SQE2 Assessment Tasks

SQE2 is designed to test a your practical legal skills across a range of legal contexts. It includes 16 assessment tasks split into two types: oral assessments and written assessments. These tasks simulate real-life legal work to ensure you can demonstrate both core legal knowledge and essential professional skills.

The oral assessments include 4 stations completed over two half-days. These involve two key exercises: client interviewing with attendance note and legal analysis, and advocacy. In the interview, you interact with a role-play client and then produce a written summary and legal analysis. For advocacy, you are given a case file and asked to make a short submission, typically in a civil or criminal context. These stations assess your ability to communicate clearly, manage client relationships, and argue a case persuasively.

The written assessments cover 12 stations, completed over three half-days. Each session assesses four core skills: case and matter analysis, legal research, legal writing, and legal drafting. For example, you might analyse a set of case documents, write an internal legal memo or a letter to a client, draft a simple contract clause, or research a legal issue using online databases. These tasks are designed to mirror the work a junior solicitor would perform daily.

Assessments are drawn from five practice areas: Dispute Resolution, Criminal Litigation, Property Practice, Wills and Intestacy/Probate, and Business Organisations (including rules on anti-money laundering and financial services). Each assessment task applies legal knowledge in context, and you must show good legal reasoning as well as communication and drafting skills. Importantly, ethics and professionalism are integrated throughout the exam and are assessed implicitly, so you will not get a separate ethics question but will be expected to act ethically in every task.

Timing for tasks varies, but written assessments are typically allocated 30–60 minutes per task, and oral advocacy includes preparation time followed by a 15-minute presentation. All tasks are marked by qualified solicitors or trained assessors. You are graded on a scale from A (excellent) to F (fail), with marks awarded for both legal accuracy and practical skill. To pass the SQE2, you must meet an overall pass mark based on performance across all 16 stations but you do not need to pass each individual task, so consistent performance is essential.

Overall, the SQE2 assesses whether you are day-one ready to practise as a solicitor. Preparation should focus on developing applied legal skills, practising with mock tasks, and receiving feedback,  especially in oral performance, where timing and interpersonal skills matter as much as legal knowledge.