When do SQE results come out?

Short answer: SQE1 results usually land five to six weeks after your assessment. SQE2 takes much longer, typically fourteen to eighteen weeks. Neither is instant, and the gap between the two is the single most useful thing to understand if you're trying to plan your next move.

If you've just walked out of a sitting, you probably don't want a long explainer. You want to know roughly which week to start checking your account, and what to do with the waiting time in between. That's what this covers.

SQE1 results: five to six weeks

SQE1 is marked by machine, since it's 360 multiple-choice questions across two assessment days. That's part of why the wait is shorter than SQE2's: there's no examiner reading through written answers or reviewing recorded oral stations.

Even so, five to six weeks is still a real wait, not a same-day turnaround. The SRA needs time to apply standard-setting to that sitting's results (working out where the pass mark falls for that specific paper), run quality checks, and process results across the whole cohort before anything is released.

Practical points while you wait:

• Results are published through your SQE candidate account, not emailed to you directly as a headline pass/fail (you get an email telling you results are ready, then log in to see them). Check the SRA's own dates for your specific sitting, since the exact day can shift slightly between sittings.
• There's no way to get results early by asking, and no unofficial preview period. Anyone claiming otherwise isn't a reliable source.
• If you're weighing whether to book SQE2 before SQE1 results land, most candidates wait for confirmation first. Booking SQE2 without a confirmed SQE1 pass is a financial risk worth thinking through carefully, especially with fees where they are, covered in our piece on what the SQE costs.

SQE2 results: fourteen to eighteen weeks

This is the wait that catches people off guard. SQE2 is sixteen skills stations across written and oral tasks, spread over roughly five half-days, and each one needs to be assessed by trained examiners rather than a machine. That marking process, plus moderation and standard-setting across the full cohort, is what stretches the timeline out to fourteen to eighteen weeks.

In practical terms: if you sit SQE2 in October, you're realistically looking at results in February or March the following year, not before Christmas. That's a long stretch to hold in your head, especially if a training contract start date or a job offer is contingent on the outcome.

A few things worth knowing about that wait:

• The range (fourteen to eighteen weeks) reflects that timing can vary slightly by sitting and by how the SRA's marking schedule falls that year. Treat it as a planning window, not a guaranteed date, and check the SRA's confirmed date for your specific sitting once it's published.
• Employers who sponsor candidates through SQE2 are generally used to this wait. If a firm has a start date that assumes faster results, it's worth flagging the realistic timeline early rather than close to the date.
• The wait affects resit planning too, since SQE2 runs four times a year (January, April, July and October) and your results date determines which of those windows you can realistically hit next.

Why SQE1 and SQE2 take such different amounts of time

The short version: it comes down to how each part is marked, not how "important" one is over the other.

SQE1 is entirely machine-marked multiple choice, so once the standard-setting exercise is done, releasing results is largely a processing job. SQE2 involves human examiners scoring live oral performances and written work across sixteen separate stations, per candidate, across the whole cohort sitting that window. That's simply a bigger, slower job to do consistently and fairly, which is also why moderation matters so much for SQE2 in particular.

It's a useful thing to explain to anyone outside the process, like family or an employer, who might assume both halves of the SQE work the same way.

How to plan your next booking around the wait

The results date isn't just a pass/fail moment. It's the point your next decision actually becomes possible, and SQE booking windows don't wait for you.

1. Work out your target next sitting first, then count backwards to when its booking window closes. Our full SQE dates roundup lays out the sittings and booking deadlines together.
2. Check whether your results date lands before or after that booking deadline. If SQE2 results are due mid-February and the next booking window you want closes in early February, you may need to book conditionally or accept you're aiming for the window after.
3. Build a buffer, don't assume the fastest theoretical path. Results windows are ranges, not fixed dates, so planning right up against a deadline leaves no room if your particular sitting's results land at the later end of the range.
4. If you're resitting, use the wait productively rather than passively. You won't know your score breakdown until results day, but you can still keep core practice going so you're not starting cold if a resit turns out to be needed.

A free SQE study planner can help here, since you can map a provisional next-sitting date against your likely results date and see whether the gap actually works, rather than guessing.

What the waiting period is actually for

It helps to know the wait isn't just admin sitting in a queue. For SQE1, the SRA runs a standard-setting process for each sitting, which is how the pass mark gets set for that specific set of questions rather than being a fixed percentage every time. That's also why the SQE pass mark isn't the same fixed number every sitting, something we go into more in our piece on what the SQE pass mark actually means.

For SQE2, add examiner marking, calibration across examiners so scoring is consistent, and moderation on top of that. It's a heavier process, and it's a large part of why the pass rate itself moves between sittings too. If you want the fuller picture on how pass rates have shifted recently, our cohort pass rates breakdown is a useful companion read once you've got your results timeline sorted.

The takeaway

SQE1 results take roughly five to six weeks. SQE2 takes roughly fourteen to eighteen weeks. Both are ranges rather than fixed dates, so check the SRA's confirmed date for your specific sitting rather than counting days from memory. The wait is longer than most candidates expect going in, particularly for SQE2, so the useful move is to plan your next booking backwards from a realistic results date, not an optimistic one.

Frequently asked questions

How long after SQE1 do you get your results? Typically five to six weeks after your assessment days. Results are published through your SQE candidate account rather than sent as a headline email, so check the SRA's confirmed date for your specific sitting.

How long after SQE2 do you get your results? Typically fourteen to eighteen weeks, considerably longer than SQE1. This reflects the human marking and moderation needed across sixteen skills stations per candidate.

Why does SQE2 take so much longer than SQE1 to mark? SQE1 is machine-marked multiple choice, so results processing is relatively fast once standard-setting is complete. SQE2 involves examiners assessing oral and written performance across sixteen stations, which needs careful marking, calibration between examiners, and moderation before results can be released.

Can I book SQE2 before my SQE1 results are out? You can, but most candidates wait for a confirmed pass first, given the cost of booking a sitting you might not yet be eligible to sit. Weigh this against the SQE booking windows for your target sitting.

Do SQE results come out on a fixed date every sitting? No. The SRA publishes results within the five-to-six week (SQE1) or fourteen-to-eighteen week (SQE2) range, but the exact day can vary by sitting. Always check the SRA's dates page for the sitting you actually took rather than assuming it matches a previous cohort.