The shape of the day
SQE1 is sat at a Pearson VUE test centre on a computer. Each FLK assessment is two sessions of two hours and 33 minutes, sat on the same day with a 60-minute break between them. FLK1 and FLK2 are separate days within the assessment window.
From January 2027 each session holds 85 questions rather than 90, which works out at roughly 108 seconds per question, and the subjects in each session are known in advance — so you can walk in knowing which areas of law the next two and a half hours can ask about. The groupings are in the 2027 changes guide.
Arriving and registration
Registration includes an identification check, so bring valid ID exactly as the SRA’s booking confirmation specifies. Storage is limited: bring a small bag, because everything you are carrying goes into a locker before you enter the exam room.
You cannot use your own equipment — no notes, no stationery, no calculator, no watch. What you need is provided, including something to write on and an on-screen calculator. Arrive early enough that a delayed train is an inconvenience rather than a catastrophe, and check the centre’s location the day before rather than the morning of.
Inside a session
The questions come one at a time, with a clock, and you can move between them and flag ones to revisit. A few habits are worth having decided on before you sit down:
- Answer everything as you go. There is no negative marking, so a flagged question should still carry your best guess before you move on.
- Use the provided board for eliminations, not essays. Question numbers to revisit, and the two options you narrowed to.
- Have one checkpoint, not five. Halfway through the questions with at least half the time left is all you need to know. Repeatedly checking the clock costs more than it saves.
- Know what the calculator is for. Solicitors Accounts, inheritance tax and business tax questions. Nothing in SQE1 needs arithmetic you could not do on paper, but the tool is there.
The pacing habits behind all of this are worth rehearsing in timed sets long before the day — single best answer technique covers them.
The hour in between
An hour is long enough to eat properly and short enough to disappear if you spend it talking about session one. Two rules candidates consistently wish they had followed:
- Do not post-mortem the first session.You cannot change it, the marks are scaled, and other people’s confidence is not information. It is also frequently wrong.
- Eat and drink something. Session two is two and a half hours of sustained concentration after two and a half hours of it. Hunger costs more marks than any single topic you could have revised.
If you revise anything at all in the break, make it a single sheet for the second session’s subjects, prepared in advance — not a scramble through everything you half-remember.
The week before
- Check the booking confirmation for the ID required, the centre address and the reporting time.
- Sit at least one full session at the same time of day as the real one. Stamina is trainable, and finding out that you fade at 90 minutes is much better news a week early.
- Stop opening new topics. Work your mistakes and the three subjects your analytics say are weakest.
- Sleep. The marginal rule learnt at midnight is worth less than the questions fatigue will cost you.
Everything on this page comes from the SRA’s own assessment-day guidance and can change — the SQE assessment days page is the version that governs, and it is worth a read the week before you sit.