SQE Revision: How to Revise Different Topics

Matching Topics to Techniques

Effective SQE revision isn’t one-size-fits-all. Each topic demands a tailored approach, and matching the right technique to the right subject can make a huge difference. You can learn to revise smarter, not harder, by aligning study methods with the specific challenges of each area.

The Myth of Learning Styles

There’s a persistent belief that tailoring your study techniques to your ‘learning style’—visual, auditory, or kinesthetic—makes learning more effective. Study guides consistently recommend that students adopt a personalised approach to learning and revision.

Yet scientific psychology research, including a comprehensive 2008 study by Senior Lecturer Harold Pashler, has shown that there's little evidence this leads to better results. 

The key isn’t matching methods to personal preferences, but aligning strategies with the type of material you're learning.

For instance, visual representations like diagrams or timelines are effective when studying sequences or procedural steps, regardless of whether you identify as a ‘visual learner.’ 

Similarly, real-world examples are powerful tools for anyone trying to grasp abstract legal principles. The most effective study plans mix methods: reading, writing, speaking, applying, and mapping out concepts.

What matters is not who you are, but what the material demands.

Understanding vs. Memorisation: When to Switch Gears

The Solicitor's Qualifying Examination (SQE) demands both deep legal reasoning and high-volume factual recall. The trick is knowing when to focus on understanding and when to commit facts to memory.

Some SQE topics are fundamentally conceptual. Take the idea of 'consideration' in Contract Law—you’ll need to apply it flexibly to different scenarios, which requires a thorough understanding, not just a definition. Being able to identify whether valid consideration exists in unfamiliar fact patterns is key to success.

Other areas, like litigation deadlines or professional conduct rules, are black-and-white. These are not up for interpretation—you either know the filing deadline or you don’t. These require pure memorisation.

A simple rule of thumb can guide you:

• Understand broad principles and frameworks—this lets you adapt to variations in scenarios.
• Memorise hard data: rules, deadlines, steps, calculations—anything that’s non-negotiable and will be tested directly.

Procedural Structuring and Flowcharting

How to Structure your Notes for the SQE

Understanding the material is the first step. But the SQE exam is not open book. In high-pressure conditions, how you organise your knowledge directly impacts how quickly and accurately you can recall it.

Rather than taking random or topic-by-topic notes, structure your SQE materials in a way that reflects how legal processes unfold in legal practice. 

In Dispute Resolution, for example, follow the actual litigation journey: pre-action protocol, statements of case, interim applications, trial, enforcement. This sequencing turns your SQE notes into a narrative—a story you can follow logically and remember intuitively.

Example – Procedural Flow for Civil Litigation:

1. Pre-Action Protocol ↓

2. Claim Form Issued ↓

3. Particulars of Claim ↓

4. Defence / Counterclaim ↓

5. Directions Questionnaire ↓

6. Case Management Conference ↓

7. Trial ↓

8. Judgment / Enforcement

Using Flowcharts for Legal Knowledge

Flowcharts are especially powerful in procedural-heavy SQE areas like Property Practice, Dispute Resolution, and Wills & Intestacy. 

A well-designed flowchart mirrors the real-world progression of a case or transaction, making it easier to recall under exam pressure. Build one comprehensive chart per process, rather than segmenting it. 

Use colour to highlight deadlines, exceptions, or decision points—for instance, mark limitation periods in red and procedural forks in blue.

Example – Property Practice Flowchart Key (with colour coding):

Red 🔴 = Time-sensitive steps (e.g. exchange deadlines, SDLT payment)
Blue 🔵 = Decision branches (e.g. leasehold vs freehold process)
Green 🟢 = Client communication points

For subjects that mix procedures and numbers, like Solicitors’ Accounts or Trusts, integrate your calculations directly into your flowcharts. That way, the moment you reach a calculation stage, you’re reminded of how to calculate as well.

Using Legal Checklists

Supplement your visual maps with simple checklists. These can serve as a revision quick-check and a mental rehearsal tool—for example, running through your 'completion checklist' for a conveyancing transaction without looking at your notes.

Example – Exchange & Completion Checklist:

1. ✅Confirm final contract version with client
2. ✅Check mortgage funds received
3. ✅Ensure deposit is in client account
4. ✅Call seller’s solicitor to exchange
5. ✅Send completion statement to client
6. ✅Submit SDLT return post-completion

Visual Comparisons for the SQE—Tables and Charts 

Legal rules are full of technical distinctions. Trying to remember them all through dense prose is a recipe for overload.

This is where tables and charts shine—particularly for areas that involve statutory rules, procedural differences, or classifications. 

For example, comparing different business structures (sole trader, partnership, LLP, company) in a single chart—covering tax treatment, liability, and regulatory requirements—makes those differences easier to understand and retain than if you tried to memorise them from paragraphs of notes.

Example – Comparison Table: Business Structures

Structure	Liability	Taxation	Regulation
Sole Trader	Unlimited	Income Tax on profits	Minimal
Partnership	Joint/Several	Partners taxed individually	Partnership Act 1890
LLP	Limited	Self-assessment	LLP Regs 2001
Limited Company	Limited	Corporation Tax	Companies Act 2006

Another powerful tool is a comparison chart for execution requirements across legal documents.

Example – Execution Formalities:

Document Type	Signatures Needed	Witness Required	Must Be in Writing?
Contract	One party	No	Not necessarily
Deed	Signed + witnessed	Yes	Yes
Will	Testator + 2 witnesses	Yes (2)	Yes

These visuals do more than simplify—they clarify relationships between similar concepts, helping you spot patterns and exceptions.

Scenario-Based SQE Revision

Moving from Knowledge to Judgment

The SQE isn’t a theory exam. It tests your ability to apply legal knowledge in practical, time-pressured settings. That means you need to go beyond knowing the rules—you have to recognise how they work in specific situations.

Each time you learn a new rule, immediately tie it to a hypothetical example (and try to choose scenarios that speak to you — this is more likely to promote recall).

Say you're studying offer and acceptance. 

Don’t just remember that a counter-offer kills the original offer—create a scenario where Party A offers to sell a bike and Party B replies with different terms. 

Ask yourself: what happens next? These micro-scenarios build the muscle memory for exam-style thinking. 

Your Personal Cast of Clients

When revising for the SQE, consider creating a small cast of recurring client profiles or case studies and applying new material to their evolving situations. 

When learning about litigation, walk your 'client' through each procedural stage. When learning about Wills, work through drafting decisions based on a fictional testator’s family structure.

Mini-Scenario Example – Offer & Acceptance:

Party A emails: ‘I'll sell for £10,000.’
Party B replies: ‘Would you take £9,000?’
→ Result: Counter-offer terminates original offer.

Mini-Scenario Example – Trust Requirements:

Aunt Jane wants to leave money for her dog’s care after her death.
→ Question: Is this a valid trust?
→ Answer: No, because the beneficiary (the dog) isn’t a legal person—trust fails for lack of certainty of objects.

Ethics benefits particularly from this approach. 

Since ethical dilemmas will appear embedded in other topics, practice spotting them within your larger scenarios, like a potential conflict of interest in a conveyancing transaction, or a confidentiality breach during business negotiations.

Linking Legal Concepts and Integrating Approaches

Connect the Dots

Legal knowledge doesn’t exist in silos. Building cross-topic links boosts retention and improves your ability to think like a solicitor undertaking real legal practice. It also mimics how the SQE exam works, since successive questions will test different subjects and topics within those subjects.

Try mapping out how legal principles relate across subject lines. For instance, compare how different legal documents are executed—contracts, deeds, and wills all have similar underlying formalities but with key distinctions. Spotting these similarities helps you internalise them more deeply.

You can also diagram relationships between legal actors—for example, the triangle of settlor, trustee, and beneficiary in Trust Law—and trace how those roles shift in different types of trusts. These visual, relational models make abstract ideas feel concrete and easier to grasp.

Example – Trust Law Relationship Map:

SETTLOR ───→ TRUSTEE ───→ BENEFICIARY

   │                          ↑

   └───── Imposes Duties ────┘

In Business Law, create concept maps that connect entity types to tax consequences, liability exposure, and regulatory obligations. That way, when you get a scenario involving a business choosing a structure, you’re not starting from scratch—you already see the framework.

Integrated Approaches for Complex Subjects

Some subjects demand more than one technique. The most efficient SQE1 prep uses blended strategies, designed to match the complexity and demands of each topic.

Here’s how you might combine tools across subjects:

Dispute Resolution	Combine flowcharts of litigation procedures with scenario-based walkthroughs and memorisation of key timelines. Create 'decision trees' that mimic how cases unfold.
Business Law	Use charts to compare structures, understand conceptual differences (e.g., separate legal personality), and immediately apply to client case studies. Pair abstract concepts with practical implications.
Property Practice & Wills	Build end-to-end maps of transactions. Supplement with stage-specific checklists and work through 'next steps' scenarios to practise sequencing actions correctly.
Trust Law & Solicitors’ Accounts	Link relational diagrams (who owes what duties to whom) with applied calculations. Practice numerical problems in real-world client contexts to make them feel natural.
Ethics	Don’t isolate it. Bake ethical analysis into all your case scenarios. Make it second nature to spot conflicts, confidentiality issues, and professional duties as part of your routine legal analysis.

This layered learning approach ensures you’re building not just isolated blocks of knowledge but an interconnected, practical legal mind.

Summary: 

1. Choose methods based on material, not ‘learning styles.’
   Use visuals for processes (e.g. timelines in Civil Lit), examples for abstract rules, and varied methods for different material types—not personal preference.
2. Know when to understand and when to memorise.
   Conceptual areas in the SQE (like contract formation) need flexible understanding; fixed rules (like deadlines or professional duties) require accurate memorisation.
3. Structure procedural topics as workflows.
   Organise procedural subjects (like DR or Wills) as flowcharts and checklists that follow real-world order—this builds intuitive recall under pressure.
4. Use visual tools to simplify comparisons and distinctions.
   Charts clarify technical differences (e.g. deed vs. will execution), helping spot patterns, exceptions, and reducing overload from dense prose.
5. Practice applying rules through scenarios.
   Tie every rule to a realistic situation. Build a recurring cast of clients to apply rules in context and train your judgment under SQE exam-like conditions.
6. Link concepts across topics using integrated methods.
   Law isn’t siloed—use relational diagrams, concept maps, and blended approaches to connect ideas across subjects and develop a practical, interconnected understanding.