Last updated: 10 November 2026 · The Legal Blueprint

Short answer: FLK1 starts on 11 January 2027 and FLK2 on 18 January, which leaves about nine weeks from mid-November. Spend this week checking your booking and taking stock of where you stand. Spend the next three weeks testing yourself on everything you’ve read but never practised. Spend the three weeks after that on timed mocks in the new 85-question sessions and spaced review. Use the last two weeks to consolidate, with no new material after Christmas.

Nine weeks out from SQE1, most candidates have the same problem. They’ve read a lot, and they can’t say with any confidence how much of it will still be there in January. More reading doesn’t fix that. What fixes it is knowing which topics you’ve tested, which ones are fading, and doing the next most useful thing every day until the exam.

This plan is for candidates sitting SQE1 in January 2027 who have already worked through most of their course or materials. It isn’t a plan for learning the syllabus from scratch. It’s built around the four things worth tracking before your SQE and around the changes the SRA has made to SQE1 from January 2027.

What’s different about SQE1 from January 2027?

The SRA announced two changes on 10 September 2026. They apply to everyone sitting in January 2027, first sitters and resitters alike.

The subject groups are:

• FLK1 session 1: Business Law and Practice, Dispute Resolution, Legal Services

• FLK1 session 2: Tort, Contract Law, Legal System of England and Wales, Constitutional and Administrative Law and EU Law

• FLK2 session 1: Wills and the Administration of Estates, Solicitors Accounts (wills), Trusts Law, Land Law

• FLK2 session 2: Property Law and Practice, Solicitors Accounts (property), Criminal Liability, Criminal Law and Practice

Ethics and Professional Conduct can still come up in any session, and questions are still mixed in random order within each session. The blueprint, meaning the share of questions each subject area can take, hasn’t changed.

Two things follow for your revision. First, you now have about 1.8 minutes per question rather than 1.7, so your timed practice should use the new pace. Second, you can practise in sets that look like the real sessions: mixed questions drawn only from that session’s subjects, with Ethics running through them.

Which January 2027 SQE1 dates matter now?

• 19 November, 10am, to 23 November, 5pm: if you didn’t complete a seat reservation form, a limited number of seats can be booked directly in your SQE account. If you already have a seat, this is also the window to reschedule it.

• 23 November 2026: booking closes.

• 11 to 15 January 2027: FLK1. 18 to 22 January 2027: FLK2.

• Examinable law: law and practice up to and including 11 September 2026.

• 9 March 2027: results.

Week 1 (w/c 9 November): check your booking and take stock

Start with the admin. Check that your seat, date and test centre are what you expect. If you haven’t booked, note the direct booking window above. Seats are limited and the SRA doesn’t guarantee availability.

Then take stock, topic by topic. List every topic in the SRA specification and, for each one, note four things: whether you’ve started it, whether you’ve ever tested yourself on it, when you last studied it, and how your most recent practice went. Count the topics in each state. The number that matters most at this point is usually the topics you’ve read but never tested. For most candidates, that’s where the next three weeks belong.

This stock-take is the slowest part of the plan to do by hand. It’s also the part most worth getting right, because every later week depends on it.

Weeks 2 to 4 (16 November to 6 December): close the retrieval gap

This is the most important block. Testing yourself strengthens memory more than rereading does, and nine weeks out it’s the quickest way to find out what you actually know.

• Test the topics you’ve read but never practised first. Use questions, recall from memory or flashcards. Getting questions wrong at this stage is useful: it shows you where to go back.

• Bring untouched topics up to question level. If a topic hasn’t been started at all, aim to learn enough to attempt questions on it, not to write full notes. Use the SRA blueprint to decide which gaps to close first.

• Record your score per topic, not just per set. A set average can hide a weak subject. Your MCQ score is more useful topic by topic than as a single number.

• Finish with a baseline. At the end of week 4, sit one full timed session of 85 questions from a single session group.

Weeks 5 to 7 (7 to 27 December): mocks in the new format, plus spaced review

Now switch the emphasis from coverage to performance under exam conditions.

• Sit at least one full mock for each FLK. That means two sessions of 85 questions, 2 hours 33 minutes each, with the subjects grouped as above. If a mock you’re using still follows the old 90-question format, build your own sets from the right subjects.

• Read mock results topic by topic. Feed the weakest topics straight back into the following week. A mock is a diagnostic, not a verdict. Our guide to how SQE1 is marked explains why a practice percentage and a scaled score aren’t the same thing.

• Review what’s fading, every week. Start with topics you studied only once and haven’t returned to for the longest. Topics you’ve practised several times can wait longer.

• Plan Christmas honestly. If you’ll lose a few days, plan around it now. Two short review sessions protect more than an ambitious plan you won’t follow.

Weeks 8 and 9 (28 December to 10 January): consolidate, don’t expand

No new topics from here. The aim is to keep what you have and arrive rested.

• Short spaced reviews of whatever is due, with extra time on topics where recent practice went badly.

• Ethics questions across a range of subjects, since it can appear in any session.

• One last timed set per session group, then stop timed practice two or three days before your FLK1 date.

Between FLK1 and FLK2, switch fully to FLK2. Review the FLK2 topics that are due, do one mixed set per FLK2 session group, and leave FLK1 alone.

If you’re working full time, the order stays the same and the weeks get smaller. Our example week for full-time workers shows how to fit the hours in.

Where StudyFlow fits

Every week of this plan depends on one record: what you’ve started, what you’ve tested, how recent practice went and what’s due a review, for every topic. You can keep that record by hand. Nine weeks before an exam, most candidates would rather spend the time revising.

That record is what StudyFlow is built to keep. StudyFlow, made by The Legal Blueprint, is a study app for SQE1 and SQE2 candidates. You log each session against the topic it covers, from any course, book or question bank. StudyFlow shows your Coverage, Retrieval, Mastery and Spacing for every topic and subject, and suggests what to study each day, with the reason for each suggestion. In the last weeks before SQE1, that daily suggestion is the point: you open it, see what’s due and why, and spend the session on that.

StudyFlow is opening to a first group of candidates in November 2026, with a 14-day free trial. Join the waitlist.

Frequently asked questions

When does booking close for the January 2027 SQE1?
23 November 2026. If you didn’t complete a seat reservation form, a limited number of seats can be booked directly in your SQE account from 10am on 19 November to 5pm on 23 November, subject to availability.

How many questions are in SQE1 from January 2027?
170 per FLK, split into two sessions of 85 questions. Each session still lasts 2 hours 33 minutes, so SQE1 now has 340 questions in total rather than 360.

Is nine weeks enough to revise for SQE1?
If you’ve already worked through most of the material, nine weeks is enough time to test yourself, review what’s fading and sit mocks in the new format. It isn’t enough to learn the syllabus from scratch, and no plan can tell you whether you’ll pass.

What law is examinable in the January 2027 SQE1?
Law and practice up to and including 11 September 2026.

When are the January 2027 SQE1 results released?
9 March 2027.

Sources

• SRA, Important changes to SQE1 for January 2027 onwards (10 September 2026)

• SRA, Assessment dates and booking windows

• SRA, January 2027 SQE1 booking information

• SRA, SQE1 Assessment Specification, Annex 4 (blueprint)

• Roediger, H. L. and Karpicke, J. D. (2006), “Test-enhanced learning: taking memory tests improves long-term retention”, Psychological Science 17(3), 249 to 255

• Cepeda, N. J. et al. (2006), “Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: a review and quantitative synthesis”, Psychological Bulletin 132(3), 354 to 380