Alex Goodman, future trainee and ULaw student ambassador, discusses his SQE experience, from revision strategies to social life
Alex Goodman, a student ambassador at The University of Law, began his legal journey with an LLB at the University of Exeter. After spending three years as a paralegal in the planning department of a large national law firm, he has returned to his former student city to pursue the LLM Legal Practice (SQE1&2) at ULaw’s Exeter campus.
Having sailed through SQE1 back in January, Goodman is now eagerly awaiting the results of his SQE2 assessments before he’s off to start his training contract at southwest law firm, Ashfords. I start by asking Goodman about his experience sitting SQE1. “It’s a long day!” he laughs. “You’ve got to make sure you get a good night’s sleep beforehand because you’ve got two five-hour exams to sit. There’s 360 questions in total – once I got to question 360, my brain was pretty frazzled.”
For Goodman, the major challenge of SQE1 was the volume of content. “There are some tricky subjects, but the hardest thing about it is the sheer amount you have to memorise,” he explains. This breadth of content can be particularly challenging for students, such as Goodman, who have taken time out of legal education between their undergraduate degree and SQE preparation. “Topics like constitutional law, the legal system of England and Wales or contract law, I hadn’t properly studied since 2018 – I was coming back to it five, or even six years, later,” Goodman tells me.
As this appears to be a common challenge SQE candidates face, I am curious to know how he went about refreshing this knowledge. “I got out all my old notes and looked over them,” Goodman replies, “but what really helped was the manuals The University of Law provides on each subject covered in SQE1. I read those manuals from start to finish and pretty much knew them inside out by the time I sat the exam.”
With SQE1 placing heavy emphasis on factual recall, how did Goodman go about committing all this information to memory? “I made a folder of a complete set of condensed notes,” he tells me. “After taking notes in seminars and from textbooks and ULaw’s online tasks during the week, I spent my weekends condensing those notes, printing them off and adding them to the folder.” Goodman then asked friends to test him on these notes and read them through as often as he could. “I know lots of people who went for the flashcard approach, but ended up with over a thousand flashcards or something crazy so I didn’t want to go for that,” he comments.
As the exams drew nearer, it was practice questions that Goodman found the most useful. “ULaw provided practice questions and set us all a target of doing 5,000 or 6,000 questions before the exam – I managed 4,500 and it did really help,” says Goodman. As well as familiarising candidates with the style of SQE1’s multiple choice questions (MCQs), mock exams can also give them a bit of a confidence boost. “Once I was consistently scoring over 80% on the mock exams, I knew I was on track and ready for the exam,” Goodman tells me.
I ask Goodman about how he has balanced this thorough preparation with life outside his studies. “I do feel like my time has been quite constrained this year,” he admits. “It’s been a lot of studying, but it is still important to make time for your social life otherwise you’ll go a bit crazy.” Careful planning is key to achieving this balance, he explains, “I’ve tried to keep my Friday and Saturday evenings free to see friends and relax. Because it was so important to me to pass the SQE, I certainly haven’t had the social life I had in the first years of undergrad!” he jokes.
ULaw’s Exeter campus is ensconced in the city’s historic university where Goodman began his legal studies. So, what’s it been like returning to Exeter as a postgrad student? “It’s been really nice and such a privilege,” says Goodman. “Exeter is great because it’s a smaller city you can easily walk around. It’s been so nice using the university buildings and ULaw have a great teaching space here.” Goodman is also full of praise for ULaw’s Exeter campus team. “Back in December, I went to my campus manager for some advice. I had an appointment with her on campus and felt much better afterwards. I found it super helpful.” ULaw provides all its students with a dedicated academic support tutor and Goodman has found all members of staff approachable. “Although I have a dedicated tutor, I can email any of them for support. They’ve all been really helpful.”
Looking to the future, I am keen to know what Goodman’s favourite topic on the SQE has been and which areas of law he’d like to explore during his training contract. “Private wealth really interests me,” is his response. “Studying wills, inheritance and estates, I enjoyed seeing how lawyers can be very technical with their language to get different results. You can have lots of interesting debates about definitions and interpretation, so I’m quite drawn to that area.” He continues, “There’s also the opportunity in private wealth to get to know your clients quite well on a personal level and I think that makes it more interesting.”
I ask Goodman what advice he would give students still searching for a coveted training contract offer. “The first thing to do is to make sure that you understand the type of firm you’re applying for and the type of work that you want to do,” is his advice. “Ask yourself what kind of person you are: do you love the big city? Would you rather stay local? Do you want to work with big-name clients?” Once you’ve got that figured out, researching the firm itself is crucial. “You should understand the kind of work the firm does and how they market themselves,” Goodman says. “‘If you understand yourself and the firm, you can properly explain to the firm ‘Why you?’.”
Alex Goodman will be speaking alongside law firm and ULaw representatives at ‘The SQE: students and law firms share their stories — with ULaw’, an virtual student event taking place THIS WEEK on Thursday 26 June. Apply now to attend.
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