A Common Law Lawyer Writes about Their Recent SQE1 Experience
Today I’m beginning what I hope will be a helpful and interesting mini-series on the Site. It’s called “SQE Stories” and – as the name suggests – it’s a collection of first person accounts from those that have recently written the SQE.
As I’ve said before, there are many different ways to successfully study – and many different exam takeaways from different people. I’d love for this Site to be a place for people to share their SQE experiences with others (and a place that contains more voices than just my own).
So without further ado, here’s SQE Story #1 from Anonymous (from email of November 2023):
Hello there, I just wanted to express my gratitude for the tips and resources that played a crucial role in helping me navigate through SQE1. I'm here to share my experiences for fellows who are going to take the exam. Being a qualified lawyer from another common law jurisdiction, I was fortunate to receive an exemption for SQE2. Despite my LLB being more a decade old, I managed to pass FLK1 on the first attempt and FLK2 on the second. I think passing SQE1 should not be about memorising every detail from the textbooks but rather understanding the general concepts and tackling as many practice questions as possible. I opted for the QLTS School materials (having read the posts and comments at your site). While the hard copies of textbooks felt a bit overwhelming (they remain untouched), the Revision Notes were helpful, especially after their revamp in 2023 for FLK2. The improvements were noticeable, and I appreciated them. My study journey spanned a six months, dedicating a full morning or afternoon (4-5 hours) per week. The intensity increased during the final week, where I took one-week leave and studied from 9 am to 9 pm. I took a topic-by-topic approach—starting with reading through the revision notes and then attempting practice questions. The QLTS School's question bank was big, even though I couldn't complete the questions for all topics. Typically, I did 80-100 MCQs for each subject (but not FLK2 topics in my first attempt). For the initial failure in FLK2, I have to admit it was due to my own fault -insufficient preparation and could have started the prep earlier, so managing only 30-50 practice questions per topic and just one mock test. In the successful second attempt, I maintained the same study pattern but was able to do 100-120 practice questions per topic, along with three mock tests (90 questions each), resulting in a passing mark in the first quintile. Kind regards The one who preferred not to be named
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Want to share your SQE story on this Site? If so, please contact me and let me know if I may publish your reflections. You can write about anything you’d like (and remain anonymous, if you so choose), but here are some things that may be helpful to touch on in a write-up:
- Your years of practice experience (if applicable)
- Your home jurisdiction or legal tradition (ie. country or civil vs. common law background);
- What study materials you relied upon (which were particularly helpful? less helpful?)
- What your study schedule looked like (people often ask me this!). How many weeks did you spend on preparation and, on average, how many hours a day did you spend revising? How did you balance this with work / family commitments etc.?
- Did you pass SQE1 and/or 2 on your first try? (I really appreciate that the person writing above was candid about the fact that they did not pass FLK2 the first time around. This is common! Lots of test-takers will come up a little short (in SQE1 especially), and it’s helpful to hear from others that have had this experience. Life happens, as they say. You can try again. It’s not the end).
Lastly, if you’d like some more first-hand reflections, please check out these earlier posts:
Best,
Lawyer in London