Qlts School
What is the QLTS?
QLTS School provides preparation courses and consulting services for the QLTS assessments, the fast-track route for international lawyers to qualify as solic. Log-in to the worlds easiest to use Learning Management System. The QLTS offers lawyers from all over the world a unique opportunity to advance their legal career and obtain the most prestigious title in the legal profession, an English solicitor. There is no training or experience requirement and only two assessments to complete. Learn more about the QLTS assessments.
The Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS) helps you become a Solicitor of England and Wales if you are already a qualified lawyer in one of the jurisdictions recognised by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). You can also take this route if you are a qualified Barrister in England and Wales and have completed your pupillage.
The QLTS Exam
The QLTS Exam has two stages:
- QLTS MCT – Multiple Choice Test
- QLTS OSCE – Objective Structured Clinical Examination
Candidates must pass the MCT first before attempting the OSCE.
The QLTS MCT assessments are rigorous, testing legal knowledge in order to accurately advise a range of parties.
Please visit the Kaplan website to try a Sample of 30 MCT questions.
In the QLTS OSCE exams your practical legal and procedural knowledge, as well as a range of skills, will be assessed against marking criteria and outcomes specified by the SRA. We have the legal expertise and educational experience to guide and focus your studies towards meeting those criteria and outcomes and achieving a pass first time.
Please visit the Kaplan website for further details about the QLTS assessments and how to enrol for them.
Eligibility
Candidates for the QLTS must already be qualified lawyers in a jurisdiction recognised by the SRA. You can check the eligibility of your own jurisdiction on the SRA website:
Outcomes
The SRA test your core knowledge and understanding of the ‘Day One Outcomes’. To meet the Outcomes, you must demonstrate that you have relevant knowledge in the Law and Practice of England and Wales. Please take a look.
Research
Your Legal Research skills will be tested in the OSCE using Lexis Library and Westlaw. If you do not already have access to these Legal Databases, please speak to your personal tutor for advice.
Your QLTS success is our aim
UK Law School are a fully UK-owned and UK-based QLTS course provider. Our aim is to prepare you for the QLTS assessments and we want you to pass them first time.
We appreciate that every candidate will already have their own unique set of skills and scope of legal expertise, and everyone has different work/life commitments and time available for study.
Therefore, at UK Law School we offer truly bespoke and flexible QLTS preparation packages designed around your own personal circumstances and needs.
Our tutors are the only tutors who have 1-2-1 tutor-assessed in excess of 2500 OSCE students since 2011.
See what some of our past QLTS candidates had to say about our services at the bottom of this page…
Expert QLTS Tutors
UK LAW SCHOOL’s tutors are specifically drawn only from experienced UK-qualified Solicitors, Barristers, Deputy District Judges, Cilex, University Law Lecturers and External Examiners for Cilex, QLTT, QLTS, GDL, LLB, LLM, LPC and BPTC courses.
Their extensive experience in both legal practice and legal education gives our tutors an invaluable insight into the exacting requirements of the QLTS assessments. They will help you to structure and focus your studies for best efficiency and best results in both the MCT and the OSCE assessments.
For the OSCE Prep, experience and past candidates tell us it is our 1-2-1 tutor-assessed mock stations that set us apart from the competition. The practice mock stations with your personal tutor can be the difference between passing and failing the final assessments. Naturally, the SRA needs to know that candidates can actually perform in practice, and not just in theory. Our tutors’ expert 1-2-1 guidance, support and advice has helped over 2500 past QLTS OSCE candidates, more than any other QLTS Prep provider. Signing up for QLTS Prep with UK Law School ensures that you are not alone in your studies, and our tutors are there for you when you need their help, advice and support.
Some of our past QLTS candidates wanted to tell us…
“I have passed with 83%. I wanted to thank you for your guidance in the process of preparing for this exam. Being a law teacher myself, I know that it is not always easy to make students study as hard as they should. You did a very good job and my success in this exam is in no small part thanks to the preparation you gave me.“
“I am happy to let you know that I have passed the OSCE assessment. I want to thank you with all my heart for your support and encouraging words! I followed your advice and became a much more relaxed and happier person. Thank you, thank you again and again!“
“I am pleased to say that I passed the OCSE with a score of 80%. I can freely admit that I do not think I would have been successful without your guidance and help; many, many thanks for the time and effort you put in to assisting me – I am very grateful.“
“I just received my mark [90%] and I am over the moon! Thanks so much for your help. If you would like me to provide a quote or something, happy to!“
“I am so happy to be able to tell you that I passed. Thank you for your training and for your support preceding the exams when I was starting to lose motivation and hope. It helped a lot.“
“Just wanna let you know that I have passed the OSCE, cannot make it without your help. Thanks and wish you all the best!“
“I also want to take this time to thank you very much for all your help and assistance with the study plan, study materials and mock assessments. I really appreciate it.“
“Thanks so much for your guidance and support through this toughest period of my life so far. I was so lucky to have you as the tutor. I am most grateful.“
“I’m delighted to inform that I have passed with 77%! Thank you for your guidance throughout the whole process – you made me push myself a lot harder than I would have otherwise.“
“I am delighted to say that I have passed all stages of the QLTS exams! I am over the moon with the news!!! I am very proud of this achievement and just wanted to truly thank you for ALL your support. You have been such an instrumental figure in my life in such a difficult moment of my career and you’ve always believed in my potential. I am very grateful for that. I can now move on with my career as a Solicitor.“
Qlts School
“I passed with 83%! Thank you very much once more for your assistance with my preparation.“
“I got my results today and I passed with 79%. I am so absolutely thrilled, and so so grateful for all of your guidance and assistance throughout the process. I’m pleased you were a bit tough on me, it’s definitely what I needed.“
“Thank you very much for all your advice, guidance and support during the lead up to the exams. I definitely wouldn’t have been able to pass without your invaluable help.”
“I have just received an email from Kaplan that I passed OSCE (75%). This is quite unexpected and I definitely owe much to you personally. Thank you very much for your support, encouragement and advice throughout the process.”
So, I have been meaning to write about my QLTS experience for a while as a form of giving back to the online QLTS support community. As I prepared for my QLTS last year, I discovered that there was a lack of first-hand, non-sponsored information out there on how and the best way to prepare for the QLTS. This article is a year late, but as they say, better late than never.
Note: This article is an extremely honest and casual first-hand account of how I prepared for the QLTS and is absolutely not sponsored by any school. The QLTS preparation experience will differ from person to person, depending on your native language, your existing knowledge of the UK/EU legal system, your studying techniques, etc. The below is what works best for me and what I deem as the most efficient method of preparing for the QLTS, but it may not work for all.
Background
Just to open with a bit of background on myself - I'm a Singapore-qualified advocate and solicitor (now dual-qualified) and did my undergraduate law degree at the University of Warwick in the UK. This meant that I had background knowledge of UK and EU laws and systems which made it easier for me to understand and navigate through the QLTS.
MCT (Multiple Choice Test)
I signed up for QLTS School’s MCT prep course for my MCT preparation. Their books and notes were not the most helpful in my opinion but I really appreciated their multiple-choice practice questions.
From my recollection, there were about 90 to 120 questions per subject, with certain subjects having subtopics (with more questions). There were two ways you could approach the questions: (1) complete all the questions in one seating and then review the answers at the end of it all; or (2) have the answer revealed to you after completing each question. Each practice question had a detailed answer and explanation clarifying why a certain option prevailed over the rest. I highly recommend opting for approach 2 above which allows you to evaluate your answers immediately after each question.
I started my preparation for the MCT pretty late, but dedicated two full weeks of study leave at the end to make up for my lack of effort before. As a result, I was not able to completely cover the full syllabus for each subject and solely relied (with no additional background reading whatsoever) on completing the practice questions for certain subjects (such as EU law, English legal system, constitution law, human rights law).
That being said, the topics in the MCT syllabus were predominantly modules I’ve previously studied in law school. Hence it was more of a revision and re-hashing of past principles and knowledge for me which warranted less effort on my end.
For the MCT, I would highly recommend QLTS School’s MCT preparation questions. I opted for the cheapest MCT Basic Course offered, which was sufficient in my opinion. I did not have time to complete all five mock tests (completed three out of five).
The assessment is divided into 2 sessions of 2 hours 45 minutes each, with 90 questions in each session. I completed each assessment pretty quickly at about the halfway mark and had sufficient time to review each question a second time round.
OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination)
The OSCE is an entirely different ball game to the MCT. Fortunately, I had a colleague who took the previous sitting of OSCE and had fresh, first-hand tips and notes to share (thank you, Victor!).
I started my preparation for the OSCE a week after I received my results for the MCT. My advice for anyone who is looking to sit for the next immediate available OSCE is to book early (if possible, immediately after you obtain your MCT results).
I booked it a week later and had to be placed in the quarantined slot. This meant that I had to be shut in a separate room for about four hours while waiting for the previous batch of students to complete their assessment. It was not all that bad in the end. We were not allowed to use our phones in the room but were allowed to bring in physical notes (which meant that there were no distractions while you complete your last minute cramming). The test centre very kindly provided hot tea, coffee, cookies and fruits and I made some new fellow-quarantined friends!
I did not sign up for a course with any QLTS service provider for the OSCE.
Greatschools
I relied very heavily on the LPC Answered guide (https://lawanswered.com) and CILEX past papers as my study materials and used the LPC course books to supplement any topics which weren’t sufficiently covered in the LPC Answered guide. I focused on completing all CILEX past papers I could find which were relevant to the subjects, referring to the LPC Answered guide on any topics or points I required additional guidance on. Again, I barely touched the LPC course books. The books were good to have but weren’t all that useful in my opinion.
I will not delve into detail as to how I prepared for each part of the assessment (though please feel free to leave me a message if you would like me to elaborate on any aspect), but here are the key tips and takeaways I have put together which I felt really aided me in the assessments:
1. CILEX, CILEX and CILEX – I cannot stress this enough. The model answers provided in each CILEX paper I attempted really aided me in several aspects of the assessments such as identifying the legal issues, how to apply the law to the facts and how to present your answer and advice coherently.
2. Client interview (10 min) - You would have to “issue spot” in that 10 min of preparation and prepare a list of relevant questions to ask your client. The questions you ask are important as the answers to your questions will determine the quality of your attendance note and case analysis after. Remember, if you don’t ask, you don’t know! It is also important to make your client feel comfortable, so throw in that small talk when you enter the room, smile, introduce yourself and remember to end on a positive note (e.g. summarise next steps, timeline).
3. Completion of attendance note/case analysis (25 min) – I spent the first 10/15 min summarising the information obtained from the client and flagging the issues relevant to the case scenario and used the remainder of the time to analyse the issues. Time management is key here, write fast!
4. Advocacy/oral presentation (45 min preparation, 15 min presentation) – The oral presentation (for Business, Property and Probate) was in my opinion pretty similar to legal writing, except that instead of advising the client on paper, you are now advising the client in person. You are also required to respond to any additional questions the client may have. Advocacy (for Civil and Criminal Litigation) was slightly more challenging as you’d have to learn and memorise the appropriate manner to address the judges (Sir/Madam/Your Honour, depending on the type of judge) and use the appropriate formalities when presenting your case.
5. Legal drafting (45 min) – Lexis has several useful templates for legal drafting. However, it may be challenging and stressful to navigate through the portal and find the appropriate template during the assessment itself, given the time constraint. Take a day to properly familiarise yourself with the templates which are available on Lexis.
6. Legal research (60 min) – I preferred using Westlaw for research. It has been my go-to research portal since my university days. However, I know of some who swear by Lexis. Nevertheless, it helps to familiarise yourself with both portals.
Qlts Kaplan
7. Legal writing (30 min) – In addition to writing concisely, you will need to correctly identify the legal issue at hand and dispense the relevant advice. You will be able to use Lexis/Westlaw to aid you. However, you are mostly likely not to have sufficient time to conduct a proper detailed research (and write) and hence would need to be sufficient well-versed in the law to be able to identify the issue at hand, using the legal research tools to supplement any other areas that might be lacking.
8. Law Express – I purchased Law Express books for Criminal Law, Property Law and Contract Law the week before the exam. These books are extremely helpful for you to get a quick download of key and relevant basic legal principles for each subject (necessary to spot those legal issues!). These books to me were the final missing piece of the puzzle for my OSCE preparation. For Criminal Law, be extremely clear on your mens rea, actus reus and defences.
Closing remarks
The OSCE was definitely a lot more challenging than the MCT. I felt mentally and physically drained by the end of the OSCE and it is definitely one of the toughest exams I have taken. Hence, it is important to give yourself enough time to prepare for the OSCE! It will not be sufficient to cram for the OSCE in the two to three weeks before, full time or otherwise.
Please feel free to leave a comment or send me a private message if you would like me to further elaborate on any of the above points.