Candidates may receive a full refund
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has published guidance on what happens when SQE assessments are disrupted.
According to the regulator, the new page aims to assist SQE candidates with assessment delivery disruptions and to direct candidates to answers to frequently asked questions.
The guidelines state that an ‘Assessment Delivery Disruption’ (ADD) applies when an issue prevents an assessment from being started or completed. The regulator lists three categories of disruption, namely technical failures, infrastructure failure or external events such as extreme weather conditions.
The SRA notes that if the issue is not resolved within 90 minutes, the assessment will likely be cancelled. Depending on whether or not you have started part of the assessment, the SRA gives multiple options for how candidates can proceed.
If you have not started the assessment, you can either sit a rescheduled date or receive a full refund. In the event of a refund, your attempt will be discounted, i.e. it will not count as one of your three attempts to pass the assessment. For the SQE1, you are also able to split the assessment between FLK1 and FLK2 in certain circumstances. The SQE2 cannot be split as it is a single assessment.
In the event you have already started the assessment, candidates will have the further option of having their assessment marked. If candidates pass, the mark will stand, while if they fail, the attempt will be discounted and candidates will receive a full refund.
Legal Cheek recently reported on the SRA’s annual review of the Functional Legal Knowledge (FLK) tested in the SQE, as the regulator invited feedback from candidates and other stakeholders.
Even if there’s a refund, the candidate will have to wait 6 months for the next exam sitting. Their life will be put on hold. Training contracts may be rescinded. There needs to be more flexibility like there was under the LPC.
This is such an underestimated issue. Why can we not run the SQE1 exams in January, April, July and October, like the SQE2 exams?