Between 14% and 19% of each SQE1 cohort does not pass, and that proportion has been trending upward. Around 30–40% of candidates use their second attempt. Of those resitters, only about one in five passes on their second sitting.
That last figure is worth sitting with. The majority of resitters fail again. The reason is rarely a lack of preparation time. It is almost always the same preparation approach, applied a second time, to the same weaknesses.
The January 2026 results show a 14% resitter pass rate alongside a 53% overall rate. The gap has appeared in every published sitting.
A resit only produces a different result if you diagnose accurately what went wrong and revise differently in response. This article gives you a framework for doing that.
You can resit just the FLK you failed. If you passed FLK1 but failed FLK2, or vice versa, you only pay for and sit the FLK you need. The resit fee is £967 per FLK (£1,934 if you need both). Your pass in the other FLK carries forward.
You have three attempts in total within a six-year window. If you use all three and have not passed, the SRA closes the door on further sittings. With two attempts typically available to resitters, there is no margin for a second failed resit without a serious change in approach.
After each sitting, the SRA provides a subject-level feedback report showing your performance relative to the pass mark across each subject area. This is the most useful document you have for planning a resit. Do not skip it.
The report does not give you a raw score for each subject, but it shows you where your performance fell furthest below the pass mark and where you exceeded it. That information tells you something precise: which subjects cost you marks and which did not.
Three things to do with your feedback report:
Beyond the feedback report, the preparation approach matters as much as the subject weighting. Before you start revising, answer these questions for yourself:
Most resitters answer yes to the first question and no to several of the others. Equal time allocation is the most damaging habit because it prevents the targeted work that a resit requires.
The following framework assumes a nine-week preparation window. Adjust proportions if your window is shorter or longer, but preserve the structure: diagnostic first, targeted revision next, timed mocks toward the end.
| Period | Focus | Target activity |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Diagnostic review | Read your SRA feedback report. Identify your three weakest subjects. Map those subjects to specific topic areas using the SRA Assessment Specification. Write a list of the topics within each weak subject where you lost marks. |
| Weeks 2–6 | Targeted revision | 50+ MCQs per day concentrated on your weakest subjects. Review every wrong answer in detail. Re-read the relevant specification topic. Do not move on until you understand why the correct answer is correct. |
| Weeks 7–8 | Timed mocks | Complete full timed FLK mocks from QLTS School or Revise SQE. These providers pitch questions at or above SRA difficulty. Mark strictly. Review every question you got wrong or guessed correctly. |
| Final week | Consolidation | Light review of subjects where you performed well first time. Concentrated review of your three weakest subjects. No new material in the last 48 hours. |
The five-week targeted revision block is the core of the plan. Two common errors undermine it.
The first is drifting back toward subjects you feel comfortable with. Revising Business Law when your feedback report shows you failed Property Practice is more pleasant but counterproductive. Difficulty is the signal you should follow, not avoid.
The second is passive revision. Reading notes and re-reading cases builds familiarity but does not build the retrieval accuracy SQE1 requires. MCQ practice is the primary revision method for this exam. Fifty questions a day on a weak subject, reviewed properly, produces more measurable improvement than several hours of reading.
"Reviewed properly" means: for every wrong answer, you identify whether you did not know the law, misread the question, or knew the law but applied it incorrectly. Each failure type requires a different fix. Not knowing the law requires re-reading the specification. Misreading questions requires practising under timed pressure. Incorrect application requires worked examples and more MCQs on the same topic.
Timed mocks matter for two reasons. First, 180 questions in a single session across two consecutive half-days is cognitively demanding at a level that untimed practice does not replicate. Second, the SRA's question style rewards careful reading of long fact patterns. Candidates who only practise shorter or paraphrased questions often find the real exam longer and harder to process than expected.
For resitters specifically, provider choice in weeks 7 and 8 matters. Questions from your original course provider will already be somewhat familiar in style. Questions from a different provider, particularly QLTS School or Revise SQE, expose gaps in your knowledge that familiarity with one provider's question style can mask.
For a detailed comparison of how mock scores from each provider translate to real exam difficulty, see the mock calibration guide.
FLK2 catches resitters disproportionately. Three subjects in particular account for a significant share of lost marks among candidates who feel broadly prepared:
Property Practice covers both residential and commercial conveyancing at a level of procedural detail that requires sustained revision. The SRA tests specific stages of a transaction, not just general principles. Candidates who read a conveyancing overview but did not work through the full specification topic by topic are exposed to questions they cannot answer from general knowledge alone.
Solicitors Accounts is tested through calculation-based questions and ledger scenarios applying the SRA Accounts Rules. Unlike most SQE1 subjects, performance on Solicitors Accounts questions is almost entirely a function of how much calculation practice you have done. Candidates who understand the rules conceptually but have not worked through dozens of ledger scenarios under timed conditions tend to run out of time or make arithmetic errors on these questions.
Criminal Law and Practice combines substantive criminal law, Criminal Procedure Rules, evidence, and sentencing. The procedural elements of criminal practice are heavily tested and require specific knowledge of PACE codes, bail provisions, disclosure rules, and the Sentencing Guidelines. Candidates who revised substantive criminal offences but skipped procedural criminal practice often find this a weaker area than their feedback report led them to expect.
The FLK1 and FLK2 topic breakdown lists every subject tested in each paper, including the scope of Property Practice, Solicitors Accounts, and Criminal Law.
With a maximum of three attempts and a six-year window, a failed resit leaves you with one final sitting. That constraint should shape how much risk you accept in your preparation.
Candidates sometimes approach a resit with a "I'll see how close I get" attitude, treating it as a second data point rather than a serious attempt. Given the one-in-five pass rate among resitters and the attempt limit, that framing is expensive. A resit prepared diagnostically and executed with concentrated effort on weak areas is a materially different prospect from a resit prepared as a repetition of the first attempt.
Your feedback report tells you exactly where the first attempt fell short. The plan above gives you a structure for addressing it. The execution is yours to own.
SQETrack gives resitters a clear picture of weak topics from day one. Use code RESIT50 for 50% off.
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