For those that have completed the LPC and the SQE 2, how did you find it and the SQE 2 exams, especially with the FLK and how did you study for it? As someone that has completed the LPC a few years back, sitting the SQE 2 now seems to be about re-memorising all the FLK/black letter law. Some people have said FLK comes up a lot while others noted it makes up only a small part of the SQE 2 exams.
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LPC and SQE 2
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I did SQE1 before SQE2 not the LPC, but my experience is that it is very hard to do well if you do not know the FLK in depth. From my understanding, the main reason people fail is a lack of FLK knowledge, as some of the skills can be hard to demonstrate if you do not have the knowledge. That said, you do still need to be able to demonstrate the skills.
Thanks for the reply. I thought on the similar lines with the FLK and why LPC students or those taking a longer break between SQE 1 and 2 are more likely to fail.
Would you say there is a lot of memorising the law or it's more about getting a general idea and understanding? Anything particular you did to prepare for the SQE 2 FLK wise? At the moment It feels like I need to do the whole of SQE 1 to pass the SQE 2. And the LPC was open book as well
There is a lot of memorising the law but in a different way to SQE1. On the SRA website, under the SQE2 specification, you can find the following drop-down lists at the bottom of the page:
If you open Annex 1, it tells you the specific FLK required for SQE2:
This is terribly formatted, so I put it all into a checklist to ensure I had covered everything. Depending on the type of FLK required, I would either:
- Memorise the key elements of the FLK only (e.g. the mens rea and actus reus for s.1 Thef Act 1968 without revising any case law);
- Ensure I could talk about at least three points relating to that piece of FLK (e.g. three key points relating to rent and rent review); or
- Ensure I had a detailed understanding that piece of FLK (e.g. all the steps and exemptions in an inheritance tax calculation).
To decide which category the knowledge fell into, I thought about the likely questions they could ask considering that any advice we needed to provide would likely be to a client and there is only a limited amount of time for you to answer questions. You should also think about which papers that area of FLK is likely to come up in and think about how you would tailor your answers (e.g. summary judgment in an advocacy exam v legal writing v case and matter analysis v legal drafting).
For me, the key to my success was ensuring that I knew enough about each area of FLK to at least try and answer any question that came up. I know that some people strategically didn't revise some areas of law for SQE1 (e.g. tax), but (without breaking the NDA) that ended up being a catastrophic move in SQE2 when a whole paper came up that people had not revised at all. You can't try to answer a question when you know nothing about the topic!
The best thing about the SQE2 for me was that you did not need to know as many areas of law as SQE1, but I still think it was a significant amount to revise and I found it just as challenging to prepare for as SQE1. That said, I managed to pass in the 1st quintile, so I reckon my revision techniques worked quite well!
This is an INCREDIBLY useful answer, honestly thank you so much for all the detail!!! Having read that I definitely feel like I've got a plan now on how to tackle the FLK and feel much better about it. Now just have to buckle down and memorise everything alongside full time work and general life haha
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