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SQE1 pass rate falls to record 41% low

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By Legal Cheek on

20

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The percentage of students passing the first part of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE1) has fallen to a record low.

According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s latest statistical report, published today, only 41% of candidates sitting SQE1 in July achieved a passing mark. This represents a sharp drop from the 56% pass rate recorded in January and breaks the previous record low of 44% set in July last year.

Credit: SRA

While the overall pass rate of 41% includes both first-time and re-sit candidates (across Function Legal Knowledge 1 and 2), first-time sitters fared slightly better, with 46% achieving a pass.

The SRA explained that there is no fixed pass mark for SQE1. Instead, each paper is assessed independently to account for differences in difficulty, with the pass mark adjusted slightly downwards if a paper is found to be harder than intended.

The regulator also highlighted the unusually high number of re-sit candidates in this sitting — 19% of the July 2025 cohort were re-sitters, the highest proportion recorded to date. Unsurprisingly, these candidates tended to perform worse than first-time sitters, a trend seen across both SQE1 and SQE2 as well as in other professional exams.

The record low pass rate comes just a week after the SRA released an explainer defending the use of single best answer multiple-choice questions (MCQs) on SQE1, stating that it “does not test simple recall” but rather assesses aspiring lawyers’ ability to apply legal knowledge in a practical way.

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20 Comments

July25 Sqe Survivor

Just passed this exam and averaged in the 420s/500.

Yes, I did put a lot of work in but I was 50 marks above passing on each flk, this is a huge margin and in reality I would have had to severely mess up to fail.

It is an unpopular opinion but if you put in the hours and are competent then there is no reason you can’t pass this exam. Just like other professions, to keep standards high, there needs to be some barrier to entry.

No one in my sponsored class failed, in fact they all passed comfortably.

If people spent as much time revising for this exam as they do moaning, perhaps they would have more success.

If anything, it should be made harder. Bring on SQE2!

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(25)(103)

Anonymous

Rage baiting in the Legal Cheek comment section is crazy work!

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(90)(3)

July25 SQE Survivor

Not rage bait.

This is my experience and of course the majority will disagree but the majority fail.

Not my fault if you didn’t make the cut

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(6)(56)

British law students are soft

LOL, we’ve reached the stage where any opinion deviating from the consensus of “SQE being worse than death” is automatically labeled as rage baiting.

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(5)(3)

lmao even

“British law students are soft” but the bar exam in the US doesn’t require you to fork over a grand every time you try lol.

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(1)(0)

Lol

“It should be made harder” is just rage bait at this point.

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(45)(3)

B.W.

This is such a bizarre thing to comment. It is very easy for those of us who have passed to sit on a pedestal and preach, but it’s outrageous of you to imply that people are simply not working hard enough but are instead complaining. Especially ironic that you’ve posted such a comment under the alias ‘SQE survivor’.

The exam does not make sense considering the actual skills and work required as a solicitor (competent research and legal
application, rather than factual recall)

Contrary to the ‘SQE survivor’s’ post – I’d say to anyone worried about the exam… complain all you like, get it out of your system, rely on your support network, and do your best on the day. No one can ask anymore of you.

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(24)(1)

Law School tutor

Well done for passing, but I’d say the real criticism of SQE1 is that however hard they make it, the prep courses for it are not actually particularly good training or preparation for the legal work you’ll be doing. They’re simply crammer courses for MCQ exams. The LPC, for all its faults – such as each provider writing its own exams – was an excellent training course for the job of being a solicitor. Many firms have already remarked that their SQE trainees don’t really know as much about practice as their LPC trainees did. Clue’s in the name I guess.

Certainly I agree there need to be barriers to entry, a notion the SRA appear to have struggled with in their reforming campaign, but the job of law schools is not simply to get people through the profession’s exams. It’s also to get them ready for practice. The SQE courses on offer don’t do that – and it shows, in new trainees.

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(20)(0)

Amy

There is your answer. Sponsored class. Most people don’t have that luxury.

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(3)(1)

Anonymous

I managed to pass too as a sponsored student, as did 90% of my sponsored class, but I think it’s important to acknowledge the privileged position we are in, and how that might mean we downplay some of the pitfalls of the exam. I agree with you that it is definitely passable, but the SRA still have plenty of work to do to make it as clear-cut and put people who work extremely hard to pass the exam in the best position possible to succeed.

I don’t think most people complain about the difficulty, I think they complain about the lack of clarity provided by the SRA, considering the considerable amounts of money (especially non-sponsored, potentially working takers) are spending on course providers, mocks and the exam itself.

The lack of a clear and detailed specification causes providers to second-guess themselves in relation to the difficulty of their own mocks and the content they discuss in detail on their prep courses. The SRA mocks provided on the SRA website are considerably easier than the actual exam, which, to me, doesn’t make much sense. If I were self-funding the exam, I would be extremely put off knowing that the providers themselves are not 100% sure on the details of the exam, due to such a vague specification.

The SRA still haven’t released the provider-specific pass rates, so people are spending thousands on a prep course, working extremely hard, only to show up on exam day, and realise that the actual SQE questions are outside the scope of what their provider has taught them.

The SQE1 is definitely passable, and I don’t believe the difficulty of the exam is a problem, but it is catered to such a select group as of now (sponsored, non-working students) that I don’t see how it is increasing access to the profession.

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(30)(3)

Ab

Completely agree. I have spent 12k on a course that does not prepare me for the exam, it is not the rigour of the exam, it is the students getting ripped of by training providers not being able to adequately prepare them. But the training providers seem to have little gudidance from the SRA and instead of welcoming improvment, the SRA seem to be very defensive and slow to publish anything tangible. Then you look at their record of punishing trainees for trivial matters. Begs the question do I even want to be regulated by them anyway. Any other trainee thought the same?

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(10)(0)

Old

Yep, the cost is the killer for me. I’m a mature student who’s been working in the legal sector for over a decade. I never wanted to qualify when you needed a TC because I was seeing fresh grads come to the firms I’ve worked at and spending years just for the whisper of a hope of a TC. The SQE promised to change that and oh boy it did, just be careful what you wish for. I don’t need a TC but now I’m trying to juggle MCQ cramming with full time work AND have the wonderful prospect of losing out on ££££s of my own money if I fail because my firm won’t sponsor me (or anyone else who’s going this route, as I’m not the only one).

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(0)(0)

Good

Good. The process is meant to sort out the wheat from the chaff. Or at least, sort out the wheat and some of the chaff from the rest of the chaff after the woke crowd dumbed the exams down.

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(7)(31)

John Smith

I passed SQE1 first time. All it took was :
– Abusing stimulants
– 40+ hours of studying a week (On top of working as a trainee at an international firm)
– Caring about nothing else for the prep period (To the point that I was buying pre cooked chicken to save time)

I even developed temporary tinnitus during the last few weeks of my prep.

Tbf, passing made it all worth it!

The lesson, to pass, prepare to have no life.

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(9)(0)

Law School tutor

So under the old system, you could have taken the Legal Practice course part-time over 2 years, on every third weekend or on weekly Weds evenings, while still working full-time. Tough, but much more manageable than studying a full-time programme at the same time as working full-time.
The SRA has made it harder for non-sponsored students get through to qualification than it was before.

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(1)(0)

Annoymous

I think its also the length of time the exam takes as well as staring at a computer screen for that long

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(10)(0)

MummaGotAdmitted!

I agree. I passed SQE1 first time but I think it’s equally important to train your brain to remain on alert for that length of time. By the end of the second session of day 2 my brain was done and it was a slog. It’s not like in practice where you would take breaks if you need to take a screen break and where anything requiring that length of time would likely be on 1 topic at a time. My recommendation has been to people to do as many full length practice runs as possible because our brains aren’t wired to do that quick fire for that long. It’s a skill of its own right

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(0)(0)

Cilex lawyer

Just to add some positivity to this post, I passed the recent SQE1 exam in the first quantile, first attempt.

I opted for self study and studied in the morning before work on weekdays and at weekends.

During the exam period I did study for 8 hours a day but excluding that period I maxed 2 hours of studying a day, over a 8 month period.

I have a full time demanding job as a CILEX lawyer, children and am in my 30’s. I am also BAME. If you look at the SQE1 pass rate stats, the odds were definitely against me passing.

To those who are considering doing the SQE1, do not let the horror stories deter you. The exam is passable and you do not have to run yourself into the ground preparing for them.

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(0)(0)

Gop Yah

Do firms still sack trainees who don’t pass?

It must be s*** if all your trainees class have passed and you fail.

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(0)(0)

Wen chian

All the people sponsord by bpp passed or almost all, interesting…

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(0)(0)

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