Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) – Essential Guide

The Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) is a series of exams required for becoming a solicitor in the UK. The SQE is very difficult, with a 56% pass rate for the first part of the exam (SQE1) as of 2025. You don’t need a law degree to do the SQE, just a level 6 degree or equivalent in any subject. The SQE costs £4,790 to sit until September 2025 (SQE1 + SQE2), and £4,908 after that date. An SQE prep course may be worth it, especially if your undergraduate degree was in a non-law subject, but it’s also possible to self-study and still pass.

In the recent past (depending on when you read this / if you’re a time traveller), various routes to becoming a solicitor were available. The common postgraduate routes were the Legal Practice Course (LPC) or a Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL), with the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS) thrown in for good measure. Nowadays, unless you already started, accepted or completed the former options on or before the 1^st of September 2021, it’s SQE all the way down.

That certainly makes things easier for me, but perhaps not for you. As noted in the intro, the SQE is difficult, so even though it’s possible to complete it without a law degree, it’s something of an uphill battle. SQE preparation courses are available, so those might be worth a look (in case ‘chill hip hop beats to relax / study to’ + mock questions don’t do the trick).

So, what’s the deal with the SQE? In this handy guide I’ll be going through all you need to know about it, including what it involves, requirements, funding, all that jazz. The article won’t be a barrel of laughs (law is serious business after all), but perhaps we can manage a small glass of sensible chuckles.

How does the SQE work?

Despite being referred to as ‘the’ SQE, it’s actually a set of several exams taken at different times. These sets are split into two stages: SQE1, which focusses on functional legal knowledge, and SQE2, which assesses practical legal skills.

SQE1

SQE1 is further divided into two exams: FLK1 and FLK2. Each exam is made up of 180 multiple choice questions, but the number of topics (and possible answers) means ‘multiple choice’ is still very difficult (no picking ‘C’ and hoping for the best).

Topics for FLK1 include:

• Business Law and Practice
• Dispute Resolution
• Contract
• Tort
• Legal System of England and Wales
• Constitutional and Administrative Law and EU Law and Legal Services

Then for FLK2, we have:

• Property Practice
• Wills and the Administration of Estates
• Solicitors Accounts
• Land Law
• Trusts
• Criminal Law and Practice

These comprise two separate assessments which you’ll complete on separate days, with each day having two sessions of 2 hours 33 minutes.

SQE2

Good news: the pass rate on SQE2 is significantly higher (75% for the most recent figure). Still, you do have to pass SQE1 first to get a chance at SQE2, so take that with a grain of salt / your condiment of choice.

As for what it’s about, SQE2 focusses on the practical skills you need as a solicitor. Over five days, you’ll complete a combination of oral and written tasks, and you’ll be assessed on the following skills:

• Client interview and attendance note/legal analysis
• Advocacy
• Case and matter analysis
• Legal research
• Legal writing
• Legal drafting

And the practice areas you’ll be tested in for those skills are:

• Criminal Litigation (including advising clients at the police station)
• Dispute Resolution
• Property Practice
• Wills and Intestacy, Probate Administration and Practice
• Business organisations rules and procedures (including money laundering and financial services).

SQE entry requirements

Technically the only entry requirement to the SQE itself is a level 6 qualification in any subject (or equivalent), which typically means a bachelor’s degree. However, to be qualified as a solicitor, you’ll also need to:

• Pass the SQE (naturally)
• Have two years’ full time qualifying (legal) work experience (QWE)
• Pass character and suitability checks (including a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check).

What counts as QWE?

QWE must involve ‘providing legal services’, with legal services being defined in the Legal Services Act of 2007. You can gain the work experience before, during or after completing the SQE, and it must involve providing real legal services (law-adjacent video games are right out, tragically).

Typical places you might get experience include:

• Placement on a law degree
• Working as a paralegal
• On a training contract
• At a voluntary or charitable organisation or a law centre
• In a law clinic

How much does the SQE cost, and what funding is available?

Cost

As mentioned in the intro, the SQE costs £4,790 to sit until September 2025 (SQE1 + SQE2), and £4,908 after that date. You pay for both SQE1 parts at the same time, (£1,888 of the fees up to September 2025), and you’ll only need to book the SQE2 once you’ve passed SQE1.

If you need to resit, the fees will depend on which bits you failed. If you fail FLK1 or FLK2 (but not both), you’ll only need to pay the fee for the exam you failed. Otherwise, you’ll need to pay the full exam fee to resit. SQE2 isn’t split up in the same way, so if you fail, you’ll have to pay the full fee again regardless. Also, you can only resit SQE1 and SQE2 three times each, so watch out for that.

There are also cancellation fees (if you cancel after 14 days of booking) and additional fees if you want to appeal the decision on your exam. The appeal fee is refunded if your appeal is upheld, but no such luck on the cancellation fee (maybe give any dramatically coughing children a wide berth in the lead-up to the exam).

Funding

Putting aside self-funding, there are a few different funding options for the SQE.

Government student loans

If you’re a UK national and you’re completing an SQE preparation course that includes a Masters degree (an LLM would be the classic choice), you can draw on the regional postgraduate loan to help fund your SQE costs. We’ve written guides for how the different regional loans work, including:

• England
• Scotland
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

University scholarships

University scholarships tend to be very competitive (free money tends to be, surprise surprise), and you may need to check a few boxes first in terms of eligibility. Still, if you can get one, it’s a big help.

Law firm scholarship / funding support

If you’re on a training contract with a law firm (or part of a graduate scheme), the firm might sponsor your SQE entry (and some even fund SQE training courses too). Again, competition is fierce for sponsorship, and not all firms do so. Be careful, too—some contracts specify the fee is ‘clawed back’ if you fail the SQE…so, uh, just try not to do that if possible? Hopefully you read the contract ahead of time (you are working in law, after all).

Bank loans and private lenders

You could draw on bank loans to help fund your SQE, or loans from another private loan provider. I’d recommend these as an option of last resort considering private investors tend to be significantly less cuddly around repayments and interest rates, but it’s still an option. Check out the guide linked above if this sounds like something you’ll need to lean on.

Apprenticeships

This isn’t a funding option as much as it’s good news for any apprentices out there—if you’re qualifying to be a solicitor through an apprenticeship, your SQE preparation and exam fees are paid through your employer. Stay winning, apprentices.

How do SQE preparation courses work?

We’ve established that the SQE is pretty tricky, so it’s no surprise SQE preparation courses are available. Typical options include:

• Standalone courses for SQE1 and SQE2
• LLB undergraduate degree with SQE preparation
• LLM with SQE preparation
• Masters of Arts in Law with SQE preparation
• Postgraduate Diploma in Law with SQE preparation

The contents of these courses vary (especially if they’re attached to major law qualifications), but the SQE component will usually include lots of revision materials, mock questions, and potentially a full-on mock exam. Some courses only do prep for SQE1 or SQE2, so make sure you pick a course that caters to your learning needs in this respect.

To be clear, you don’t need to do an SQE preparation course to pass, but it’s definitely a leg up even for those with a legal background. For those who didn’t study law originally, you may find a prep course especially useful. It’s still possible to pass without one in this scenario, but you’re playing an already hard game on extra hard difficulty. Props to you if you manage it, but the bookmakers wouldn’t give you favourable odds.

Tips from the author

#1 Remember that passing the SQE won’t guarantee you a job as a solicitor

Law training contracts have been like gold dust for a while now, and the introduction of the SQE (despite its aims of widening participation) hasn’t helped matters in that regard. Once you’re fully qualified as a solicitor, you’ll still need sufficient experience (and ideally a relevant qualification) to show you’re suitable for the role. If anyone tells you the SQE is a golden ticket to a job immediately afterwards, you have my permission to narrow your eyes at them.

#2 If you’re on a training contract and your firm will fund your SQE prep, make sure you’re completing an approved course

They will hopefully clarify if they only fund LLMs from a certain training provider, for example, but if not, best to speak with them about what the right move is. It’s going to be quite a mess later on if you try and get your fees sorted and you get hit with a “Nope”, though I suspect they’ll phrase it slightly more formally than that.

#3 For SQE1, you don’t need to know literally everything

It’s a lot of practice areas to keep in your noggin, and it’s only natural you’ll be weaker on some over others. If you’re lucky, your weaker areas might not come up at all (or only rarely), but if you’re not, you might be knee-deep in unfamiliar territory. If this happens, trust your gut and stick with core legal principles. Also, you’ll get a breakdown of your scoring in the different practice areas once the results come in, so if you fail, you’ll at least know which practice area you struggled with the most. Still not ideal, but at least it’s something you can work with.

Frequently asked questions