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Free sample questions

Five SQE1 questions, five subjects

Every question below is a single best answer scenario: one stem, five options, one correct answer, and a citation behind the explanation. Nothing is gated. Read them, try them, and judge the difficulty for yourself before you create an account anywhere.

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What you see once you answer

Marking a question right or wrong is the easy part. The screen below is the app grading an answer in Trusts: the option that was chosen, the option that was correct, and then a line for every one of the five saying why it is right, why it is wrong, or why it is true but not the best answer.

The authority sits underneath, in this case Re Londonderry’s Settlement [1965] Ch 918. Every question in the bank is built the same way, so a wrong answer is worth as much as a right one.

How the app works

The same question, answered

A practice question in the LexVerity Academy app after answering. An Incorrect banner sits under the five options, with the chosen option D outlined in red and the correct option E in green, followed by a written explanation, a separate line for each of the five options saying why it is right or wrong, and the authority Re Londonderry's Settlement [1965] Ch 918.
Every option gets its own line, and the answer rests on a named authority rather than an assertion.

  1. Question 1 · Legal System of England and Wales

    A County Court judge is deciding a claim on which a Court of Appeal decision is directly on point. The judge believes the reasoning is wrong, and notes that the decision conflicts with an earlier House of Lords authority the Court of Appeal did not consider. What should the judge do?

    Answer B

    The exceptions that let a court depart from an otherwise binding Court of Appeal decision, including per incuriam, belong to the Court of Appeal when reviewing its own past decisions. They are not available to a court lower in the hierarchy, which stays bound regardless of an unconsidered conflicting authority or its own view of the reasoning. That conflict is a ground of appeal, not a basis for a lower court to depart on its own initiative.

    Young v Bristol Aeroplane Co Ltd [1944] KB 718 (the Court of Appeal’s own exceptions to precedent).

    Pick another option to compare, or see the whole module.

  2. Question 2 · Constitutional and Administrative Law

    A licensing authority refuses a taxi licence under a policy that automatically refuses any applicant with any past conviction, regardless of its nature or age, without considering the applicant’s individual circumstances. Which ground of judicial review does this raise?

    Answer A

    A public body may adopt a general policy for consistency, but unlawfully fetters its discretion, a form of illegality, if it applies that policy as a rigid rule and refuses to consider whether a case should be treated as an exception. Irrationality concerns a decision so unreasonable that no sensible authority could reach it on its merits, not the mere existence of a policy. Procedural impropriety concerns fairness of process, not the substance of the policy, and proportionality is not treated as a free-standing ground in an ordinary domestic judicial review claim of this kind.

    British Oxygen Co Ltd v Minister of Technology [1971] AC 610 (unlawful fettering of discretion).

    Pick another option to compare, or see the whole module.

  3. Question 3 · Business Law and Practice

    A director causes her company to enter into a supply contract with another business that she personally owns. She mentions the arrangement informally to the finance director over lunch, but the matter is never placed before the board, and the other directors do not turn their minds to it before the contract is signed. Which of the following best describes the position?

    Answer B

    Where a director has an interest in a proposed transaction with the company itself, the duty is to declare its nature and extent to the board before the company enters into it. Telling one director informally, rather than declaring it to the board as a whole, does not satisfy this. This is distinct from the duty to avoid conflicts with the company’s business or opportunities outside a transaction with the company, which instead requires formal authorisation by the other directors, and a financial threshold for shareholder approval is not what makes a declaration under this duty necessary.

    Companies Act 2006, s.177 (duty to declare interest in proposed transaction with the company).

    Pick another option to compare, or see the whole module.

  4. Question 4 · Property Practice

    A buyer completes the purchase of registered freehold land with the help of a mortgage. Completion has taken place and the transfer has been signed, but before the buyer’s solicitor submits the application to register the transfer and the mortgage, a burglar unconnected with either party breaks into the property. Which of the following correctly describes the buyer’s position at the moment of the break-in?

    Answer B

    For registered land, a transfer (and a legal mortgage) takes effect at law only once it is completed by registration. Before that, the buyer holds an equitable interest under the contract and completed transfer, even though completion has already taken place between the parties, and even though an unrelated third party’s act, such as a break-in, does not itself affect who holds which kind of interest during the registration gap.

    Land Registration Act 2002, s.27.

    Pick another option to compare, or see the whole module.

  5. Question 5 · Wills and Administration of Estates

    A testator signs his will in his study without anyone else present. Later the same day, two neighbours come to the house together, and in their joint presence he acknowledges that the signature on the document is his own. Both neighbours then sign as witnesses, each in the presence of the other and of the testator. Is the will validly executed?

    Answer A

    A will is validly executed if the testator either signs it, or acknowledges an existing signature, in the presence of two witnesses present at the same time, who then each sign in the testator’s presence. Acknowledging an already-written signature satisfies the requirement just as signing in front of the witnesses would. Witnesses do not need to watch the act of writing itself, only to be present when the testator signs or acknowledges the signature, and a witness who benefits under the will affects only whether that witness can keep their gift, not whether execution itself was valid.

    Wills Act 1837, s.9.

    Pick another option to compare, or see the whole module.

The material comes back on its own

Cards are scheduled from the material you have already studied, so the app decides what you see today. There is no second deck to build and keep up to date.

Grade how well you recalled a card and it returns sooner or later than it otherwise would. Each card carries the same citation as the material it came from.

Daily review

A daily review card in the LexVerity Academy app, showing a Trusts flashcard on the three certainties with its answer, a memory hook panel and the citation Knight v Knight (1840) 3 Beav 148.
Spaced repetition, scheduled from material you have already studied rather than a deck you maintain.

Five questions is a taste, not a mock

A free account unlocks the first section of every one of the thirteen subjects, each with its own set of cited questions. Full mock assessments and the complete question bank sit on the paid tiers, and plans sets out exactly what each one adds.

If you want the wider picture first, see all thirteen modules, read how the course works, or compare the market on the SQE1 course comparison.

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Questions about the free questions

Where do these free questions come from?
Each one is the sample question published on that subject’s own module page, in the same single best answer format used throughout the course: one stem, five options, one correct answer, an explanation and a citation.
How do I get more than five questions?
Create a free account. It unlocks the first section of every one of the thirteen subjects, each with its own full set of cited questions rather than five illustrative ones.
Do the sample questions have citations?
Yes. Each one includes a primary-source citation and a written explanation of why the right answer is right, in the same style as the full course.
Is a card required to create a free account?
No. A free account requires no card and is not time-limited.