How to build a realistic SQE1 study plan

Most study plans fail for the same reason: they assume a version of your week that does not exist. A realistic plan starts from the time you actually have.

1. Fix the end date

Choose the sitting you are aiming for and count the weeks between now and then. Subtract a buffer of one to two weeks at the end for final consolidation. What is left is your teaching and practice window.

2. Be honest about weekly hours

Write down the hours you can protect in a normal week, including work, family and rest. It is better to plan ten hours you will really do than twenty you will not. If your hours change during the plan, adjust the plan rather than abandoning it.

3. Split time across three activities

• Learn: read or watch material for a topic until you can explain the main rules in your own words.
• Practise: answer questions on the topic in study mode first, then under timed conditions as your confidence grows.
• Review: revisit questions you got wrong, guessed or felt unsure about, with gaps between reviews so that recall is effortful.

A common starting point is to spend about half of your time learning early on and shift towards practice and review as the sitting approaches. Treat this as a starting point and adjust it based on your results.

4. Make the plan flexible

Leave one session a week as catch-up time. When you miss a session, move the tasks forward instead of trying to double up. A plan that bends will be followed for longer than one that breaks.

5. Check progress at a regular point

Once a week, look at three things: what you covered, how accurate your practice answers were on the topics you covered, and which topics keep reappearing in your mistakes. Then decide what next week's priority is.

Practical next steps

Try a free sample to find your starting point, and see which of our plans include a study planner if you would like it built and rebalanced for you.

Everyone learns at a different pace. Practice results show how you are doing in practice; they are not a prediction of how you will perform in the real assessment.