SQE1 Summary of SQE1 Pass Rates

SQE1 pass rates (they are getting worse!)

The pass rate for the July 2025 SQE1 exams was only 41%, i.e. 59% failed.

What were the toughest subjects?

SQE1 July 2025 Pass Rates of All Practice Areas

So the order of most difficult (i.e. lowest marks) was:

  1. Wills and Intestacy – hardest for candidates
  2. Tort 
  3. Legal System
  4. Criminal Law and Practice
  5. Trust Law
  6. Property Practice 
  7. Business Law and Practice
  8. Dispute Resolution
  9. Legal Services
  10. Land Law
  11. Criminal Liability
  12. Contract Law
  13. Ethics (FLK2)
  14. Ethics (FLK1) – easiest for candidates

These statistics from the July 2025 SQE1 exams varied significantly from the statistics for all-time most difficult subjects (i.e. taking the students’ performance from the subject percentiles from 2022 (which is from when we have comparable statistics) through to 2025. 

You have to pass both FLK1 and FLK2 and the SRA passes or fails you on each. It also scores you out of 500 on each subject area. It then publishes the statistics (as quintiles) for each subject, and from the quintile charts and by applying the pass mark of 300, you can deduct the percentages for each subject. 

All time hardest SQE1 subjects:

The all-time hardest SQE1 subjects from 2021 through to 2025 were: 

  1. Wills and Intestacy
  2. Property Practice
  3. Dispute Resolution
  4. Business Law and Practice
  5. Legal Services
  6. Criminal Law and Practice
  7. Legal System
  8. Land Law
  9. Trust Law
  10. Tort
  11. Criminal Liability
  12. Contract Law
  13. Ethics (FLK2)
  14. Ethics (FLK1)

We have highlighted above some of the most striking changes of ranking of subject. Candidates seem to have struggled much more with Tort and the Legal System in July 2025, as well as Trust Law.

One subject consistently ranks as the most difficult (both for the July 2025 exams and all-time statistically),  scoring consistently the lowest marks, and that is Wills and Intestacy. 

It forms part of FLK2, and students statistically performed the poorest in that subject for that exam:

Within the FLK1 exam, people struggled most with Tort and the Legal System in July 2025 (which historically has ranked much lower in difficulty):

SQE1 July 2025 Pass Rates of FLK1 Practice Areas

So the main ‘culprit’ is Wills and Intestacy. The marks over time from July 2022 have fluctuated between the late 30s and early 40s:

SQE1 Wills and Intestacy Pass Rates (All Time) - Estimated

Wills and Intestacy is known to be an exceptionally hard subject for many. Three other subjects in particular have been on a downward trend. The Legal System (July 2025 represented the worst performance yet):

SQE1 Legal System Pass Rates (All Time) - Estimated

Criminal Law and Practice (again July saw the worst performance to date):

SQE1 Criminal Liability Pass Rates (All Time) - Estimated

Contract Law (also on a downward trend from 73% in July 2022 to 54% in July 2025):

SQE1 Contract Law Pass Rates (All Time) - Estimated

Historically, these three subjects may have been perceived by students to be the ‘easiest’, and so candidates may have chosen not to revise them extensively.

The above are estimates based on the SRA’s released data, i.e. the published quintiles together with an application of the 300 pass mark. Percentages may vary since the SRA does not publish the underlying data. For more on the pass mark, see our article on that subject.

Summary of SQE1 Pass Rates:

SQE1 Summary of SQE1 Pass Rates