How to register for the SQE1 and SQE2 assessments.
How to verify your ID and what you need to provide.
What the survey is, and what it covers.
If you need help or assistance to sit your assessments.
If you are a qualified lawyer, you may be eligible for an exemption.
How to book the SQE1 and SQE2 assessments.
Find out how and when to book your SQE assessments.
Upcoming assessment dates, booking windows, and test centre locations.
Find out how you can take the SQE assessments in Welsh.
Everything you need to know about sitting the SQE1 and SQE2 assessments.
The assessment specification for both FLK1 and FLK2, including annexes and sample questions.
The specification for the written and oral assessments, including annexes and sample questions.
Useful advice and resources to help you prepare for the SQE assessments.
What to expect on the assessment days and how to claim mitigating circumstances.
How to get your results, how assessments are marked, how to resit an assessment, or make an appeal.
What to expect when you get your results, and how to resit any assessments.
If you believe your assessment result or a decision made by the Assessment Board is incorrect or unfair.
Read and download SQE reports.
Learn about what the SQE is, who it's for and how much it costs.
Find out what the SQE is and how it works.
Find out who's eligible to take the SQE, including exemptions.
Find out how much the SQE will cost and how you can pay for it.
Find out what candidates say about their experience of the SQE.
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Only applicable for assessments from 1 September 2026
Updated August 2026
This page is also available in Welsh. Mae'r dudalen hon ar gael yn Gymraeg.
This guidance is designed to assist with the interpretation of the SQE2 Assessment Specification.
Candidates should read each SQE Assessment Specification considering all parts together. The Assessment Specification for SQE2 contains a number of sections setting out guidance on various topics relating to the SQE2 assessment, including:
There is also information on legal materials and information (Overview, Assessment Objectives and Assessment Criteria) about each of the assessments in the Assessments in SQE2 section.
Candidates may find it helpful to note that:
To ensure the fairness and integrity of the SQE, information about the Assessment Specifications will be released to all stakeholders at the same time. There will be an annual review of the FLK to:
The legal skills assessments in SQE2 are:
Further detail about each of these assessments is given in Assessments in SQE2.
Although there is no separate assessment called negotiation, all deliveries of SQE2 will contain at least one assessment involving negotiation. Negotiation may be assessed in either interview and attendance note/legal analysis and/or case and matter analysis and/or legal writing.
The practice areas in which these legal skills are assessed are:
Questions in these practice areas may draw on underlying black letter law in the Functioning Legal Knowledge (FLK) as follows:
Ethics and professional conduct will be core parts of SQE2. Ethics and professional conduct will be pervasive throughout SQE2. Ethics and professional conduct issues will not be flagged and candidates will need to identify any ethical and professional conduct issues and exercise judgment to resolve them honestly and with integrity.
As with the other subject areas, the questions will be based on realistic client-based problems and situations which can include those set out in relevant SRA warning notices, such as those relating to Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) and Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).
Candidates are required to demonstrate their ability to act honestly and with integrity, and in accordance with the SRA Standards and Regulations as follows:
Questions involving taxation may arise in Property Practice; Wills and the Administration of Estates (Wills and Intestacy, Probate Administration and Practice); and Business Law and Practice (organisations, rules and procedures).
A question may require a candidate to perform a calculation by applying rules, rates, percentages and thresholds to identify a correct figure. For questions on taxation, candidates will be expected to be aware of the availability of certain reliefs and exemptions and of any conditions relevant to their application. However, where candidates are required to apply the monetary value of any exemptions and reliefs, particular rates or thresholds, these will be provided.
Detail of the examinable content covered is given in Annex 1. Annex 1 is a sub-set of the FLK in SQE1.
For the avoidance of doubt Legal Systems (including the legal system of England and Wales,constitutional and administrative law and EU law), Legal Services (apart from money laundering and financial services) and Solicitors’ Accounts are not examined in SQE2. Money laundering and financial services are examinable in the context of Business Law and Practice (including organisations, rules and procedures) and Property Practice (money laundering only).
The cut off date for the law upon which candidates are examined in the SQE will be four calendar months prior to the date of the first assessment in an assessment window. Candidates will be tested on the law as it stands at that date. They will not be tested on the development of the law. For the avoidance of doubt, changes in the law which are implemented on the calendar date four calendar months prior to the first SQE assessment in an assessment window may be examined.
For practical purposes SQE2 is divided into two parts as follows:
The assessments in SQE2 oral are:
SQE2 oral will take place over two half days. The following table shows the assessments candidates will undertake on each of the days. Candidates will take a total of four oral legal skills assessments.
Please note that different candidates may complete the assessments in different orders. Candidates may therefore start with either the interview and attendance note/legal analysis or the advocacy.
Further details of the assessments are available in Assessments in SQE2 as follows: Client interviewing and completion of attendance note/legal analysis and Advocacy.
The assessments in SQE2 written are:
SQE2 written takes place over three half-days. You will take a total of 12 written legal skills assessments.
You may complete the assessments in a different order to that listed.
Further details of the assessments are available in Assessments in SQE2 as follows: Case and matter analysis, Legal research, Legal writing and Legal drafting
The interviewing station will be marked by the assessor playing the role of the client and will be marked on skills only. The attendance note and all other stations will be marked by a solicitor who will assess candidates on both skills and application of law.
The assessment criteria against which candidates will be judged in each of the six types of legal skills stations are provided at Assessments in SQE2 below. Performance in each of these criteria will be assessed on a scale from A – F by trained assessors making global professional judgments related to the standard of competency of the assessment1 as follows:
This grading will then be converted into numerical marks such that A = 5 marks and F = 0 marks.
The marking criteria for each of the stations has been divided into marks for skills and marks for application of law (including Ethics and professional conduct). In arriving at a final mark for the candidate across all assessments, skills and application of law are weighted equally. This is to make sure that adequate weighting is given to the quality of the advice provided.
In demonstrating that they have reached the standard of competency of a newly qualified (Day One) solicitor, candidates will need to demonstrate that they can apply fundamental legal principles in the skills based situations covered by SQE2 in a way that addresses the client’s needs and concerns. They will need sufficient knowledge to make them competent to practise on the basis that they can look up detail later. Candidates will not be expected to know or address detail that a newly qualified solicitor would look up, unless they have been provided with that detail as part of the assessment materials. See also the legal materials section below. Sample questions and indicative answers are published on the SQE website.
On occasion in legal practice a case name or statutory provision, for example, is the term normally used to describe a legal principle or an area of law, or a rule or procedural step (eg Rylands v Fletcher, CPR Part 36, Section 25 notice). In such circumstances, candidates are required to know and be able to use such case names, statutory provisions etc.
The above guidance does not apply to the SQE2 Legal Research assessment (see Assessments in SQE2 below) in which candidates can be expected to cite specific case names, or cite statutory or regulatory authorities.
In all other circumstances candidates are not required to recall specific case names, or cite statutory or regulatory authorities.
The assessment criteria for SQE2 refer to correct and comprehensive application of law. The following is a non-exhaustive list of what this may include:
The assessment criteria for application of law refer to:
How each of these is interpreted will depend on an academic judgment about each assessment informed by the Statement of Solicitor Competence (Annex 3) and the Functioning Legal Knowledge for SQE2 (Annex 1).
For instance, in an assessment where the candidate has to identify and apply legal principles, credit might be awarded under Legally Correct for identifying the correct legal principles and applying these to the specific facts. Credit might then be awarded under Legally Comprehensive for the extent to which candidates have identified and applied the correct legal principles, as well as for providing a comprehensive analysis of the legal issues.
Where the legal principles are made explicit in the question, credit under Legally Correct might be awarded for the correct application of the legal principles to the facts. Credit under legally comprehensive might be awarded for giving a comprehensive analysis of those principles as well as a comprehensive analysis of any other legal issues in the context of the specific facts.
Where a question involves any ethics and professional conduct issue(s), candidates will be expected to identify the ethical and professional conduct issue(s) and exercise judgment to resolve them honestly and with integrity.
Whilst Wales does not form a separate legal jurisdiction (it is part of the legal jurisdiction of England and Wales), the laws that apply in England may be different from the laws that apply in Wales. In Wales, the Welsh language has official status and can be used in proceedings in Wales. These factors have consequences for how the law operates in Wales.
Solicitors of England and Wales are entitled to practise both in England and in Wales. Candidates will be required to apply, at the level of the newly qualified solicitor, their knowledge that, in relation to certain topics, the law is different in the two territories.
The assessment criteria for the written skills refer to clear, precise, concise and acceptable language. This may include:
NOTE: A spell check tool has been added to the Pearson assessment platform for SQE2 written assessments, and will be trialled in the SQE2 July 2026 written assessments. Whilst the spell check tool is being trialled, the existing guidance on the approach to spelling and grammar for SQE2 written assessments (set out below) will remain in effect until further notice.
Learn more about the spell check tool
The highlighter function will be available for candidates to use but only on the Pearson assessment platform.
Further guidance provided to markers for SQE2 written assessments on spelling and grammar is set out below.
In order to pass SQE2 candidates must obtain the overall pass mark for SQE2. For the avoidance of doubt please note that there is not a separate pass mark for SQE2 oral and SQE2 written. There is one pass mark for SQE2 as a whole. For details of how the pass mark is set see the Marking and Standard Setting Policy.
For all stations except legal research, candidates will be provided, as part of their assessment materials, with materials that a newly qualified solicitor would look up. For example, in Property Practice this includes a copy of the relevant Standard Conditions of Sale or Standard Commercial Property Conditions.
Candidates will need sufficient knowledge to make them competent to practise on the basis that they can look up detail later. Candidates will not be expected to know or address detail that a newly qualified solicitor would look up, unless they have been provided with that detail as part of their assessment materials. However, legal materials will only be provided where it is considered that a newly qualified solicitor would need to refer to those materials. Sample questions and discussion of answers are published on the SQE website. For detail on the legal research assessment see the Legal research section in Assessments in SQE2.
Any other materials, such as books and notes, cannot be brought into or used during the assessments.
Sample questions give you an idea of the style of questions which may be used to test your ability to apply fundamental legal principles and rules.
Try the SQE2 sample questions
Create your personal SQE account and book your assessments.
Find out what happens after passing the SQE and admission to the roll of solicitors.
Stay up to date with SQE news and important announcements.