Quick Answer

The best SQE1 study app is one that tracks your coverage across all 166 topics, surfaces what needs revisiting through spaced repetition, and tells you where you actually stand — not just how many questions you have answered. Most apps only offer one of these things. Effective SQE preparation requires all three.

The SQE1 examination covers 166 topics across FLK1 and FLK2. At that scale, the way you manage your preparation matters as much as the hours you put in.

Most candidates piece together a preparation setup from tools that were not built with the SQE in mind: a question bank, a set of notes, a calendar, and a rough sense of which subjects have received the most attention. It works until it doesn't. Coverage is assumed rather than verified. Gaps only become visible late, when there is little time left to close them.

A purpose-built SQE1 study app should solve that problem. But not all of them do. This guide explains what an effective app needs to offer, what most get wrong, and what to look for before committing to a tool for your preparation.

What Does a Good SQE1 Study App Actually Need to Do?

The purpose of a study app in SQE preparation is not to deliver content. Your prep provider, lecture notes, and question bank handle that. The purpose of a study app is to give you a clear, accurate picture of where your preparation stands — at topic level, across the full syllabus so that every session is directed at what genuinely needs attention.

To do that, a good SQE1 study app needs to do four things well.

Does It Track Coverage Across All 166 Topics?

SQE1 has 77 topics in FLK1 and 89 in FLK2. That is the syllabus. Any app that does not map to the full topic list cannot tell you where your gaps are — it can only tell you what you have done within its own system.

Coverage tracking means knowing, for every topic on the syllabus, whether you have started it, how recently you studied it, and how much time you have invested. Without that map, you are navigating without a compass.

Does It Distinguish Between Passive and Active Study?

Reading notes and answering MCQs are not the same thing. Passive coverage feels productive but produces weaker retention than active recall. On examination day, the difference matters significantly.

A useful SQE1 study app should distinguish between study modes, not just log that a session happened, but record whether it involved retrieval practice. Coverage without retrieval evidence is a known risk factor in SQE preparation. Your app should flag it.

Does It Use Spaced Repetition to Prevent Decay?

A topic covered thoroughly in October is not a prepared topic in February if it has not been revisited. Memory decays. Spaced repetition — the practice of revisiting material at calculated intervals before retention drops is one of the most evidence-based approaches to exam preparation available.

An effective SQE1 study app should not just log what you have covered. It should track when you last studied each topic and surface the ones at risk of decay before they become gaps. Revision scheduled by feel will always miss some topics. Revision scheduled by spacing data will not.

Does It Tell You What to Study Next?

The most underestimated feature of any study tool is a recommendation engine — something that takes your current data and tells you where your next session should go. Not a generic study plan, but a specific, data-driven recommendation based on your actual coverage, retrieval status, and spacing history.

Without this, candidates default to studying what they feel comfortable with or what they studied most recently. Both tendencies produce blind spots. A good SQE1 study app removes the guesswork.

What Most SQE Apps Get Wrong

The majority of tools marketed at SQE candidates fall into one of two categories.

The first is the question bank. Question banks are valuable, MCQ practice is essential for SQE1 but a question bank tells you your score, not your coverage. It does not tell you which of the 166 topics you have not yet touched, which ones you covered three months ago and have not revisited, or which subjects have retrieval evidence and which do not. Score data and preparation data are different things.

The second is the generic study tracker. Notion templates, Excel spreadsheets, and colour-coded revision timetables give you a place to record what you have done, but they do not process that data into anything actionable. They tell you what you logged. They do not tell you what it means.

Neither category answers the question that actually matters going into the SQE: where do I actually stand?

What to Look for in an SQE1 Study App: A Checklist

Before committing to any study app for your SQE1 preparation, ask these questions:

Does it map to the full SQE1 syllabus?

The app should cover all 166 topics across FLK1 and FLK2, not a curated subset.

Does it track coverage at topic level?

Subject-level tracking is not granular enough. You need to know which specific topics have been started and which have not.

Does it distinguish between study modes?

Logging a session is useful. Logging whether that session involved active recall or passive review is more useful.

Does it use spacing to surface decay risk?

Your preparation from three months ago is not preparation today unless it has been refreshed. The app should know this.

Does it tell you what to study next?

A recommendation based on your actual data is more useful than a generic study plan.

Does it show you the full picture in one place?

You should not need to cross-reference three tools to understand where your preparation stands.

StudyFlow: Built Specifically for SQE1 Preparation

StudyFlow is an SQE study management app built to address exactly the gaps described above. It is not a question bank, a note-taking tool, or a generic tracker. It is a system designed to answer one question precisely: where does your preparation actually stand?

The foundation is the study log. Every time you study a topic, you log the session — the exam, the subject, the topic, the study mode, and the date. From that data, StudyFlow calculates four metrics for every topic across the full 166-topic SQE1 syllabus:

Coverage — whether you have started the topic at all.

Retrieval — whether you have tested yourself on it, not just read about it.

Prepared — whether the topic has both retrieval evidence and sufficient study depth.

Spacing — whether the topic has been studied recently enough that it is not at risk of decay.

These four metrics run simultaneously across all 166 SQE1 topics, broken down by FLK1 and FLK2 separately. The dashboard gives you a real-time picture of where your preparation stands. The recommendation engine tells you what to study next. The spacing tracker surfaces decay risk before it becomes a gap.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best app for SQE1 revision?

The best app for SQE1 revision is one that maps to all 166 topics across FLK1 and FLK2, tracks coverage and retrieval separately, uses spaced repetition to surface decay risk, and tells you what to study next based on your actual data. StudyFlow is built specifically to do all four.

Can I use a question bank as my main SQE1 study tracker?

A question bank is an essential part of SQE1 preparation but is not a substitute for a study tracker. Question banks measure performance on the questions you have answered — they do not track which of the 166 syllabus topics you have covered, how recently you studied each one, or which areas have retrieval evidence and which do not. You need both.

Is spaced repetition useful for SQE1?

Yes. SQE1 covers 166 topics across FLK1 and FLK2. At that scale, material covered early in preparation will decay without systematic revisiting. Spaced repetition — scheduling revision based on memory decay intervals is one of the most evidence-backed study methods available and is particularly well-suited to high-volume knowledge exams like SQE1.

Do I need a specific SQE study app or can I use a general tool like Notion?

General tools like Notion can be adapted for SQE preparation — The Legal Blueprint's SQE1 Notion Template is an example of that done well. The limitation of a manual Notion setup is that it records what you have done but does not process that data into coverage metrics, spacing alerts, or study recommendations. A purpose-built app does the processing for you.

What is the difference between SQE1 FLK1 and FLK2?

FLK1 and FLK2 are the two assessments that make up SQE1. FLK1 covers 77 topics across subjects including Business Law, Dispute Resolution, Tort and Contract. FLK2 covers 89 topics across subjects including Property, Wills and Trusts, and Criminal Law. Ethics appears in both assessments. A good SQE1 study app should track your coverage and readiness for FLK1 and FLK2 separately.

The Bottom Line

The right SQE1 study app does not replace your prep provider, your question bank, or your notes. It sits alongside them and answers the question none of them can: across all 166 topics, where do you actually stand?

If your current setup cannot tell you that, clearly, at topic level, right now — it is worth reconsidering before you get further into your preparation.