How to practise SQE2 oral assessments in writing

The SQE2 oral stations are the hardest part of the assessment to rehearse alone. Written tasks can be practised at a desk at any hour. Interviewing and advocacy seem to need a second person, a room and a slot in someone else's diary, so most candidates practise them least and worry about them most.

There is a way round this. Almost everything the oral stations credit can be rehearsed in writing first, because most of what an assessor rewards is decided before you open your mouth. If you are still mapping the two stages against each other, what each assessment involves sets out the difference.

Why writing is a legitimate rehearsal for speaking

An oral station is not marked on eloquence. It is marked on whether you identified the relevant facts, applied the law correctly, kept the client or the court in view, structured what you said and exercised judgement where an ethical issue appeared. Those are all decisions, and decisions can be written down.

What writing cannot rehearse is delivery: pace, listening in real time, handling an interruption, recovering when a question lands badly. That limit is real, and it is why written rehearsal is a first stage rather than the whole plan. It is a larger first stage than most candidates assume.

Write the plan, not the transcript

The common mistake is to write out a speech. A transcript is slow to produce, impossible to deliver naturally and teaches the wrong habit. Write the plan instead, in the form you would actually hold in your hand.

For a client interview that means an ordered question list: the open questions that get the client talking about objectives, the closed questions that pin down dates, figures and gaps, and a note of what you must explain in plain language before the meeting ends. For advocacy it means a submission skeleton: what you are asking for, the two or three points that support it, the rule or authority behind each, and your answer to the obvious point against you. The attendance note needs no translation at all, because it is a written document in the real assessment too.

Answer in note form

Because you are rehearsing speech, you do not need full sentences. Bullet points, abbreviations and shorthand are fine, and they are closer to what you would really work from on the day. The test is whether someone reading your notes could deliver the substance of what you meant to say.

This also keeps the exercise short enough to repeat. A written interview plan takes about fifteen minutes. A polished transcript takes an hour, which is why nobody writes a second one.

Check it against a mark scheme, not against yourself

Rehearsing alone has one real weakness: you cannot see what you left out. Your plan always looks complete to you, because the mind judging it is the one that wrote it.

This is where a mark scheme earns its place. Reading the creditable points after you have committed to an answer shows you the question you did not think to ask and the conduct issue you walked past. Over a few attempts the pattern is usually narrow and specific: strong on the law but thin on client objectives, or consistently missing the ethical point rather than being vaguely below standard.

Build it into the week

One oral station and one written station a week is enough if the review is honest. Do the plan under time pressure, check it against the mark scheme, then write down the single thing you would do differently and look for it next time. Rewriting the same answer until it is perfect feels productive and teaches much less than a new scenario attempted with one correction in mind.

Speaking practice still belongs in the plan. Once your written plans are hitting the criteria consistently, run them aloud with a study partner, your training provider or a recording of yourself. By then you are practising delivery rather than working out what to say.

Key points

• Oral stations are credited mostly on decisions, and decisions can be rehearsed in writing.

• Write the plan or skeleton, not a transcript.

• Note form is enough, and it keeps the exercise repeatable.

• A mark scheme shows the omissions your own review cannot.

• Written rehearsal does not replace speaking practice, it makes it more useful.

How Qualifico helps

Qualifico's SQE2 Written Response practice is built this way. The oral stations are set as written preparation tasks: draft the interview question plan, the attendance note or the advocacy submission, and you are marked on what you submit. Answers can be written in note form, and each question carries a word limit that keeps the exercise close to realistic timing.

You get a mark, a percentage, the points from that question's mark scheme your answer missed, a short marker note and a list of things to do differently next time, alongside a model answer to compare against. It is automated marking rather than an SRA assessor, so read the comments rather than fixating on the score, and it runs in the Qualifico web app rather than the mobile app. What it does not do is assess how you sound, so keep spoken rehearsal in the plan beside it. What SQE2 involves covers the full station list, and the SQE study and exam resources page maps the rest of the guides.