Short answer: If you failed SQE1 on 8 September, you have 125 days until FLK1 starts on 11 January 2027, and one deadline that matters before anything else: the SRA sends the January 2027 seat reservation form on 21 September and it is due by 24 September. A resit costs £1,003 per paper or £2,006 for both, at the new rate whenever you book. Resitters pass at roughly one in five, so the plan below changes the method, not just the hours: diagnose first, reserve the seat, rebuild by practice area, then mock relentlessly.
Everything here is on the real dates. It is written for the July 2026 cohort; if you are resitting from an earlier attempt, the schedule still fits, you just start at week 1. The results day guide covers the day itself; this post starts the morning after.
Your Dates, In Order
| Date | What happens | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Tue 8 Sept 2026 | Results released after 11am | Read the score report properly (below) |
| Fri 11 Sept 2026 | Examinable law and practice cut-off for January 2027 | Nothing yet; it matters for your materials (below) |
| Mon 21 Sept 2026 | SRA emails the January 2027 seat reservation form | Return it the same day with your preferred dates and centre |
| Tue 22 Sept 2026 | Ten working days from results: first-stage appeal deadline | Only if you have a procedural ground |
| Thu 24 Sept 2026 | Seat reservation form deadline | Treat this as the booking deadline |
| By mid-October 2026 | SRA statistical report with the national pass rate | Read it for the resit and FLK2 figures, then ignore it |
| Mon 11 to Fri 15 Jan 2027 | FLK1 window | |
| Mon 18 to Fri 22 Jan 2027 | FLK2 window |
Dates checked against sqe.sra.org.uk on 8 September 2026. The SRA lists the direct-booking closing date and the January 2027 results date as TBC.
Two things about the booking are different from what you may have read elsewhere. The SRA has not published an open "booking window" for January 2027: the seat reservation form is the booking step, seats are allocated in the order forms arrive, and direct booking through your candidate account is only offered afterwards if online booking opens and you did not reserve a seat. And you can only book a resit once you hold the result for the previous attempt, which you now do. Full dates are in the exam dates and deadlines guide.
Week 0: Read the Report Before You Decide Anything
Your score report shows a scaled score out of 500 for each paper you sat, with 300 as the pass mark, plus a breakdown by practice area and your attempt number. It also shows your deadline to pass the SQE: six years from your first attempt at any SQE assessment. What it does not show is a simple percentage, and it is not the paper you sat expressed out of 100. Scaled scores and quintiles explained covers how to read it.
Three questions to answer from the report before you touch a textbook.
One paper or both? If you passed FLK1 and failed FLK2, or the reverse, you resit only the paper you failed. The pass carries forward within your six-year window, and the SRA's own fees page says both parts must be taken in the same window "unless you have passed one and are resitting the other". A single-paper resit halves the fee and doubles the hours per topic; it is the best position a resitter can be in.
How far off were you? A scaled score in the 280s is a different problem from one in the 220s. The first is usually a handful of practice areas and a timing problem; the second is a rebuild across the paper. Be honest about which you are, because weeks 3 to 8 below depend on it.
Is there a procedural ground? The marking cannot be appealed. If an adjustment was not delivered, or something went wrong at the centre and you reported it, appeals, marking reviews and mitigating circumstances sets out the grounds and the ten-working-day deadline, which for 8 September results is 22 September. For almost everyone the answer is to resit, and to reserve the seat regardless: an appeal does not stop the January clock.
Why Most Resits Fail, and What Has to Change
The SRA does not publish a headline resit pass rate, but it publishes enough to derive one. In January 2026, 7,863 candidates completed SQE1, the overall pass rate was 53%, first-time candidates passed at 58%, and resitters were 14% of the cohort. Work that through and roughly one resitter in five passed. Our pass rates analysis puts earlier sittings in the same band, between about 16% and 25%.
That number is not because resitters are weaker candidates. The January 2026 results analysis found that candidates who sat again without changing their preparation kept failing, while the ones who passed had changed method. Three changes account for most of the difference.
Diagnose before you revise. A full timed paper in week 1 tells you whether the problem was knowledge, timing, or reading the question. Untargeted revision in September is the classic resit mistake, and it is the one the most common study mistakes post ranks first.
Questions before notes. Re-reading the same notes more slowly does not move a scaled score. Candidates who pass on a second attempt report question volumes in the low thousands, reviewed properly, with every wrong answer traced back to the rule. MCQ technique covers the reading discipline; the volume is a scheduling matter, handled below.
Weight FLK2. In January 2026 FLK1 passed at 62% and FLK2 at 57%; in July 2025 it was 51% against 48%. FLK2 is where the procedure-heavy subjects sit, and it is where the land law and dispute resolution traps do their damage. If you are resitting both papers, FLK2 gets the larger share of hours.
The 18-Week Plan
Eighteen weeks including results week, at 12 hours a week, is roughly 200 hours of study. At 10 hours a week alongside a job it is about 170, which still works if the volume weeks are protected. The hours calculator gives you your own number, and the working full-time guide covers where the hours come from. If you want the same structure as a printable grid, the revision timetable template scales to any exam date.
Week 0 (8 to 13 September): decide
Read the report. Settle one paper or both. Check the appeal question. Do not revise.
Week 1 (14 to 20 September): diagnose
Sit one full timed paper, the one you failed, under exam conditions: 180 questions, two sessions, no notes. Score it by practice area and note where you ran out of time. This is the map for the next eight weeks. Then fix the schedule in a calendar, with the volume weeks and the three mocks already blocked out.
Week 2 (21 to 27 September): reserve the seat, start the rebuild
Return the seat reservation form the day it arrives, with the centre you actually want. Then start on your weakest practice area. From here, every study day ends with a block of questions on the day's topic.
Weeks 3 to 8 (28 September to 8 November): rebuild by practice area
Work through practice areas in order of weakness, not syllabus order. For each one: the notes once, the flashcards daily, then 40 to 60 questions with every explanation read. A two-weak-subjects resitter spends four of these six weeks on those two subjects and two on maintenance across the rest. A rebuild resitter covers the failed paper's subjects in full, weakest first, and uses the subject study order to sequence them.
Weeks 9 to 12 (9 November to 6 December): volume and timed blocks
Move from learning to applying. Timed blocks of 30 to 50 mixed questions, four or five times a week, across all of the failed paper's subjects. Keep the spaced repetition deck running in the gaps. Sit your second full timed mock at the end of week 12 and compare it, practice area by practice area, with the week 1 diagnosis. Anything that has not moved gets the first half of December.
Weeks 13 and 14 (7 to 20 December): close the gaps
Targeted work on whatever the week 12 mock exposed, plus mixed timed blocks to keep everything else warm. If you are resitting both papers, this is where FLK2 gets its extra share.
Week 15 (21 to 27 December): the Christmas rule
Flashcards every day, one timed block on three of the seven days, nothing else. Resitters who try to work through Christmas usually lose the first week of January to it instead.
Week 16 (28 December to 3 January): full mocks
Full timed FLK1 and FLK2 mocks on separate days, exam timing, exam breaks. Review is the point, not the score: every wrong answer back to the rule, every timing wobble noted.
Week 17 (4 to 10 January): taper
No new material. Short mixed blocks, flashcards, sleep, and the exam day guide checklist. FLK1 starts on 11 January. If you are sitting both papers, the week between them is FLK2 only.
January 2027 Is the First Sitting on the Updated Specification
The SRA's annual specification review took effect on 1 September 2026, so January 2027 is the first SQE1 sitting assessed on it, and the examinable law cut-off is 11 September 2026. It is a set of refinements rather than a new syllabus: the format, the question count and the marking are unchanged. The change resitters notice most is that tax rates and thresholds are now provided in the question where needed, so the recall-style tax questions in older materials are practising the wrong skill. There are wording clarifications across business law, dispute resolution, trusts, wills, criminal law and property too.
Before you rely on last year's notes or a second-hand question bank, run the six-point currency check in SQE1 specification changes for January 2027. Our questions, notes and flashcards were updated for it in July.
The Money
Under the SRA's fees page, assessments from September 2026 onwards cost the new rate, so January 2027 is £1,003 for one FLK paper or £2,006 for both, whenever you book. There is no old-rate loophole through early booking; the fee increase guide explains the rule. Add materials, travel and lost earnings, and a resit is comfortably the most expensive mock exam you will ever sit, which is the argument for sitting cheaper ones first.
What the plan above needs is a question bank with worked explanations, flashcards for the daily habit, and full timed FLK1 and FLK2 mocks for weeks 1, 12 and 16. That is what lifetime access covers, for about 7% of a single-paper resit fee, and you can generate a free personalised plan across all 144 topics to fit the schedule above to your own dates.
If You Are Not Sure You Should Resit in January
A January resit is right for most July candidates: the gap is long enough for a targeted second attempt and short enough that the knowledge is still warm. Two situations argue for July 2027 instead. If you were in the bottom quintile across most practice areas on both papers, eighteen weeks is a rebuild at speed, and a working candidate may not have the hours. And if something outside your control is going to take the autumn, a deferred sitting beats a wasted attempt. You have three attempts at each paper inside the six-year window; do not spend the second one on a schedule you cannot keep.
Whatever you decide, decide it this week, and reserve the seat if January is the answer. The complete resit guide covers the rules, the training-contract conversation and looking after yourself through the process, and exam anxiety and mental health is there for the days the plan feels heavier than it is.
The Short Version
- Results were released on 8 September after 11am; read the score report before deciding anything
- The January 2027 seat reservation form is sent on 21 September and due by 24 September; the direct-booking closing date is TBC, so treat 24 September as the deadline
- A resit costs £1,003 per paper, £2,006 for both, at the new rate whenever you book
- Resitters pass at roughly one in five; the ones who pass change the method: diagnose in week 1, questions over notes, more hours on FLK2
- 125 days to FLK1: rebuild by practice area to early November, volume and timed blocks to early December, full mocks after Christmas, taper in the first week of January
- January 2027 is the first sitting on the updated specification; check your materials before you trust them
