Student call to reform ‘disproportionately challenging’ exams draws criticism from MP
Barrister-turned-politician Suella Braverman has slammed aspiring lawyers who signed a petition calling for reforms to the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), labelling them “snowflakes” who “didn’t do well, and it must be someone else’s fault”.
The former Home Secretary’s remarks follow a petition signed by over 750 students, first reported by Legal Cheek, which argues that the new exams are “not fit for purpose” and discriminate against candidates from diverse backgrounds and with different learning styles.
The petition, created by a trainee solicitor at an international law firm, describes the SQE as “disproportionately challenging” and says it has taken a severe toll on their mental, financial, and physical wellbeing.
The petition hasn’t gone down well with Braverman, who felt compelled to address it in a column for The Telegraph (£).
“Britain’s legal profession — once a byword for rigour, intellect and integrity — now finds itself the latest battleground in the war against excellence,” Braverman writes in the newspaper. “A cohort of aspiring solicitors has taken to petitioning for the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) to be made easier. Their complaint? The exams are ‘too hard, disproportionately challenging’, and, of course, ‘biased towards certain backgrounds and learning styles’. In other words: ‘We didn’t do well, and it must be someone else’s fault.’”
Braverman says the “snowflake sensibility — once confined to undergraduate common rooms and the wilder fringes of social media — has now infected even the corridors of legal ambition”.
The MP, who studied law at Cambridge, goes on to recount her own challenges in qualifying as a barrister, including completing the “famously exacting New York bar,” which she describes as “not fun” and during which she lost a stone in weight amid “one set of particularly punishing exams”.
“They were not ‘inclusive’, she writes. “They were not designed to reflect my personal learning style. They were difficult. That was the point. And when I passed them, I felt a precious sense of achievement and readiness for the real world of legal practice.”
Braverman continues:
“If I’m paying a lawyer, a doctor, or a pilot for their services, I do not want someone who merely feels entitled to the role. I want someone who has earned their place. Their colour, class or creed do not matter to me. What matters, and should matter, is their calibre. And if that view now makes me unfashionable, then so be it.”
A spokesperson for the Solicitors Regulation Authority said: “We understand that candidates can find the SQE challenging, both to prepare for and sit. It is a demanding, high stakes assessment that gives successful candidates access to a licence to practise.”
They continued:
“The questions are written by a pool of solicitors reflecting what is expected of a newly qualified solicitor and the pass mark is determined using well-established methods. The SQE’s independent reviewer has confirmed it’s a robust and fair assessment. Many candidates have now passed the SQE. Pass rates and statistical information about candidates are published after each sitting. Differential outcomes by ethnicity are widely seen in legal professional exams, in other sectors and at different stages of education. Informed by research commissioned from the University of Exeter, we are taking action to address the causes of such differential outcomes that are within our influence.”