What SQE1 candidates would tell you: the advice that came up most, ranked

Summary

When candidates share their SQE1 results with us, we ask them one more question: what advice would you give someone preparing for the exam? We grouped the answers from 120 candidates across the July 2025, January 2026 and July 2026 sittings into 12 themes, and counted how often each came up. The clear winner was to do lots of practice questions, given by about a third of candidates. The chart above ranks every theme.

The advice, theme by theme

1. Do lots of practice questions: 34%

The most common advice by some distance. Candidates saw question practice as the core of their preparation, not something to add once the reading was done. Volume helps, but it is how well you score that tells you whether you are ready: our Score Guide shows that candidates who reached 65-70% on exam-style practice passed far more often.

2. Sit full mocks under timed exam conditions: 24%

Nearly a quarter of candidates said to rehearse the real thing. A full mock, sat in one go against the clock, builds the stamina and pacing that short practice sessions cannot. Candidates also used their mock results to decide what to revise next.

3. Understand the law, not just the questions: 22%

Candidates warned against learning answers by heart. SQE1 questions test the same rules in new situations, so knowing why an answer is right matters more than recognising a question you have seen before. Use each question as a reason to check the underlying rule.

4. Start your preparation early: 19%

Almost one in five candidates said to give yourself more time than you think you need. SQE1 covers a lot of ground across two papers, and an early start leaves room for the review and mock stages that candidates rated so highly.

5. Start practice questions from day one: 18%

A close relative of the theme above, and of the top theme. Rather than finishing the reading and then turning to questions, these candidates started answering questions from the first week, so they learned the exam’s style alongside the law.

The rest of the list

The other seven themes were each given by between 10% and 16% of candidates. They cover looking after yourself and trusting yourself, making a study plan and sticking to it, using a good question bank, focusing on your weakest topics, learning from every wrong answer, practising with questions from more than one source, and learning how single best answer questions work. Together they describe a steady, honest routine: plan the time, find the gaps, and keep testing yourself.

Putting the advice into practice

Several of these themes point the same way: answer plenty of exam-style questions, review every mistake, and check your progress under timed conditions. Law Drills is built around that routine, and the Score Guide explains what your practice score means for exam day.

How we worked this out

• When candidates shared their SQE1 results with us, we asked: “If you were advising someone about to start SQE1 prep, what’s the one thing you’d tell them?”
• The answers come from 120 candidates across the Jul 2025, Jan 2026 and Jul 2026 sittings.
• One answer can count for several themes, so the figures add up to more than 100%.