to ask about reasonable adjustments if stuff like this would bother you.
Technology wise I didn't encounter any issues at either of these test centres so I can't comment much. My computer did shut down right before I was about to start my SQE2 writtens but thank God it shut down right before I clicked 'next' to start my exam and had the timer running. Staff was relatively quick to switch me over to a different computer and I didn't end up losing any of my time. But I'm not sure what it is like at other test centres.
