SQE1 January 2027 Booking: Seat Reservation Form & Dates

Guide to SQE1 January 2027 booking: your seat reservation form, step by step

SQE1 January 2027 booking runs on a two-day window. Your seat reservation form is emailed at approximately 6pm on Tuesday 22 September 2026, and the SRA's deadline to submit it is 24 September 2026. Seats are allocated in the order completed forms come back, so the first evening decides where you sit — and the Thursday decides whether you sit at all.

Both Kaplan and the SRA moved the send date from 21 September on 15 September, so overwrite any earlier one in your calendar. Note too that the 24 September deadline is on the SRA's booking windows page and not in Kaplan's email — if you are working from the email alone, it is the fact you are missing.

Two deadlines, two days apart

Two different clocks are running, and they reward different things. The queue starts at about 6pm on the 22nd: seats go in the order completed forms are received, so submitting in the first hour is what gets you your preferred centre. The cut-off is the end of the 24th: submitting on the Thursday still counts, you simply take what is left, but not submitting by then means you have not reserved a seat by the route the form provides.

Treat the 22nd as when you act and the 24th as the wall behind you. If something goes wrong on the Tuesday evening — the email lands in spam, you are travelling, your ID tick is still grey — you have Wednesday and Thursday to fix it, and no longer.

How SQE1 seats are actually allocated

Seats go on a first come, first served basis, based on the order in which completed forms are received — not the order they are opened, and not the order they are started. The SRA is explicit that there is no queuing system: the form itself is the queue.

The form is short. It asks for your SQE candidate number, your preferred location and dates, and whether you need reasonable adjustments. It takes a few minutes. If your preferred centre has gone, you are offered the closest available alternative.

There is one exception, and it matters: candidates with reasonable adjustments are allocated centres in accordance with their requirements, not by queue position. If your adjustments are approved, your centre is matched to your needs rather than to how fast you clicked.

For everyone else the consequence is blunt. January is the smaller of the two sittings, but central London, Manchester, Birmingham and the major overseas centres fill in the first evening. Being slow does not cost you the sitting — it costs you your centre, and possibly a hotel the night before a five-hour exam.

The SQE1 booking window: dates and deadlines

Stage	When
Examinable law and practice cut-off	Friday 11 September 2026
Seat reservation form emailed	Tuesday 22 September 2026, approx. 6pm
Deadline to submit the form, and to accept a reasonable adjustment proposal	Thursday 24 September 2026
Booking closes	Monday 23 November 2026
FLK1 assessment	Monday 11 – Friday 15 January 2027
FLK2 assessment	Monday 18 – Friday 22 January 2027
Results	Tuesday 9 March 2027

All of these come from the SRA's assessment dates and booking windows page, and all times it gives are UK time. The SRA notes that SQE1 booking closes roughly five weeks before the sitting, and that SQE1 results are published five to six weeks after it.

The examinable law cut-off is worth a second look, because it has already passed. You are examined on the law as it stood on 11 September 2026. Anything that changed after that date is not on your paper, whatever your notes say. Full SQE1 exam dates for both papers, plus locations and fees, are on our SQE exam dates page.

The three pre-booking steps — your green ticks

This is the part people skim, and the part that stops forms going out. Kaplan's wording:

When you complete your pre-booking steps your candidate account will show "green ticks" for ID verification, Reasonable Adjustments, and the Monitoring and Maximising Diversity Survey (in your My SQE overview).

Log into My SQE and look at the overview. Three ticks, or you are not ready.

1. ID verification

The slowest to fix, because it depends on a document you may not have to hand. Your name must match your SQE account exactly — a missing middle name, a maiden name, or an initial where the full first name should be are all grounds for being turned away at the test centre on the day, after you have paid. Our SQE ID validation guide covers what counts and how to correct a mismatch.

2. Reasonable adjustments

Two different situations get confused here. If you are not applying, you still have to answer the section — answering "no" is what turns the tick green, and a blank section leaves your pre-booking incomplete. If you are applying, this is the start of a process: you submit evidence, Kaplan assesses it and sends a proposal, and you must accept that proposal for the adjustments to apply in January. The SRA gives that acceptance deadline as 24 September 2026, the same day the form closes.

Read that date carefully, because it is tighter than it looks. It is not the deadline to apply for adjustments; it is the deadline to accept a proposal Kaplan has already assessed and issued. An application not yet submitted and assessed is unlikely to produce a proposal in time, so if you need adjustments for January and have not started, contact Kaplan this week and ask directly what is still possible — do not assume the answer either way, and do not let it sit until the 22nd.

3. Monitoring and Maximising Diversity Survey

The easiest, and the one most often skipped because it feels optional. For booking purposes it is not: no survey, no green tick, no form. A few minutes, and the answers have no bearing on your assessment.

If your eligibility status has not updated, do nothing

Kaplan is explicit, and it saves a lot of anxious emailing: it will update eligibility status for SQE1 in due course, and no extra steps are needed. If your account currently shows you as not yet eligible, that is expected. Chasing it will not speed it up, and it is not what stands between you and the form — the three pre-booking steps are.

What happens after you reserve a seat

Reserving and booking are two different actions. Once a seat is allocated you are contacted to pay; you then log into your SQE account, accept the seat and pay to confirm. A reserved seat that is never paid for is not a booking. If you need to move afterwards, you can reschedule into another location, subject to availability, from the Bookings page in your SQE account.

Being fast on 22 September

Plan the evening rather than the form. Before 6pm: write down first, second and third choice centres, decide whether you have flexibility on which day in the exam week you sit, and check which email address your SQE account uses. From 5.45pm: be at a device — "approximately 6pm" could mean 5.55 or 6.20. Open the form when it lands and complete it in one pass rather than saving it for after dinner. After: keep the confirmation.

If the Tuesday goes wrong, you have Wednesday the 23rd and Thursday the 24th, and that is all. Check your spam folder, check the email address on your SQE account, and if nothing has arrived by Wednesday morning contact Kaplan that day rather than waiting to see whether it turns up. Two days is not long enough to spend one of them hoping.

One warning about the email itself: its footer offers to unsubscribe you from emails about booking window openings. Do not use it mid-cycle. Those are the emails that carry the form.

The exam you are booking is not the one you revised for

If you have sat SQE1 before, read this. Kaplan flagged it in the same email, and January 2027 is the first sitting of the new format — it applies to re-sitters as well as first sitters, with no legacy paper.

• 170 questions per FLK, not 180 — 340 across SQE1, down from 360.
• Still one day per FLK, but two sessions of 85 rather than two of 90, with a 60-minute break.
• Each session is still 2 hours 33 minutes, so about 108 seconds per question instead of 102.
• Subjects are grouped by session. FLK1 session 1 is Business Law and Practice, Dispute Resolution and Legal Services; session 2 is Tort, Contract Law and Legal Systems. FLK2 session 1 is Wills and the Administration of Estates, Solicitors Accounts in the wills context, Trusts Law and Land Law; session 2 is Property Law and Practice, Solicitors Accounts in the property context, Criminal Liability and Criminal Law and Practice. Ethics and Professional Conduct can appear anywhere.

The pass mark has not moved — still scaled 0 to 500 with 300 to pass on each FLK — and the blueprint is unchanged, so your subject knowledge still counts. What is out of date is your timed practice: 90 questions drawn from across a whole FLK no longer rehearses the exam you have booked. Practise 85 questions in 153 minutes from one session's subjects. We have written the change up in full in SQE changes 2027.

Fees

SQE1 costs £2,006 for both FLK papers, at the rate that took effect in September 2026, so every 2027 sitting is at the new price. The fee is VAT exempt and covers the assessment only — not preparation, not travel. A single-FLK resit is charged separately; check the current figure on the SRA's fees page.

Your checklist this week

1. Open My SQE and count the green ticks.
2. If you need reasonable adjustments for January, contact Kaplan this week — 24 September is the deadline to accept a proposal, not to start one.
3. If they do not apply to you, answer the section "no" so the tick turns green.
4. Complete the Monitoring and Maximising Diversity Survey.
5. Check your ID matches your account name exactly, and is in date.
6. Diarise Tuesday 22 September, from 5.45pm, with your centre choices in the entry.
7. Diarise Thursday 24 September as a hard deadline, not a reminder.
8. Ignore your eligibility status.

SQE1 January 2027 booking: FAQ

When is the SQE1 January 2027 seat reservation form sent?

At approximately 6pm on Tuesday 22 September 2026, by email to the address on your SQE account. Both Kaplan and the SRA revised this date from 21 September on 15 September, so use 22 September rather than any earlier date you were given.

What is the deadline to submit the SQE1 seat reservation form?

24 September 2026. The form is sent on the Tuesday evening and closes on the Thursday, giving you two days. The same date is the deadline to accept a reasonable adjustment proposal for the January 2027 sitting.

When does booking close for SQE1 January 2027?

23 November 2026. The SRA closes SQE1 and SQE2 booking roughly five weeks before the sitting.

When are SQE1 January 2027 results published?

9 March 2027. SQE1 results are published five to six weeks after the assessment.

How are SQE1 seats allocated?

First come, first served, in the order completed forms are received — there is no queuing system. Candidates with reasonable adjustments are the exception: they are allocated centres in accordance with their requirements rather than by queue position.

What are the pre-booking steps for SQE1 January 2027?

Three, all shown as green ticks in your My SQE overview: ID verification, the reasonable adjustments section, and the Monitoring and Maximising Diversity Survey. All three must be complete before you can reserve a seat.

Do I have to complete the reasonable adjustments section if I am not applying?

Yes. Answering "no" is what completes the step. A blank section leaves the tick grey and your pre-booking incomplete.

My SQE account says I am not eligible for SQE1. What should I do?

Nothing. Kaplan updates eligibility status in due course and has confirmed no extra steps are needed. It is not what is holding up your booking.

What happens after I reserve an SQE1 seat?

You are contacted to pay. You log into your SQE account, accept the seat and pay to confirm — reserving and booking are two separate actions, and an unpaid seat is not a booking. You can reschedule into another location afterwards, subject to availability, from the Bookings page.

When is the January 2027 SQE1 exam?

FLK1 runs Monday 11 to Friday 15 January 2027 and FLK2 runs Monday 18 to Friday 22 January 2027, at Pearson VUE test centres.

Is the January 2027 SQE1 different from previous sittings?

Yes. It is the first sitting of the new format: 170 questions per FLK instead of 180, sat as two sessions of 85 instead of 90, with subjects grouped by session. It applies to re-sitters as well as first sitters. The pass mark and the blueprint are unchanged.

How much does SQE1 cost in 2027?

£2,006 for both FLK papers, at the fee level that took effect in September 2026. The fee is VAT exempt and covers the assessment only.