Solicitors Qualifying Exam update: findings from stage one pilot revealed
updated on 31 July 2019
The planned Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) stage one skills assessment will be changed or abandoned after the results of a pilot showed that it disadvantaged BAME candidates.
Findings from a stage-one pilot of the new two-part ‘super exam’ due to replace the LPC in September 2021 revealed that the ‘functioning legal knowledge’ assessment – which in the pilot comprised of three exams of 120 multiple-choice questions (MCQ) each – was a success, but that the written skills test disadvantaged candidates from BAME backgrounds, including those who had performed well in the MCQ assessments.
The ‘threshold skills test’ was designed to give employers some assurance that candidates have the basic skills to work in a law firm “in an unqualified capacity”, with more advanced skills assessments to take place in SQE stage two, but the disadvantage to BAME candidates in the pilot and the lack of clarity on the skills level being tested means that it must be overhauled or scrapped. BAME students made up 40% of the over 300 candidates to sit the pilot and Kaplan, the organisation running the SQE, is to carry out further analysis of why the skills test resulted in an unfair disadvantage.
The main component of stage one, the MCQ-based ‘functioning legal knowledge’ assessment, is also being tweaked to two exams of 180 questions each, instead of three shorter exams.
The candidates who sat the pilot were not given a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ mark. In live exams, the pass mark will vary according the difficulty of the exam paper. Eileen Fry, director of the SQE at Kaplan, told journalists that if the pilot had been a live exam, the pass mark would “probably be over 50%.”
Julie Brannan, director of education and training at the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), also confirmed that the traditional training contract model is unlikely to be threatened by the SQE, as candidates will be able to complete SQE stages one and two before starting a training contract. Previously, the SRA had expressed its preference for the two-years qualifying work experience to be completed before doing SQE stage two.
