The scariness is worse than the actual exam

What’s your background, and why did you decide to do the SQE?

I graduated from the University of Bristol this July with a law degree, so completing the SQE was the natural next step for me to reach my goal of qualifying as a solicitor. I had also secured a training contract following a successful vacation scheme in June of last year for which my start was contingent on passing SQE1 so the exam had a lot riding on!

How did you prepare, and what made the biggest difference in your success?

I did a full-time prep course leading up to the January SQE1 exam which produced a daily plan for me of when to do my reading, watch each lecture and when to answer MCQs. I think it was incredibly beneficial as it meant that when I sat down to do work it meant I could pick up the reading or watch the lecture etc and not waste energy and time on planning and deciding what to do to learn or revise. This plan meant that I was really efficient and used my time working hard and not procrastinating.

Alongside my main course I also used SRA questions and did around 2,000 Law Drills questions which really helped me not get too comfortable with question style and exposed me to varying difficulty and style of questions. This gave me a lot of confidence with hard questions when sitting my exams. I also found the AI teacher on Law Drills very helpful at explaining why an answer was A for example and not B which definitely helped me grow from the question sets in a way that I couldn’t with my main provider or the SRA question sets.

What was the hardest part, and how did you push through it?

Being the first cohort leaving University that had to sit the SQE and the fact the SQE is only 4 years old means that aren’t the amount of lived experiences like there are for the LPC, it’s also new for the course providers. With this there is obviously a lot of uncertainty and extra room for scaremongering which can so easily breed doubt. It was very hard to look past this and the negative discourse around the exam. I think acknowledging the exam is hard but nowhere near impossible definitely helped me not waste much energy on worrying.

Also, I sat my exams on the Friday and Friday of the exam period and I found the days after FLK1 extremely hard. I was shattered and couldn’t focus properly even though I felt as though I should get back to working towards FLK2 immediately after. I gave myself the Friday and the weekend to just recharge then got back to it in the week. This wasn’t what I first planned but it meant I was well rested for the FLK2 exam. It also meant I could do intentional and quality prep in the days before as I was no longer shattered. I did make sure that I was ready to go for both exams leading up to FLK1 but I definitely underestimated how hard the gap would be.

If you had to do it again, what would you do differently?

I did quite a few 180 question mocks and often finished with a fair bit of time left, which wasn’t the case on the day. If I was going again I would make sure I did more 360 question mocks and really emulate the exam day better. Although I made sure I slept well and ate well the day of the exam the fatigue still hit at around hour 4 which I really struggled with. If I had practiced longer mocks this it wouldn’t have come as such a shock to me and I could have practiced the best way to overcome and deal with this inevitable tiredness.

Any final piece of advice for SQE candidates?

Have faith! The exam is hard but not impossible. The pass rates are low but they aren’t 0 so someone has to pass, and if you’ve worked hard and put the effort in you stand a good chance to be a part of that figure. I found that rhetoric very helpful in keeping my confidence in my prep and my performance in the exam. Remembering that also stopped me from falling down a rabbit hole of worry after reading the discourse around the exam online. The scariness is worse than the actual exam.