Just 41% of candidates passed the July 2025 SQE1 exam, with three in five aspiring solicitors failing - the lowest pass rate since the SQE’s launch in 2021.
The results place the SQE under further scrutiny, after a petition earlier this summer labelled the exam "disproportionately difficult" and recent controversy over its administration.
The pass rate for the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) has hit its lowest point to date, with just 41% of candidates passing the July sitting of part one of the exam.
Of the almost 6,000 candidates who sat SQE1, only around 2,400 passed - meaning three in five failed. This is down from 44% in last July’s sitting and well below the 56% recorded in both January sittings of 2024 and 2025.
The figure is much lower than the pass rate for the second part of the exam - SQE2 - which clocked 82% in the most recent sitting - but this is largely because candidates can only take the SQE2 exams once they have passed SQE1.
Read more: The SQE Explained: What Law's New Entry Point Means For The Profession
Behind the numbers
The SRA’s analysis of the figures blamed the new low on July’s candidates being generally "weaker than previous cohorts", saying that the standard required to pass remains the same for each sitting.
It added that the July cohort had a particularly high proportion of re-sitters - who typically perform worse than first-time sitters - at 19%, compared with 17% last July and just 8% and 12% in the January 2024 and 2025 sittings, respectively.
Mounting pressures
The figures are likely to add fuel to ongoing debates around the SQE’s difficulty and administration.
In August, hundreds signed a petition demanding reform of what they described as a "disproportionately difficult" exam, citing its toll on their mental, financial and physical wellbeing. Their complaints piqued the interest of former Conservative home secretary (and barrister) Suella Braverman, who dismissed the petition’s backers as “snowflakes” and insisted that professional exams are meant to be tough.
Meanwhile, the SRA remains under pressure from within the profession. Last week, Richard Orpin, CEO of the industry’s super-regulator - the Legal Services Board - urged the SRA to publish provider-level pass rate data, warning that students are being left “in the dark” without it. At the same time, Kaplan, which administers the SQE on the SRA’s behalf, last week issued an apology after mistakenly telling more than 230 SQE2 candidates that their exams had been cancelled.
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