How to use SQE flashcards properly

SQE flashcards are most useful when each card tests one decision you may need to make under pressure. They are less useful when a card contains an entire topic such as “contract law” or asks you to recite a long paragraph of notes.

For SQE1, a good card should help you identify the rule, its important qualification, and the consequence on the facts. For SQE2, the same rule must be turned into client-focused advice, drafting, research, interviewing or advocacy. Memorising a rule is only the first step.

Use the deck below as a short retrieval session. Read the question, answer it aloud or silently, then turn the card and compare your answer with the one shown. Grade it immediately:

  • Again: you could not state the rule or gave the wrong rule.
  • Hard: you remembered the general rule but missed an exception, threshold or consequence.
  • Good: you gave the answer accurately without prompting.
  • Easy: you gave the answer accurately and could apply it to a short scenario.

Do not award yourself “Good” because the answer looked familiar. The aim is to reproduce it without seeing it first.

A MySummaries deck on high-risk SQE rules ends up looking like this:

Cards — SQE1 — Rules candidates confuse17 due

What is the usual limitation period for a simple contract claim?

Six years from the date the cause of action accrued.

All 17 cards
What is the usual limitation period for a simple contract claim?Six years from the date the cause of action accrued.
What is the usual limitation period for a claim on a deed?Twelve years from the date the cause of action accrued.
What is the usual limitation period for a personal injury claim?Three years from the later of the date the cause of action accrued and the claimant’s date of knowledge, subject to the court’s discretion in some cases.
What is the basic rule on past consideration?Past consideration is generally not good consideration, unless the act was done at the promisor’s request in circumstances where payment was understood to follow.
What is the remoteness test for contractual damages?Loss is recoverable if it arises naturally in the usual course of things, or was within the reasonable contemplation of both parties when they made the contract.
What is the basic factual causation test in negligence?Ask whether the damage would have occurred but for the defendant’s breach; legal causation then considers whether the damage is within the scope of the defendant’s liability.
What is the actus reus and mens rea of theft?Theft is dishonest appropriation of property belonging to another, with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it.
What mens rea is required for murder?An intention to kill or an intention to cause grievous bodily harm.
Who normally bears the legal burden in a criminal prosecution?The prosecution normally bears the burden of proving the defendant’s guilt; the criminal standard is that the tribunal of fact is sure of guilt.
What formalities are required for a contract for the sale or other disposition of an interest in land?It must be in writing, contain all expressly agreed terms, and be signed by or on behalf of each party.
How does an individual execute a deed?The individual signs in the presence of a witness who attests the signature, and the deed must be delivered as a deed.
What is the core duty in section 172 of the Companies Act 2006?A director must act in the way they consider, in good faith, would be most likely to promote the success of the company for the benefit of its members as a whole, while having regard to the listed factors.
What is the standard in the Companies Act 2006 section 174 duty?A director must exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence, measured by both the reasonably diligent person’s objective standard and the director’s actual knowledge, skill and experience.
How long does a solicitor’s duty of confidentiality last?It continues after the retainer ends, subject to recognised exceptions such as disclosure required by law or permitted by the client.
What is the first question when checking for a conflict?Ask whether there is a conflict, or a significant risk of conflict, between the interests of two clients or between the client’s interests and the solicitor’s own interests.
What should happen to money received for a client or third party?It should be handled through the appropriate client-account arrangements and kept separate from the firm’s money, subject to the applicable rules and permitted exceptions.
What is the purpose of customer due diligence in legal practice?To identify and verify the client and, where relevant, the beneficial owner, understand the purpose and intended nature of the relationship, and manage money-laundering risk.
This illustrative SQE deck shows one card face-up and the remaining cards ready for retrieval practice.

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

The exact wording matters. For example, “theft means taking someone else’s property” is incomplete. It leaves out dishonesty, appropriation and the intention permanently to deprive. In an SQE1 question, any omitted element may change the answer.

Turn each rule into an SQE answer

After a first pass, take cards graded Again or Hard and add a short fact pattern. For the theft card, ask: “A customer puts an item in their bag intending to return it after using it. Which element is most difficult to prove?” That forces you to consider intention permanently to deprive rather than selecting the first familiar definition.

For the land formalities card, ask what happens if the signed document leaves out an expressly agreed term. For limitation, ask whether the claim is contractual, personal injury, or brought on a deed before choosing a period. These small variations are more valuable than adding another ten cards with the same wording.

SQE questions often reward the candidate who identifies the decisive issue rather than the candidate who remembers the most background law. Your review should therefore include three checks:

  1. Rule — can you state the governing rule precisely?
  2. Qualification — can you name the exception or limitation that changes the result?
  3. Application — can you explain why the rule matters on the facts?

The application step is particularly important because the SQE tests functioning legal knowledge in context. A card that asks only for a definition can support preparation, but it cannot replace single-best-answer practice or SQE2 skills work.

The must-not-miss core

Once you have worked through the full deck, reduce it to a small core. This is not a list to read every day. It is the set of rules you should be able to recall before starting a mixed question session.

A useful core has the period, test or formal requirement in the answer itself. Avoid writing “remember limitation” or “revise directors’ duties”. Those labels do not tell you what to retrieve.

The core from this deck would be:

Must not miss coreSQE1 — Rules candidates confuse
Limitation: simple contract six years; deed twelve years; personal injury usually three years from the later of accrual and date of knowledge, subject to exceptions.
Theft requires dishonest appropriation of property belonging to another, with intention permanently to deprive.
Land disposition contract: writing, all expressly agreed terms, and signature by or on behalf of each party.
Confidentiality continues after the retainer; check conflicts or significant risks of conflict before acting.
Client money must be handled separately under the applicable client-account rules, and customer due diligence must identify and verify the client and relevant beneficial owner.
This illustrative SQE core checklist contains the rules to recall before a mixed practice session.

Use the core at the start of a study session, then test it again at the end. If you can recite it but cannot apply it, the problem is not simple memory. Add a scenario card or move to questions that require comparison between two plausible rules.

What to do with repeated failures

A card that you miss twice should not simply return to the end of a large queue. Diagnose the type of failure:

  • Confusion: you mixed up two rules, such as six years for a simple contract and twelve years for a deed.
  • Omission: you knew the main rule but left out a required element, such as dishonesty in theft.
  • Application failure: you knew the rule but selected an answer that did not fit the facts.
  • Precision failure: you used a broad phrase such as “the client’s money” without identifying the relevant account or professional obligation.

Write one replacement card for the specific failure, not a longer card covering the whole topic. The remediation card should make the missing distinction unavoidable.

A repeated error about personal injury limitation, for example, needs a card asking for the starting point and the date-of-knowledge qualification. It does not need another card asking for the definition of limitation.

A card lost twice becomes a targeted remediation item like this:

Remediation tray

You lost this card twice: a claimant discovers a significant injury two years after the accident. Which date is relevant to the usual three-year personal injury limitation period, and what qualification must you remember?

Add cardDismiss
This illustrative remediation tray shows the single distinction to review after repeated errors.

Answer the tray item before returning to the wider deck. Then test it in a question involving competing dates. The purpose is to make the distinction available when the facts are unfamiliar, not to make the wording of one flashcard memorable.

A practical review routine

For a 25-minute SQE flashcard session, use this sequence:

  1. Spend 12 minutes on due cards and grade every card honestly.
  2. Spend 5 minutes on the five-item core, saying each rule without looking.
  3. Spend 5 minutes on remediation cards from recent errors.
  4. Spend 3 minutes choosing one rule to apply in a single-best-answer question or short client scenario.

Keep subjects separate when you are learning a new rule. Mix subjects after the cards are becoming reliable. A mixed queue forces you to decide whether the problem is about limitation, criminal liability, land formalities, company law or professional conduct before recalling the answer. That decision is part of SQE preparation.

For SQE2, turn the same cards into short advice prompts. For example: “The client wants to sue six years after signing a simple contract. What facts must you confirm before advising on limitation?” A strong response would ask about the cause of action, accrual, any acknowledgement or part payment, the relief sought and the available evidence. It would not merely quote “six years”.

Also practise stating the next step. If the issue is a potential conflict, say what information must be gathered and whether the firm should stop work while the position is checked. If the issue is client money, identify what has been received, for whom, and what the applicable account and record-keeping obligations require. This is how rule recall becomes safe, usable legal work.

How MySummaries helps

MySummaries lets you build a revision board from your own SQE notes, then turn the board into flashcards, written questions and marked oral practice. For this task, use one board for SQE1 rule recall and separate cards for the distinctions you repeatedly miss; use your SQE2 materials to create scenario-based prompts rather than definition-only cards. You can start at portal.mysummaries.app.