UK SQE — Exam Survival Playbook

(Solicitors Qualifying Examination | Two stages — SQE1 (functioning legal knowledge, MCQ) and SQE2 (skills). This focuses on SQE1 survival.)

Must-do topics (SQE1 focus)

Functioning Legal Knowledge 1 (FLK1)
• Business law & practice (entities, directors, shareholders, basic transactions)
• Dispute resolution (civil procedure, ADR basics)
• Contract & tort (core doctrines, remedies, negligence, defences)
• Legal system of England & Wales, constitutional and EU/retained law flavour

Functioning Legal Knowledge 2 (FLK2)
• Property practice (land law + conveyancing basics)
• Wills & administration of estates
• Criminal law & practice (offences, procedure, sentencing basics)
• Solicitors’ accounts (core accounting rules for solicitors)
• Ethics and professional conduct sprinkled across both FLKs

Top traps (avoid)

Underestimating breadth: SQE1 covers a wide but shallow-ish spread; you can’t skip whole subjects

Treating it as pure black-letter law and ignoring procedure and practice flavour in questions

Forgetting that ethics can be embedded inside any question, not just “ethics” ones

Getting lost in UK-specific terminology and practice details if you’re from another jurisdiction

Failing to practise the single best answer MCQ format enough

Time split

For each FLK exam (check current timings, but pattern is large blocks of MCQs under time pressure):

Aim for ~1.2–1.4 minutes per question

First half of each block: move briskly, collect easy marks

Second half: accept that some questions will feel unfamiliar; use disciplined elimination

Last-48h checklist

Do:
• 2 blocks of 30–40 mixed MCQs (across subjects) each day

Review:
• Wrong answers from previous practice; figure out whether it was a rule gap or misreading

Skim:
• Core summaries of each subject (especially UK-specific practice bits and ethics)

Rest:
• SQE1 is a stamina exam; being semi-fresh beats cramming every last case

Quick frames

For every scenario:
• Identify area: contract, tort, business, property, crime, etc.
• Spot: who is client, who is solicitor, where could ethics/accounting issues arise

Think “practical solicitor”, not academic: what would a competent practitioner actually do?

Speed tactics

Read the call of the question first (“What is the most appropriate next step?” etc.)

Eliminate answers that:
• Contradict clear procedural rules
• Ignore obvious ethical duties (conflicts, confidentiality, competence)

Don’t spend 4 minutes wrestling with one tricky procedural detail; take best view and move on

Day-of mini-plan

Warm-up: 5–10 mixed questions; then stop

During exam:
• Don’t obsess over one subject you dislike; MCQs are mixed, and marks are marks

Between FLK1 and FLK2 days:
• Light review of the next day’s topics, early sleep, no doom-scrolling about “how hard SQE is”.