SQE student Brian Okwaisie discusses balancing revision strategies and why he chose BPP
The introduction of the SQE in 2021 transformed the qualification process for future solicitors in the UK. Its roll-out has been far from smooth, marred by organisational chaos, marking errors and strikingly low pass rates — with only 44% of candidates passing SQE1 this summer.
Many students face the challenge of tackling these rigorous exams while juggling jobs and applying for vacation schemes and training contracts. To learn how to navigate such a demanding schedule, I spoke with Brian Okwaisie, a student enrolled in the SQE 1+2 LLM program at BPP University Law School, about his strategies for successfully passing SQE1 while managing a host of other commitments.
Balancing competing commitments is a common struggle SQE students face while preparing for their exams. Okwaisie opted to take BPP’s SQE 1+2 LLM course online, allowing himself some extra flexibility. “I chose BPP because of their success rate compared to some other SQE providers I looked at,” he tells me. Okwaisie goes on to give me an insight into what his typical week looked like on the SQE1 prep course. “I had around five two-hour online workshops each week. You are expected to turn up to the sessions knowing the content so you can spend the session going through practice questions and asking clarification questions to your tutor,” he says. Okwaisie admits that this made for a challenging weekly timetable: “To be honest, I didn’t have much of a work/life balance. It was very much just working and studying for those three months.”
I am curious to know how BPP supported Okwaisie as he completed the SQE1 prep course. “The support from BPP was really good. I had the option to study my course online which was really good because it allowed me a bit more flexibility,” he responds. He also mentions the support of the tutors at BPP:
“Sometimes when you’re balancing study and work you will get behind on a few tasks but my tutors were very happy to help me catch up and they were always available to answer questions over email,” he tells me.
BPP tutors also play a role in helping students manage their time to prevent themselves falling behind. “I was given a personal tutor who could help me manage my time and create a plan for balancing work and studying,” Okwaisie says. “I was able to go and see my tutor and discuss my progress and my wider career goals.”
Okwaisie shared some of his top tips for staying sane while coping with a challenging workload. “What really helped was making lists when I felt overwhelmed. This helped me break down my work into manageable chunks and be practical instead of panicking,” he says. “I had a detailed timetable to make sure I knew what I needed to do.”
I am curious to know about the revision strategies that helped Okwaisie pass SQE1. “My first tip would be to start early,” he says. “I was revising the content little and often from the start of the course.” He also recommends identifying your weaker topics and targeting your revision accordingly. “I had existing knowledge of some of the SQE topics from my undergraduate law degree, but I needed to refresh my knowledge on subjects like land law which I hadn’t studied since my second year. I identified topics like these which I would need to work harder on. I blocked out time in the week to go over these topics, for me it was on a Sunday.”
Okwaisie adapted his approach as the exam drew nearer. “When the SQE course finished in December, I focused on doing practice questions, making a Word document of the questions I got wrong along with a note of the underlying law.” Again, starting this process early was key. “By the time it got to January, I had a 20 or 30-page document for each FLK (Functioning Legal Knowledge paper) which covered the topics I was weaker on. I tried to go through these every day.”
All this hard work paid off and Okwaisie passed the SQE1. I ask about how the SQE experience differed from that of his undergraduate law degree. “Because I was studying my undergrad during the pandemic, I actually didn’t have any in-person exams. Instead, we had 24-hour open book exams,” Okwaisie explains, raising the fact that the SQE may prove particularly challenging for this current generation of ‘Covid graduates’. “During the SQE, you’re in that hall by yourself with no notes,” Okwaisie says. “I had to approach my preparation differently and focus on memorising the content as well as understanding it.”
Okwaisie is currently waiting for the results of his SQE2 exam which he sat a few weeks ago. Looking to the future, he tells me about the careers support BPP offers in addition to the SQE prep course. “There’s the BPP futures website which has a jobs board,” he says. “You can also send applications over to the careers service who will review them for you. I am finding this very helpful as I’m hoping to qualify as a solicitor at a commercial firm.”
Brian Okwaisie will be speaking at ‘Why is the SQE so hard to pass? — with BPP University Law School’, a virtual student event taking place TOMORROW (Tuesday 26 November). Apply now to attend.
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