ULaw student Brian Ngure gives his top tips for SQE success
As Brian Ngure progresses through the one-year LLM Legal Practice (SQE1&2) programme at The University of Law (ULaw), he’s already making significant steps towards a career in law. Becoming a trader of US stocks before the pandemic, Ngure has built up a significant amount of commercial knowledge on the movements of the markets.
With tomorrow’s Legal Cheek in-person workshops and networking event (on 17 October), we spoke with Ngure to gain an insider’s view on moving into the law, and what he’s learnt undertaking SQE preparation with ULaw.
Can you walk me through your educational journey so far, and what attracted you to law?
My law journey begun in 2018 when I started trading American stocks and I became increasingly aware of the multi-jurisdictional issues that affected the trades I was making; I wanted to understand how commercial lawyers would solve these issues for their clients. I enjoy problem solving and I ending up preferring learning and applying legal concepts over trading. This experience influenced my decision to study Law and Business at the University of Northampton before swapping to the LLB course to deepen my understanding of law. I moved back to Liverpool in July 2023 to study the LLM Legal Practice (SQE1 & 2) at the University of Law. I held the Vice President and SQE class rep positions at ULaw and I even organised the Liverpool Law Ball with other class reps.
You work as a student ambassador for ULaw, can you talk to me about this role, and what your biggest learnings have been?
I applied for the role early into my year and attended training with other potential ambassadors. We answered questions and played fun ice breaking games which allowed me to build some friendships with a few ambassadors. So many people applied, and I wasn’t sure if I’d secure the role, but I am happy that I was shortlisted!
As a student ambassador for ULaw, I have the privilege of representing ULaw at law fairs, open days, and various networking events across three campuses: Liverpool, Manchester, and Chester. My role involves engaging with prospective students and their families, offering insights into the university experience, and answering their questions. This responsibility not only allows me to develop my communication skills but also enables me to gain valuable experience.
You’re studying for the LLM Legal Practice (SQE1&2) with ULaw, and you recently passed the SQE1 exams. Congratulations! Can you talk to me about how ULaw uniquely prepares its students to succeed?
I passed SQE1 on my first attempt, and I will sit my SQE2 exams at the end of October. University of Law follows a prepare, engage, and consolidate framework which is good at preparing students to pass their external and internal exams. An example of the technique in practice is, you do the reading, then you would attend a two-hour seminar for an in-depth discussion, before going back home to consolidate the learning by attempting practice questions and reflecting on progress. Personally, the online textbooks I found better than the physical copies as I could read them on my phone at any time. If you are struggling with a particular topic, lecturers can answer your emails or stay back at the end of the seminars to provide extra support that will help you understand the topic better.
I did SQE mocks, and I attained 45% and then after revision, I attempted the same mocks and achieved 60%. Ulaw has over 7,000 practice questions that you can practice online or through their app. These questions were like the questions in my real exam and at least 10 questions were identical.
Having passed SQE1, which set of exams did you find the most challenging and why?
I found Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK) 1 of the SQE1 exams to be challenging due to the vast amount of knowledge you need to retain for the exams. Moreover, FLK1 modules did not complement each other as much as FLK2 modules. For example, the wills module contained property practice information, and some tax calculations were similar across different modules. I spent over six weeks trying to memorise the legal tests in contract and tort, understanding the documents required when forming a company or the dates that will be counted when deciding if a claim form is deemed served. These are just a few things that were very confusing and hard to memorise.
I also found the exam style to be challenging as both back-to-back exams were two and a half hours long — with just an hour break in between them. I was exhausted after the first half and although I ate some food during the break, I felt tired during the second exam. FLK2 was a lot easier after my FLK1 experience and I was more prepared by sleeping longer the night before my exams.
Many SQE students have fears going into this challenging set of exams. Can you walk me through how you practiced resilience throughout your studies?
I knew that I wanted to be a lawyer and, because I funded my exams independently, I put in a lot of effort to ensure that I would pass first time to avoid paying for resits. When I failed my first mock exams, I knew I had a lot of time before my real exam and I planned my time well to revise enough before the real exam. My advice to aspiring solicitors is to stay calm. Remember that if you’re coming to the SQE from a law degree, you will have retained a lot of information without realising.
My confidence and resilience improved when I realised that I was familiar with a lot of the material in the SQE1 exams and other aspiring solicitors should remain confident that they will understand the new content.
I did a lot of practice questions, some I achieved 30% whilst some tests I achieved 90%. On the day of the exams, I did ten practice questions whilst walking to the test centre and read through some of the legal tests I struggled to remember. I secured three or four extra marks because of this last-minute reading!
What have you learned about yourself through your SQE journey?
I enrolled onto the LLM SQE course with ULaw, despite having less than the £4,700 required for the exams. I pushed through and worked up to 60 hours a week to save the money required to pay for my SQE exams as well as extra money required to pay my bills. I sacrificed sleep and my social life, but I worked hard and did whatever it took to pass so that I could realise my aspirations of becoming a commercial lawyer. I learnt that I am resilient, and I can do anything I put my mind to.
I also learnt to manage my time better. Once my priorities were straight, I found the long hours easy, and I picked modules that explored commercial topics I was interested in which helped me decide what practice areas I wanted to specialise in.
I learnt to balance my time and found creative revision techniques to retain information. For instance, I would teach my brother dispute resolution mechanisms or different business mediums for fun. This helped me memorise a lot of the material whilst enhancing my ability to explain complex information clearly.
What are your biggest tips for SQE candidates?
What I found useful was reading every single page in the textbooks I received as a ULaw student. I made sure to do my reading after every session and attempt at least 15 practice questions. Then I would attempt 10 extra practice questions at some point during the day, either at work or before driving somewhere. When approaching the exam dates, I revised everything again and I attempted over 3,000 questions within six weeks. Practice questions are key.
My other tip is to pay attention to the names of cases you learn. For example, one of the SQE1 exam questions asked what rule would be appropriate for the scenario they gave, and the answer was ‘rule in Rylands v Fletcher’.
Lastly, take breaks. I had Sundays off and that allowed me to refresh. The night before the exam, stop revising at 10pm and then do something else or sleep! Do not revise too much last minute.
Brian Ngure chats to Legal Cheek ahead tomorrow’s event (17 October), ‘In-person workshops and networking in Manchester 2024 — with Addleshaw Goddard, Clyde & Co, TLT and ULaw’. Apply now to attend HERE.
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