No impact on pass mark
Students eagerly awaiting their SQE1 results this week may discover that their scores are out of 179 rather than the expected 180. This adjustment, the regulator revealed this week, is due to the removal of one multiple-choice question from the Function Legal Knowledge (FLK) section following a recent change in the law.
According to a notice on the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s website, the question was removed from the marking and grade calculation process after a legal change resulted in the question “becoming invalid”.
This was identified as part of the usual post-assessment checks, the regulator said.
This will have no impact on grade calculations, however. “For the avoidance of doubt,” the regulator continued, “the question was removed prior to standard setting taking place with a final passing standard set for a test of 179 questions. This has been approved by the Assessment Board in order to maintain the validity of the assessment and its outcomes.”
The SRA did not disclose which question was removed or the specific change in the law that prompted its removal
Students can expect to receive the results of their SQE1 exams on Thursday after 11am. Candidates should receive an email notifying them of their results, with a follow up later in the day containing details for booking the next SQE2 slot.
The SRA will publish a report on the results in April.
Legal Cheek recently reported that the pass rate for SQE2 had dropped significantly since the previous sitting, tumbling from 79% down to just 64%.