Press Release, Bar Exam Pass Rates Increased in 2025, Including for First-Time Exam Takers:
The pass rate for first-time takers who sat for the bar exam rose by more than a percentage point in 2025 over 2024, according to new data from the managing director’s office of the Council of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.
The new data shows that in the aggregate, 92.15% of 2023 law graduates who sat for a bar exam passed it within two years of graduation (92.25% with alternative pathways). The two-year “ultimate” aggregate success rate is over a percentage point better than the 90.52% comparable figure for 2022 graduates. The 2023 ultimate bar pass data also reveals that 96.64% of all graduates sat for a bar exam or were admitted by alternative pathways within two years of graduation, and that schools were able to obtain bar passage information for 99.11% of 2023 graduates.
First-time takers in 2025 achieved an aggregate 84.10% pass rate (84.19% with alternative pathways), which is more than a 1-percentage point increase over the comparable 83.02% pass rate (with alternative pathways) for 2024.
Seven law schools fell short of the 75% accreditation threshold:
| Law School | Pass Rate |
| Southern | 59.46% |
| Baltimore | 66.83% |
| Cooley | 68.46% |
| Florida A&M | 72.45% |
| District of Columbia | 73.47% |
| Barry | 73.54% |
| Inter American University of Puerto Rico | 74.19% |
The information released by the ABA includes charts that include aggregate data in different ethnicity categories for information collected in 2024 and 2025 broken down by gender.
- ABA Journal, Bar Pass Rates Increased in 2025, New ABA Data Shows
- Law.com, Stanford, USC Lead California Schools in Bar Passage Rates in 2025
- Reuters, These Law Schools Aced the Bar Exam in 2025
Editor’s Note: If you would like to receive a daily email with links to legal education posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.
