SQE2 sample questions: what the SRA publishes and how to use it

Ten worked samples with model answers and assessor commentary, seven Performance Indicator documents, video recordings of the oral stations, and a practice platform — all free, and most candidates open half of it.

Published

The SRA publishes ten worked samples, seven Performance Indicator documents, video recordings of the oral stations and a practice platform that mirrors the real exam software. All of it is free.

Most candidates download a sample question, attempt it, read the model answer and stop. That is roughly half of what is there, and the half they skip is the half that tells them how it is marked.

What each sample contains

Four things, not one:

  1. The full question and any supporting documents
  2. A sample candidate answer
  3. Commentary on the key legal points
  4. An analysis of that answer against the SQE2 assessment criteria

The fourth is the one worth your time. It is an assessor explaining why a specific answer scored what it scored, criterion by criterion — the closest thing published to watching someone mark your work.

The oral samples — advocacy and the client interview — also include short video recordings of sample performances. There is no substitute for watching a station before you sit one.

The SRA is explicit that the samples do not cover every possible task or style of question. They show you the shape, not the range.

What is actually available

| Assessment | Practice areas covered | | --- | --- | | Client interview and attendance note | Wills and Intestacy, Probate Administration and Practice · Property Practice | | Advocacy | Criminal Litigation · Dispute Resolution | | Case and matter analysis | Business organisations, rules and procedures · Wills and Intestacy | | Legal writing | Property Practice · Business organisations, rules and procedures | | Legal research | Criminal Litigation | | Legal drafting | Dispute Resolution |

Ten samples across the six skills. Note the gaps: one sample each for research and drafting, and no sample at all for several practice-area-and-skill combinations you could be given on the day. Every written sample is published in English and Welsh.

The Performance Indicators

Seven documents, one per assessment type, each setting out what competent and non-competent performance looks like against every criterion. The SRA says plainly that these are what assessors and markers use.

That is an unusual thing for an examiner to publish, and it is the single most underused SQE2 resource. If you want to know what separates a C from a D on "present a persuasive argument", it is written down.

Read the one for your station alongside the criteria on how SQE2 is marked, then mark your own attempt with it.

Practise in the real software

The written samples can be attempted on the Pearson VUE practice platform, which simulates the assessment environment — including the legal research search function you will be given on the day.

Five things about that environment that change how you should practise:

  • Formatting is not taken into consideration by markers. Paragraph spacing, bullet points, font: none of it is marked. Time spent prettifying a written answer is time thrown away.
  • Minor spelling mistakes are not penalised. The criterion is "clear, precise, concise and acceptable language", not correct spelling — mistakes matter only insofar as they damage clarity. A spell check tool has been added to the platform and was being trialled in the July 2026 written assessments.
  • A highlighter is available, but only on the Pearson VUE platform. If you practise in a word processor you will not have it.
  • It is a closed platform. No internet, no browser tools, no predictive text. Practising in your own browser gives you help you will not have.
  • Copy and paste behaves slightly differently in the real exam than in the practice platform.

How to use them

The SRA suggests four approaches, and they are better than the obvious one:

  1. Attempt a written assessment under timed conditions, then mark yourself against the Performance Indicators and the sample answer.
  2. Deliver an advocacy submission out loud with a peer playing the assessor, then watch the sample recording and read the discussion of the answer.
  3. Record yourself doing advocacy or an interview, watch it back, and score it against the Performance Indicators.
  4. Run the interview with a peer, write the attendance note straight afterwards, then compare against the sample and the recording.

Three of the four involve another person or a camera. That is not incidental — the oral stations are marked on things you cannot observe in yourself while you are doing them.

A practical ceiling: there are ten samples and you can only attempt each one cold once. Use them for calibration rather than volume, and get your repetitions elsewhere.

One thing to be careful about

The SRA's website terms govern extracting and reusing sample questions. Read and practise with them on the SRA's own site; do not assume they can be redistributed.

Sources

  • SQE2 sample questions — the samples, the Performance Indicators, the practice platform and the SRA's own guidance on using them
  • Assessments in SQE2 — the criteria the sample answers are analysed against