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SRA seeks SQE feedback from students

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By Legal Cheek on

15

Focus on functioning legal knowledge 🔎

Online exam
The regulator is inviting all stakeholders, including students, to provide feedback on the Functional Legal Knowledge (FLK) elements of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) as part of its annual review.

he aim of the review is to update the FLK to reflect changes in law and practice and to make any other essential adjustments. It also provides an opportunity to clarify points based on feedback from stakeholders, where needed.

SQE1 consists of two parts: FLK1 and FLK2. It covers 12 legal subjects, including business law, tort, contract, and land law, and is assessed through single-best-answer multiple-choice questions over a two-day period. SQE2, on the other hand, tests the application of legal knowledge through a series of written and practical exercises.

The SQE Hub: Your ultimate resource for all things SQE

Feedback will be reviewed by the assessment provider, Kaplan, and any decisions to make changes to the FLK will be made in conjunction with the regulator. The deadline for feedback is 5pm on 28 February.

This review is separate from the independent review commissioned by the SRA late last year to evaluate whether the SQE is progressing towards meeting its objectives.

15 Comments

F

Here’s one it sucks

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(135)(1)

Future trainee who is doing the sqe now andstress af

Absolutely unnecessary and unfair memory exam that serves no purpose at all.

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(29)(2)

Kim

How about actually releasing the past papers from the last few sittings so people can prepare properly

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(40)(0)

Josef

Literally the worst thing I ever did. The smartest people I know (first class oxbridge grads for example who found uni a breeze) were having breakdowns, getting prescribed medication, dropping out etc.

I cannot believe how obviously profit-driven the SQE is, yet nobody seems to want to talk about it?

Zero need to make students memorise the law across 10+ areas. What lawyer works off pure memory, and advises a client on a complex matter within 2 mins?

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(38)(0)

Christian C

Nonsense in my opinion.

People have lead very sheltered educational lives, even at the very top tier Oxbridge etc.

People are taught to pass exams and not to learn the subject matter and apply in in a variety of ways.

Profitability is obviously a opposing factor to performance, but if you get over 55% you would pass the exam. It’s not hard to imagine that is required to qualify as a lawyer..

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(4)(21)

Anon

With your grammar, you’re clearly not a lawyer or someone who would be even within the realms of taking the SQE, so it shouldn’t matter.

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(10)(2)

Christian C

People need to grow up and accept that the exams are difficult, but being ia legal professional is meant to be a highly educted profession.

All this talk that the exams are ‘too difficult’ is a detriment to the profession and the SRA’s well thought out approach to developing the industry and providing objective comparables of talent and performance.

The format grew on me thoroughout studies, as it would be expected of you to know the underpinning concepts of main legal areas and how to apply them, and not have to research and learn from scratch the basic premises.

The results are now objective and of an equivalent standard across the country, institutions can no longer solely teach student to pass an exam in which you know most of the materials already. Graduates will have a far better and accessible knowledge of the law.

Praise should be heaped on those who pass, instead of appeasing those who fail by proclaiming the exams are too difficult.

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(12)(30)

Buddhist B

Did you pass, Christian C?

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(3)(1)

SQE 1 Candidate

Objective? The use of scaled marking (done AFTER the exams are sat) means that the SRA basically decides the pass mark for each sitting- conveniently ensuring just enough students fail to generate additional resit fees.

They’ve refused to state which SQE course providers have the highest pass rates, and their mock exams are a joke- not reflective of the actual exam at all.

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(16)(1)

Islam I

“SRA’s well thought out approach to developing the industry” yes because launching the SQE in the middle of covid when already many firms were forced to abandon or postpone training contracts.

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(1)(0)

Hindu H

Yes, we want to know!

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(3)(0)

Muslim M

Me too!

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(2)(0)

Anonymous

People say that the SQE is a memory test but I think it’s beyond that. A memory test would mean you are tested on a process or on you have to define something.

I felt as though the questions tested the nichest areas of law. It feels as though the content you are tested on isn’t the same you are taught , and this feeling was the same for a good 60% of The paper. The wording of many
questions was unnecessarily confusing.

The questions should be a mix of testing your knowledge in different ways. Some should be problem solving and some should be memory based.

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(3)(0)

Jan sqe1 taker

This is exactly what the US bar exam is like too – testing you on niche exceptions – but really it would not be so much of an issue with more transparency. That’s the main issue. Nobody has any confidence that they have done well, nobody is really given all the tools to succeed. It’s an unfair exam not because of its difficulty but for how even the cheapest resources set you back thousands of £s. Not widening accessibility to the profession at all. Unfit for purpose.
The real skills on which you want to be tested are in SQE2

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(1)(0)

Tom

Bring back the LPC, the SQE shall churn out inept lawyers.

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(0)(0)

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