If you’ve spent any time in a law school library lately, you know the vibe. It’s a mix of caffeine-induced jitters and the soul-crushing weight of a three-year degree hanging on a single two-day event. The California Bar Exam is legendary for being a beast. People call it the hardest in the country, and honestly, the data usually backs that up. But something weird happened recently.
We just saw the results for the July 2025 cycle, and the numbers are… interesting. The overall cal bar pass rate for July 2025 hit 54.8%. That might sound like a coin flip—and it kinda is—but in the world of California law, that’s actually a three-year high.
Compare that to July 2024 (53.8%) or July 2023 (51.5%), and you start to see a trend. Things are looking up, but if you look under the hood, there’s a lot more nuance than a simple "more people are passing" headline.
The Wild Ride of 2025: From Meltdowns to Record Highs
To understand where the pass rate is today, we have to talk about the absolute chaos of February 2025.
Basically, the State Bar tried to do its own thing. They moved away from the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) and their standard Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) to try a new, state-specific, remote-proctored format. It was supposed to be the future. Instead, it was a tech nightmare.
Software glitches, proctoring errors, and "technical meltdowns" forced the State Bar to scramble. To make it right, they applied massive scoring adjustments. The result? A February pass rate of 55.9%.
That is unheard of for a February exam. Historically, the February "spring" bar is the graveyard of pass rates, usually hovering between 30% and 35% because the pool is mostly repeat takers. For 2025, it was the highest spring rate since 1965.
By the time July 2025 rolled around, the Bar went back to the traditional NCBE format. They played it safe. And even without the massive "we messed up" adjustments of the spring, the 54.8% rate shows the momentum stayed.
Breaking Down the July 2025 Numbers
If you're planning to take the exam, don't just look at the 55% and think you're safe. The "overall" rate is a bit of a lie because it mashes together two very different groups of people.
First-Timers vs. Repeaters
If it’s your first time at the rodeo, your odds are actually pretty good. In July 2025, 69.7% of first-time takers passed. If you graduated from a California ABA-accredited school (think Stanford, Berkeley, or UCLA), that number usually jumps even higher—often into the 80% range.
But for the repeaters? It was a bloodbath. The pass rate for repeat takers in July 2025 plummeted to 12.4%.
Why the huge gap? Part of it is because so many "strong" repeaters—people who barely missed passing in 2024—actually passed during that weird February 2025 adjustment period. This left the July repeater pool filled with people who have historically struggled with the material or the format.
The School Effect
Where you went to school matters more than you might think. It’s not just about the prestige; it’s about how they teach you to take this specific test.
- California ABA Schools: These students are the gold standard for the pass rate. In the most recent July cycle, they carried an unadjusted pass rate of over 83%.
- Out-of-State ABA Schools: Still strong, coming in around 78%.
- California Accredited (Non-ABA): Here’s where it gets dicey. The first-time pass rate for these schools was only 34.2%.
- Unaccredited Schools: First-time rates hovered around 37.5%, but the repeater rate for this group was a dismal 2.2%.
The 1390 Score: Is it Actually Easier Now?
Back in 2020, the California Supreme Court lowered the passing score (the "cut score") from 1440 to 1390. This was a huge deal. Deans had been begging for it for years, arguing that 1440 was an unnecessarily high hurdle that didn't actually predict who would be a good lawyer.
You’d think a 50-point drop would send the cal bar pass rate through the roof. It did help—data suggests it boosted the first-time rate by about 4-5%—but it hasn't turned the exam into a cakewalk.
The exam is still a 50/50 split between the MBE (200 multiple-choice questions) and the written portion (5 essays and one 90-minute Performance Test). Even with a lower cut score, if the MBE is particularly tricky—which it was for many in July 2025—the 1390 still feels like a mountain.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Pass Rate
I hear this a lot: "The Bar limits the number of lawyers by choosing a pass rate beforehand."
That’s a myth. Mostly.
The State Bar doesn't sit in a dark room and decide that only 55% will pass this year. However, they do use "scaling." This is a complex statistical process that ensures a 1390 in 2025 means the same thing as a 1390 in 2015, even if one year's test was slightly harder.
So, while there isn't a "quota," the scaling process naturally keeps the pass rate within a certain range. It prevents a "rogue" easy exam from letting everyone through, but it also prevents an unfairly hard exam from failing everyone (unless there's a tech meltdown, see: February 2025).
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How to Actually Use This Info
If you are looking at these stats because you’re about to start Bar prep, here is the "so what."
- Don't Be a Statistic: If you are a first-timer from an ABA school, you have a nearly 70-80% chance of passing. The odds are in your favor. Focus on the work, not the fear.
- Respect the MBE: In July 2025, the national mean MBE score rose, but California's mean (1405 adjusted) was still below the national average (1424). You cannot "essay your way" out of a bad MBE performance anymore.
- The "Second Read" is Your Safety Net: If your initial score is between 1340 and 1389, California gives your essays a second look by a different set of graders. Many people who pass actually do so on this "second read."
- Repeaters Need a New Plan: If you are in the repeater pool, the 12.4% pass rate is a wake-up call. Doing the exact same "big box" bar prep course again usually doesn't work. You likely need a tutor or a specialized program like AdaptiBar or Mary Basick’s essay guides.
The California Bar Exam remains a grueling marathon. But the July 2025 numbers show that while the test is still hard, the "gatekeeper" era of the 1440 score is over. We are in a new era of 50-60% pass rates, which is still tough, but at least the door is a little wider than it used to be.
Next Steps for Your Bar Prep:
- Download the July 2025 General Statistics report from the State Bar of California website to see how your specific law school performed.
- Review the released essay questions and model answers from the 2025 exams to understand the current grading "rubric" for the 1390 cut score.
- If you are a repeat taker, prioritize MBE practice questions from the NCBE to ensure your scaled score stays above 1400.