What the SQE tests

SQE preparation is not mainly a process of memorising large quantities of legal information. You need to retrieve accurate rules, identify the decisive issue in a client’s facts, apply the rule, and give advice that is safe and usable.

The Solicitors Qualifying Examination for England and Wales has two parts:

  • SQE1 is a computer-based assessment using single best answer multiple-choice questions. It tests functioning legal knowledge across core practice areas and legal services.
  • SQE2 is a practical skills assessment using oral and written tasks in realistic client scenarios. Tasks can include interviewing, advocacy, case and matter analysis, legal research, legal writing and drafting.

You should check the official SQE website for the current assessment dates, booking arrangements, assessment structure and any published specification before you build your timetable. Do not rely on an old course calendar or a study guide written for a previous assessment period.

Across both parts, prepare for application rather than abstract recitation. A useful answer normally does six things:

  1. identifies the client’s objective and the important facts;
  2. isolates the legal issue that changes the outcome;
  3. states the relevant rule, including any important exception;
  4. applies the rule to the facts given;
  5. identifies conduct, confidentiality, conflict or other professional risks;
  6. gives practical next steps, including evidence, deadlines, costs and options where relevant.

Separate SQE1 and SQE2 work

SQE1 needs broad and reliable recall. Your revision should cover the core areas in your specification, then test whether you can select the best answer when several options appear plausible. Do not treat a question bank as a substitute for learning the underlying rule: every wrong answer should lead you back to a precise note.

SQE2 needs a different kind of repetition. You must practise producing work under the task’s constraints. A legally correct answer can still be weak if it buries the client’s objective, ignores a deadline, fails to explain options or overlooks a professional conduct problem.

Use one linked system rather than two unrelated piles of notes. Your rules become cards and question prompts for SQE1; the same rules become client scenarios, oral stations and written tasks for SQE2.

Start with a revision board

Create a board from your own course notes, legislation summaries, practice questions and any permitted materials you trust. Divide it by practice area, then add a separate section for professional conduct and legal services. Each section should contain short propositions, exceptions, common fact patterns and the action a solicitor should take.

Avoid copying whole textbook chapters. A useful section might say that a solicitor must identify a conflict before accepting instructions, then list the facts that should trigger a conflict check and the practical response. Another might link a limitation rule to the facts that start time running and the evidence needed to advise the client.

The board should also show gaps. Mark a section when you repeatedly miss its questions, confuse two rules or omit a practical step in a written or oral answer. A board on this topic ends up looking like this:

SQE SQE1 and SQE2 core revisionStudy
Functioning legal knowledge and practical skillsSQE1 and SQE2 core revision5 sections · 3 columns
Professional conduct and client care5 due
  • Conflict check — identify existing-client and own-interest conflicts before accepting instructions
  • Confidentiality — protect client information; consider whether disclosure is authorised or required
  • Client advice — explain options, risks, costs and time limits in language the client can use
Property and land
  • Priority — identify the interest, how it was created and whether it is protected or binds a purchaser
  • Transaction steps — distinguish investigation, exchange, completion and registration
  • Practical risk — ask what document, search or evidence is still missing
Contract and commercial law
  • Formation — distinguish an offer from an invitation to treat and check acceptance, consideration and intention
  • Terms and remedies — classify the term, identify breach and connect the remedy to the client’s loss
  • Application — start with the contractual wording and the facts, not a general essay on doctrine
SQE2 written and oral skills

Use headings: Client objectives and key facts; Issues; Law; Application and analysis; Advice and options; Next steps. For advocacy, use Order sought; Legal test; Key facts and evidence; Submissions; Remedy and practicalities.

Dispute resolution3 due
  • Issue first — identify cause of action, limitation concern, evidence and the remedy sought
  • Pre-action conduct — check the relevant protocol or procedure before issuing
  • Client decision — compare settlement, negotiation and litigation by cost, time, risk and outcome
This is an illustrative SQE revision board linking functioning legal knowledge to practical client work.

Keep each board section small enough to test. If a section becomes a long page of notes, split it into separate propositions. For example, “professional conduct” could become conflicts, confidentiality, duties to the court, client money, competence and communication. The smaller sections make it possible to see which type of error you are making.

Build a must-not-miss core

After your first pass through the material, reduce each section to the rules you must be able to retrieve without searching. This is not a list of everything examinable. It is the minimum set of rules and actions that should appear in your answers repeatedly.

Include exceptions beside the rule, not on a distant page. Include the practical consequence too. “There may be a conflict” is less useful than “stop and assess whether the conflict is permitted; do not accept or continue without resolving the professional conduct issue”.

A core checklist for an SQE board might look like this:

Must not miss coreSQE1 and SQE2 core revision
Before accepting instructions, identify conflicts, confidentiality restrictions, client capacity and any competence issue; escalate or decline where required.
For every problem question: state the decisive issue, the accurate rule and the material exception, then apply both supporting and adverse facts.
For client advice: explain the objective, options, risks, likely cost or time consequences, evidence needed and the next deadline.
For dispute questions: identify the cause of action or defence, limitation concern, evidence, procedural step and remedy before discussing tactics.
For SQE2 written work: use clear headings, separate facts from law, tailor the advice to the client and finish with specific next steps.
This is an illustrative must-not-miss core for turning SQE notes into answer-ready rules.

Review the core after practice, not only before it. If you missed a point because you did not know the rule, add a short rule. If you knew the rule but failed to apply it, add a fact-pattern prompt. If you gave legally sound advice but omitted costs or a deadline, add that practical requirement to the answer structure.

Practise the SQE1 decision process

For each single best answer question, use a repeatable sequence:

  1. Read the question’s task carefully: is it asking for the best advice, the most likely outcome, the next step or the appropriate conduct?
  2. Identify the area of law and the decisive fact.
  3. State the rule to yourself, including the exception that could alter the result.
  4. Eliminate answers that are legally wrong, too broad, premature or impractical.
  5. Compare the remaining answers against the exact facts, not against a similar problem you remember.

Do not record only whether you were right. Record why the other attractive option was wrong. A distractor may state a generally correct rule but fail because it ignores a qualification, uses the wrong procedural stage or gives advice that is unsafe on the facts.

Practise SQE2 as finished work

For written tasks, practise producing a document for a particular reader. A client letter, attendance note, advice or drafting task should not read like a law-school essay. Put the important conclusion near the start, use headings, explain technical terms and make the next action obvious.

For oral tasks, practise speaking in a stable structure. Start by confirming the objective and key facts. Identify the most important issue before secondary points. Explain the law briefly, apply it to the facts, then give options and next steps. If the scenario raises a conflict, confidentiality concern, capacity issue or duty to the court, deal with it early rather than attaching it as an afterthought.

When reviewing a written answer, mark omissions as well as errors. A response can be accurate but incomplete because it does not identify evidence, deadlines, cost exposure, client instructions or the risk of proceeding. The following written-task review shows how to use that distinction.

A marked SQE2-style written task can look like this:

Paper — SQE2 client advice34:18
79%SQE2 client advice — marked31/39 marks · 34:18 taken

Your client, Northbank Events Ltd, says a supplier has failed to deliver equipment for a contracted event. Advise on the immediate legal and practical steps, the information needed, and the options available to the client.

4/5

Client objective: Northbank wants the event to proceed and wishes to recover losses. Issues: We should check the contract, delivery date, notice provisions, limitation clauses and any agreed remedy. The supplier may be in breach. Northbank should preserve the contract, correspondence and evidence of the losses. Options include negotiating urgent delivery, arranging a substitute supplier and considering a claim for recoverable loss.

The answer identifies breach and gives sensible immediate options. It is ordered around the client’s objective and avoids an unsupported conclusion about liability.

Missed

State that the contractual terms must be checked for termination, exclusion or limitation provisions and any notice requirement.

Distinguish losses that may be recoverable from losses that may be too remote or avoidable, and ask for evidence of mitigation.

Give a clear immediate next step: obtain the contract and delivery records, confirm the event deadline, and send a suitably framed notice after reviewing the terms.

Model answerClient objectives and facts: Confirm whether Northbank’s priority is delivery, cancellation, compensation or all three, and obtain the contract, order, delivery promise, correspondence and event timetable. Issues and law: Establish whether the supplier is in breach, whether the contract contains notice, termination, exclusion or limitation terms, and what remedy is available. Application: The event deadline makes substitute arrangements and mitigation urgent, but recoverability will depend on the contractual terms, foreseeability and evidence of loss. Advice and next steps: Preserve evidence, check the notice procedure, obtain replacement quotes, contact the supplier with a clear reservation of rights, and then advise on negotiation, termination and any claim with costs and risks explained.

This is an illustrative marked SQE2 written task showing how a good answer can lose marks through missing practical detail.

That is a MySummaries paper, filled with SQE material. Yours is written from your own notes. Start free

Use a timer once you know the structure. In early practice, stop to check your source and rewrite weak paragraphs. Later, complete the task first and review it afterwards. Your review should produce one or two specific actions, such as “state the contractual exception before applying the general rule” or “finish every advice answer with evidence, deadline and cost consequences”.

Listen back to an examiner-style lecture

Audio revision is useful for rules you understand but cannot retrieve quickly. Choose a narrow board section rather than asking for a lecture on all of SQE law. A ten-minute explanation of conflict checks or client advice structure is easier to revisit than a broad lecture with no clear endpoint.

The listening screen should follow the same order as your notes: rule, exception, fact pattern and practical response. Pause when the explanation reaches a likely question and state the answer aloud before continuing.

A lecture made from the SQE board might look like this:

Lecture — SQE1 and SQE2 core revision10 min
From legal rule to safe client adviceFollows a client problem from issue spotting through application, conduct checks and practical next steps.
04:3610:08
Speed1×1.25×1.5×2×

Transcript · tap any word to jump there

Start with the client’s objective and the facts that can change the outcome. A strong solicitor does not begin by listing every rule connected with the subject; they identify the issue that matters most to this client.

Next, state the rule accurately and include the exception if it could alter the advice. Then apply the rule to both sides of the facts. Avoid saying simply that the client has a claim or defence: explain why the facts support that conclusion and what evidence is still needed.

Finally, test the advice for professional conduct and practical safety. Ask whether there is a conflict, a confidentiality concern, a duty to the court, a deadline, a cost risk or an instruction that needs clarification. Finish with options and an action the client can take now.

This is an illustrative listening screen turning the SQE answer method into a short examiner-voice lecture.

A weekly SQE preparation method

A workable week should alternate recall, application and production:

  • Session 1, 60–90 minutes: revise one board section and reduce it to core propositions.
  • Session 2, 60 minutes: complete single best answer questions, recording the rule and the reason for each error.
  • Session 3, 45–60 minutes: retrieve due cards without notes, then repair the weakest cards.
  • Session 4, 60–90 minutes: complete one SQE2 written or oral task using a realistic client scenario.
  • Session 5, 30 minutes: mark the task against issue spotting, accuracy, application, structure, conduct and practical advice.
  • Session 6, 30–45 minutes: review the week’s errors and create targeted cards or prompts.

Adjust the hours to your available time, but preserve the sequence. Reading alone should not occupy the whole week. Every topic needs an attempt to retrieve it and an attempt to apply it.

At the end of each week, rank sections by performance. “I studied land law for three hours” is not a useful measure. “I identified priority correctly in six of eight questions but repeatedly missed the practical registration step” tells you what to do next.

How MySummaries helps

MySummaries lets you build the SQE board from your own PDFs, slides and notes, then turn that board into flashcards, single best answer practice, marked written tasks, examiner-voice lectures and recorded oral practice. For this task, the useful link between them is the same: a missed rule or omitted practical step becomes a targeted revision item rather than disappearing in a notebook.

Start at MySummaries and build one board for the SQE material you are studying this week.