Passing the SQE 1 – Multiple Choice Question Strategies

INTRODUCTION

The Solicitors’ Qualifying Exam (or SQE as it’s often referred to) is the assessment required to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales from 1 September 2021 for candidates wishing to take the new route.

The SQE is split into two assessments: SQE 1 and SQE 2.

SQE 1 is assessed by single best answer multiple choice questions over a two-day period (totalling 10 hours). This requires you, the candidate, to draw upon your knowledge of the law (your ‘functioning legal knowledge’) and use the same systematic problem-solving skills that qualified solicitors employ in practice.

Essentially, the SRA are testing whether you have the ability to solve a variety of legal problems in different practice areas. By using multiple choice questions, the SRA can ask you many more questions than they could in an essay examination.

All this means that you will need to have a good strategy for answering multiple choice questions. The purpose of this article is to train you how to tackle those questions successfully.

Exam Tip: SQE 1 questions may involve multiple correct answers. However, you are required to pick the best answer. Therefore, before drawing a conclusion, be sure that you fully understand the facts presented to you.

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTION STRATEGIES FOR THE SQE

Predict the Answers First And Then Read the Choices

It is particularly important to learn to read the facts of multiple choice questions whilst predicting the answer without relying on the choices available to you. Your goal here is to independently analyse the outcome to the issues and then subsequently select the choice that most closely aligns with your answer.

This is a good strategy because it allows you to isolate the appropriate issues and then verify your understanding with the available choices.

You will, of course, need a good understanding of the legal rules, strong reading comprehension, and an ability to critically analyse the relevant issues to do this.

Exam Tip: Do not confuse mastering legal knowledge with memorisation. You must understand the legal rule to solve problems with it. Success in the exam is dependent upon your understanding and application ability.

Do Not Get Bogged Down on One Question

It’s important to not get bogged down on any one question. Make sure you only spend one or two minutes of each question and then move on. This is because you will only get around 108 seconds per question.

You also always have the option to flag a question that you are struggling with and come back to it. Many students decide to flag all the maths questions (i.e. tax law) and then deal with them at the end of the exam.

Learn How to Bank Time

You will find certain questions easier than others to answer. This might be because:

• The facts are very basic and/or short.

• During your revision you will likely answer hundreds of practice questions and you will see many similar questions arise during the exam.

  
  

For example, consider the following question (taken from the SRA mock exam):

The owner of a Greek restaurant orders wall tiles that include a border design showing the Greek flag. After the tiles have been fitted, the owner notices that the tiles are decorated with the flag of Uruguay. The owner wants the tiles to be replaced.

In a claim for breach of contract which of the following measure of damages is the court most likely to award?

A. Expectation

B. Reliance

C. Cost of Cure

D. Loss of Amenity

E. Mental Distress

Now, if you’re familiar with contractual remedies, you might very quickly note that answer C (Cost of Cure) is the correct answer here. It might only take you thirty or forty seconds to arrive at this conclusion. This means that you gain over one minute of time to use elsewhere.

Essentially, for those easier questions, you want to answer them as quickly and efficiently as possible and then move on. You can then bank the extra time you receive from these questions to answer other, more difficult, questions.

Exam Tip: Do not read the facts mindlessly. You are more likely to spot the relevant issues (and therefore answer more quickly/efficiently) if you read the facts purposefully.

Do Change Your Mind

Many teachers (and various websites) suggest that you should resist the urge to change your answers on multiple choice exams. They say that you should choose an answer and then stick to it. Their argument, generally, is that if you have taken the time to critically read the answer, you will have given yourself the best possible chance of getting it right the first time around.

However, studies show that this is a common misbelief. You are, in fact, more likely to achieve better grades by changing your answer if you are in reasonable doubt about your initial response. The likely cause for those who incorrectly believe that you are better sticking to your initial answer is that it is far more painful to get a question wrong when you had the correct answer initially.

The key, here, is ‘reasonable doubt’. Reconsidering and changing answers multiple times without due cause would likely not help you in the SQE. If you are also confident in your first answer, you should stick to it! However, it’s important to not be afraid to change an answer if you have a reasonable doubt about the initial response you picked.

Eliminate the Incorrect Answers

Above I noted that the best strategy is to predict the answer before reading the choices. However, if all else fails, and you are really not sure of the answer, you might find it easier to eliminate the choices that you definitely know are incorrect.

Usually, you will be able to get it down to a 50/50 (educated) guess.

Manage Your SQE Time

We have discussed that you have 108 seconds per question. The issue with this is that it is quite difficult to keep track of 108 seconds for each question (as the timer in the exam merely counts down from 2 hours and 30 minutes).

You might therefore find it easier to try and answer 10 questions every 15 minutes (providing yourself with an 18 minute buffer). This will make your life much easier in the exam.

Exam Tip: Practice really does make perfect. After several weeks, you should have perfected your method and strategy such that it becomes second nature. This will also help you with timing.

FINAL WORD

As a final word, I want to assure you that you very much can pass the SQE 1. The above strategies should help provide you with a strong foundation necessary to succeed. Work hard, study, and above all, practice!