About Paper F
The first Paper F exam took place in March 2025. Each answer paper was marked by autoscoring, allowing the results to be announced in a relatively short amount of time. The results went out on 14 April 2025, meaning that candidates received their results in a bit more than 3 weeks.
When it comes to this new exam, the threshold for passing is not fixed; the Examination Board can determine the grade threshold for passing an examination paper or part of a paper between 50% and 75% of the total achievable marks for paper F (see Rule 6). However, what is certain is that candidates have to pass both parts (legal and claims analysis) of Paper F; this is different from the Pre-exams.
This time, the Examination Board has decided to set the grade threshold for passing part 1 to 70% (35 marks of the total achievable 50 marks), and 70.2% (33 marks of the total achievable 47 marks) in part 2. (Part 2 was only 47 marks because a 3-mark question was neutralised.)
It seems that the marking was quite harsh: for many questions the points were all or nothing; meaning that candidates only received marks if all their answers were correct for those questions (or, in other words: if a candidate answered one subquestion incorrectly, they haven't received any points for the entire question).
If you passed the Paper F exam, huge congratulations! The next step will be sitting M1 and M2 exams next year. (Just a reminder: you cannot take Papers A, B, C and D.) Alternatively, you can skip a year and sit M1, M2, M3 and M4 in 2027.
(More information: https://patentepi.org/en/epi-students/qualifying-as-a-european-patent-attorney/eqe-format-change.html)
However, you can take a couple of months off to enjoy your life and the nice weather!
If you haven't passed, don't worry! Taking a difficult exam with only 1 year of experience is very hard! You can take a break now and then start revising. You are not starting from scratch, you will be able to build on your existing knowledge.
I'm incredibly proud of my Paper F study group! Only one person failed the exam due to the claims analysis part, making the group's pass rate about 93%. Quite a few people even had the maximum points! 😊
Although, I have to admit, we prepared for a difficulty level similar to the previous Pre-exams, so maybe they were a bit over prepared. 🤓
But before you register for my next Paper F study group just because of the high pass rate in my groups, please allow me to add: their incredible success is thanks to the time they invested. They studied very hard for 6 months, attended the long weekly meetings and did the weekly homework.
Just by joining a study group you will unfortunately not pass the exam, but a study group can definitely provide a lot of value:
Safe space where you can ask any questions;
Accountability, constant support and motivation;
A well structured but realistic study plan covering all legal topics;
Informal meetings with the same small group of EQE candidates for about 6 months (you can even set up further meetings with them);
Summaries, short refreshers of important legal topics;
Growing your network of patent attorneys from all over Europe.
I am excited to announce that I will tutor a Paper F study group for the next exam too! Luckily, the feedback I received is very positive, so not many things need to be changed. However, I have refined the study plan to focus a bit more on claims analysis and to have enough time for all the legal topics and revisions. These changes and the fact that the exam will be much earlier (2 March instead of 21 March) mean that my Paper F study group will start in mid-September!
If you are preparing for the 2026 Paper F exam and would like to join a small, friendly study group, please check out the details on my website.
Registration is now open!