📩 Is the SQE failing you?

When the SQE was first announced, it promised to open up the legal profession. By removing LPC’s cost barrier and allowing more flexible routes to qualification, it was seen as a step forward for access and social mobility.

This came with a fundamental change in expectations. The LPC was built to prepare you for your first day as a trainee. The SQE is supposed to judge whether you’re ready to act as a Day One Solicitor.

A higher threshold indeed.

Fast-forward to 2025, and many firms say SQE grads are less prepared than their LPC-trained peers. Legal Cheek’s report reveals that drafting and legal research skills are seen as weaker among SQE candidates.

Yet another irony is that while the SQE gives you the option of just taking the exams, most candidates end up paying for a prep course as well as the exams. And if you add on the LLM option to qualify for student finance, it ends up being more expensive than the LPC. So the promised affordability is, for many, an illusion.

What do you think? Is the SQE delivering on its promises? Or was the introduction of the SQE a mistake?

Vote below ⬇️

→ First Class Problem Question Answer and some guidance

→ First Class Essay Structure

→ Oscola Referencing Cheat Sheet

→ 3 Tips for a First Class Degree

→ Law School Planners

→ First Year First Class LLB Notes

→ Everything else

18 May 1812 — John Bellingham was found guilty and sentenced to death for the assassination of the British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.

19 May 1536 — Anne Boleyn is beheaded in London, three years after the law was changed and a church was formed so that King Henry VIII could marry her.

20 May 1993 — Britain ratified the Maastricht Treaty, which allowed for greater cooperation between members of the European Union.

21 May 1840 — William Hobson, Lieutenant-Governor proclaimed British sovereignty over all of New Zealand.

22 May 1840 — Britain ended the practice of sending convicts to the penal colony of Australia ( see 13 May )

23 May 1533 — In an attempt that annoyed the Pope, the English Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer declared Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon to be void and his marriage to Anne Boleyn, to be legal. The result was a break with the church in Rome despite Henry’s title as ‘Protector of the Faith’.

24 May 1689 — The Toleration Act is passed, granting freedom of worship to Nonconformists and granted them their own places of worship.

Tuesday, 27 May

Graduate Recruiter Q&A – What They Really Think of Your Application — Tuesday 27 May, 14:00–15:00

Thursday 12 June

Insider Interview Tips – What Firms Don’t Put on Their Website — Thursday 12 June, 15:00–16:00

Wednesday 25 June

Assessment Centre Success – The Proven Formula That Works — Wednesday 25 June, 14:00–15:00