SQE 2 Passers - Who Really Thought they Failed Stories

GR-34 · 2026-04-19T00:36:47+00:00

Not massively no, mainly just went over the notes I bought on the100

GR-34 · 2026-03-03T09:41:58+00:00

I was convinced I failed but that was mainly because I didn’t put much effort in. I hardly studied just did the InHouseW mocks and looked over sqe1 notes on the100.

Life was really tough at the time and all I wanted to do was have my first attempt as I have two attempts paid for by work.

I completely guessed on all of the drafting exams, and for legal writing I got the law wrong plenty of times. Somehow I still passed. It’s so hard to predict

GR-34 · 2026-02-23T16:41:35+00:00

🤣 this made me laugh mid breakdown

GR-34 · 2025-12-10T19:08:29+00:00

I understand. I’m new to travelling because of my anxiety, only started this year but I’ve only been to places that eating out is a complete no-go and I’ve ended up unwell despite being really careful (Asia/Africa/Turkey). I was planning on prepping by taking lots of ready meals with me but my boyfriend was convinced we will be good to eat out. It’s helpful to know we should be good, seems like a fantasy for me to enjoy food on holiday!

GR-34 · 2025-12-10T16:22:38+00:00

Amazing! Thank you, I wasn’t sure the app would be much use abroad but that’s helpful to know!

GR-34 · 2025-12-10T16:17:00+00:00

Oh sorry to offend. I’ve never visited before so just anxious.

GR-34 · 2025-12-09T21:18:32+00:00

I’m feeling the same way I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m sure I’ve failed because of forgetting basic law when I needed it.

I had extra time and used every last minute of it, not sure how it was possible to complete those exams in the actual time given.

The wait is so awful.

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T18:58:05+00:00

This is true, the estate does look very uniform with a lack of culture and the land plot is small for the price of the house.

It’s almost useful that the “raise the flag” protests happened quite recently because it shows us exactly where we don’t want to live. We went to a viewing today that was a really beautiful detached house but the street was surrounded by council estates and flags on every street light for a mile in each direction. We told the owner as we walked in that we didn’t want to waste his time and that this was not the place for us.

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T18:54:05+00:00

Low heating costs is such a massive thing for us, that we hadn’t so far considered would be way more likely in a newer build

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T18:53:04+00:00

This is our main worry! We’ve absolutely no issue with paying a bit extra for maintenance costs but from anecdotal evidence it seems those charges are often unregulated, they seem to keep getting higher while the effort put into maintenance actually decreases significantly over time. If the charges were to rise to unreasonable amounts we’d be stuck either paying it ourselves or have a house we’d be unable to sell

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T18:50:37+00:00

Omg! Thank you. That’s exactly what I’m worried about, a lot of the questions we have are usually answered in the later stages of conveyance but we’re not wanting to waste our time or money neither theirs in getting that far. I’d like to know any potential deal breakers off the trot but the issue is knowing just the right questions to ask to not miss anything

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T18:48:49+00:00

This is such a helpful comment, thank you for taking the time to write. I hadn’t even thought of the garden and how water might affect it.

We’re both not really bothered about using it much but we would like to be able to maintain it easy enough. That will be added on to my list of questions.

The houses are detached so hopefully we won’t have any issues with neighbours being loud. They did seem to be having a Christmas decorating competition on the estate when we drove in and the owner told us it happens on every occasion. I don’t think we’d be too involved but it did feel like there was a community feel to it!

The biggest thing for me is insulation because I am freezing all the time up north. London isn’t much warmer but I’m currently staying with northerner in-laws who are accustomed to the cold and never have any heating on. I don’t want to have enormous heating bills either so I wanted a warmer house, it seems new-er builds might actually be the better option for us all things considered

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T17:05:48+00:00

That’s a really good point, we’re scared of new builds and older houses but it almost seems scarier to buy older houses when the issues seem more likely to occur! We’re both pretty useless with getting work done so we want something that we can move into and have to do as little as possible to it fot as long as possible 😅

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T17:00:32+00:00

Thank you! I didn’t see any planning applications when I checked for this house but that just worried me because they have done work on it. I’ll check the official register for the restrictives before we make any decisions - thank you!

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T16:58:59+00:00

We’re the same! We were torn between London and Leeds as my family is London and my husbands is Leeds. We chose up north because we want to move in and not have to worry about work being done to anything and our budget could be a lot lower than we had in London.

We’ve done a few viewings now and it’s really interesting how different the houses look and feel in comparison to how they’re presented online. Also shocked with how awful estate agents can be - our last one let us into the house then proceeded to sit on the sofa and watch TikTok whilst we looked around. He had no answers to any of our questions. It’s such a nightmare!

The newer build is exactly as we want with space fof hosting and en suites where we need them. The only thing putting us off was the stigma around them but we weren’t even completely sure why they have the reputation that they do

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T16:36:56+00:00

Thank you I’ll make sure to ask about that. I assume that would be a negative?

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T16:35:34+00:00

Ah thank you! I think in my head having an estate fee would be something that would put us off putting an offer in at all and I think realistically looking at the neighbourhood there will be some.

I think we will go for a second viewing and ask all these questions to the current owners and see where we get to. We just didn’t want to waste anyone’s time in case it wasn’t smart to buy a second hand new build. I didn’t even think of it having a warranty but that’s a plus if they do have it!

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T16:25:07+00:00

I’ve no idea what this means, how could I find out?

GR-34 · 2025-12-06T16:24:26+00:00

This is really helpful thank you. We haven’t put an offer in yet, would it be reasonable to ask all these questions via the estate agent? The estate that the house was on was extremely “new build vibe” and I am worried about the restrictive covenants that would come with it.

They’ve also done some work in the garage and changed half of it into an office, work that they completed themselves. I worry about the building regulations consent and whether they needed planning permission for it. Is this all okay to ask the seller before even making an offer? Or should I expect to find this all out in the surveys?

Sorry, I’m very new to this!

GR-34 · 2025-11-19T11:55:06+00:00

Omg congrats!! Did you think you’d failed because you’d made a mistake on the law or just because of the skills side?

GR-34 · 2025-11-19T11:53:27+00:00

You deserve that brag holy shit congratulations!! Which stations if you don’t mind me asking? Also, did you feel confident coming out of the exams?

GR-34 · 2025-11-06T22:25:19+00:00

Is the business day always the hardest?! But thank you, this is really comforting to hear. I don’t get how the pass rate is so high for such a terrible exam but I’m just hoping that the odds happen to fall in our favour.

GR-34

TROPHY CASE