Picture a candidate who booked the July 2026 sitting, missed FLK1 by a handful of marks, and is now planning a January 2027 resit. Her revision notes, her mock timings, even the order in which she planned to revise the subjects were all built around a 180-question paper. On 9 September 2026 the SRA briefed training providers on the first structural change to SQE1 since the assessment launched, and it lands on exactly that sitting. This article sets out what changes, what does not, and what to do about it.
What the SRA announced: 170 questions per FLK from January 2027
The headline change is the number of questions. Each Functioning Legal Knowledge assessment, FLK1 and FLK2, drops from 180 to 170 single best answer questions. Each FLK is still sat as two sessions on the same day, so the SRA expects each session to contain 85 questions rather than 90.
The change applies from the January 2027 SQE1 sitting onwards, and it applies to everyone who sits that assessment: first-time candidates and candidates resitting a paper alike. There is no transitional arrangement under which a resitting candidate keeps the old format.
In short: 170 questions per FLK, two sessions of 85, the same 2 hours 33 minutes per session, and questions grouped by session. Effective from January 2027 for all candidates.
Time allowed is unchanged: 2 hours 33 minutes per session
This is the part most people get wrong when they first hear the news. The time allowed per session does not change. Each session remains 2 hours 33 minutes (153 minutes), so each FLK still takes 306 minutes of assessment time across its two sessions.
Because the same time now covers fewer questions, the pace eases slightly. With 90 questions in 153 minutes you had about 1.7 minutes (102 seconds) per question. With 85 questions in the same 153 minutes you have about 1.8 minutes, or 108 seconds, per question. Six extra seconds per question does not sound like much, but across a session it is roughly eight and a half minutes of breathing room, which is exactly what candidates who run out of time at the end of a session have been asking for.
If your mock exams are set up at 102 seconds per question, update them to 108 seconds. If you use a rule of thumb such as "one page of the question booklet every ten minutes", recalculate it. The habit of checking the clock at fixed question numbers, say every 20 questions, still works; the checkpoints simply move.
Questions grouped by session: which subjects sit where
The second change is structural and, for revision planning, probably the more important one. From January 2027 the questions in each FLK are grouped by session. Rather than every subject being scattered across both sessions of the day, each session draws on a defined group of subjects. Within a session the order of questions is still random, so you will not get all the contract questions in a block, but you will know before you sit down which subjects can appear in the morning and which in the afternoon.
The grouping the SRA set out is as follows.
FLK1
- FLK1 Session 1: Business Law and Practice; Dispute Resolution; Legal Services.
- FLK1 Session 2: Tort; Contract Law; Legal Systems, meaning the Legal System of England and Wales together with Constitutional and Administrative Law and EU Law.
FLK2
- FLK2 Session 1: Wills and the Administration of Estates; Solicitors Accounts (in a wills and estates context); Trusts Law; Land Law.
- FLK2 Session 2: Property Law and Practice; Solicitors Accounts (in a property context); Criminal Liability; Criminal Law and Practice.
Two points deserve emphasis. First, Ethics and Professional Conduct remains pervasive: it is not assigned to a session, and a question in any subject, in either session, may turn on a conduct issue. Second, Solicitors Accounts appears in both FLK2 sessions, with the context following the surrounding subjects, so accounts questions in Session 1 will tend to arise from estate administration and those in Session 2 from a property transaction.
The SRA has also confirmed that the Assessment Specification weightings are not changing. The proportion of the paper devoted to each subject stays as it is; only the distribution across the two sessions is fixed. The SRA has said it will publish an updated Assessment Specification in HTML form and update its website, so treat that document as the authority once it appears.
What does not change
It is worth listing the things that stay the same, because a change like this tends to generate rumours. The single best answer format is unchanged. The pass standard is still set by the SRA's standard-setting process rather than a fixed percentage. The two-papers-on-two-days structure, with FLK1 and FLK2 sat separately, is unchanged. The sittings remain in January and July. The subjects examined are the same thirteen, and the law you need to know is the law as at the published cut-off date for the sitting, exactly as before. If you have already booked January 2027, you do not need to do anything with your booking.
How to adjust your SQE1 revision plan
Grouping by session rewards candidates who revise in session-shaped blocks. A few practical suggestions, all of which our tutors have started applying with January 2027 candidates:
- Revise in the session groups. If you are preparing for FLK1, spend a block on Business Law and Practice, Dispute Resolution and Legal Services together, then a block on Tort, Contract and the Legal Systems material. The overlaps within a group are real: Dispute Resolution and Business Law and Practice share a great deal of procedural and commercial context, and Tort and Contract share the reasoning style of the common law.
- Sit session-shaped mocks. A full mock is now 85 questions in 153 minutes, drawn from the subjects of one session. Two such mocks on one day reproduce the real FLK experience. Timing yourself on a mixed 90-question paper no longer tells you much about how the day will feel.
- Plan energy, not just knowledge. Knowing that Land Law and Trusts are morning subjects for FLK2, and Criminal and Property afternoon ones, lets you decide where your strongest material should sit relative to fatigue. Candidates who fade in the afternoon should give the Session 2 subjects extra practice under tired conditions.
- Keep ethics everywhere. Do not let the grouping tempt you into revising conduct as a separate topic. Practise spotting the conduct issue inside a Dispute Resolution scenario, a Wills scenario and a Criminal Practice scenario, because that is how it will be examined.
- Recalibrate your timing. 108 seconds per question. Write it on the front of your notes. If you habitually finish with time to spare, use the extra margin on flagged questions rather than rushing through.
A note for resit candidates
If you sat in July 2026 or earlier and are resitting in January 2027, you will sit the new format. That is not a disadvantage. Your subject knowledge carries over unchanged, the weighting is the same, and the slightly slower pace helps most resitting candidates, who often report time pressure as the reason marks slipped away. What does need updating is your practice regime, which should now mirror the session groups above. Diagnose which session's subjects cost you marks last time and weight your revision accordingly.
How CELE SQE can help
We have updated the CELE SQE mock exam settings on the website and in the PASS SQE app so that a single tap sets up an FLK1 Session 1, FLK1 Session 2, FLK2 Session 1 or FLK2 Session 2 mock: the right subjects, 85 questions and a 153-minute clock. Our question bank of more than 10,000 SQE1 questions is organised by the same thirteen subjects, so session-shaped practice is straightforward, and the SQE1 exam dates page keeps the booking windows, law cut-off dates and results days for every sitting through 2027 in one place. If you would like a second opinion on how to restructure your plan for January 2027, email [email protected] or reach us on WeChat at SQE100.
