What SQE1 Candidates Need From Practice Questions, and How We Build Ours Around It

Q: What happens if I find a mistake in a question?

Use the contact form at https://solonprep.com/#contact with the question and your reasoning. We check it against current primary sources, and a key is changed only when two independent checks agree it is wrong. Every correction is recorded in a dated log.

SQE1 facts checked against the SRA's website on 30 September 2026

The short answer

Over the past year, SQE1 candidates discussing their preparation in public have asked for the same six things from practice questions:

wording and wrong options that feel like the real paper;
a reason for every option, not just the answer;
short practice sets while learning, and full timed mocks nearer the exam;
help reading a score, without false promises;
accuracy and currency they can check;
clear prices that don't mean buying a course twice.

We write every new question to rules measured against the SRA's 220 published sample questions. Each question is re-solved blind and checked twice against current law, and a key is changed only when two independent checks agree. In a random sample of 120 questions from our three books, we found no wrong answer keys and one explanation error, since corrected. Those figures cover the books only, and they don't predict anyone's result.

Six things candidates keep asking for

We read public discussions of SQE1 preparation from September 2025 to September 2026, mainly in the r/SQE_Prep community on Reddit. This is a reading of themes that came up again and again, not a survey, and worried candidates post more than confident ones. We paraphrase throughout and don't repeat anyone's comments about a named provider.

1. Questions shaped like the exam, with close wrong options

Candidates who had sat the paper often said the difficulty came less from obscure law than from longer facts and options separated by a single legal point. Some felt that easier practice had given them false confidence. Others made a different complaint: questions that were hard only because they were badly worded.

What we do: we write to the pattern of the SRA's own samples. Parties are described by role, stems run to realistic lengths, the question types are planned, and the five options are written in parallel so the answer can't be picked out by its shape. The rules are set out below.

2. A reason for every option

The SRA's samples give the answer and, for the pre-tested set, the share of candidates who got it right. They don't explain why. Candidates notice, and many keep their own error logs, writing out why each wrong option fails.

What we do: we write a worked solution for every question, plus a separate note on each of the four wrong options that states the error as a point of law.

3. Short sets and full timed mocks

Candidates want short sets while they are still learning, and full papers under exam timing as the sitting gets closer.

What we do: our online question bank is open. Solon Chambers has about 2,500 practice questions with worked solutions. Solon Court has mocks in the January 2027 format, which the SRA sets as two sessions of 85 questions per FLK, each lasting 2 hours 33 minutes.

4. Help reading a score, without false promises

Candidates compare mock scores across providers and ask strangers whether a number means they are ready. Scores from different banks aren't directly comparable, and repeat attempts push them up.

What we do: we grade every question we write as hard, standard or easy on a fixed measure, explained below, and our books print that label on each question. We don't offer a pass prediction or a "ready" score. There is more on reading a score below.

5. Accuracy and currency they can check

One suspected wrong answer is enough to make candidates distrust a whole bank and start checking every question themselves, which costs them time they don't have.

What we do: each question is checked twice against current sources before release, and every later correction is dated and logged in public.

6. Clear, standalone prices

Self-funding candidates want practice without paying for a course again. They are also wary of bundles that overlap with books they already own.

What we do: two products and three prices, with no course needed: Chambers £29, Court £29, or both for £49. Each of our books unlocks its own questions in the bank, so you don't pay twice for questions you already own. Our SQE1 question bank price comparison sets these prices beside other providers'.

The benchmark: the SRA's 220 sample questions

The SRA publishes 220 SQE1 sample questions: the original 90, released before the first sitting in November 2021, and a further 130 pre-tested questions that have been used in real assessments. For the pre-tested set it shows the rounded percentage of candidates who answered each question correctly (SRA sample questions).

Our count of those 220 questions, made in September 2026, shows:

Length. Stems run from 37 to 264 words and average about 120. The 130 pre-tested questions average 137 words including the question itself.
Format. Five options and one single best answer, as the SQE1 specification requires.
Parties. No personal names in any of the 220. People and businesses are "a woman", "the Landlord", "the Claimant".
Lead-ins. About one question in eight asks which option "best describes" the position, and about a quarter are yes/no questions with reasons. Most of the rest ask directly about the decision in hand, such as "Is the firm likely to be in breach?" or "Who will hear the appeal?".
Scores. Averaged across the pre-tested set, 53% of candidates answered each question correctly.

How we write each question

These rules apply to every question we write now.

Parties by role. "A woman", "a private limited company ('the Buyer')". A label never hints at the answer. Where two people could fit the same label, each gets a defined term, and where an organisation's rights depend on its legal form, the question states it.
Stem length of 40 to 250 words, following the SRA's range.
A planned mix of lead-ins. Each question is assigned its lead-in type before it is written: about a quarter yes/no, about 30% direct questions naming who acts and what is being decided, about 15% "Which of the following statements is correct?". "Best describes" is kept to 15% or less of any batch.
Five parallel options. Each option takes the same grammatical form and runs to 30 words or fewer. We never use "all of the above" or "none of the above". The key is never made the longest or shortest option by design. A question is rejected if all four wrong options contain words like "always" or "never" while the answer doesn't, because that gives the answer away.
A worked solution of 60 to 150 words. It states the rule, applies it to the facts, then gives the conclusion, showing any arithmetic. Where the law has exceptions, the solution says "usually" or narrows the point to these facts rather than stating a universal rule.
A note on every wrong option of 20 to 60 words. It says why the option is wrong on these facts, as a point of law, and where useful names the mistake a candidate would be making. Notes never refer to another option by its letter.
Ethics throughout. The SRA examines ethics and professional conduct pervasively across both FLK papers. About 15% of our questions build a conduct point into a question on another subject.
Tax figures supplied. The SRA's specification for assessments from 1 September 2026 says that where candidates must apply the value of exemptions, reliefs, rates or thresholds, these will be provided (SRA, specification changes September 2026). Our questions give the figures in the question.
Law as at 11 September 2026 for questions written for the January 2027 sitting. The SRA examines the law as it stood four calendar months before the first assessment in a window (SQE1 specification), and the January 2027 window opens on 11 January 2027 (SRA booking windows).

How we check each question

A blind re-solve. Every question is solved again without the key. If that answer differs from the intended one, the question is held back.
Two separate law checks. The key, the solution and every wrong-option note are checked twice, separately, against current primary sources: legislation.gov.uk, published judgments, the Civil Procedure Rules and the SRA Standards and Regulations.
An adversarial check. Each question is then examined specifically for a second defensible answer, a missing fact, a contradiction between notes, or a statement that is false as written.
Two checks to change a key. A key is changed only when two independent checks agree it is wrong. A single flag prompts a closer look, not an edit, because flags can be wrong too.
A dated corrections log. Any change after publication is recorded with its date, what changed and why. The comparison method page carries the log for our books.

How we grade difficulty

Every question is solved repeatedly, closed-book, with the options shuffled between attempts. It scores from 0 to 6 according to how many attempts get it right, so a lower score means a harder question. A score of 2.5 or below is labelled hard, 3 to 4.5 standard, and 5 or above easy.

Across a batch, the average must come in at 3.5 or lower. That is roughly where the SRA's original 90 samples sit on the same measure. We treat that as a limit and don't chase lower scores by testing obscure points.

The labels match the measure. In our books, questions labelled hard averaged 1.5 to 2.0, standard 3.3, and easy 5.1 to 5.4.

What the numbers show (our books only)

Everything in this section is about our three published books: Essential SQE1 Questions, SQE FLK1 Mock Exams and SQE FLK2 Mock Exams. None of it applies to the online question bank or the free questions.

Sample. In September 2026 we drew 120 questions at random: 60 from Essential SQE1 Questions and 30 from each mock exams book. The draw was fixed before any checking began.
Answer keys: 0 wrong in 120.
Explanations: 1 error in 120. A note on a wrong option in a criminal law question contradicted the rest of the explanation. It was corrected on 27 September 2026 and the change is logged.
Difficulty: the 120 averaged 2.92 on our difficulty measure, against 2.88 for the SRA's 130 pre-tested questions on the same measure. Lower is harder.
Every option explained: all 1,520 questions across the three books explain every wrong option.

The confidence intervals and how each check worked are on the method page. Our SQE1 practice questions comparison runs the same tests on other providers' free questions.

Limits

Our difficulty measure tracks real results only loosely. On the SRA's pre-tested questions it correlates with the share of candidates answering correctly at r = 0.36. SRA questions it rated hard were answered correctly by 49% of candidates, standard 54% and easy 61%. It is useful for comparing sets of questions. It can't tell you how you will do, and 2.92 against 2.88 is a result on one measure for our books, not a statement about the real exam.
We have no candidate-result data yet. No one has yet used our questions and then reported an SQE1 result to us, so we make no claim about pass rates.
We don't claim to be error-free. One explanation in 120 was wrong, and there will be others we haven't found. If you spot one, contact us. Corrections are dated and logged.
The book figures are for the books. They say nothing about the online bank or the free questions.
Our rules have changed over time. The books were written before some of the rules above were adopted.
The six needs come from reading public forums, not from a survey, and the loudest voices there are not necessarily typical.

Reading your own scores

Count first attempts. Scores on questions you have seen before measure memory as much as understanding.
Read the score by difficulty and subject. Missing hard questions tells you something different from missing easy ones, and a weak subject can hide inside a decent overall total.
Expect modest numbers on well-built questions. Averaged across the SRA's pre-tested samples, 53% of candidates answered each question correctly. No mock score is a pass mark, and no mock predicts your result.
Practise the timing. From January 2027 each session is 85 questions in 2 hours 33 minutes, about 108 seconds a question (SRA, 10 September 2026). Our guide to SQE1 mock exams for January 2027 covers how to use mocks in the new format.

FAQ

How does the difficulty of Solon Prep's questions compare with the real SQE1?

No one outside the SRA can measure that directly, and we don't claim it. On our difficulty measure, a random 120 questions from our three books averaged 2.92, against 2.88 for the SRA's 130 pre-tested sample questions (lower is harder). That measure correlates only loosely with real candidate results (r = 0.36), so it is a way to compare question sets, not a prediction of your score. The figures cover the books only.

Why do your questions describe people by role instead of by name?

None of the SRA's 220 published SQE1 sample questions uses a personal name. Parties are described as 'a woman', 'the Landlord' or 'the Claimant'. Every question we write now follows that pattern, using defined terms where two people could fit the same label.

What date is the law in your questions correct to?

Questions we write for the January 2027 sitting are written to the law as at 11 September 2026. The SRA examines the law as it stood four calendar months before the first assessment in a window, and the January 2027 window opens on 11 January 2027.

What is free in the question bank?

250 Solon Chambers questions with worked solutions and a 10-question calibration test, free with an account. Mock 4 Session 1 in Solon Court will be free when it is published. The bank is open: start at solonprep.com/calibration.

What happens if I find a mistake in a question?

Contact us with the question and your reasoning. We check it against current primary sources, and a key is changed only when two independent checks agree it is wrong. Every correction is recorded in a dated log.

Try the questions

Our online question bank is open. 250 Solon Chambers questions with worked solutions and a 10-question calibration test are free, and Mock 4 Session 1 in Solon Court will be free when it is published. Full paid access goes on sale soon. Try 10 free questions.

If you'd like to start now, there are free SQE1 practice questions on this site.

Solon Prep is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. SQE1 facts on this page come from the SRA's website and were checked on 30 September 2026.