I submitted my seat reservation for SQE1 today. January 2027. Seeing it actually booked rather than just a date I've been working towards made this feel real in a way it hadn't before.
The timing feels fitting too. Earlier this month, on 10 September, the SRA announced the first set of changes to SQE1 since the exam launched, and they'll apply to my exact sitting.
What's changing
From January 2027, SQE1 is dropping from 360 questions to 340, and I think it's a welcome change. The overall time for the assessment stays the same, so that's effectively more time per question, which matters on an exam candidates have consistently described as feeling rushed. Questions are also being grouped into specific sessions by subject area, rather than any topic being able to show up anywhere, though they're still randomised within each session. Worth flagging: this doesn't mean a higher pass mark. The pass standard and marking methodology stay the same, it's the same bar, just a fairer run-up to it. It's a small structural change, but a smart one, it should make the exam feel less like being tested on everything, everywhere, all at once, and more like a fair test of what you actually know.
Why it's happening
This wasn't just a tidy-up. It followed real pressure from trainee solicitors, hundreds of whom signed a petition arguing the exam was disproportionately difficult and risked disadvantaging candidates from certain backgrounds. That petition pointed to a real gap: in the January 2026 sitting, 67% of white candidates passed SQE1, compared with 47% of Asian candidates and 38% of Black candidates. The SRA itself hasn't pointed to that gap as the reason for this specific change, its own explanation is about improving the candidate experience and reducing an exam that "can feel rushed and pressurised." But that disparity is clearly part of the wider pressure that got the SRA looking at the exam's structure in the first place. Whatever the primary driver, I think it says something good that the SRA is willing to make changes at all, listening and adjusting isn't something regulators always get right.
One thing I'd still flag
Not everyone thinks this goes far enough. The College of Legal Practice welcomed the change but called it "an improvement rather than the transformational change many aspiring solicitors need," and made a point that stuck with me: candidates working full-time still get less study time than candidates who can study full-time or are fully sponsored. Fewer questions doesn't change that. I'm revising around a job, so that's not an abstract point for me, but it doesn't take away from the fact that this is real progress.
A second opinion
I mentioned the changes to my law sister, the same one who gave me that question-bank advice from my last post. She's already sat and passed SQE1, and her reaction was simple: "I do think this is better." Coming from someone who's actually been through the exam, that carries more weight with me than any statement the SRA could put out.
Where that leaves me
I think this is a brilliant, sensible change, and genuinely a step in the right direction. It shows the SRA is capable of listening and adapting, which matters for an exam that's going to shape a whole generation of solicitors. I'm just glad it lands before my sitting rather than after it. Seat booked, changes announced, January getting closer, and for the first time, that feels like something to be excited about rather than just braced for.