r/SQE_Prep

Can I just ask when would you EVER only dedicate 45 minutes to prepare to present in court?! How would it be in the clients best interests to spend only 45 minutes preparing their plea in mitigation?! Oh yes I just spent 3/4 of an hour on prep to reduce your 14 year custodial sentence and now im going into court to plea on your behalf!

Surely the SRA are just prepping us to rush our work... not sure how that complies with our codes of conduct!

Is this a thing solicitors/barristers do in practice? Baffled!

Also why are we even really having advocacy exams??/ I have no plans in my career to present in court.

Feels like a bit of a basic question but I'm feeling overwhelmed by the amount of tests we need to remember for advocacy - how many are people memorising? How much detail do we need to know them in? Is it enough to just know the limbs on a basic level to use to structure your submission? Thanks in advance im freaking about a bit!

I’ve got orals next week and I’m with QLTS. Their mocks for DR have extracts from the relevant CPR attached which I wasn’t expecting and obvs makes it much easier. Does this happen in the real exam?

I’m trying to answer without using them for now just in case but for those who SQE2 before, it would be good to hear your experience.

There isn’t any in the SRA sample.

Thanks in advance ❤️

hi for those who sat the oral exams n got straight 5s and 4s - what do u think it was that rly got u those bands?

just wanna know what distinguishes from an okay pass/competency n the top band so i can focus my prep! thank youuuuuu

Unpopular opinion and maybe this is just recency bias, but SQE 2 is much harder than SQE 1.

SQE 1 gets the majority of the attention on here, but it's a breeze in comparison to SQE 2. Here's why:

• With SQE 1, you could realistically afford not to understand a few topics or even neglect them entirely and you could pass comfortably. Do that for SQE 2 and you get a question on something you ignored? That entire question is a write off.
• With SQE 1, you can track your progress to some extent. You can see mock scores and identify your areas of weakness. You can't do that with SQE 2. You have to compare your answer to a mark scheme, with no real idea if your quality of writing is good enough to pass.
• You're prompted in SQE 1 and know the answer is on the page somewhere. With SQE 2, you have to simply know it all from memory. You recognise the correct legal test on the screen for SQE 1; with SQE 2, you have to pluck it from your memory with no prompt.
• Timing is much worse in SQE 2. I finished both FLK1 and FLK2 with roughly 10 minutes to spare. I ran out of time on a few SQE 2 exams and even if I didn't, I was scrambling in the final five minutes.
• They're mentally more of a slog. With SQE 1, you at least got a week off between your exams. SQE 2 requires you to do three days back to back.

I don't know if other people agree, or do you still agree with the general consensus that SQE 1 is the major stumbling block?

How many tests for advocacy is everyone learning? I am learning the following:

Civil

1. Set aside judgement in default
2. Summary judgment
3. Relief from sanctions
4. Interim injunction
5. Interim payment
6. Security for costs
7. Appeals
8. Amending statement of case
9. Specific disclosure
10. Non-party disclosure

Criminal

1. Bail
2. Allocation
3. Exclude confession evidence
4. Challenge ID evidence
5. Introduce/oppose hearsay evidence
6. Introduce/oppose bad character evidence
7. Submission of no case to answer
8. Adverse inferences
9. Plea in mitigation for sentencing

Hopefully this will be enough - it's about all I can fit in my brain.

Hi this might be a stupid question (either bc it’s obvious or no one knows) but is there a known pass mark across the 16 stations that is considered relatively reliable? Like for sqe1 most people seemed to be working off needing 60% / 300/500 ? If it’s out of 5 for each station that would be a total of 80 - 60% would be 48?

Idk 200 mcqs just felt like you could get a lot wrong and pass but 48 works out as 3s and passing across all 16?

I know what’s done is done and there’s no point worrying about it now but my brain just needs to know how well I’ll have to do next week in orals to pass if poss hahaha

Hope everyone’s ok and good luck for rest! :)

Hi all,

looking for some tactical advice. I’m an LPC grad working as a Commercial paralegal. I bought the QLTS Premium SQE2 package (~£3,000) in 2024 but haven't sat the exam yet.

​I just found my portal is locked. My page shows an "extension" was applied on August 2025, but I never requested it, never sat an exam, and crucially, I have not used a single premium service I paid for (0 of 6 tutor mocks used, zero marked feedback). ​QLTS wants the standard "ransom" fee to let me back in for the October 2026 sitting.

​Has anyone in the Premium tier successfully appealed this? It feels wrong to pay for an extension when they haven't actually delivered the human-led services I paid for.

​If they won't budge, should I just cut my losses and switch to something like LawProf or Preptackle? I’m worried that 2024 QLTS materials are getting out of date anyway. Thanks for any help!

I know I can’t change anything, but I can’t help finding mistakes and thinking what I should have written whilst I am currently revising for the orals.

I’ve see alot of people asking about the advocacy so thought I would share a great resource I stumbled upon. It has a decent list of what could come up and advice on generally structuring your submission. I don’t have the link as have downloaded it, but Google

FQPS academy, confidence in the court room

And you will find it :)

Hi all, I’m starting my SQE prep course in August but I’m also not working full-time between now and then.

Ideally I’d like to get learning some of the content now as I have the time but I know my provider won’t provide textbooks until nearer the time.

I know buying old course books may mean some of the information is out of date but how risky would this be?

As an aside if anyone wants to sell their books at a reasonable price then I’d be open to it - my provider is Barbri so perhaps I’d be advised to buy someone else’s for some balance.

Any thoughts or help much appreciated and hope all those undertaking SQE2 at the moment are getting on ok - you’ve got this!

Does anyone know the order of the exams for the orals? like is Day 1 going to be criminal advocacy and Day 2 civil - or is it random? Thanks!

I sat in January and just wanted to remind everyone that in the interviews the client is an actor and has no legal know how whatsoever.

My actors responded differently so I couldn’t really prepare for that but I found some common themes amongst other candidates sitting this sitting.

My first actor was not helpful at all and made it insanely difficult to give me any information whatsoever and it was like pulling teeth throughout the whole interview. I had to push on and find ways to ask the same question just in a different way to get the right answer. You’ll have to find ways for dealing with a difficult client because from what I’ve learned on this sub it’s extremely common for an actor to be difficult. You must prepare for this. I reckon some actors are told to do this because mine was set on making mine as difficult as possible despite the interview being in my practice area where I have several years experience!

My second actor was more helpful but showed a more human side. He forgot what he had told me in the interview and muddled the interview. It was wills, so he wasn’t clear on the family structure which would have fundamentally changed my answer and I shat myself really bad and had to have a little think after the assessment about what I had advised. So, my advice, is get crystal clear information and make sure to clarify as the actor is human and can muddle information or not understand it’s importance of being as clear as possible as I don’t think they get the littlest information can change your advice in big ways.

I essentially just wanted to say you need to brace yourselves for the actors and be prepared for some difficult moments.

Am I being silly in thinking if we were asked about a topic in writing, they wouldn’t ask us again in advocacy / interviewing?

For example, if we needed to explain a specific legal test in writing, surely that wouldn’t come up again in advocacy?

pls someone motivate me OUR ORALS ARE NEXT WEEK HELP I can barely get through an hour of solid work

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!

Hi, have a rather small question about the attendance note. I can only write cursive (vey inlegible) or block letters. May be stupied to worry about, but if I write in block letters are there any penalties for not using capatlised letter correctly?

Hi guys,

I know we will have the trial bundle when prepping for submissions (obviously). I was wondering if you are allowed to take the trial bundle into the actual exam, or just your notes?

Are there definitives on the testing of tort and contract throughout orals? Like whether they could come up on day 1 and/ or day 2 and how substantially?

Need some advice here from past takers.

Im studying for SQE1 in July and work around 4-5 hours a day. I dont time exactly how much im doing but i base it off of chapters. So for example, ill cover 4 chapters a day on a ULaw manual and then do the SBAQs for each chapter. Ill read the manuals, make notes if i have to and then go and do the SBAQs after reading each chapter. The chapters can be lengthy so sometimes ill do 3, other days ill do 5. Atm its working well for me and i feel like i am learning, but im also not working INCREDIBLY HARD EVERY day like i see others doing. I used to wake up at 5am to start studying but now i wake up at 7am and start reading.

For my mocks for ULaw:

FLK1- 66%

FLK2- 57%

Both passes.

Im averaging 66% in the ULaw question bank and have done 4,000 questions so far.

My prediction from ULaw says i should pass but apparently ive heard this should be taken with a pinch of salt?

So far i am confident with:

English legal systems

Legal services

Ethics

Criminal law

Property Practice

Tort

Contract

Criminal practice

My plan until July is to just keep studying the manuals on repeat and start mocks as well until July. This means ill go over the manuals every 2 weeks which is good for retained knowledge and spaced repetition. Deep down i just FEEL like im not doing ENOUGH and im worried.