Solicitors’ exams have been made easier after trainee lawyers complained that the difficulty of the tests meant they were “discriminatory” and risked causing a “lack of diversity” in the legal profession. The Telegraph has more.
The Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) has been overhauled to reduce the number of questions and give trainees more time to answer them, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) said.
Candidates will have to complete 20 fewer questions on the multiple-choice test, while having the same amount of time to finish it.
Britain’s legal watchdog said it had made the changes after candidates said the exam “can feel rushed and pressurised in terms of the amount of time allowed to answer a question”.
Questions on the SQE will also be grouped by subject areas to make the test easier, the SRA said.
The changes followed complaints that the randomised listing of questions made the exam “more challenging than it would otherwise have been”.
Hundreds of trainees signed a petition last year warning the “disproportionately challenging” exams favoured “certain backgrounds and learning styles”.
They said the difficulty of the exams risked causing a “lack of diversity” in the legal profession.
Critics of the SQE have pointed to figures from the SRA showing that white candidates have had significantly higher pass rates than those from ethnic minority backgrounds since the exam was introduced in 2021.
In the most recent round of testing in January 2026, 53% of candidates passed the multiple-choice SQE1 test. However, 67% of white candidates passed the test, compared to 47% of Asian candidates and 38% of black candidates.
Male candidates were also more likely to pass the test, with 60% of men passing the exam compared to 56% of women passing this January, the SRA’s figures showed.
Worth reading in full.
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So they are saying ethnic minorities aren’t terribly bright? Isn’t that racist?
All it shows is that of the self-selected cohorts (white, black, male female etc.) there were differences, which proves nothing. My understanding is that Chinese and Asians as a group do better academically in national exams. Some of this may be down to more secure family backgrounds but, if part of it is genetic, as a white, I am easy about it.
Surely we’ve reached peak solicitor / lawyer by now!
Why bother with the exams? “Everyone is a winner”.
That’s not working out too well with truck drivers in the US as the fatal crashes keep coming.
“Hundreds of trainees signed a petition last year “
As would have I in my student days to make my life easier. Thankfully those who could make such changes would have treated such a petition with the disdain it desrved.
Of course there’s discrimination in exams. They discriminate against those insufficiently intelligent enough to learn the subject, and/or those not diligent enough to study hard enough to pass. But, surely, that is the whole point of them.
So let me get this right, the quality of the people being trained as lawyers has been reduced because some people are not sufficiently competent to pass the test, and instead of informing those less able people that they just are not up to it, the tests have been made simpler such that those who are not good enough get to win prizes too. In this snowflake world, does anyone ever get told they have failed anymore?
What is the outcome when a Solicitor represents a client and fails them, because that Solicitor is incompetent, who pays?
I wonder will we next be simplifying the medical exams because they are discriminatory? such that lives are put at risk because an examining body and instructors were too scared of creating upset by informing the snowflake that they just were not good enough.
What the hell is happening? Its the march through the institutions by those who want to destroy the country, and can I say they are doing a good job of that.
In other news, Manchester City have announced that they will be recruiting players who are not that good at football because it is unfair to have a team challenging at the top made up solely of those who are good at football. A bit ironic if it was true as we still await the verdict on the 115 charges they face of cheating their way to the top.
It’s a valid point about the medical exams, though what they do there is allow overseas medics to qualify overseas and then see their certification accepted by the UK authorities, often with predictably tragic consequences…
I have only met one person in the Uk who trained as a lawyer and rose to the dizzying heights of a judge. The only other solicitors I have met work for a firm called every’s. I was not impressed. Coming from the USA where lawyers are tripping over themselves, I find it odd there are so few in little britian. Perhaps that is how the incompetent gov’t keeps getting away with human rights abuses, and lack of accountability?
It is spelt Britain and is properly called Great to differentiate the main island from much smaller Brittany. Geography is obviously not your strong point, but don’t be discouraged, we can all improve!
The route to equality is to make everything un-equal.
The soft bigotry of low expectations strikes again.
Its hard determined bigotry.
What a strange admission! They have to lower standards because certain ethnic groups aren’t so bright.
At last! Now let’s see action from the CAA to do the same for commercial pilots. It’s so discriminatory the tests ethnic minority trainee pilots have to go through.
Well the RAF have started already.
Its already happening in the US with certasin airlines and ATC. There have been incidents and near accidents as a consequence. Listen to the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOoURk9SATI
Aviation near collision coverup
This is how a civilisation dies.
It’s already on life support on a trolley in a corridor of an NHS hospital, and been there since around 2021.
It is deliberate, that is the objective – eliminate meritocracy and destroy it as a major factor in the success of western democracies. What better way to destroy your enemy than to remove the best and brightest and replace with the average and the incapable.
It is obviously working as the SRA is now stupid enough to make such a change.
“candidates said the exam “can feel rushed and pressurised”. Yes, that’s exactly the point, to establish the most deserving candidates by merit, not diversity, or the colour of their skin.
pressured, unless you’re an aeroplane or similar. But hey, it’s only law, what do words matter?
Ah yes, it’s too hard for “diverse” people, so lower the standards. That’s definitely what to do and could have no negative consequences whatsoever, I’m sure.
What I take away from this, is never hire a non-white or female sollicitor, cause they’re effectively diversity hires.
The usual second order consequence they hurt the people they are ostensibly, ostensibly, mind, trying to help.
My wife’s firm hired a trans ‘they/them’ last year. He laid out his entire collection of pills and meds on his desk every day to make sure everyone knew how much of a victim he was. Everyone just continuously side stepped the guy for their own safety.
well if you hire them to tick the Governments diversity checklist, I guess you get to reap the rewards.
Such action is in itself discriminatory. ( USA Supreme court judgement)