Understanding what’s included in your SQE2 results

Video explanation. You will find it helpful to view a short video clip which contains an explanation of an individual results page. It provides an overview of what you will see on your results page including an explanation of the steps taken to calculate your individual marks. The video has an example of the marks allocated to assessment criteria including a discussion on how the marks allocated are converted into a numerical value and finally to your final result. It also includes an explanation of why a candidate can receive a score of 0 for any of the assessment criteria. This can help put into context that each SQE2 assessment consists of 16 stations or exercises, and that even though you may perform badly in one or more stations, you can still pass the assessment overall as the passmark is set for the assessment as a whole.

Note: The video is based on a results page for the April 2022 SQE2. The combination of stations on day 1 and 2 of the written assessments can vary between SQE2 assessment windows. Please see the SQE2 Assessment Specification for more information.

Learn more: Video: SQE2 marks explained 

Summary flow chart. We also have a flow chart summary of the process for calculating your SQE2 percentage score for each of the 16 assessment stations.

Key steps for calculating your percentage score. We have also produced a resource which shows in greater detail the 8 key steps taken to calculate your final percentage results from your individual station scores. In this example scores are shown rounded to 1 decimal place in steps 1-7, but please note you MUST use unrounded scores in all calculations until the final score is rounded in step 8. 

Results page overview

At the top of each set of results it will show your Candidate name you are registered with and the Candidate ID you have been allocated.

Results are then presented for SQE2.

For each assessment you will see the following information:

Dates of SQE2 oral. The dates that the oral assessment took place

Dates of SQE2 written. The dates that the written assessment took place

Date of transcript. The date that results for the SQE assessment were released

Attempt number. The number of attempts you have had at the assessment

Pass mark. The score required to pass the assessment expressed as a percentage

Your mark. The score you achieved in the assessment expressed as a percentage

Quintile. Quintiles are calculated by dividing the candidates into five equal groups based on performance in the assessment. This shows in which fifth of the data your score was placed relative to all of those who took the assessment with you, with 1 being placed in the highest scoring fifth and 5 in the lowest scoring fifth of the assessment’s scores.

Those five equal groups are:

• 1st (top) quintile received a score in the top 20% for that assessment (i.e. candidates in this quintile are in the top 20% of performers)
• 2nd quintile in the next 21% to 40%
• 3rd quintile in the next 41-60%
• 4th quintile in the next 61-80%
• 5th quintile in the final 81-100%

Result. This is the overall outcome of your assessment showing if you have passed the assessment

The next section shows the scores recorded against each of the assessment criteria for each of the assessment stations that you participated in. In this example you can see this station assesses Advocacy in the practice area of Criminal Litigation.

When we calculate the score for each station, Skills and Law are equally weighted, so we calculate a percentage for both based on these scores, and then average them together to create the score for the station. Both oral and written stations follow an identical process.

The Client Interview and Attendance Note/Legal Analysis station that assessed Property Practice is calculated in the same way, but the score here for Skills is based on the Skills score for Client Interview and the Skills score for Attendance Note/Legal Analysis averaged together. The Law mark comes solely from the Attendance Note/Legal Analysis part of the assessment. This is because the assessors playing the role of client in the client interview are not solicitors and do not mark the law.

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