More than 200 candidates for the Solicitors Qualifying Exam were wrongly told this week that their exam date had been cancelled.
Exam administrator Kaplan emailed the candidates on Wednesday evening saying the cancellation had been made at their own request, despite none of the recipients having made any such request.
The company has since issued a statement confirmed that during a process to implement enhancements to make the delivery of the assessment more accessible, 231 candidates were wrongly told that their seat for October’s SQE2 had been cancelled. The notice was issued after the Kaplan call centre was closed.
Kaplan added: ‘All affected candidates were informed this morning that they should disregard the cancellation message and that their booking is secure. We sincerely apologise for this error and any anxiety caused.’
The sudden cancellation notifications prompted a flurry of anxious social media posts from candidates fearing their preparation work had been wasted. There were also reports that test venues had been changed without notice.
One candidate posted on Linkedin: ‘This is utterly shocking. Preparing for the SQE is already one of the most stressful experiences aspiring solicitors go through. To have additional confusion, cancellations and logistical uncertainty thrown into the mix makes the process even more overwhelming.’
The Solicitors Regulation Authority declined to comment.The regulator is soon due to publish its five-year assessment of the SQE, with a draft report understood to have been prepared. It has previously been robust in its defence of the exam, despite criticism about test conditions and difficulties in finding suitable, local sitting centres. Candidates have also complained of being unable to take a bottle of water or a jumper into test centres.
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