Short answer: The University of Law's SQE1 Study Manuals are thorough, course-grade texts and the most expensive SQE1 books we compare: £45.99 a title, £313 for either eight-manual FLK bundle, or £552 for all 15 in print. The sixth editions state the law as at 1 May 2026, are written to the specification that applies from September 2026, and test you with single best answer questions modelled on the SRA's samples. Buy them if you want course-grade depth on paper and can work through fifteen volumes. Do not buy them expecting a question bank, a Kindle file, or ULaw's mocks and revision app, which come with its courses, not the manuals. Everything below was read from ULaw's own eStore on 27 October 2026.
This is a review of the books alone. The course they come with is reviewed separately in University of Law SQE1 review, and the whole market of SQE1 books is compared in best SQE1 books.
What you get
The SQE1 series is 15 study manuals, one per subject as ULaw carves it up. The SRA's syllabus has 13 subjects plus pervasive ethics; ULaw splits the SRA's Legal System subject into two manuals (the legal system of England and Wales; constitutional and administrative law and EU law) and gives ethics its own volume, which is how 13 becomes 15.
| ULaw bundle | Titles |
|---|---|
| FLK1 (8 manuals) | Business Law and Practice · Dispute Resolution · Contract · Tort · Legal System of England and Wales · Constitutional and Administrative Law and EU Law · Legal Services · Ethics and Professional Conduct |
| FLK2 (8 manuals) | Property Practice · Wills and the Administration of Estates · Solicitors Accounts · Land Law · Trusts · Criminal Law · Criminal Practice · Ethics and Professional Conduct |
Ethics appears in both FLK bundles, so the two together contain 16 books and one duplicate; the 15-manual bundle is the set without the repeat.
Each manual is a sixth edition, "updated to 1 May 2026", and ULaw says the editions reflect the SQE1 Assessment Specification that applies to assessments from 1 September 2026, including the SRA's warning notices on non-disclosure agreements and SLAPPs in the ethics volume. Dispute Resolution has been "fully revised and expanded" for this edition. Each manual uses example scenarios built on realistic client problems and single best answer questions modelled on the SRA's sample questions. The Business Law and Practice manual runs to 338 pages, which gives a sense of the scale of the set.
What it costs
| What | Price | Saving against buying separately |
|---|---|---|
| One manual (print or ePub) | £45.99 | |
| Bundle of 7: Law | £274 | 15% |
| Bundle of 8: FLK1 | £313 | 15% |
| Bundle of 8: FLK2 | £313 | 15% |
| Bundle of 8: Professional Practice | £313 | 15% |
| Bundle of 15: Law and Professional Practice (all SQE1) | £552 | 20% |
Fifteen manuals bought one at a time come to £689.85, so the full bundle saves about £138. The eight-manual bundles save about £55 each. The sixth edition also brought a small price rise: ULaw told a reviewer on its own store that the FLK bundles moved from £306 to £313.
Two discounts matter. ULaw students and alumni get 50% off, and the digital manuals are included in the course fee for anyone enrolled, which is one of the genuine arguments for the course itself. And because the digital manuals are not sold as a bundle, ULaw has posted a code on its store, ESTUDY15, that discounts fifteen individually added ePubs to the print-bundle price; it was still posted on 27 October 2026 and may not stay that way.
ePub, paperback or Kindle?
This is the question people search for most, and the answer is narrower than the search suggests.
- Print is the default. Bundles are print only, shipped from the UK. International delivery takes time (ULaw tells one buyer to allow 10 to 15 working days to Nigeria), and some reviews on the bundle page complain about the cost and speed of delivery.
- Digital is ePub only. ULaw confirmed on its store that the digital versions are ePubs, available for the sixth editions since September 2026, and sold title by title, not as a bundle. The store says ePub orders need an eBook reader such as Adobe Digital Editions, which is the standard arrangement for protected files, so do not assume the manuals will transfer to a Kindle. Digital manuals are non-refundable once downloaded.
- There is no Kindle edition and no PDF on the store. If you want to read on a Kindle or annotate a PDF, these are not the books; ebooks vs paperbacks covers what the formats mean in practice.
Strengths
Authority. The manuals are the texts ULaw's own SQE1 students use, and Business Law and Practice, for one, is written by a joint module lead. If a point of law is in the specification, it is here, stated rather than summarised.
Currency. A stated law date of 1 May 2026 and an edition built for the September 2026 specification is as current as SQE1 books get. The January 2027 specification changes are refinements, and these editions were written with them in view.
Built-in questions. The single best answer questions are modelled on the SRA's samples. That is more practice than most textbooks offer, though far less than a question bank.
Buyer reviews. On ULaw's store the 15-manual bundle averages 4.4 out of 5 from 69 reviews and the Business Law manual 4.6 from 14. The praise is for thoroughness and organisation; the complaints we read were mostly about delivery, not content.
Weaknesses
Volume. Fifteen volumes, hundreds of pages each, written to teach rather than to revise. Candidates on a working timetable report using them as a reference for weak subjects rather than reading them through, and one reviewer on the FLK1 bundle, an international lawyer, asked ULaw for "more concise material". The revision notes vs textbooks trade-off is exactly this.
Cost. £552 is the price of a full SQE1 question bank several times over, and over a quarter of the £2,006 SQE1 fee. The cheapest SQE1 courses comparison puts it in context.
No question bank. The questions in the chapters are not a timed question bank. The manuals teach the law; they do not build the exam technique or the stamina for a 170-question paper. ULaw's mocks, revision app and question bank come with its courses, not with the manuals.
Digital friction. ePub only, bought one title at a time, no bundle price without a code, no refunds once downloaded, and a reader app to install first.
Old editions in circulation. Amazon still lists the third, fourth and fifth editions of the FLK 1 & 2 bundle alongside the sixth, and older manuals sell second-hand. A manual stating the law at an earlier date will miss the September 2026 specification. Check the edition and the "law stated as at" date before buying anywhere other than ULaw's store.
Who should buy them
- ULaw students, who get the digital set inside the fee and half price on print.
- Candidates who learn by reading and want one authoritative, complete source per subject instead of a stack of summaries, and who have the months to use it.
- Anyone topping up a weak subject. A single manual at £45.99 for Property Practice or Business Law is a reasonable buy when the rest of your preparation is already in place. The subject study order post shows where a deep text pays off.
- Non-law graduates who need the law explained from first principles before practice questions make sense.
Who should not
- Anyone whose gap is practice volume. If you know the law and keep failing mocks, more pages will not help; question banks vs books explains why.
- Kindle readers and PDF annotators. The format is not there.
- Candidates on a budget. Under £100 is a realistic ceiling for everything except the exam fee.
- Anyone with under three months. Fifteen volumes are a semester's reading, not a revision plan.
The alternatives, priced
| Series | Price | Formats | What is inside | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ULaw SQE1 Study Manuals | £45.99 a title; £313 per FLK bundle; £552 for all 15 | Print; ePub sold singly | Full teaching text per subject, example scenarios, SBA questions modelled on the SRA's | Course-grade depth, ULaw students |
| Revise SQE (Fink Publishing) | Per-title guides and mock books; ebook Practice Assessments bundle £32.40 (list £36); online FLK1 and FLK2 mocks £40 each or £70 together | Paperback, app or Kindle ebook, audiobook, online mocks | Concise revision guides plus separate practice-assessment books | Print revisers, mock practice; see the Revise SQE review |
| SQE1 Prep study guides | £9.99 a guide; £49.99 for all 13 | PDF and EPUB (Kindle via Send to Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo); paperbacks on Amazon | 13 guides covering all 144 topics: chapter notes, 4,400+ worked SBA questions, 5,500+ flashcards; free sample of every guide; updated for January 2027 | Notes plus practice in one file, price |
| Brigitte's FLK | £17.99 per subject; SQE1 Bundle Pack £119.99 for six months | Digital notes and videos | Notes, 140+ video explainers, 720 practice questions | Video learners |
Prices read from each publisher's own site on 27 October 2026.
The honest comparison is not "which is best" but "which job". ULaw's manuals are full teaching texts. Revise SQE is a print revision series. The SQE1 Prep guides put the notes, the questions and the flashcards for a subject in one file at about a fifth of the price of a ULaw manual, and the 13-guide bundle costs less than one and a half ULaw manuals. If you are self-funding, one of the cheaper series plus a question bank, and a single ULaw manual for the subject that frightens you, is the better buy.
The January 2027 angle
From January 2027 SQE1 is 170 questions per paper in two sessions of 85, with a fixed group of subjects in each session. That changes nothing about which books to buy: the questions are the same style and the specification is the same. It does change how to use them. The FLK1 session split puts Business Law, Dispute Resolution and Legal Services together, and Contract, Tort and the Legal System subjects together; the FLK2 split puts Wills, Trusts, Land and accounts-in-wills together, and Property, Criminal and accounts-in-property together. Revise the manuals in those pairs, and use each chapter's questions as the mixed-subject warm-up the new sessions reward.
Verdict
Excellent books, priced and formatted for a taught course rather than for a self-funder. If ULaw is teaching you, use them; they are in the fee. If you are buying them yourself, buy one for your weakest subject rather than fifteen, and spend the difference on questions.
