What is the SQE? All you need to know
Find out all you need to know about the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE).
The Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), is a new and accessible route for students to qualify as a solicitor.
Until 2021, if you were looking to pursue a career as a solicitor in the UK, the most common route towards qualification was studying the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and securing a two-year training contract at a legal firm or practice. Put simply, the LPC qualification demonstrated your academic knowledge, while the training contract would showcase your skills and ability to successfully practice law.
The LPC exams would be taken and assessed with law training providers, such as BPP, in the UK. With the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) introduction of the SQE, there is now a centralised set of exams to ensure the knowledge that is being assessed is standardised across the profession.
How does the SQE work?
There are 4 main elements to the new SQE approach for candidates who want to qualify as a solicitor. These are:
A requirement for a degree in any subject, apprenticeship or equivalent work experience
Two stages of SQE assessments to test identification and application of legal skills, principles and knowledge
Undertaking two years of Qualifying Work Experience which can be done across four organisations
Meeting the SRA’s suitability requirements (no criminal record, dishonesty or credit/financial issues)
Assuming you meet the minimum entry criteria of a degree in any subject, apprenticeship qualification or equivalent experience, you can sit the first stage of the SQE, known as SQE1.
How is the SQE1 exam structured?
If you’re eligible, you can pay the assessment fee of £1,558 and sit the first stage of the SQE assessments which cover ‘Functioning Legal Knowledge’ (FLK). This involves two sets of 180 multiple choice questions, over two days, that “tests the identification and application of legal knowledge and principles”. These questions cover English and Welsh law, where you will be expected to demonstrate and switch between different principles of law – or Functioning Legal Knowledge.
The SQE1 Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK) assessments will test the following:
Business Law and Practice; Dispute Resolution; Contract; Tort; Legal System of England and Wales; Constitutional and Administrative Law and EU Law and Legal Services (FLK 1)
Property Practice; Wills and the Administration of Estates; Solicitors Accounts; Land Law; Trusts; Criminal Law and Practice (FLK 2)
(Source: sra.org.uk)
There will also be a focus on the principles of taxation in the context of Business Law, Property Law, and Wills and Administration of Estates.
Resit fees for the SQE1 are £1,558, with up to three attempts being allowed within a six-year period.
How to prepare for SQE1
While there isn’t a requirement to undertake a preparation course to get you ready for the SQE1 assessment, you may still want to consider how tough the first stage of the SQE exams will actually be. The SQE1 exams require a deep knowledge of law if you want to have any chance of passing and progression towards the next set of assessments. This is because you’ll need to answer 360 multiple-choice questions across a range of topics. The assessments, which last a total of 10 hours, will test both your academic and mental strength as you will only have around 1.7 minutes to read, analyse and answer each question.
On paper, having just over one minute to tackle a multiple-choice question may seem generous. But under exam conditions with a wide range of subject areas and 360 questions to answer, it’s actually a lot tougher than you might think.
So, depending on your existing legal knowledge, going into the SQE exams without any formal legal training could be considered a high-risk approach, especially as you can only resit the assessments a limited number of times and will need to pay in full for each resit. Developing the relevant knowledge, on top of a degree level understanding of law, while practising online tests and getting expert support from law tutors is a good base from which to approach the new assessments.
It’s worth remembering, the knowledge you develop in preparing for the SQE1 iwill need to be recalled in the SQE2 assessment , so it’s worthwhile investing in the right training and preparation beforehand because it will help you in the long term.
Textbooks and learning materials are also commercially available to help you prepare.
How is the SQE2 exam structured?
In order to sit the SQE2 assessments you will need to have successfully completed SQE1. Similar to SQE1, there is no requirement to complete a preparation or training course to sit the final assessment. It costs £2,422 to sit SQE2 which tests the application of legal knowledge and practical legal skills through 16 written and oral tasks, and 14 hours of assessments across a range of legal skills.
The assessments take place over six days in total, with the oral and written tests taking 2.5 and 3.5 days to complete respectively.
The legal skills assessments in SQE2 are:
Client interview and attendance note/legal analysis
Advocacy
Case and matter analysis
Legal research
Legal writing
Legal drafting
(Source: sra.org.uk)
The above skills will be assessed in the following practice areas:
Criminal Litigation (including advising clients at the police station)
Dispute Resolution
Property Practice
Wills and Intestacy, Probate Administration and Practice
Business organisations, rules and procedures (including money laundering and financial services)
(Source: sra.org.uk)
It’s worth remembering that the skills assessed in SQE2 will use aspects of Functioning Legal Knowledge covered in SQE1.
Resit fees for the SQE2 are £2,422, with up to three attempts being allowed within a six-year period.
How to prepare for SQE2
The final stage of the SQE assesses your practical legal skills. In terms of formal preparation, there isn’t an obligation or requirement to study an SQE2 preparation course before the exams – this is entirely down to your choice.
However, the second stage of the SQE assessments will offer a difficult proposition to even the most ardent law students and professionals who have prepared in advance. Even with the grounding of the SQE1 qualification behind you, the challenging six-day assessment format presents a significant risk of failure without adequate training and guidance.
Having an opportunity to practice SQE2 style assessments, which also look at the application of law, would naturally give you a potentially better chance of succeeding in the assessments. There’s also a new dynamic with the oral tests, compared with the SQE1 exams, that students will have to consider preparing for. That’s why we would also recommend students to consider a preparation course for the final stage of assessments.
SQE for non-law graduates - can I take the SQE without a law degree?
The SQE entry requirements specify a degree qualification or equivalent. That means you don’t need a law degree to take the exam. However, SQE1 still requires a level of legal knowledge that only law/ LPC graduates, or existing professionals with relevant work experience, would potentially feel comfortable with. So a graduate, with no existing legal skills or knowledge, would struggle to successfully pass the challenging SQE assessments.
That’s why BPP’s requirements and approach for non-law graduates includes a law conversion course to ensure a smooth transition into legal study.
In addition, as a non-law graduate, recruiters and firms actively look for legal talent from non-law backgrounds. This is because they can offer a more diverse set of skills and specialisms compared to existing law graduates.
What is Qualifying Work Experience?
Qualifying Work Experience, or QWE, is the work experience element of the SQE qualification. It offers future solicitors an opportunity to develop some of the ‘competences needed to practise as a solicitor’.
Students who previously studied the LPC would look to secure a two-year ‘training contract’ at a law firm or legal practice after their studies. Under the SQE approach, Qualifying Work Experience is similar to what the training contract element was in terms of demonstrating your ability to practise.
To qualify as a solicitor under the SQE route, students must complete two years of full-time QWE. This could include, but is not limited to, placements, paralegal or law clinic roles. Periods of work undertaken during QWE must be grounded in legal work to qualify, rather than placements that involve purely administrative or non-legal work.
Your Qualifying Work Experience must also be confirmed and signed off by one of the following professionals:
The Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP)
A solicitor of England and Wales from the organisation where you have done your QWE
Another nominated solicitor of England and Wales who is from outside the organisation, but with direct knowledge of your work
You can combine experience from up to four organisations to count towards your two years of QWE.
How do I get Qualifying Work Experience?
Part of being a legal professional is building good relationships with partners, colleagues and clients. This is one of the attributes that can help you with your endeavours in finding a legal placement for QWE, but if you’re new to the legal profession it can be quite daunting to approach employers and organisations for a placement.
BPP has a dedicated Careers Service which offers advice for students who are looking to secure the QWE needed to qualify as a solicitor. This service also helps with guidance on law applications, CVs and employability for anyone who studies an SQE course with us.
Reviewing opportunities with current or prospective employers is a good place to start, with further information on our dedicated blog around QWE.
Can I take the SQE without a preparation course or training?
Yes you can. However, the likelihood of passing the SQE exams without the right knowledge and coaching will be slim. As the assessment fees are in excess of £1,500 and £2,400 for SQE1 and SQE2 respectively, you’ll want to make sure that you have every chance of passing to avoid additional resit costs.
For example, if you had to re-sit both stages of the SQE just once, it would cost a total of nearly £8,000 to sit both SQE exams twice. While the new SQE approach makes entry to the legal profession more accessible, there are major costs involved if you don’t prepare in the right way.
We highly recommend, for both law and non-law graduates, to invest in a preparation course from a recognised law training provider like BPP.
Our successful approach is trusted by the UK’s biggest legal firms and we are the preferred choice for over 150 organisations. These include chambers, local councils, in-house teams, and law firms from the Magic Circle to the high street, commercial giants to niche practices. So when the profession trusts us, you can too.
If you want to learn more about our SQE training options, speak to an expert adviser using the Live Chat function or get in touch. We’d be happy to help.
