Report comment

I was in the July SQE cohort and I passed. I am however in the group of people with a significantly lower pass rate - people in their mid to late 30s with legal experience (the pass rate among 35 - 44 year old's was 57% compared to 89% among 16 - 24 year old's)

I performed worst in my own area of practice.

My advice would be to truly study what it is that the examiners want from you - they do not know how real world practice works and if you answer the questions as you would in practice you are not likely to pass.

It is not clear if Maab has undertaken an SQE2 course or is relying on her experience and teaching through her employer. I would highly recommend taking a course - it's not about learning to write a letter, I'm sure most of us can do that - it's about learning the peculiar way the SRA wants us to write letters.

I have worked in the profession for 15 years and work with a lot of solicitors. I truly believe most of them could not pass SQE2 without first doing a course - not because they are not capable solicitors who cannot write a letter but because the SRA doesn't know what solicitors do. Or at least has a very strange idea of what it is.

Having gone through this process it is not a surprise to me that the highest pass rates are among younger people with no legal experience (and therefore presumably straight out of university and having just completed SQE1).