Startling shift: the SRA now requires SQE candidates to complete a separate training-provider survey after taking the exam, before they can view their results.
Here’s what changes and what stays the same.
- The diversity survey remains in place before booking the SQE assessment. It collects backgrounds such as age, disability, caring responsibilities, education, ethnicity, and socio-economic status to monitor diversity across the SQE cohort.
- The new change is about the timing of questions on exam preparation. Previously, questions about how a candidate prepared for the SQE—and which training provider they used—could be collected when candidates first created an SQE account, sometimes long before any study had happened or even begun. Now, those preparation-questions will be asked after the candidate has sat the SQE but before their results are released.
- Practically, this means you won’t be able to access your results for that sitting until you complete the training-provider survey.
Why this matters. The update follows a data-collection flaw reported by the SRA late last year, which left the regulator unable to publish SQE provider-pass-rate data even though it had pledged to do so by the end of 2023. The SRA says the timing change aims to improve data accuracy. They are also considering how best to contextualize and publish the information so it meaningfully helps future would-be lawyers compare prep options.
Bottom line: the SRA is tightening the data-gathering process around SQE preparation, tying access to results to the completion of the provider-survey, and aiming to deliver clearer, more useful insights for applicants. But the rigidity of this approach may prompt questions about transparency and the practicality of delaying result access for data collection. How do you feel about requiring post-exam surveys to unlock results, and should the data be contextualized more robustly to help applicants make informed prep choices?
