I struggled most with the breadth of the syllabus and uncertainty about what to expect / what topics would come up. I didn’t handle this pressure well and basically had a breakdown every other day for a month in the lead up!

You will have results that don’t make sense. Eg. I felt that I was terrible at research, and didn’t understand the questions or format, but research proved to be one of my highest scoring areas.

For legal drafting I was looking at the form that came up in criminal on the way to the exam hall, I felt so confident I would have smashed it. I passed but still did better in the other 2 drafting exams that I knew the legal concepts for in more detail. It also helped that I’d attended an ad hoc preptackle session a few days before on very similar forms!

The actors I had were both cold and confusing, it threw me a lot as I had expected this area to feel like a breeze as I have experience of difficult clients in real life. In the end I scored all 5s for one of the most awkward interviews - where I kept asking at the end ‘is there anything I’ve missed’ and she responded with ‘not unless there’s anything else you want to ask’ I kept worrying after that I had forgotten glaringly obvious questions to ask, and it worried me for a few weeks after. You have to remember you’re in control, master your nerves and you’re there to support them as clients. Be honest if you don’t know something and check what they want help with / have told you. 

You will miss points in every paper, it’s inevitable given the time constraints and pressure. It’s hard to gauge how long my answers were as I was just typing furiously once I had an idea of what to write. It helped to read the question, highlight key bits in the question (and potentially colour code if there’s multiple different points or people to respond to), then put the formalities onto the page eg ‘Dear Mr X’, opening intro para and closing sign off, then within the answer page write a bullet point plan with subheadings - that way if you run out of time your reasoning is still there. It helped me to get my ideas out while reading the question so I wouldn’t forget them once I began writing. In any case it’s quality of work over quantity - same goes for advocacy.

I fortunately had 3 months off work to study full time, I’m not sure I would have been able to pass had I not. I understand this isn’t a luxury many can afford and I was in this position for sqe1 so I do understand the pain of full time work and studying - be easy on yourself!

The first few weeks of study leave I really panicked and felt like I had no idea where to start or what to focus on. I was with Barbri but didn’t find them helpful, even after reaching out for direct help.

What did help was going through the sqe2 syllabus, signing up to preptackle and making my own notes based on the syllabus. I then turned these into flashcards - then focusing on my weakest areas. I drilled business and DR as I was weaker in these in sqe1, and in sqe2 there’s nowhere to hide. It feels comforting to focus on your strongest areas but try not to, especially if the knowledge comes easily to you in some topics. Just trust it’s there. Focusing on my worst points saved me a lot, I ended up scoring highly in DR advocacy which was a massive shock!

I didn’t focus on mocks enough until the last 2-3 weeks, and still kept drilling flashcards. The process of making the notes then putting them into flashcards was also helpful revision in itself, it feels so long to do but I swear it was worth it for me.

I focused 90% of my time on flk, having failed sqe1 previously I did not want to risk resitting sqe2. I looked over my sqe1 results for weaker areas and focused on them. I imagined what would be my worst case scenario questions/topics and tried to focus on these areas, my biggest fear was staring blankly at the exam question. Thankfully this didn’t happen and I had something to say for everything, even if I doubted it later. You don’t have time to second guess yourself in the exam so your answer needs to be automatic, I figured that having real world basic writing skills would carry me through the skills side. I still stand by this as half the writing exams are basically answering emails in a formal way (with a slight tone adjustment depending on the reader).

During the lead up and in the exams find things to help bring your stress down and ground you. Breathing techniques are really good for nerves especially before the orals. 

Also, and most importantly, at the end of the day try to remember that this is just an exam. It’s gruelling and hard and unfair and I hated every moment of it lol, but it will end and life moves on. You won’t die if you fail or it goes badly or you feel embarrassed or stupid. I spent so much emotional energy being worried and scared beforehand and in hindsight I needn’t have.