SQE Exam Dates: The Complete Guide to Registration, Scheduling, and Preparation

Understanding SQE exam dates is one of the most important steps in planning your path to qualification as a solicitor in England and Wales. The Solicitors Qualifying Examination, administered by Kaplan on behalf of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, runs on a fixed annual calendar with two assessment windows per year for SQE1 and two for SQE2. Missing a registration deadline can set your qualification timeline back by six months or more, so knowing the exact dates and building your study schedule around them is absolutely essential for every aspiring solicitor.

The SQE replaced the old Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme and the Legal Practice Course as the single, centralised route to qualification. Since its launch in November 2021, thousands of candidates have sat the assessments, and Kaplan has progressively refined the scheduling process. As of 2024, SQE1 sittings typically take place in January and July, while SQE2 sittings fall in April and October — though candidates should always verify current dates directly on the Kaplan SQE website, since windows can shift by a few days from year to year depending on venue availability and regulatory requirements.

Planning around sqe exam dates means more than just circling a day on the calendar. You need to account for the registration window, which typically opens around three to four months before the assessment date, and for results release timelines, which currently run approximately ten to twelve weeks after SQE1 and around twelve weeks after SQE2. If you intend to resit, that processing time directly affects when you can register for the next available window, making timeline planning genuinely complex for candidates who experience a first-attempt setback.

SQE1 is a computer-based multiple-choice assessment comprising 180 single best answer questions split across two Functioning Legal Knowledge papers, each sat on a separate day. The sheer volume of material — covering areas from contract and tort to constitutional law, criminal practice, property, and wills and trusts — means that most successful candidates devote between eight and sixteen weeks of dedicated full-time study to SQE1 preparation alone. Working backwards from your target exam window to identify your ideal study start date is the single most effective planning move you can make early in the process.

SQE2 covers practical legal skills across five practice areas: criminal litigation, civil litigation, property practice, wills and intestacy and estate administration, and business law and practice. It involves written tasks, oral tasks including client interviews and advocacy exercises, and a legal research and writing assessment. Most candidates sit SQE2 after accumulating some qualifying work experience, making the scheduling of the two assessments a genuine logistical exercise that requires coordination with employers, training supervisors, and personal commitments.

One critical but often overlooked aspect of SQE exam dates is the booking deadline versus the registration deadline distinction. Kaplan typically opens an early registration window at a reduced fee, followed by a standard window, and then a late booking window at a higher fee if places remain available. Many candidates assume they can register close to the exam date only to discover late booking has closed or venues are full. Booking as early as possible — ideally the day registration opens — gives you the greatest choice of test centre location and sitting time.

The practical consequence of the SQE's twice-yearly rhythm is that your qualification journey has natural checkpoints roughly every six months. Candidates who pass SQE1 in the January window and have qualifying work experience in place can potentially sit SQE2 in April of the same year, meaning a best-case-scenario timeline from first assessment to full qualification can be under twelve months. Understanding this calendar is therefore not just administrative housekeeping — it is core strategic planning for anyone serious about becoming a solicitor as efficiently as possible.

Registration for each SQE assessment window opens several months in advance, and the process is managed entirely through Kaplan's online portal. For SQE1, candidates create a candidate account, verify their identity, and select both a test centre and a preferred sitting time. The two FLK papers are typically sat on consecutive days, so candidates must ensure they are available for both days of their chosen sitting slot. Identity verification requires uploading a valid passport or government-issued photo ID well before the sitting date, and failure to complete verification on time will result in a cancelled booking with no refund.

The fee structure for SQE assessments is set by Kaplan and reviewed periodically. As of 2024, SQE1 costs approximately £1,622 and SQE2 costs approximately £2,493, making the combined assessment fee over £4,100 before accounting for any preparation course costs. Early registration during the initial booking window sometimes offers a modest discount compared to late-stage registration, so candidates who commit early can save money as well as secure their preferred test centre location. Fee waivers and bursaries are available through the SRA for candidates who meet eligibility criteria based on financial hardship.

Candidates who have already passed SQE1 and are registering for SQE2 follow a slightly different process. SQE2 assessments are conducted over multiple days across a sitting period that typically lasts one to two weeks, during which candidates complete their written and oral tasks.

You will be allocated specific dates within that window, and while Kaplan attempts to accommodate preferences, you cannot always choose your exact date within the sitting period. This is especially important for candidates who have inflexible work commitments, as you may need to arrange leave for a block of up to ten consecutive business days to be safe.

Results for SQE1 are released approximately ten to twelve weeks after the sitting date and are accompanied by a Statement of Results showing your scaled score for each paper. The SRA uses a standard-setting process rather than norm-referencing, meaning your result reflects whether you met the minimum competence standard — not how you ranked against other candidates on that sitting. This is an important distinction because it means a cohort where most candidates are highly prepared does not lower your chances of passing; you only compete against the standard, not against each other.

For SQE2, results are released approximately twelve weeks after the final day of the sitting period. Your Statement of Results will show whether you passed or failed each individual skill assessment area, which provides meaningful diagnostic information if you need to resit. A candidate who fails only one or two skill areas can resit just those components rather than the entire SQE2 assessment, which significantly reduces both cost and preparation burden for partial resitters. Understanding this structure before your first attempt helps you approach each individual task with appropriate seriousness.

The timing of results relative to the next registration window is a planning critical path that many candidates underestimate. If SQE1 results arrive ten weeks after a January sitting, you may receive them in late March or early April — just as or after the early registration window for the next SQE1 sitting in July has opened.

This means if you need to resit, you must often book the resit before knowing your exact result, or risk missing the early booking discount and preferred centre availability. Some candidates strategically book the next window as a contingency before results arrive, then cancel if they passed.

International candidates and those with disabilities have additional considerations around SQE exam dates and registration. Reasonable adjustments — including extra time, rest breaks, a reader, a scribe, or assistive technology — must be requested through Kaplan's adjustments process well in advance of the registration deadline, often at least eight weeks before the sitting. Candidates who apply for adjustments after the deadline may be denied, so if you require any accommodation, this should be one of the very first steps in your registration process, not an afterthought added at the last minute.

Building an effective study timeline around SQE exam dates requires working backwards from your sitting date and being ruthlessly honest about your weekly available study hours. Research consistently shows that SQE1 candidates who pass on the first attempt tend to study for at least 250 to 350 hours in total — a figure that translates to roughly ten weeks of full-time study or twenty to twenty-five weeks of part-time study alongside full-time work. Identifying which category you fall into before you register is essential because it determines which window is realistically achievable without burning out or underperforming.

The most effective study plans for SQE1 divide the preparation period into three distinct phases. The first phase, spanning roughly half the available time, focuses on content acquisition: working through all subject areas systematically using a structured course or textbook, taking concise notes, and building knowledge maps to connect related legal concepts.

The second phase focuses on application, shifting from reading to answering practice questions under timed conditions, reviewing every wrong answer in detail, and identifying patterns in your knowledge gaps. The third and final phase focuses on exam simulation: completing full two-paper mock exams in a single day to build the stamina and time management skills the real exam demands.

SQE2 study planning has a different rhythm because the assessment tests practical skills rather than recalled knowledge. Many candidates find that SQE2 preparation benefits from a skills-based approach — practising client interview techniques, drafting legal documents to a deadline, and performing mock advocacy exercises — rather than traditional reading and memorisation. Integrating SQE2 preparation with your qualifying work experience is the most time-efficient strategy, allowing real work tasks to reinforce the same skills assessed in the examination. Candidates who do this systematically tend to need less dedicated revision time in the weeks immediately before the assessment.

Choosing between the April and October SQE2 windows requires matching your professional development timeline to the exam calendar. Candidates who passed SQE1 in July and begin a training role in September face a genuine choice: sit SQE2 in April after just seven months of qualifying work experience, or wait until October for a fuller preparation runway.

There is no single right answer. Candidates with previous legal work experience from paralegal roles or vacation schemes are often competitive at the April sitting. Those who are newer to legal practice frequently benefit from the additional months of skills development the October window provides.

Study leave negotiation with your employer is an often-underestimated part of SQE timeline planning. Many law firms and legal employers include study leave provisions in their training contracts or employment agreements, but the terms vary widely. Some firms provide dedicated study leave only for approved courses; others leave study time entirely to the employee.

Identifying exactly what study support your employer provides — including whether they fund preparation courses, provide mentoring, or allow flexible working in the lead-up to the assessment — should be done as early as possible, ideally before accepting a training role, so you can factor it into your exam date planning.

Mock exam providers play an increasingly important role in SQE preparation, and the timing of mock sittings relative to the actual exam date matters enormously. Sitting your first full-length mock too early — say, eight weeks before the exam — can be demoralising if you score poorly before your knowledge base is fully built.

Sitting your first mock too late leaves insufficient time to act on the feedback. Most preparation coaches recommend your first graded mock at around four to five weeks before the exam, followed by a second mock at two to three weeks out, giving you a performance trend line and enough time to revisit weak areas without panic-revising at the last minute.

The SQE's twice-yearly calendar also interacts with the UK legal profession's own calendar in ways worth understanding. Major law firm intake cycles, the start of the Michaelmas legal term, and court vacation periods all influence when qualifying work experience is richest and most instructive. Candidates who synchronise their SQE exam dates with periods of high-quality practical exposure — busy transactional periods, contentious litigation phases, or client-facing training rotations — tend to enter their assessments with more deeply internalised practical knowledge than those who schedule exams during quieter workplace periods when experience accumulation is slower.

Resitting the SQE is more common than many candidates anticipate. Published pass rate data from Kaplan shows SQE1 overall pass rates have ranged from approximately 51% to 58% across recent sittings, meaning roughly one in two candidates does not pass on the first attempt.

Far from being a mark of failure, a resit is a normal part of many solicitors' qualification journeys, and understanding the rules governing resits is important strategic knowledge for every candidate before they sit for the first time. There is no penalty for resitting, and there is no limit on the number of attempts, but each resit carries the full assessment fee.

For SQE1 resitters, Kaplan provides a Statement of Results that includes a scaled score for each FLK paper. Candidates who fail one paper but pass the other only need to resit the failed paper in a subsequent window, provided they do so within a reasonable period — the SRA has not imposed a hard expiry date on individual paper passes, but candidates should not assume indefinite validity without checking current SRA guidance.

The ability to bank a pass on FLK1 or FLK2 independently is a significant advantage that reduces both preparation burden and cost for candidates who narrowly miss the overall pass threshold on their first sitting.

SQE2 resit rules are structured at the skill-assessment level rather than the day level. If you fail client interviewing and advocacy but pass all written tasks, you resit only those two oral skill areas. Kaplan's Statement of Results for SQE2 provides clear pass/fail outcomes for each of the assessed skills, making it straightforward to identify exactly what needs to be retaken. Targeted resit preparation is therefore significantly more efficient than whole-assessment resit preparation, and candidates who approach their first sitting having studied each skill area seriously are best placed to minimise the scope of any necessary resit.

The financial implications of resitting extend beyond the assessment fee. Candidates who are self-funding — as opposed to being sponsored by an employer — face not just the resit fee but also the opportunity cost of delayed qualification. Every additional month before admission to the roll is a month of pre-qualification salary rather than post-qualification salary, a difference that at many City firms exceeds £10,000 per month.

This financial reality makes first-time pass rates not merely a point of professional pride but a genuine economic priority, and it further underscores the return on investment offered by comprehensive preparation courses and materials.

One strategic consideration for resitters is whether to maintain their study momentum or take a deliberate break before beginning resit preparation. Most preparation coaches advise a short decompression period of one to two weeks after a failed sitting before returning to study.

This break allows emotional processing of the result, avoids burnout, and provides time to receive and properly analyse the Statement of Results before designing the resit preparation plan. Candidates who immediately plunge back into the same study approach that produced a failing result often make the same mistakes rather than diagnosing and addressing the specific knowledge or skills gaps the result revealed.

Employer support during a resit can vary significantly. Some firms treat an SQE resit as a normal event covered under their standard study leave policy. Others require candidates to take additional study leave as annual leave rather than paid study time.

A very small number of training contracts include provisions for contract termination after multiple failed attempts, though this is rare and typically only triggered after several unsuccessful sittings. Reviewing your employment contract and discussing the firm's resit policy openly with your supervisor or HR contact before you receive your results puts you in a much stronger position to plan effectively if a resit becomes necessary.

Ultimately, resit planning is best done proactively rather than reactively. Identifying the next available window, understanding the registration timeline, and beginning targeted preparation within two to three weeks of receiving a failed result gives resitters the maximum possible runway before the next sitting.

Candidates who wait until they feel ready to think about the resit often find that weeks have slipped by and the early registration window for the next sitting has closed, forcing them to pay late booking fees and accept a less convenient test centre. Proactive resit planning is simply good SQE calendar management applied to a more challenging circumstance.

The final weeks before your SQE exam date are a critical period that requires both disciplined study and intelligent self-management. Many candidates make the mistake of dramatically increasing their study hours in the ten days immediately before SQE1, believing that a last-minute surge of revision will compensate for earlier gaps.

In practice, diminishing returns set in quickly when candidates are fatigued, and performance in the actual exam suffers more from exhaustion and anxiety than from any remaining knowledge gaps that could realistically be closed in a few days. A more effective approach is to reach peak preparation around five to seven days before the exam and shift to lighter consolidation work in the final week.

Test centre logistics deserve more pre-exam attention than most candidates give them. On the day of your SQE1 sitting, you will need to arrive at the Pearson VUE centre at least thirty minutes before your scheduled start time to complete the check-in process, which includes identity verification, biometric scan, and the reading of examination instructions.

Candidates who arrive late may be refused entry with no refund. If you have never visited your test centre before, a practice run of the journey — including checking transport connections, parking options, and the building entrance — in the week before your exam is time well spent that costs nothing beyond an hour of your day.

Mental and physical preparation in the days before the exam is as important as academic preparation and is often neglected in study guides. Sleep quality in the nights before SQE1 has a measurable impact on cognitive performance, and candidates who sacrifice sleep for last-minute revision consistently perform below their preparation level would predict.

Establishing a consistent sleep schedule for the two weeks before the exam, rather than trying to correct a chaotic sleep pattern in the final night or two, gives your brain the consolidation time it needs to perform at its best under examination conditions. Exercise, adequate hydration, and sensible nutrition in the pre-exam period are similarly evidence-backed performance supports that require deliberate planning rather than luck.

On the day of the SQE1 assessment itself, time management within each paper is a distinct skill from knowledge of the law. Each FLK paper contains 90 questions to be answered in 2 hours and 39 minutes — an average of 1 minute and 46 seconds per question. Most questions can be answered in under ninety seconds by well-prepared candidates, leaving time for revisiting flagged questions.

Developing a consistent pacing strategy through timed practice — moving on from difficult questions rather than dwelling, flagging for later review, and working through the full paper before going back — is one of the highest-leverage exam day skills a candidate can develop during preparation.

SQE2 oral task days require a different kind of preparation discipline. The client interview assessment, for example, tests not just knowledge of the relevant law but your ability to listen actively, establish rapport, identify the client's underlying needs rather than just their stated questions, advise clearly in plain English, and manage the time of the interview professionally.

These are soft skills that improve substantially with deliberate practice but deteriorate under the stress of an unprepared performance. Role-playing mock client interviews with a colleague, friend, or preparation coach in the weeks before your SQE2 sitting date is one of the most reliably effective preparation activities available to oral assessment candidates.

After your final SQE2 assessment day, the wait for results begins. The twelve-week results window can be psychologically challenging, particularly for candidates who felt uncertain about some of their performances. Experienced candidates recommend using this period productively — continuing to accumulate qualifying work experience, beginning preparation for admission formalities, and building the professional skills and network connections that will serve you well as a newly qualified solicitor. Allowing the results wait to become a period of professional stagnation is both unnecessary and counterproductive, given the other qualification requirements that typically remain to be completed in parallel with the assessment process.

The moment you receive a pass result for both SQE1 and SQE2 and confirm your qualifying work experience is complete, the path to applying for admission to the roll of solicitors opens. The admission process involves a separate application to the SRA, a character and suitability assessment, and the payment of an admission fee.

None of these steps are immediate, so candidates who have planned their SQE exam dates carefully and passed both assessments efficiently are still likely to spend a period of weeks completing the admission process before they are formally admitted. Building that final timeline buffer into your overall planning from the start ensures no unwelcome delays between passing the SQE and beginning your career as a qualified solicitor.