u/Glass_Candy741

I've had a lot of people on here telling me how helpful my posts have been, which is really appreciated, so I wanted to offer some general advice now the written exams are done:

1. First off, breathe! You're 75% of the way through and you're now potentially only 1 or 2 weeks away from being done with the SQE entirely.
2. Please don't replay every little mistake in your mind. Your brain is wired to remember the things you got wrong and ignore the countless things you got right. The key is they're looking for competence, not a Day 1 standard. The way I think of it is if a Partner would have to redo the entire piece of work, it likely isn't competent. If you made mistakes in the law that could be rectified pretty easily, that doesn't prevent a piece of work from being assessed as competent.
3. They definitely went better than you think. The pass rates hover around 80%, and do you really believe that 80% of people come out of those exams confident they've passed? You simply cannot accurately assess your own performance. I was convinced one of my LWs was a disaster and I got straight 5s. On the other hand, I felt I smashed a CMA and it was awarded a 3.
4. There's still 25% of the exam left. Orals are a lot more predictable and limited in scope. If you prepare well, have a rough script and are confident in yourself, you will do well. A strong performance in the orals could be what you need to obtain a pass mark, so don't be defeatist. You've come this far, so give it one final push.

Best of luck! Happy to answer any specific questions if it's useful!

Another motivational post from me as I have seen people crashing out about yesterday's papers.

First off, they likely went better than you think. You're hyper focusing on the errors in the law you made that likely will not be fatal. Even if you get the law wrong, it can be balanced out by the skills element. Again, if you wrote 800 words and 100 were wrong, then 700 were still right. That's going to count in your favour.

Importantly, you can fail stations and still pass. It's like a boxer who gets battered in Rounds 1 and 2 and still comes back to win the fight. You don't need to get stellar marks in everything. Again, you're likely overestimating how badly you've done.

You're only 25% of the way through, so there's still 75% of the exam left. Refocus, put yesterday out of your mind and treat each exam like a new day.

You've got this!

I know a lot of people found my previous post helpful and I've tried to give some more advice on here recently, but I thought I would offer some final pointers to those sitting SQE 2 writtens this week.

Legal Writing:

• Keep your eye on the time. This one will fly by as you only have 30 minutes.
• Write clearly and concisely. A client won't be familiar with jargon, so avoid it at all costs.
• Structure is really important. Make sure you have an opening paragraph before jumping into the law and utilise subheadings to break your answer down appropriately.

Case and Matter:

• This one is more relaxed time wise (in my opinion) so take some time to plan your answer as it can really make a difference.
• Remember that while the report is going to form the basis for a client meeting or letter, the recipient is a partner, so there's no need to explain everything.
• It is effectively just a major FLK test. If you forget the law, don't worry. I remember getting something pretty wrong and still scored well. You've studied law long enough to give a reasonable stab at the answer.

Legal Research:

• It's quite tight for time and you need to have a plan going in. I would advise having 20-30 minutes of reading and making notes, then 30 minutes to write an answer, but you may want to adjust this slightly.
• Some sources you can immediately tell are not relevant. If you're being asked a criminal question, you can immediately disregard anything talking about negligence.
• The SRA sample is realistic of what to expect. Providers grossly exaggerate the difficultly.

Legal Drafting:

• I know people panic about LD, but I honestly found it the most straightforward of the four. It's unlikely you'll have seen the document before but you're guided well so just need to use your FLK to apply it to the document.
• Everyone drafts in a different style, so as long as you achieve your client's aim, that will be competent drafting.
• Don't stress at all about remembering specific wording of documents. You're not going to be marked down for not putting "at all material times" in a POC say.

You will be so fine. If you've managed to come out the other sideof SQE 1 with a pass, SQE 2 feels a lot more manageable (in my opinion). You know the law better than you think you do. Even if it feels like you're going to forget everything tomorrow, it'll hit you when you're writing.

Make sure you take tonight off and get a good night's sleep. The pass rates are 80% for a reason. You are going to smash it!