How to Structure SQE2 Revision: The Complete Guide for 2026

Last updated: 15 March 2026

SQE2 is a different beast to SQE1. Candidates who treat it like a knowledge exam - reading notes, doing MCQs, grinding through textbooks - typically underperform. SQE2 is a practical skills assessment. The candidates who pass are the ones who practise performing, not just knowing.

This guide covers exactly how to structure your revision from day one to exam day.

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What You're Actually Being Assessed On

Before you can structure revision, you need to understand the assessment architecture.

The 16 Assessments

SQE2 consists of 16 individual assessments administered over your sitting (typically 3–5 days at a Kaplan centre). They split into:

• 11 written assessments (completed at a computer terminal under timed conditions)
• 5 oral assessments (role-played with a trained Kaplan assessor)

You receive a pass or fail on each individual assessment. If you fail some but pass others, you only resit the ones you failed - at a prorated fee. This makes targeted revision genuinely important.

The 6 Skill Areas

Every assessment tests one of these skills:

The 5 Practice Contexts

The assessments are set across five areas of law. You will be tested on most or all of them during a sitting:

1. Criminal Litigation
2. Dispute Resolution (civil litigation)
3. Property (conveyancing, landlord & tenant)
4. Wills & Probate (administration of estates)
5. Business (company law, commercial transactions)

This matters because your revision must cover both the skill (how to draft, advise, research) and the substantive law (what the law actually says in each area).

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The Fundamental Mistake Most Candidates Make

The most common SQE2 failure pattern is spending 80% of revision on substantive law and 10% on practising the skills - then being surprised when they fail.

The assessors are not primarily testing whether you know the law. They are testing whether you can use it professionally. A correct statement of law buried in a poorly structured advice letter can still fail.

What examiners actually want to see:

• Structure: Does the document or submission follow a logical, professional format?
• Accuracy: Is the legal analysis correct and applied to the specific facts?
• Relevance: Have you answered what was actually asked? (Not everything you know about a topic.)
• Professional standards: Appropriate tone, plain English for clients, correct formalities for court documents
• Completeness: Have you identified all the issues? Have you given a clear recommendation?

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Phase 1: Foundation (Weeks 1–4)

Goal: Build the substantive law knowledge and understand each skill's requirements.

Substantive Law Revision

You need to be competent - not expert - in all 5 practice contexts. The assessments are designed to be completed by a competent newly-qualified solicitor, not a specialist. Focus on:

Criminal Litigation

• PACE powers, custody, bail
• Crown Court vs Magistrates' Court procedure
• Sentencing guidelines and appeals
• Evidence: admissibility, hearsay, bad character

Dispute Resolution (Civil)

• Pre-action protocols and ADR
• CPR: starting proceedings, case management, tracks
• Interim applications (injunctions, summary judgment)
• Trial procedure, costs, enforcement

Property

• Residential and commercial conveyancing process
• SDLT, Land Transaction Tax
• Leasehold covenants and assignments
• Mortgages in conveyancing

Wills & Probate

• Will validity, execution, capacity
• Intestacy rules
• Grants of representation (probate, letters of administration)
• Administration of estates and Inheritance Act claims

Business

• Company formation, directors' duties, shareholders
• Commercial contracts
• Business structures (partnerships, LLPs, companies)
• Finance and security

💡 Tip: You do not need the depth of SQE1 knowledge here. Focus on procedural steps, practical advice points, and the issues most likely to arise in a client scenario - not academic distinctions.

Skill Framework Study

For each of the 6 skills, study the SRA's assessment criteria and understand the structure you'll be expected to follow:

Legal Research: Learn the ILAC structure (Issue → Law → Application → Conclusion). Know your primary sources (legislation, case law) and secondary sources (textbooks, practitioner guides). Practice identifying the precise legal question - assessors penalise candidates who research tangential issues.

Legal Writing: The key distinction from Legal Drafting is purpose. Writing is about communicating legal information. Learn to write advice letters and attendance notes in plain English. Practice cutting jargon. The test is: would a non-lawyer client understand this?

Legal Drafting: Writing is about communicating; drafting is about creating or varying legal rights. Learn standard clause structures, boilerplate language, and when to use defined terms. Practice from precedents - do not invent document structures from scratch.

Legal Advising (Written): Similar to Legal Writing but more analytical. You are typically given a file and asked to advise on a specific problem. Structure: identify issue → state applicable law → apply to facts → give a clear recommendation.

Client Interview: Study the WASP model (Welcome → Agenda → Solicitor time → Preparation for next steps) or similar interview frameworks. Practice opening, probing, and closing questions. Listen for facts you didn't expect - the assessor's script often contains a surprise issue.

Advocacy: Learn the three-part structure: open with what you want → give your legal and factual basis → close by confirming what you want. For examination-in-chief, use open questions. For cross-examination, use closed, leading questions.

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Phase 2: Skill Development (Weeks 5–10)

Goal: Stop reading about skills. Start doing them. Every day.

This is the phase most candidates skip or underinvest in. It is also the phase that determines whether you pass.

Daily Practice Regime

Pick one skill each day and complete a timed task from scratch. Do not refer to notes during the task. After finishing, compare to model answers and critique yourself against the assessment criteria.

Suggested weekly cycle:

• Monday: Legal Research (60 mins)
• Tuesday: Legal Writing - advice letter or attendance note (45 mins)
• Wednesday: Client Interview - roleplay, then attendance note (60 mins total)
• Thursday: Legal Drafting - one clause or short document (45 mins)
• Friday: Advocacy - submissions for an application (30 mins oral, 30 mins prep)
• Weekend: Legal Advising - full written advice from a file (90 mins)

How to Practise Oral Assessments

The oral assessments are the ones candidates most consistently underprepare for. Reasons:

1. There's no one to practise with when studying alone
2. It feels awkward to roleplay by yourself
3. The feedback loop is harder than with written tasks

Practical solutions:

• Pair with another SQE2 candidate and roleplay scenarios from both sides - the client gives you information; you interview and advise
• Record yourself making advocacy submissions or client interviews. Watch it back. You will identify problems immediately: poor structure, filler words, not listening, talking too fast.
• Use SQE2 course materials that include assessor roleplay prompts - most reputable providers include these
• Practice the attendance note under time pressure - you typically have 15–30 minutes to write a note after an interview. This is a separate written mark.

Building a Reference Framework Per Skill

For each skill, develop a short personal checklist you can recall under exam pressure. Example for a client interview:

1. Greet and introduce yourself
2. Confirm client details
3. Explain confidentiality
4. Ask open question to get the client's account
5. Probe for key facts (dates, documents, parties, what they want)
6. Identify any urgent issues (limitation, immediate risk)
7. Take instructions on next steps
8. Costs and client care information
9. Confirm next steps and close

Under exam stress, candidates forget steps 1–3 and jump straight to interrogating the client. Examiners notice.

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Phase 3: Practice Context Integration (Weeks 11–13)

Goal: Combine skill + law in realistic scenarios across all 5 practice contexts.

By now you should be able to execute each skill in isolation. The challenge is now doing it in an unfamiliar practice area under time pressure.

Mixed Scenario Practice

Source or create 15 complete scenarios - three for each practice context - and work through them end-to-end:

1. Read the file
2. Identify the skill being tested and the legal issues
3. Complete the task in full under timed conditions
4. Mark against assessment criteria
5. Note any law gaps and fill them immediately

💡 Focus on transitions: The hardest thing in SQE2 is switching from a Criminal advocacy exercise to a Property drafting task. Make sure you practise this - don't specialise in just one or two practice areas.

Attendance Note Drilling

The attendance note is a written mark that follows every client interview oral. Many candidates treat it as an afterthought - they do well in the interview itself, then write a disorganised note and drop marks.

Practise writing a full attendance note in 20 minutes. Every time you do an interview roleplay, write the note. It should include:

• Client name, matter reference, date, attendees
• Summary of what the client told you (facts only)
• Legal issues identified
• Advice given
• Instructions taken
• Next steps agreed
• Any costs/client care information given

The Research Memo Format

Legal Research assessments often ask you to write a research memo as well as finding the law. Practice this format:

TO: [Supervising solicitor]
FROM: [Your name]
DATE: [Date]
RE: [Legal question]

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
[2–3 sentence answer to the question]

ANALYSIS
[Issue → applicable law → application to facts]

CONCLUSION
[Clear answer + any caveats]

SOURCES
[Cases and legislation relied upon]

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Phase 4: Consolidation & Mock Assessments (Weeks 14–16)

Goal: Simulate the actual sitting conditions. Identify and fix remaining gaps.

Full Mock Sittings

Do at least two full mock sittings in the fortnight before your exam. Most SQE2 courses include mock assessments - if yours doesn't, construct your own from a bank of scenarios.

A mock sitting should:

• Be completed under timed conditions with no reference materials (except what would be available at Kaplan - a statute book and precedents for some assessments)
• Cover all 6 skill areas
• Include at least one oral recorded on video for review

What Kaplan Provides on the Day

This is important and often misunderstood:

• Legal Research: Access to a legal research database (Westlaw or Lexis)
• Drafting and Writing: Word processing software
• Oral assessments: Conducted with a trained assessor - not a video recording played back; a person in the room with you

You will not have access to your own notes, textbooks, or course materials during assessments. The research database is provided for the Legal Research assessment only.

Final Week: Review, Not Revision

In the last week, stop learning new material. Review your personal checklists for each skill, reread model answers for tasks you found difficult, and focus on exam technique:

• Time management: Each assessment has a strict word count and/or time limit. Practice hitting the limit, not ignoring it.
• Issue spotting: The most common written failure is missing a key issue entirely. Spend the first 5 minutes of any written task reading the scenario twice and listing every issue before writing a word.
• Relevance: Answer what was asked. Examiners do not reward candidates who write generally about a topic. Every paragraph should be linked to the specific facts given.

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Common Mistakes - and How to Avoid Them

1. Treating SQE2 like an extended SQE1

SQE1 rewards broad knowledge recall. SQE2 rewards applied skill. Candidates who revise by reading notes and listening to lectures will underperform. The revision must be active - doing tasks, not absorbing content.

2. Ignoring the attendance note

It's a separate mark after the client interview and carries real weight. Practise it as its own skill.

3. Over-preparing one or two practice contexts

If you're a criminal litigator by background, resist the temptation to over-prepare Criminal and neglect Property. The assessment is across all five. Gaps in weaker areas cause failures.

4. Not practising orals until the last week

Oral skills take longer to develop than written ones. Advocacy technique, in particular, requires repeated practice to feel natural. Start oral practice in Phase 2, not Phase 3.

5. Forgetting professional conduct issues in every assessment

Every scenario - research, drafting, advising, advocacy - can contain a professional conduct angle (conflicts of interest, confidentiality, duties to the court). Examiners expect you to identify and address these. It's not a separate topic; it runs through everything.

6. Misreading the task instruction

Read the task brief carefully. If asked for a letter, write a letter - not a memo. If asked to advise on X, do not also advise on Y because you happen to know it. Stay in scope.

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Realistic Preparation Timelines

⚠️ Note on work experience: Having QWE in a particular practice area helps with substantive law recall but is not a substitute for practising the specific skill formats. Experienced paralegals often fail SQE2 because they write like practitioners, not like candidates following an assessment rubric.

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Choosing a Preparation Course

SQE2 courses vary significantly in what they offer. Prioritise:

• Practice scenarios with model answers - volume matters; look for at least 30–40 scenarios across all practice contexts
• Oral roleplay materials - assessor scripts, feedback guides, video model answers
• Attendance note practice specifically (many courses bundle this poorly with the interview prep)
• Marked mock assessments - having a tutor mark your work against the assessment criteria is more valuable than self-assessment

For independent comparison of providers, see our full SQE provider analysis.

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The Timetable Tool

If you want a personalised phase-by-phase revision schedule built around your actual exam date and available study days, use our SQE revision timetable generator. The SQE2 topics - including Legal Writing as a distinct skill - are fully mapped against this guide.

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Summary Checklist

Before you start:

• Confirm your sitting date and register with the SRA by the deadline
• Obtain the SRA SQE2 Assessment Specification and read it in full
• Source a bank of practice scenarios across all 5 practice contexts and 6 skills
• Arrange a practice partner for oral roleplay

During revision:

• Complete at least one timed task per skill per week from Phase 2 onwards
• Record at least two oral practice sessions and review the footage
• Practise the attendance note format after every client interview roleplay
• Test yourself on each of the 5 practice contexts - do not skip unfamiliar areas

Final fortnight:

• Complete at least one full mock sitting under exam conditions
• Review your personal skill checklists
• Confirm your Kaplan centre appointment, travel, and ID requirements
• Stop learning new law - focus on technique only

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Dates and sitting information sourced from the SRA and Kaplan. For exam dates and registration deadlines, see our SQE exam dates guide.