Comments on: My experience of the SQE so far https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/02/my-experience-of-the-sqe-so-far/ Legal news, insider insight and careers advice Wed, 07 Feb 2024 21:35:38 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6 By: SQEs have been so badly implemented https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/02/my-experience-of-the-sqe-so-far/#comment-1185705 Wed, 07 Feb 2024 21:35:38 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=200692#comment-1185705 Have just taken FLK1 and 2 – I am honestly appalled by how the SRA and Kaplan have behaved regarding their poorly-managed and implemented exams. They’ve tried to create a centralised assessment similar to the ‘Bar’, but have been completely indifferent regarding doing any work whatsoever to provide information regarding the possible content and style of questions featured in these SQE1 exams. They’ve created utterly misleading sample questions nothing like those featured in the assessments, failed to provide course providers such as ULaw, BPP and Barbri, QLTS with example questions (resulting in widely differing ‘SBAQ’ mocks and questions, dismissed and ignored a vast number of complaints and suggestions, and in the exams themselves have failed to create assessments that cover the material properly, instead preferring to narrow down on certain subjects almost exclusively (often unlikely to be even covered in prep courses). A centralised assessment may have been a good thing if the regulator in question wasn’t so clearly incompetent.

]]> By: SQE Enemy https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/02/my-experience-of-the-sqe-so-far/#comment-1185702 Wed, 07 Feb 2024 17:06:24 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=200692#comment-1185702 Having sat the SQE1 papers this year (sponsored at one of the major providers) after a few years of paralegalling at US firms, I can only chime in to say that it is the hardest exam I have ever sat – attempting to pass was trickier than getting a first at a top 5 UK uni at masters level, and has absolutely no resemblance at all to practice. To make matters worse, most of us are now prepping for a tight turnaround on SQE2 without even knowing if we passed SQE1 for another month and a half.

]]> By: Anonymous https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/02/my-experience-of-the-sqe-so-far/#comment-1185563 Sun, 04 Feb 2024 19:01:09 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=200692#comment-1185563 In reply to Jim.

Not a fan of the SRA (shady, wasteful, incompetent, and unresponsive — it’s ridiculous regulation isn’t done by the Law Society) but they do actually run the questions by a panel of solicitors beforehand. It says so in their explanation of the marking system.

]]> By: SQE is grim https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/02/my-experience-of-the-sqe-so-far/#comment-1185562 Sun, 04 Feb 2024 18:13:47 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=200692#comment-1185562 Words cannot describe how horrific the SQE1 exams were. The difficulty of it, coupled with the fact that my firm has not offered any form of resit safety net, has resulted in a level of anxiety I’ve honestly never felt before. I say that as someone with a law degree from a good uni. The SRA should be ashamed of this terrible botched assessment that just needs to be binned.

]]> By: Wow https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/02/my-experience-of-the-sqe-so-far/#comment-1185520 Sat, 03 Feb 2024 17:18:44 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=200692#comment-1185520 I’ve just done sqe1. It was awful. The amount of content was just so much and for this one we started in September for the exams in january. So 10 to 12 hour days every day including weekends just to get through the material. It was full on. Then the exams were just something else. Flk 1 was OK ish, but flk 2 was poles apart in terms of difficulty and specificity of the questions. How they moderated them is anyones guess but everyone said flk 2 was significantly harder. Lets put it this way, I’m not waiting for the results to start revising for the resit.

]]> By: Anonymous https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/02/my-experience-of-the-sqe-so-far/#comment-1185499 Fri, 02 Feb 2024 21:16:07 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=200692#comment-1185499 The SQE is not for the faint! Definitely the hardest exam I’ve ever done. On the SQE1 FLK2 paper I just got the Park (52). I hate to say it but SQE2 is even harder! I’m in the middle of them and I learnt all the forms for criminal, property, probate, business and disputes for it to not even be tested in the exam. It’ll all be worth it in the end, at least that’s what I’m telling myself!

]]> By: Jim https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/02/my-experience-of-the-sqe-so-far/#comment-1185484 Fri, 02 Feb 2024 14:12:57 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=200692#comment-1185484 The SQE1 questions are LONG and VAGUE and full of WAFFLE. The answer options are also SOOOOO VAGUE that at least three could be classed as the “best correct answer”. I don’t actually think any amount of preparation is sufficient. Maybe they should quality check the questions with actual lawyers before approving them?

]]> By: SQE is awful https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/02/my-experience-of-the-sqe-so-far/#comment-1185481 Fri, 02 Feb 2024 13:34:03 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=200692#comment-1185481 My SQE experience was horrific. The process of booking was an all day ordeal, my FLK2 was of such a level of difficulty that I can’t imagine any NQ passing it comfortably, and as the paper will never be released publicly there’s no external oversight of just how bad the questions were in terms of length, complexity, and detail. I was barely questioned on my application of appropriate knowledge, but instead was repeatedly asked to recall the most obscure details of the spec. The advice I received before the exam was to focus on breadth, not depth, and while I managed to do both it was still nowhere near the level of detail they expected.

]]> By: C https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/02/my-experience-of-the-sqe-so-far/#comment-1185472 Fri, 02 Feb 2024 10:46:17 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=200692#comment-1185472 At least it builds resilience or whatever

]]> By: City Trainee https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/02/my-experience-of-the-sqe-so-far/#comment-1185468 Fri, 02 Feb 2024 10:12:47 +0000 https://www.legalcheek.com/?p=200692#comment-1185468 The SQE was an absolutely horrible experience…rest assured, life does get somewhat better once you enter practice.

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