SQE2 Last Week Checklist: What to Do (and What to Stop Doing)

One week out. Everything feels urgent and nothing feels done. That is normal. Here is what actually matters.

I passed SQE2 in November 2025 without a 1 or 2. This is what I would tell myself in the final week.

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First: stop doing these things

Stop trying to learn new areas of law. Anything you do not know at this stage is not going to stick by exam day. New information takes time to consolidate. Use the time you have to make what you already know more retrievable, not to add more to the pile.

Stop doing full mocks for the sake of it. Unless you have specific feedback you are acting on, mocks at this stage are more likely to knock your confidence than improve your performance. Targeted practice on weak spots is better than full simulations.

Stop revising at midnight if you are not absorbing anything. A bad night's rest is worse than stopping an hour earlier and sleeping properly. This is not a motivational platitude. It is how memory consolidation works.

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Seven days out

Go through your notes for each practice area and cut them down. The goal is to get to something short enough that you can recall under pressure. Long notes are for understanding. Short notes are for retrieval.

Check your exam timetable. Know when each assessment is, where you need to be and what you are allowed to bring.

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Six days out

Advocacy. Go through your list of likely applications for Dispute Resolution and Criminal Law and Practice. For each one, make sure you know: the purpose, the legal test and key cases, and the structure of the argument for and against. Then say it out loud. Not in your head. Out loud. Your brain needs to practise producing arguments, not just recognising them on a page.

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Five days out

Client interviewing. Do one or two practice runs with someone playing the client. After each run, write a full attendance note from your notes. Time yourself. The attendance note is marked. Getting comfortable writing it under pressure is the preparation most people skip.

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Four days out

Drafting. Go through the documents most likely to come up. For each one, remind yourself of the structure and the most common amendments. You do not need to memorise precedents word for word. Know the skeleton and why each clause exists.

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Three days out

CMA and legal research. Practise writing a structured answer quickly. For research: structure before substance, headings first, sources section at the end. For CMA: IRAC at the paragraph level, clear introduction and conclusion, tone matched to the recipient.

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Two days out

Light revision only. Go through your condensed notes. Recall out loud. Eat properly. Get outside if you can.

Your brain consolidates information during sleep and rest. Grinding for twelve hours the day before the exam is not a good use of these two days, and most experienced candidates will tell you the same.

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One day out

Stop revising by early afternoon.

Sort your logistics: what you are wearing, how you are getting there, what time you need to leave. Have your ID ready. Know exactly where you are going and what the building looks like.

Then do something that is not SQE2. Watch something. Cook something. Talk to someone who will not ask you how revision is going. Sleep.

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On the day

Eat before you go in. Caffeine is fine if you normally drink it. Do not change your habits on exam day.

In the room: write your structure before you write your answer. For advocacy: open and roadmap before anything else. For research: headings before you read the sources. For drafting: skeleton structure before you start writing. For CMA and legal writing: introduction and recipient context before the analysis. This habit protects your skills marks if time runs out.

If a question surprises you on the substance, do not freeze. Apply your structure to whatever you have. A structured answer with imperfect content scores better than a panicked answer with no structure. The assessors are marking your competence, not your perfection.

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The honest version

Feeling exhausted and behind a week out from SQE2 does not mean you are going to fail. It means you care, and you have been working hard. Almost everyone sitting this week feels some version of what you are feeling right now.

Here is something worth holding onto. The April SQE2 pass rate is around 82%. For first-time sitters it is 84%. If you passed SQE1, the odds are even better, because a significant portion of SQE2 failures are LPC passers sitting under the transitional arrangements.

The marking is also more forgiving than most people expect. This is not SQE1, where you are right or you are wrong. SQE2 is marked against a day-one solicitor standard. Assessors are not looking for perfection. People pass with imperfect law, imperfect delivery, imperfect structure. What they are looking for is competence, and competence is achievable.

Skills marks are also much easier to pick up than candidates realise. Clear structure, appropriate subheadings, tone matched to the recipient, an empathetic opening in an interview context. These things are mark-able even when the substantive law is shaky. Do not write them off.

If you passed SQE1, the knowledge is there. It may not feel like it at this stage. It is.

The gap between feeling ready and being ready is smaller than it looks right now. The job this week is to make what you already know accessible under pressure, not to learn everything you think you have missed.

You have got this.

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If you want to build a structured plan for your remaining days: SQE revision timetable tool