The California bar exam pass rate was 54.8% on the most recent administration, in July 2025, when 4,032 of 7,362 general exam takers passed.1State Bar of California. July 2025 California Bar Examination General Statistics That single number hides most of what you probably want to know. The rate you should actually expect depends on whether you’ve taken the exam before, where you went to law school, and whether you’re sitting in February or July.
First-Time Takers vs. Repeaters
The single biggest predictor of whether someone passes the California bar is whether they’ve taken it before. On the July 2025 exam, 69.7% of first-time takers passed. Repeat takers passed at 12.4%.1State Bar of California. July 2025 California Bar Examination General Statistics
That gap holds across every administration. It’s wider in California than in most states, and it carries a practical message: if you failed once, a materially different approach to studying is usually what separates the passers from the people who keep failing. Each subsequent attempt is statistically harder, not easier.
Pass Rates by Law School
Where you earned your law degree correlates strongly with your odds. The July 2025 breakdown by school category:1State Bar of California. July 2025 California Bar Examination General Statistics
- ABA-accredited California schools: 84.4% of first-timers, 77.3% overall.
- Out-of-state ABA-accredited schools: 78.0% of first-timers, 66.8% overall.
- California-accredited (non-ABA) schools: 35.1% of first-timers, 19.7% overall.
- Unaccredited California schools: 10.2% overall, from a small pool of 127 takers.
- Foreign-educated applicants (with one year of U.S. legal study): 13.4% overall.
The jump between an ABA-accredited California school and a California-accredited non-ABA school is roughly four to one for first-time takers. If you’re deciding where to enroll, that’s a factor worth weighing against tuition and admission odds. Unaccredited schools have small enough cohorts that annual swings are common, but the pass rate for that category has consistently sat in the single digits to low teens.
July vs. February Administration
February results historically run well below July results, because the February pool contains a higher proportion of repeat takers. February 2024 produced a 33.9% overall pass rate, compared with 51.5% in July 2023.2State Bar of California. February 2024 California Bar Examination General Statistics3State Bar of California. July 2023 California Bar Examination General Statistics
February 2025 broke that pattern. The overall pass rate was 63.5%, nearly double the February 2024 figure and higher than the July 2025 rate that followed.4State Bar of California. February 2025 California Bar Examination General Statistics Every school category saw numbers jump. Whether that reflects a durable shift or a one-off cohort will take a few more administrations to sort out. The safe planning assumption is still that February runs harder than July, with a watchful eye on what the next cycle shows.
The Three-Year Trend
Looking at July administrations side by side, the overall pass rate has edged upward: around 51.5% in July 2023, and 54.8% in July 2025.3State Bar of California. July 2023 California Bar Examination General Statistics5State Bar of California. July 2024 California Bar Examination General Statistics1State Bar of California. July 2025 California Bar Examination General Statistics The direction is gentle, and roughly half of all July takers still fail.
Part of the longer-term rise traces back to a scoring change. In July 2020, the California Supreme Court lowered the minimum passing score from 1440 to 1390, effective with the October 2020 exam.6The State Bar of California. California Bar Exam Grading Advocates for the change argued the old cutoff was screening out competent candidates. Pass rates rose after the reduction took effect.
What Score You Actually Need
The current minimum passing score is 1390. Your final score comes from weighting the written portion and the Multistate Bar Examination at 50% each, with raw scores converted through a statistical scaling process so that a 1390 reflects the same level of competence regardless of which administration you took.7The State Bar of California. Scaling Explained6The State Bar of California. California Bar Exam Grading Raw essay scores are adjusted to align with the MBE scale before the two halves are combined.
Scaling matters for how you read pass rates. A high pass rate in a given administration doesn’t necessarily mean that sitting’s exam was easier in any meaningful sense; it means more takers hit the scaled 1390 threshold.
Why Today’s Numbers May Not Describe the 2028 Exam
If you’re planning to sit in 2028 or later, the pass rates above may not describe the exam you take. In 2026, the State Bar’s Board of Trustees approved the Committee of Bar Examiners’ recommendation to ask the California Supreme Court to adopt the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam, developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, beginning with the July 2028 administration.8The State Bar of California. Board Recommends NextGen Uniform Bar Exam in 2028 and Added California Component Soon After The current MBE will be phased out as a standalone option after February 2028, so California has to move to something new regardless.9The State Bar of California. CBE Recommends the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam and Consideration of Future California Component The Board also approved developing a California-specific component to be added as soon as practicable after the 2028 administrations.
The California Supreme Court still has to approve the final plan. When a new exam format arrives, early pass rates typically take a cycle or two to settle, so the figures that describe today’s test are a rough guide at best for anyone sitting after the switch.