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United Kingdom · Professional exam

SQE2: the practical legal skills assessment

Sixteen stations, 12 written and four oral, each one a task a solicitor does in practice. SQE2 is the second part of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), set by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), and you can only book it once you’ve passed SQE1. It tests skills such as advocacy, interviewing a client and drafting, in five areas of practice, and it has one overall pass mark rather than a mark for each station.

  • 16Stations in SQE2
  • 6Legal skills assessed
  • 5Practice areas the tasks are set in
Where to study

Updated October 2026 · Written from official sources, listed at the bottom of this page

What does SQE2 test?

In its January 2021 SQE2 webinar, the SRA lists six skills:

  • Client interviewing, with an attendance note or legal analysis
  • Advocacy
  • Case and matter analysis
  • Legal research
  • Legal writing
  • Legal drafting

The tasks are set in criminal litigation; dispute resolution; property practice; wills and intestacy, probate administration and practice; and business organisations, rules and procedures. Ethics questions run through the tasks without being flagged.

The SRA published updated versions of the SQE2 Assessment Specification in September 2026, which apply from the October 2026 sitting onwards.

How the SQE2 stations are split

PartTasksSittings
Oral4Two half-days
Written12Three half-days

In the SRA’s 2021 outline, the oral part is two advocacy tasks and two client interviews, each interview followed by a written attendance note or legal analysis. Each written half-day has one case and matter analysis, one drafting, one research and one writing task. The current specification on the SQE website has the detail for your sitting.

How SQE2 is marked

Each task is marked against its own assessment criteria, and the station marks are added up. There’s one pass mark for the whole assessment, set at the level of a just competent, newly qualified solicitor. You don’t need to pass each station, and there’s no separate pass mark for the written or oral parts.

Since January 2025 your result has been shown as a scaled score out of 500, where 300 is always a pass, along with your overall percentage and a breakdown for each of the 16 stations. Kaplan, the SRA’s assessment provider, released a video on SQE2 marking and moderation in August 2026.

SQE results and resits →

Who takes SQE2

The rule is SQE1 first, then SQE2, but two groups take a different path. People qualifying under the Legal Practice Course (LPC) transitional arrangements can use qualifying work experience and a pass in SQE2 instead of a training contract, without taking SQE1. For solicitor apprentices, SQE2 is the end-point assessment of the apprenticeship.

SQE2 had four sittings in 2026. For 2027 the SRA has so far announced January, April and July.

LPC or SQE →SQE apprenticeships →SQE exam dates →
Sources: SRA and 5 more. Checked October 2026.

Rules and fees can change, so check the official site before your test.

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