SRA Makes SQE Prep Survey Compulsory - You Now Fill It In Before Seeing Your Results

The Solicitors Regulation Authority has changed when it collects data about how SQE candidates prepared for their exams - and the new timing has a direct impact on every candidate sitting the assessment.

Previously, the SRA asked candidates about their training provider when they created their SRA account, before they had even booked an exam. That data, collected at the start of the process, turned out to be unreliable.

Now, the survey is mandatory and must be completed after you sit the exam but before you can access your results.

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What's Actually Changed

The SRA has moved its training provider survey from account creation to post-exam. The sequence is now:

1. Create SRA account → complete diversity survey (age, disability, education, ethnicity, socioeconomic background)
2. Book and sit your SQE1 or SQE2 assessment
3. Complete training provider survey (how you prepared, which provider if any)
4. Access your results

Step 3 is new. And it's not optional - candidates cannot view their results without completing it.

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Why Did the SRA Change This?

The timing change is directly connected to an admission the SRA made in December 2025: data collection flaws had prevented the regulator from publishing provider-level pass rates.

The SRA has been under sustained pressure to release provider pass rates - the percentage of each course provider's students who pass SQE1 and SQE2 - since the new route launched. Transparency advocates, prospective students, and legal education researchers have repeatedly argued that candidates cannot make informed choices about which provider to use without this data.

The SRA's explanation for not publishing it has consistently been that the data isn't reliable enough. Collecting provider information at account creation - before a candidate may have decided which provider to use, or may change providers between booking and sitting - produced noisy data that couldn't be meaningfully attributed.

By moving the survey to after the exam, when candidates have actually completed their preparation, the SRA expects the data to be more accurate.

The regulator has said it is "considering how to contextualise and publish the information meaningfully for prospective candidates."

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What the Survey Covers

Based on information published around the policy change, the training provider survey asks candidates:

• How they prepared for the exam (course provider, self-study, or combination)
• Which training provider they used, if any
• Potentially, how they rated their preparation

The diversity survey - covering age, disability status, educational background, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background - continues to be completed before booking the assessment and is unchanged.

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What This Means for Candidates

In practice, the survey appears to take a few minutes. It is not a lengthy assessment or a complex form. For most candidates, the main impact is simply knowing it exists so they're not surprised when they try to access their results and encounter it for the first time.

The mandatory nature has attracted criticism. Some candidates have raised concerns about whether the compulsory gate is appropriate - particularly whether data protection protocols were properly considered when a results-access lock was attached to a data collection exercise. The SRA has not publicly addressed these specific concerns in detail.

Your answers are not used to determine your pass or fail outcome. The survey is for statistical and policy purposes. Completing it (or what you answer) has no bearing on your actual result.

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The Bigger Picture: Provider Pass Rates

The reason this matters beyond administrative inconvenience is what it's building toward.

If the SRA achieves reliable, attributable data on which provider each candidate used, the next step - publishing provider pass rates - becomes feasible. This would be a significant change in the market.

Currently, candidates choosing between BPP, University of Law, Barbri, QLTS School, and others have no independent data on how their students actually perform in the assessments. Providers publish their own claims selectively. The Qualified Path has been tracking this gap - see our analysis of why SRA provider pass rates aren't published.

Compulsory post-exam surveys could, in theory, produce the attribution data needed to finally publish this. The SRA's language - "considering how to contextualise and publish" - suggests this is at least on the table.

Whether it actually happens, and on what timeline, remains to be seen.

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What You Need to Do

If you're sitting SQE1 or SQE2 in the coming sittings:

• Know the survey exists - you'll need to complete it before your results are released
• It applies to all candidates, regardless of how you prepared (self-study candidates will presumably indicate that)
• Don't be caught off guard - if you're checking results on a mobile on results day, you'll be directed through the survey first

For upcoming sitting dates, see our SQE exam dates guide.

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Based on information reported by Legal Cheek, March 2026, and SRA policy communications. The Qualified Path will update this article as further details emerge on provider pass rate publication timelines.